March 8, 1905 THE BENTONVILLE HORROR The burning of the Benton County Jail at Bentonville Saturday morning in which J D Reaves and Henry Crew were burned to death was as deplorable an event as has been recorded in the State for many years. Reaves, one of the men burned to death and who was serving a jail sentence for petit larceny, would have been discharged 24 hours later. Reaves had always declared that he was innocent of the charge and three weeks ago when some of the prisoners broke jail he went out with them but the next morning he returned to the jail, declaring he would not run from a crime he never committed. The jail is practically fireproof, with a concrete floor and ceiling. The fire was started by ashes from a cigarette falling among some bedding. The burning bedclothes in the narrow cell ignited the clothing of the two men and filed the closed room with smoke and fumes which rendered the other inmates insensible, and who for a time were believed to be dead. The jailer lived a half mile from the jail, and by the time he reached there the fire had consumed the bedding. The building was not damaged. Fran Alverson Warren e-mail: alverson@valuelinx.net 479-369-2703 http://www.crawfordcountyarkansas.net/