Doc Taylor & Ira Mullins

The Pound Gap Massacre 1

May 14, 1892, A 15-year-old man runs into the town of Pound Virginia frightened and yelling about murder at the Pound Gap

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The Pound Gap Massacre, part 1.

Pound Va. May 14th, 1892, 2 pm.

A freighted young man runs into the town of Pound Va. looking for Jemima Harris, and George Francisco…The young man is 15-year-old John Harrison Mullins., son of Ira and Louranza Mullins. When he finally locates them, he tells them a horror story about a shooting on the mountain, near the Pound Gap.

Cabin
Typical cabin in use at the time.

At about 10 am that morning. John and Jemima’s son, Greenberry Harris, and 6 others had left the home of his uncle Wilson Mullins. at the mouth of Cane Creek in Kentucky heading towards Pound Va…The party included John’s uncle, Wilson Mullins who was leading the group on horseback. John’s mother Louranza, his father Ira, and cousin Mindy were riding in a wagon. The wagon was being driven by Ira’s handyman John Chappell. And his aunt Jane was following the group on horseback. Along the way, they had stopped at a store and left Mindy (Amorinda) with her maternal grandmother… At about 1 pm, John and Greenberry were walking behind the wagon. They had crossed through Pound Gap and had started down the mountain. As they drew near a large pile of rocks, that sat beside the road. Gunshots rang out. John said; “…as he started to run, he saw Wilson stagger, and one of the horses fall.” John had just escaped with his life, as he had bullet holes in his clothing, and his suspenders had been shot into.

Jemima Harris immediately started out for the mountain. Along the way, she stopped at the house of Floyd Branham, and asked Floyd’s wife, Elizabeth, to go with her. Robert Mullins, who lived about three miles from Pound Gap. And John Vint Bentley, who lived in Kentucky. Were also traveling that day in opposite directions. They arrived at the scene shortly after Jemima and Elizabeth. What they found was a scene straight out of the police gazette. Mrs. Mullins was shot through the breast. Her husband, Ira, had received eight bullets in the head, shoulders, and thighs. John Chappell had received six shots. Greenberry Harris received two bullets in the head, and once in the heart. Wilson Mullins had one bullet through the heart. The horses were dead. and the wagon had been riddled with bullets. Yet the body of Jane and her horse was nowhere in sight. Ira’s sister, Amoda Jane Mullins, had escaped, riding back up the mountain heading for home. As she rode into Cane Creek, (now the Camden section of Jenkins), she was screaming, “Everyone is dead but me.”

The alarm spread fast, and many people were at the scene within an hour or two. Thanks to the help of John, and Jane, a picture of what had happened, was starting to come together. According to John, he had run for about ½ mile when the shooting had stopped. Jane had stated that when a pause in the gunfire came. She had yelled out; “Boys, for the Lord’s sake, don’t shoot anymore; you’ve killed them all. Let me stay here with them, till someone finds us.” Jane then stated that the men yelled at her three or four times, cursing and threatening her. Jane said that she thought one of the men sounded like Calvin Fleming. Another may have been Doc Taylor. And that a third man who may have been Henan Fleming, asked that she be let go. Then one of the others cursed her, and yelled: “Take to the road or we will kill you too”.  On Jane’s word and other evidence, four warrants were issued. A massive manhunt began for Marshall Benton Taylor aka the Red Fox. And the Fleming brothers Calvin and Samuel Henan.

Part 1   Part 2     Part 3     Part 4

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