Rector and Paragould, Arkansas, 1903–1904
On the afternoon of Wednesday, August 12, 1903, Mart Vowell shot and killed William F. “Bill” Lovejoy near Rector in Clay County, Arkansas. Reports indicated that Lovejoy was shot twice with a shotgun and once with a pistol. Both men were residents of Blue Cane Township, though Lovejoy had previously lived in Phillips and Monroe counties. Vowell had formerly served as the city marshal of Rector. Lovejoy was known as a dangerous man with a violent past, having reportedly killed nearly a dozen men. Trouble between the two had begun years earlier, allegedly stemming from an incident in which Vowell arrested Lovejoy, who resisted. Tensions had remained high ever since.
Following the killing, Mart Vowell was arrested and brought before a justice of the peace, who granted him bail in the amount of $2,000. Shortly thereafter, the circuit court convened in Piggott with Judge Allen Hughes presiding. The judge immediately ordered Vowell into the custody of the sheriff and nullified the justice’s decision to grant bail. Vowell’s petition for release on bail was denied by the court.
The case went before the grand jury, which returned a true bill indicting Vowell for murder in the second degree. Judge Hughes, having reviewed the evidence during the bail hearing, rejected the indictment and sent the jury back to reconsider. When they returned with the same charge, he again refused to accept their decision. After a third attempt to indict Vowell for second degree murder, Judge Hughes dismissed the grand jury altogether and ordered a new one empaneled.
On August 20, 1903, the newly sworn grand jury took just under an hour to return an indictment for murder in the first degree. Vowell’s trial was scheduled for Monday, August 24, 1903. The judge’s unusual dismissal of the original grand jury drew considerable attention from the legal community.
Vowell successfully petitioned for a change of venue, moving the case from Clay County to Greene County. The trial was held at the Circuit Court in Paragould, where Vowell was convicted of first degree murder during the first week of September. On September 14, 1903, his attorneys filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that one juror had previously stated Vowell should be hanged. Although the juror denied making the remark—and other jurors confirmed he was the last to vote for the death penalty—the court overruled the motion. Vowell was sentenced that evening to be executed on November 13, alongside another condemned man, Nathan Brewer.
An appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s verdict. Subsequently, Vowell sought clemency from Governor Jeff Davis. The public response was divided: more than 1,200 citizens from Clay and Greene counties signed a petition requesting commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment, while approximately 1,500 others submitted a counter-petition urging the governor to let the sentence stand.
Governor Davis gave the matter serious attention, hearing extensive arguments from both sides. Vowell’s advocates contended that the killing had been justified due to Lovejoy’s threats and violent reputation. They also noted Vowell’s age—61—and his honorable Civil War service as a soldier in the 21st Arkansas Cavalry, Bell’s Brigade, Forrest’s Command, during which he suffered sunstroke at the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads. The defense argued that the juror’s bias warranted a retrial.
Appearing before the governor in May 1904 were Mart’s brother, Bony (sometimes recorded as Pony) Vowell; his cousin, Alfred Huckett; his wife; and two daughters. Also present were William Lovejoy’s brothers, John and Al, along with William’s daughter, Mrs. Mollie Bradford.
Despite their appeals, Governor Davis declined to intervene. On May 7, 1904, he set the execution date for June 9, 1904. In a letter dated June 9 from Little Rock, Governor Davis wrote:
“You don’t know how I have fought my own inclinations in this case. It has been a struggle between sentiment and duty… Stern duty and exact justice demand that my course should be as it is.”
On Tuesday evening, June 8, 1904, Mart Vowell was transported from the state penitentiary in Little Rock to Paragould by Sheriff Grayson of Greene County—his close friend—and Deputy Sheriff Pony Vowell, his brother. On the evening of June 9, before a crowd of more than 2,000 people, Vowell delivered a brief farewell: “Farewell to this earth and good-bye to all,” to which the crowd responded with cries of “Good-bye, Mart!”
At 5:40 p.m., Vowell was hanged from a scaffold erected on the south side of the Greene County jail in Paragould. Death came eighteen minutes later. Witnesses noted that Vowell remained calm to the end and “died game,” even singing hymns during the religious service held prior to the execution. His body was returned to Rector and buried the following day, June 10, 1904, in Woodland Heights Cemetery.
On June 11, 1904, two days after the execution, residents of Rector hung an effigy of Governor Davis in protest of his refusal to commute Vowell’s sentence.
An ironic detail appeared in The Courier of Corning, Arkansas, dated August 21, 1903, on the same page that reported the impaneling of the new grand jury. Among the court proceedings listed was the following entry:
“State vs. W. F. Lovejoy; liquor, twenty-three cases; nolle pros. entered, because of defendant’s death.”
Today, both Mart Vowell and William F. Lovejoy are buried in Woodland Heights Cemetery in Rector. Their graves are within clear view of each other across the cemetery grounds.
References:
- The Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, Ark.,–Fri. June 10, 1904.
- The Courier, Corning, Clay Co., Ark.–Fri. Aug. 14, 1903; Fri. Aug. 21, 1903; Fri. Sept. 18, 1903; Fri. May 13, 1904; Fri. June 10, 1904
- The Drew County Advance, Monticello, Ark.–Tues. May 17, 1904, Tues. June 14, 1904, Tues. June 21, 1904.
- The Monticellonian, Monticello, Ark.–Thurs. May 12, 1904; June 16, 1904.
- A History of Greene County Arkansas, by Myrl Rhine Mueller, 1984, p. 224.
- “The Legal Hangings,” The Greene County Historical & Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 6, Fall 1993, No. 4, p. 120.
- The Greene County Historical & Genealogical Society Newsletter, July 1990, p. 3. FOOTNOTE: *Gov. Jeff Davis “pardoned outright Dr. Lee Johnson…because he could not bear to let an old white man die in the pen. (The old man wasn’t sick at all.) He pardoned Simmons, the king of the Blind Tigerists, because he was an old confederate soldier (though he wasn’t). He pardoned Stucky because he was a good fiddler. He pardoned others because of long petitions and others because woment cried and blubbered around hime. These were the reasons as signed by himself for granting pardons in the face of opposing petitions….”–Drew County Advance, Monticello, Ark. June 14, 1904.