What a difference a year makes!
Thanks to many good people in and around Gainesville, there is now a memorial for the men who died in the Hangings. And, what a wonderful memorial it is! Those of us who have an ancestor who died in the Great Hanging at Gainesville feel deeply indebted to all who helped to make this a reality.
Below are photos of the unveiling of the monuments that were placed in the Georgia Davis Bass Memorial Park on October 18, 2014.
Unveiling of the Monuments
Close-ups
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| Men who died in the 'Great Hanging' |
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| Memorial account of 'Great Hanging' |
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| Memorial Pavers |
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| Memorial close-up of names |
Note: There are still men who died in the hangings that very little is known. Each family of a Gainesville Hanging victim has a story that needs to be told and shared. If you have a "Great Hanging" ancestor, or you are just interested in history, please help by sharing stories and research about the victims of the Great Hanging and their families. There are many ways to share: write a book, start your own blog, post your family information on Ancestry.com, leave a message on genealogy message boards, start a website, donate your stories to a historical society/library in Gainesville, post the information on this blog, and/or all of the above.
8 comments:
Thnx for keeping us updated. Wish I could have been there. Appreciate the photos of the monuments.
Wish I could have been there! So nice that there is FINALLY a monument for these men. It just feels good to know that they can be remembered.
What a nice memorial. So glad that these men who were killed so many years ago finally have a memorial marker. It's quite amazing that the City of Gainesville took so very long to allow the memorial to be placed.
Were the men buried near where the memorial is placed? Has there been any archaeological study into where the bodies were actually buried in 1862? Have any remains ever been found?
Jack B
Thank you for the effort to preserve the local History.
We had a family member who was hanged but our family was apparently so embarrassed by the fact that they never talked about it. Or perhaps they were so traumatized by the event that they just wanted to forget it. Whatever the reason, we never knew about it until just recently.
Thank you for making this information available. And thanks to all who worked to make this memorial a reality.
Wiley should have been on McCaslin's list of those hanged. And his name should have been on the memorial. John Wiley is on Clark's list of men who were hanged and he is also mentioned in the 1880 Galveston Newspaper article, which can be found on this blog. Both of those lists were made closer to the actual event than McCaslin's list.
Want to add my thanks to all who made this memorial monument in Gainesville a reality. What a wonderful gift to those of us who have an ancestor who died in the Great Hanging.
And thanks to the blog author for posting photos of the ceremony that took place on Oct 18, 2014 of the unveiling of the monuments.
Why did they use an outdated list for the memorial. New information - some of which you have here on this blog - gives more information about the men who were hanged.
If it was going to be written in stone, more research should have gone into the list of victims!!
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