Dobie, I've been racking the brains trying to remember why this sounds familiar. 1906 was the year of many race riots in SW Missouri (and beyond). They differed from the 1960s because it was the whites who burned, pillaged and looted. I do know that Easter Sunday 1906 was when three men were taken from the Springfield jail, lynched beneath the Statue of Liberty tower on the square, their bodies burned and parts of the remains taken as souvenirs. According to my grandmother, it was about that same year when a black man was burned alive at the stake behind the hotel located on the square in Mt. Vernon. If you haven't had any luck with finding the story I'll try to make it over to the Springfield Library to find this for you. I've been wanting to see if there's any documentation of my grandmother's account. The incident occurred across Water Street from her house and she described the horror, the screams and the smell of burning flesh very vividly. I was only about 8 or 9 when she told me, and when she threw her head back and howled in agony over the memory it frightened me so much that I ran from her house, shaking and falling all the way home. I didn't have the presence of mind to ever ask her any questions -- like who or why. The Monett story was, if I recall, slightly different. The entire black neighborhood was burned out by a white mob. Many of the black citizens escaped. The National Guard was called out several times that year. Judy ----- Original Message ----- From: <Obie01@aol.com> To: <MOLAWREN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2000 6:29 PM Subject: [MOLAWREN-L] Newspaper help 1906 > My grandfather served in the Missouri National Guard in 1906. He lived in > Pierce City and served in a unit from that area. He told a story about an > incident in the train yard in Monett. "The crowd would not let the Guard off > the train, and the Guard exited from the back of the train. When the train > pulled out of the station the Guard was facing the crowd with bayonets drawn > and pointed at the crowd." > Does anyone remember hearing of this incident? I wrote to the newspaper in > Monett and was told the incident had never happened. Another researcher met a > reporter from that paper a few years ago, and was told a series of articles > had been written recently about the incident. I have a photo of his unit, if > anyone is interested. Dobie in Texas