Newspaper Page Text
27, /
7
BY JOHN SEAWRIGHT
THE SORROWS OF THE
ALSTONS. Part 10.
On Jan. 5, 1840, Willis Alston shot
and stabbed General Leigh Read, the
newly elected speaker of the Florida
House of Representatives, in the dining
room of Brown's Hotel in Tallahassee.
The attack, made in the presence of the
entire Florida legislature and their wives,
was an attempt to avenge the death of
his brother Augustus, killed by Read a
month earlier in a duel. Read survived
the attack and W illis escaped, presum
ably back to his wife and young children
in Texas. In April 1841 Noah Thomp
son, a friend of the Alstons, saw Willis
in New Orleans and lent him $65. Willis
was on his way back to Tallahassee.
On the morning of April 26, 1841,
as General Read walked down
Tallahassee’s main street he passed the
home of Michael
Ledwith. Willis
Alston stepped from
the doorway with a
jaeger, a short,
double-barreled
shotgun loaded with
shot and pistol balls.
Without warning he
fired one barrel into
Read’s body at close
range, then the
other. Read lingered
for a few hours in
great pain and died.
W ,; ' was arrested
1* . willful murder,
and Michael Ledwith
was held as an ac
complice.
Willis retained
the services of one of
Florida’s best law-
vers, his brother-in-law David S. Walker,
who had married Philoclea Alston two
years earlier. Alston remained in jail for a
month before Walker arranged a bond
hearing before a panel of three justices
of the peace. The justices voted two to
one to allow bail; friends posted the
bond, and Willis lost no time in fleeing
back to the Republic of Texas. Judge R.
C. Allen issued a warrant for Willis’s ar
rest and ordered his bond forfeited, but
he had not reckoned with David
Walker’s legal acumen: Walker discov
ered (Read’s friends said he had known
it all along) that one ol the justices who
had set the bond had done so after his
commission bad expired; the bond was
invalid and had to be refunded.
Five months after the killing Willis’s
mother, Henrietta Green Alston, visited
her sister, Mrs. Hamilton Bonner, in
Hancock County, Georgia. Maria Bryan
(not to be contused with Mary Edwards
Bryan, whose 1878 reminiscences of the
Alstons have been quoted in this series)
was a Hancock County neighbor of the
Alstons; her recently published letters
(Tokens of Affection: The Letters of a
Planter’s Daughter in the Old South. Edited
by Carol Bleser, Athens, University of
Georgia Press, 1996) provide a few candid
glimpses of the Alstons. In a letter to her
sister written Sept. 3, 1841 (misdated 1840
in the book), she wrote:
Mrs. Alston and her daughter are now
staying at Mr. Bonner's; Robert (Bonner, a
first cousin of Willis Alston’s] was here the
other morning, and I asked him if his aunt
Alston did not feel very badly that Willis had
killed Reid (sic).
"Feel badly," said he, "why she rejoiced
at it."
"Why, rCn,” said I, “she is not religious
as 1 thought."
“Religious," said he again repeating my
words, “why she does not make any preten
sions to it."
Back in Te xas
Willis was safe from
Florida bailiffs and
judges. But on Dec.
10, 1841, while pass
ing through a stretch
of woods near
Brazoria, Texas, (re
turning home
wounded from yet
another duel accord
ing to one account)
he crossed paths with
Dr. John McNeil
Stewart, a Floridian
recently settled in
Texas. Stewart recog
nized Willis as Leigh
Read’s killer and de
nounced him as a
coward for shooting
Read from ambush.
Willis drew his knife;
Stewart pulled his Colt revolver and shot
Willis three times. Although severely
wounded, Willis shot Stewart with both
barrels of his jaeger. Searchers found both
men lying in the woods, Alston at the foot
of a tree, riddled with bullets but still alive.
Stewart lay nearby, dead with two loads of
buckshot in his chest.
; hey wrapped Willis in a hammock ami
carried him to the jail, but Willis Alston
was not a man to spend much time in cus
tody. In Florida he had had a clever attor
ney, in Texas his escap • was accomplished
by 20 or 30 (iiends of the late Dr. Stewart
who forced their way into his cell, carried
him a short distance away and fired one
bullet each into his body. It was Dec. 12,
the 11th anniversary of the death of
Willis ’s brother Gideon, shot to death by
his adopted brother, and the first anniver
sary of the death of his brother Augustus,
shot to death by Leigh Read. The three
sons of Robert and Henrietta Alston who
had survived infancy were now all dead by
gunshot, none having attained his 40th
year.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.
Copyright 1996, John Ryan Seawright
"Religious,"
said he
again ■
repeating
my words,
"why she
does not
make any
pretensions
to it."
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174/184 Clayton St.
549-0810
The 1997 V
.Athens jVIusic Directorv
This February, FLAGPOLE will publish a special issue
devoted to local music. 6,000 copies will be inserted into
participant registration bags at the South By Southwest
Music and Media Conference s Austin, Texas. 4,000 copies
will be available for free at Athens businesses.
The FLAGPOLE Athens Music Directory will feature:
• Bands - complete listing of Athens bands and musicians
• Support Services - a list of graphic artists, electricians,
lighting engineers, management, accountants, attorneys,
printers, etc., serving the local music scene • Studios a
directory of local studios • Clubs - how to book your
band at clubs in Athens and around the Southeast
Get your band or business in the Directory. Fill out the
coupon by Friday, Jan. 17, and mail it to FLAGPOLE
Athens Music Directory, P. O. Box t027, Athens, GA
30603, bring it to our offices (112 S. Foundry St., behind
Farmer’s Hardw are) fax it (706-548-8981) or email it
(flagpole@negia.net)
The 1097
Band / Business Name
Contact Person
Address
Athens Music Directorv
City / State / Zip
Email / Website
Phone / Fax Number
—I Band J Studio J Club J Support Service (what kind?)
-1 promotion
J attomev
□ graphic artist □ printer
□ lighting designer _l sound
3 other
Describe your music, Studio, club, □ management
or support service in ten words or less:
-J accountant