Jake Harness
Details of the Crime and Execution Last Saturday
The following is the report of the execution of Jacob Harness, made
expressly for the Standard by our special reporter, Mr. T.H. Ford.
The day was one that would have been chosen above any other for a day
of execution. Damp and dismal, it was a task even for the light-hearted to
bear a cheerful deportment. Every now and then, the sun would shine with a
fitful gleam, in mockery of powerless humanity, and the very elements
seemed at war.
On the road at every station after leaving Knoxville, a knot of
countrymen were assembled, eagerly waiting for the train to bear them to
witness the miserable death of a fellow creature.
The occasion was made one of revelry and mirth, and the saddest
commentary on humanity is the fact of there being so many of the female sex
present, eager and anxious to witness a public execution.
If the day was all that was fitting for the occasion, no better place on
earth could have been chosen than Clinton. Scattered about some barren
foot-hills, the town, under a leaden sky, was the dreariest and least attractive
we ever saw. Mud, mud and mud! Men, women, and little children, wading
about and conversing upon the approaching event.
Arrived at the jail, the reporters were introduced to the Sheriff, a nervous
and sympathetic gentlemen, who seemed to realize the solemnity of the
occasion and the magnitude of his duty. He told us that the condemned was
suffering from nervous prostration, and was badly broken up mentally. On
being introduced to the prisoner, we were very much surprised to find that
the Sheriff was apparently mistaken, and that the doomed man was as
unconcerned as any one present.
Gray haired, with evasive eyes sunk in deep caverns, retreating forehead,
high cheek bones, small and puckered mouth, receding chin, with large gray
goatee, he looked as though he failed to grasp the solemnity of his situation.
Being asked if he had any statement to make, he answered that he had
nothing to say. “People,” he said, “would not believe anything I might say.”
And he had nothing to say in regard to the crime with which he was charged.
By direct inquiries we learned that he was the father of seven children, had
served in the Mexican War; had lived in Monticello, Wayne County, Ky., for
four years after the war; was arrested in Scott County, Tenn., after the war;
that John Lovely was the instigator of his arrest; that he had served in the
Federal Army; and that he had never had any financial troubles or hard
feelings of any kind with the murdered man. Being asked if he had any
religious convictions, he answered that he had, but had never been baptized.
He stated in conclusion that he did not wish to die.
From his answers and general deportment, it was the impression of the
reporters that he had hope and expectation of some effort at a rescue being
made by his friends. looking through the barred window, he laughingly
remarked to his wife: “They want to see everybody,” alluding to the crowd,
among which he, no doubt, recognized many oldfriends and army
acquaintances. From them he drew his hope. How it was disappointed, the
sequel will show.
At 16 minutes to 12 o’clock, he entered the wagon which was to bear
him on his last ride. Twenty armed men surrounded the vehicle, and it rolled
through the crowd without the least demonstration being made.
The scaffold was erected in a declivity, with a view to the accomodation
of the crowd, which was gathered, to the number of about three thousand, on
the surrounding hills, in the form of an amphitheatre. The Rev. Mr. Barrett
mounted the wagon and delivered a very earnest prayer, although it was not
to the point, nor suited to the occasion. The prisoner evinced no emotion, and
showed not a tremor, nor a tear. After the 51st Psalm was sung, the Sheriff
asked him if he had anything to say, to which he responded that he had not.
He called for a few of his friends to come into the enclosure, to which request
they generally responded. He was again asked by the Sheriff to make any
statement that he might wish, to which he replied that he had nothing to say;
that “the world wouldn’t believe him, and that he was ready to go at any
time. God knows what was done.”
Here it was discovered by the Sheriff that he had forgotten the death
warrant. The prisoner said: “It doesn’t make any difference.” But the Sheriff
answered that it was necessary that he should read the warrant before the
execution could proceed. A messenger was then dispatched to the Court
House for the warrant. During the interim, the prisoner talked with his
friends, among others, Col. W.G. McAdoo, with whom the condemned had
served in the Mexican War. After a good deal of earnest solicitation on the
part of Col. McAdoo, Harness was induced to address the crowd, which he
did in the following words: “ Dan and Edd Vann have sworn a lie. I am not
guilty. I look to God.”
Being interrogated as to his hopes of Heaven, he answered that he would
not say whether he hoped to meet his friends there or not.
The warrant being brought, the Sheriff read it, reciting his authority for
the act about to be consumated. The Sheriff then said: “Now, then, Mr.
Harness, get up again, and if you have anything more to say to the crowd,
you have the opportunity.” He answered that he had said all he wanted to say.
Here the condemned man whispered to the Sheriff, asking him the length of
the rope and the distance from the ground. He also requested that he might be
notified when the wagon would move, so that he might be able to ease
himself off. The Sheriff gave him assurance that he would notify him; and
the prisoner further requesting that he would appoint someone to steady him
after he had swung off. The Sheriff appointed Mr. Hicks to perform that
business.
“Now, Jesse,” said the Sheriff, and off went the wagon, leaving the body
of Jacob Harness suspended in the air. The Sheriff had kept his promise and
given him notification, and Harness had eased himself off without breaking
his neck. Notwithstanding this fact, he struggled but little, only a slight
heaving of the chest being perceptible. After hanging twenty-five minutes he
was taken down and pronounced dead. At the request of your reporter, Dr.
Joel Smith made an examination, and found the usual phenomenon to have
occurred.
Thus Jacob Harness expiated a crime committed fourteen years ago. Here
is a lesson for the lawless that should last.
The murder was one of the most cold-blooded and deliberately-planned
ever committed in this part of the country. Stealing a keg of whiskey from the
still-house of his intended victim, he carried it to a secluded spot in the
mountains, leaving a well defined trail for the eye of his victim. White
pursued the theft, as Harness had anticipated, and his plan proved too
successful. Harness, his wife, and a colored girl, were in a field through
which White would have to pass, and when he made his appearance, Harness
snatched his rifle to dispatch him, but was restrained by his wife with
difficulty. Finally shaking her off, with terrible and brutal threats, he took
deliberate aim, and wounded White in the breast. After the first shot, White
implored Harness to spare his life, but the latter proceeded with his
premeditated plans. And after giving White a drink of the whiskey which he
had but just stolen, Harness abused his helpless victim in a brutal and
heartless manner, and then sent a bullet crashing through his brain. With the
help of the negro girl, Harness dragged the body some distance, where he cut
off the head and sent it “rolling down the hill, like a d---d old pumpkin,”
as he afterwards confessed. He then secreted the body between two logs, and
shortly after removed with his family to Kentucky. Here he lived four years
after the war. He then returned to Anderson County, Tenn; and, in 1875, at
the March term of the Circuit Court of that county, an indictment was had
against him. He was tried at the November term of the same year, and a
verdict of murder in the first degree was returned against him. He was
sentenced to be hung September 10, 1876, but his counsel appealed to the
Supreme Court, and in September last, that Court sustained the action of the
lower court, and Harness was again sentenced to be hung on the 29th of
December 1877.
January 5, 1878
Submitted by: Glennt@icx.net
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