Murder at the Louisa General Store ...Submitted by Jeff Dixon.

This accounting of this crime is taken entirely from Lawrence County a Pictorial History by George Wolfford, published and copyrighted by George Wolfford in 1972.

In 1858, George P. Archer came to Rockville, now Buchanan, to work as a farm hand, but through thrift saved enough money to join Dr. J. F. Hatton in a general store. Among his possessions was a jeans coat 'of unusual woof and make, which never seemed to grow older.' He married Dr. Hatton's sister, America, on July 11, 1866, and within a year, while the senior partner was gone to Cincinnati to sell tan-bark,

...late one night a man called at Hatton's house, saying to Mrs. Hatton, who was awakened by his raps on the door, that three raftsmen had landed in to get some tobacco. She told them to go to the store, where Archer slept that night, his wife having gone over to Round Bottom to visit her relatives. They, in a patronizing voice, called Archer up, repeating what they had told Mrs. Hatton. The fated man came down stairs in his nightclothes and handed them the tobacco. The men then concluded to buy of everything freely, and soon, three large sacks were filled and tied up, when one of the robbers (for such they were) demanded money. Archer, on reaching under the counter for his pistol, was riddled by bullets fired by the men.  One of the men ran upstairs to sear4ch the victim's clothes, but hearing what he took to be the sound of footsteps approaching, he grabbed a coat hanging on the bed-post and scampered away, followed by his cronies.  As Archer failed to be at breakfast next morning, and the store was closed, the door was pushed open, and Archer was found cold in death.

Archer was a man every body liked and his tragic death created intense excitement. Suspected parties were arrested and turned loose, no evidence appearing against them. But soon Archer's wife remembered the jeans coat, and that it could no where be found. Hope revived that the tell-tale garment would lead to the apprehension of the murderers.  Men went out everywhere to spy out the coat. At this juncture an old woman living on Cat's Fork sent word to the people at the mouth of Bear Creek that on the evening of the tragic murder Bill Wright and Jim and John Lyons stopped at her house, and told her they were on their way to the mouth of Bear Creek to rob a store, and that early next morning they returned with a large amount of booty, and stopped and got breakfast, dividing much of the property with her. Almost simultaneously with the old woman's story the coat was seen on Jim Lyons' back. He was arrested with the fatal coat. John Lyons was soon found in Greenup County and brought to Louisa.

On the day before the night of the robbery and murder, Uncle Joe Botts cut the hair of the Lyons boys and shaved the long beard of Wright, who explained it was spring and he didn't want to wear it during summer. The beard cutting was hoped to serve as a disguise for the robbery.  The barber's testimony would later serve to identify the three men.

The governor had offered a reward for Bill Wright, who was believed to be skulking about in the Little Sandy country. In a few days he stepped into the store of Jack Allen, a brave mountaineer in Magoffin County, and Allen, seeing that he answered the published description, at once covered him with his pistol and brought him to Louisa.

The three were put in irons, and the jail was guarded to prevent escape. The mountains were full of desperadoes, engendered by the opportunities of the war, the courts and society not having fully resumed their normal condition.  News went out that a lot of cut-throats, friends of the accused, were soon to move on Louisa, and liberate the villains.  No reasonable person doubted the guilt of the men.  At the preliminary trial the coat was a swift witness, and the old lady aforementioned brought into court the goods the robbers had given to her, which were proven to be the goods of Hatton and Archer.  Archer's friends concluded that there was danger in delay, and one hundred and fifty of them, embracing the best men of the lower part of Lawrence County, KY., and Wayne County, W. VA., without any disguise, rode into Louisa, ordered a gallows erected, dispersed the guard at the jail, forced the jailer to surrender the keys, and brought out the prisoners, telling them to prepare for death, for that within a few h ours they must die.

Judge M. J. Ferguson and Rev. J. F. Medley pleaded hard that the law be allowed to take its course. The mob listened, but went on with the preparations.  The criminals spent most of their time in making sensational confessions, each one claiming to be less guilty than the other two, neither one denying the crime.

The mob had commandeered the ox wagon of former slave Hi Allison, but beneath the gallows, he had hesitated at the order to move forward.  A Mr. Cyrus, relative of Mrs. Archer, grabbed the whip from Allison's shoulder and hit the oxen, moving the wagon ahead.

At about three o'clock PM everything being ready, a road-wagon was driven under the gallows, and the criminals were made to ascend into it. They were then asked to sat what they might desire; but as recriminating lies were being passed among the wretches, the men in charge of the execution, sickening at their profanity, ordered the wagon to move, and the murderers were quickly suspended between the heavens and the earth. When dead, the bodies were cut down and buried, and the mob left town in as orderly a manner as it had entered.

They were pronounced dead by Doctors Kincaid and Yates. Col. Jay H. Northrup offered space on his land at the mouth of Lick Creek for burial, and a group of men was sent to get the graves ready.  After loading the three on the Allison wagon, it was discovered they were not yet dead.  The bodies were taken to the county courthouse where they were laid out and Dr. H. S. Swetnam and Dr. G. W. Wroten came in and declared them dead.  During the night, while coffins were being made, the curious came by to witness the work of the mob.  At morning, they were moved to Lick Creek for burial, and Rev. Medley joined Hi Allison in singing hymns enroute and at the gravesite.

Bill Weight was forty-eight years old. He enlisted in the Confederates army, but soon deserted, and turned thief and robber. Jim Lyons was thirty-five years old, and served two years in the 5th Virginia, Union Army, but deserted after colleagued with Bill Wright. John Lyons was only eighteen years old, but according to his own confession, the world has lost nothing by is death.  The men composing the mob were indicted, but the governor pardoned them. 

Mobs are, and should be frowned upon by all good citizens, but no one doubts the righteousness of the fate of Bill Weight and Jim and John Lyons.