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The Daily Advertiser from Lafayette, Louisiana • 52

Location:
Lafayette, Louisiana
Issue Date:
Page:
52
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

17 OCT. 28, 1997 The Daily Advertiser's HISTORY OF ACADIAN A Batson murder trial was talk of parish in 1902 Mr. and Mrs. L.S. Earll, with their family of small children, arrived in Welsh about 1890.

They, like hundreds of their neighbors, had left a little town in Iowa to come to southwest Louisiana, fleeing drought that had burned the wheat crop and bitter winter cold that did nothing for their spirits. Like hundreds of their Midwestern neighbors, they had come to Louisiana to farm rice in what had been promised to them as a land of sunshine and flowers. Some people would say later that they weren't always the nicest folks in the area. There was talk lived there for a bit, but then left for 18 months. When he returned, he found that someone else had taken over his homestead, and had established a legal claim to it.

The original settler went away, but was not happy. A few years later, some small boys who were out blackberry hunting found the body of the second homesteader. Someone had tried to make the shot in his head look like suicide, but had done a bad job of it. Three years later, a cattle buyer from Texas was caught in a rainstorm and decided to take refuge in the homesteader's empty house. When he went inside, he reply could not be heard, but the tail end of the reply was audible to the extent of: whole lot.

There is not one At this, the man with the gum boots started to his feet; leaping over, caught 'number one' by the lapel of his coat, and pulling him towards him, with his face not more than an inch away, and staring him straight in the eyes, said in an excited tone, 'You do not mean "Yes, I do mean interrupted 'number 'It could not be helped. That makes 'Let me tell said the man with the white hat and gum boots, '1 am through with this. 1 did Please see BATSON, Page 19 "As the new comer touched him on the shoulder, he leaped to his feet with a muttered blasphemous exclamation, and a quick movement of the right hand towards his rear pocket. On recognizing the new arrival he sat down again quickly as if in a state of semi-collapse, while the other looked on in astonishment. 'Iet's get out of exclaimed 'number one' in a brisk undertone.

"Without further conversation on the part of either lean, they left the room by the back door through which the face had been seen, and passing through the alley-way leading to Bilbo street, turning to the south, crossed the street diagonally and ascended to the west verandah of the Howard House, where they entered together, going direct to the writing room in the rear of the office. When they had seated themselves vis-a-vis, the man with the scar ejaculated, 'Now then, what about it? What did you The whole of the tound the son ol a man who had helped the second homesteader. The boy was badly wounded and died before the cattle buyer could find out anything from him. that they had left Iowa not so much for the warmth of the Louisiana sun, but because of the heat of an Iowa neighbor's wrath over some wrong done by the F.arlls. Myers Landing Natural Garden and Nursery 1515 Johnson Jennings 824-3356 Concrete Statuary Fountains Trees Shrubs Citrus Fruit Trees (Nov.

1 Fresh Wreaths Poinsettias (Dec. 1 Fall Bedding Veg. Plants Garden Books Mums Unique Plants Autumn Hours: Tues Sat. 8:30 5:00 This would be the house Albert Batson would live in when he wandered onto the scene sometime in 1901. He had been born and reared by his divorced mother in Spickard, Mo.

They'd settled on a little farm outside of Welsh, but reaped little rice. As newsman Charles Dobson would later write, "In spring time when grass was not high enough for OVERNIGHT HOOK-VPS ON MERMENTAU RIVER CLUB HOUSE: HEAT AC PROVIDED CABINS PADDLE BOATS FOR RENT Playground Boat Launch Grocery Store Fuel Fishing Supplies Located On Lowry Road 169 Myers Landing Rd Night Phone 774-5531 Albert Edward Batson was hanged for the 1902 murder of the Earll family near Welsh. attorneys. Batson did not testify in his own behalf at either trial. In each trial the defense argued that two men who bore an old grudge against the Earll family had tracked them down and done the killing.

One of these men had a remarkable resemblance to Batson, the defense claimed. Charles Dobson, who claimed to have been a correspondent for the Associated Press, wrote a book about the trial in 1903, largely to defend Batson and claim that he had been convicted only on circumstantial evidence. Dobson creates a scenario in which two men, whom he identifies only as "number one" and "number two," have tracked the Earll family for 20 years because of some old wrong, and have finally found them. He describes this incident which he says supposedly happened after the murders, when his "number one" and "number two" met in Lake Charles: "The lights of the stores on Ryan street, the main, muddy thoroughfare of I.ake Charles, burned brightly on the night of February 14th, 1902 groups of men lounged here and there on the east side of the street. The Lake City Saloon, the resort of the better drinking and sporting element, was crowded and the huge mirrors reflected a line of figures and faces which were remarkable to a degree for variety of stature, intelligence and headgear.

Lumbermen, bank employees, rice men, gamblers, city officials, petty politicians, and drummers were indulging in the inevitable, but delusive cocktail. Everyone seemed to know everyone else, and when occasionally a man strayed through the door and became merged in the motley crush, one of those present would know him, and despite they may have met only once before, the last comer would be introduced to all hands, which ceremony was the signal for 'another "In the large room situated behind the bar, many roughly dressed men, whose worldly wealth could not be gauged by their general appearance or attire, were playing stud poker, and at some tables others were engaged in pitch, while in the southeast corner several prominent local men were finishing their evening meal. Just apart from these, at another table, was seated the man who has been hitherto known as 'number He had ordered some Bayou Cook oysters, but they remained before him untouched. He kept his eyes on the aperture in the partition which divided the room from the bar. Many times he shifted his position uneasily, perhaps it might be said impatiently, but if his almost concentrated gaze wandered at all, it was only momentarily to revert to the same place.

"Almost in the rear of him was a door with glass windows, at which there suddenly appeared a white face pressed closely against the glass. The face remained fixed for a space of five seconds and then shifted its position, then disappeared. At the same time, the door opened and a figure clad in a rubber coat, gum boots, and soft white hat approached the seated diner from behind. onn 6s Cookirw Exit 64 14 Mile North of 1-10 On Hwy. 26 Jennings, LA 824-3402 1-10 Part Children Welcome Donn E's Open 6a.m.

8:30 p.m. Friday Saturday 6 a.m. 10 p.m. W- In 1897, he got work as a railroad hand and had worked his way to Welsh. Ward Earll gave him a job working on the rice farm, and Batson moved into the homesteaders' cottage with Ward.

They lived there together until the night of Feb. 11, 1902, the last night that Ward Earll was seen alive. Nobody would know that Ward and the rest of the Earll family were dead until Feb. 24, when Maud went to check on her brother. They found and arrested Albert Batson that day in Princeton, brought him back to Louisiana, and charged him with the crime.

He claimed innocence until his final breath. Those who believed him pointed out that there was no motive for Batson to kill any of the Earlls, let alone the whole family, and that there was precious little hard evidence that he'd done it. They claimed the deed had been done by two strangers who had been seen in the area, one of them with a scar on his left cheek in just the same place as one on Batson 's face. According to the prosecutor's version of what happened, Batson had killed the five Earll family members, stolen the Earll mules and driven them to Lake Charles, sold them for $45, then jumped on a train for Missouri. Isaac Fontenot, who would become the second sheriff of Jefferson Davis Parish, was a Calcasieu deputy then.

He went to Missouri and brought Batson back for trial. At the time of his arrest, Batson had only $2 in cash. Judge D. Miller presided over both trials. Joseph Moore, the district attorney, represented the prosecution, aided by A.R.

Mitchell. Paul Sompayrac and Winston Overton were the court-appointed defense good grazing, but the fields, covered with green, sweet, and tender rice plants presented temptations to hungry cattle roaming the prairies in search of food, the Earlls would, frequently on awakening discover that these animals had breakfasted on the crop they had labored to produce. Ranchmen frequently found their cattle bleeding from gunshot wounds and upon investigation it would be sometimes discovered that the tongues of others had been amputated." After several crop failures, the Earlls moved to Welsh, where L.S. Earll opened a store. He had enough success to keep body and soul and family together until, about the turn of the century, he decided to take up rice farming again.

At the beginning of 1902, the Earll family consisted of L.S. Earll, 53; Mrs. Earll, 50; sons Ward, 25, Fred, 23, John, 18, and Lemeul, 11; and two daughters, Maud, in her early 20s, and Fay, 15. Fred lived in the state of Iowa. Maud worked at Bell's store in Welsh.

That is why they would be the only two members of the family not killed in the grisly murder spree for which Albert Edward Batson was, amid much legal maneuvering, tried twice, sentenced to death four times, and, finally, hanged. Mr. and Mrs. Earl, John, Fay, and Lemeul then lived on a farm three miles southwest of Welsh. Ward lived in a house about a mile to the northeast of his father's, midway between Welsh and Lacassine, on the left side of the road going west.

Some thought the house Ward lived in was haunted. It looked haunted, two-storied and too tall and narrow for proper symmetry, and it had the right history. It had been built about 1880 by a homesteader who Jennings sunaay a.m. p.m. Home of the Jeff Davis Arts Council Open Featuring Visual Art by Jeff Davis Parish Artists Great Gifts Souvenirs 318 North Main Street, Jennings, La.

824-5060 Serving Jefferson Davis Parish Since 1977.

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