By Elizabeth Smith. Originally published in the November 1963 issue of the Magnolia Monthly.

The most colorful, as well as the most despised, era of Wakulla county’s past was the days of Reconstruction following the Civil War, from 1866 to 1870. H. Clay Crawford’s account of this time when scalawags and carpetbaggers from the North administered the affairs of the county, goes as follows:

During Reconstruction days those who manipulated county affairs to suit themselves and their pockets were H. L. Henderson, County Judge and Generalissimo of the Court House; John Hogue, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Jim Gaskins, Postmaster; Martin Reynolds, Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, and Bob Alexander, Deputy to the whole gang.
No county in Florida, or under the circle of the Sun, had a more corrupt set of officials. The good people of Wakulla County were easy victims of such a mob. County Scrip was issued behind closed doors in the Clerk’s office by the Chairman…attested by John Hogue… under the Seal of said Court, in volumes: as much and in such denominations as they could dispose of in Tallahassee and elsewhere for money, whiskey, goods or anything of value they could get for it and at any price.
One of the boldest outrages ever perpetrated upon an innocent people was the collection of double or excessive taxes, which was done by the use of an extra and probate book, which…was never filed in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court, or with the Comptroller at Tallahassee.
A fight of large proportions took place between the Wakullans and the carpetbaggers during this time. Mr. Crawford continued, “At a Republican mass meeting, Rupert Charles, a white Republican, then Custom House officer at St. Marks, was Chairman, Otis Fairbanks, Hogue, Goode, other white Republicans…and a few white Democrats, who had assembled from Curiosity and who occupied the rear of the Court House, were present.
After a bitter speech by Otis Fairbanks, who used invectives of the vilest kind against the Democrats, the Democrats present called for Mr. Causseaux, an old veteran…to reply to Fairbanks. This privilege was denied him by the Chairman, which caused excitement to run high and someone shouted to Fairbanks that he lied. This caused a stampede; more than five hundred people trying to get to the door and down the stairs.
C.K. Miller was the Sheriff and was in front of the crowd, calling on everybody to help him. No one paid any attention to him and in the great scramble in descending the stairs, walking sticks, umbrellas and in one or two instances pocketknives were used…
A picket fence enclosed the public well and staves were pulled out to club the scalawags. Eventually men melted off into the dark. No one was killed but not until the next day did two men regain consciousness.
John Hogue, Clerk of the Court, was the Southerner no other Southerner could understand. He had gone over to “the other side.”
The book, “Soldiers of Florida” lists a John Hogue as fighting for the Confederacy. Crawford adds, “(He) was a man of fine physique, handsome and intelligent” but was “a desperate character and a dangerous man in the community. The writer refrains from saying more of this man except as to his tragic death.”
Many years later this story was told again by Lawrence Raker and Lawrence Council as it was handed down to them by their parents. (Both men have since passed away, in 1957 and 1962 respectively). Mr. Council stated that the Ku Klux Klan was organized in the county during this period and that it was composed of five members. No one except those that were members knew who was in the Klan, but there were five men of a certainty. Mr. Council states that his father, John Council, even on his deathbed, would not name the members. Mr. Raker said that he had been told these five men were committed to killing Hogue. Each was on duty at certain times waiting for the opportunity. Symbolically a gun was loaded this way: the first man put in the powder, the second put in the wadding, the third put in the shot, the fourth put wadding on the shot, and the fifth put the caps on. Then they drew straws to see who went on duty first.
The man who had to do the watch first had to draw a straw o a certain length agreed upon ahead of time. The straws were than put in a loaf of bread and no one but the person drawing that one of a specific length knew who had to do the job. But everyone else expected him to perform his duty.
And so it was that for days thereafter each man did his time waiting to catch Hogue off-guard.
One evening he was sitting on his couch with his wife before an open window at his home when a shot rang out and he slumped to the floor. The only words he said, according to Crawford’s account, were “I’ve long expected this.”
There was much excitement in Crawfordville and Wakulla County after Hogue’s murder, and to quote Arch Morrison, “There were many dry eyes in the county that night.”
There is a footnote added to the story, for another man was killed too.
Lawrence Council stated that his father once told him that he was driving back to Crawfordville from Tallahassee and on the road into town he passed a man who stopped him and said, “John, I suppose you know Henderson is dead.”
Henderson, one of the carpetbaggers, was not dead, because John saw him later when he arrived in Crawfordville, sitting on his front porch reading a newspaper.
He went on about his business and the next day someone came to tell him that Henderson had been murdered some hours before. He had been shot through the throat. The man who was supposed to do the job and done it…one day late.
Of the Reconstruction group, Judge Henderson, after Hogue was killed through an open window, weatherboarded his windows to the top sash and another used heavy blankets for curtains. Jim Gaskins was carried away by a federal marshal for robbing the post office and became paralyzed while serving in a federal prison. He was pardoned by the President and came back to Florida, but not to Wakulla County.
Bob Alexander, the deputy, went back to farming but died later of fever.
Reynolds also died and soon the days of Reconstruction began to face in memory.

The Wakulla County Historical Society Museum is in the Old Jail at 24 High Drive in Crawfordville. We are open to the public on Thursdays and Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

The Clerks of Court of Wakulla County

Name of Clerk/Date Service Began

  • Brent X. Thurmond 1/07/1997
  • J. Harold Thurmond 1/03/1989
  • Beatrice Dugger 6/23/1988
  • Carlton Tucker 1/02/1973
  • Moody Pearce 1/08/1957
  • Gilbert J. Langston 1/07/1941
  • L. L. Pararo 1/04/1921
  • J. M. Towles 1/07/1913
  • H. N. Walker 1/05/1909
  • J. M. Towles 1/03/1901
  • John J. Harrell 12/30/1892
  • Joseph W. Duval 12/08/1888
  • George R. Smith 3/16/1887
  • Nat R. Walker 1/25/1878
  • James W. Smith Sr. 10/27/1873
  • John H. Hogue 2/09/1871
  • W. W. Walker 8/14/1868
  • David Lewis 10/29/1863
  • Herndon L. Henderson 10/31/1857
  • John C. Mound 10/27/1855
  • T. J. M. Richardson 11/01/1853
  • William W. Mound 3/11/1851
  • Charles Ingram 2/22/1850
  • George L. Bryant 1/20/1847
  • A. R. Alexander 6/30/1846
  • Joseph Woodruff 12/27/1845
  • Amos M. Alexander 4/16/1843