The statement made by Hill, however, needed confirmation. It was desirable to prove the charges by some one whose word, on account of the color of his skin, could never for a moment be doubted.
A negro man by the name of Buck Poston lived in the neighborhood; his skin was black enough for him to be considered perpetually under oath, so they repaired immediately to his domicil, for the purpose of implicating certain persons as belonging to the Golden Circle.
Brown and his men put a rope around his neck, and tried to frighten him into a belief that he would be hung unless he confirmed Hill‘s statements. But Buck was a brave man, and answered “no” to each one of Hill‘s accusations against his neighbors.
Finally they told him that he was now about to be hung, and appealed to him to know if he did not love his wife and children, and urged him just to say “yes,” and live; but the old man replied: “Well, Massa, I does know some little things; but I‘s gwine to take it all to t‘other world with me!” Neither persuasions, threats, the glittering of bayonets, nor the prospect of death, could make him divulge anything.
The color of his skin, however, saved his life, and his tormentors had nothing to do but to return to camp. During the night following he gave warning to those whom he knew to be in danger.
On the next day, May 14, 1865, Lieut. Brown took four men, rode up to the house of Mr. Joseph Herrod, and found him at home. They ordered him to get his horse and go with them to Farmington. He did so, but on getting half a mile from the house, they took him twenty or thirty steps from the road and shot him through the back of the head. There they left him, where he was found the next day.
Thus perished a young man who, for kindness of heart, strict integrity, and moral honesty had no superiors, and but few equals.
Before proceeding any further with the slaughter, Lieut. Brown went and consulted with Franklin Murphy, who told him that the whole matter was the result of a neighborhood difficulty, which did not warrant Federal interference in any manner whatever.
Brown and his men, during their stay on Big river, were engaged in a wholesale robbery and plunder of the citizens, taking their property without even a promise to pay. Their depredations were even more intolerable than the same number of hostile Indians would have been; but after Brown had been better informed as to the true nature of affairs he became half civilized, and on taking property he gave government vouchers. These debts against the government, however, were finally rejected, the people having been reported as disloyal. Even the widow Baker lost over one hundred dollars by some one reporting her as a Southern sympathizer.
After feasting off of the neighborhood for about two months, Brown and his infamous band of vandals took their departure. The conspiracy, founded on the marvelous revelation of a broken oath, and emanating from the fertile brain of base malignity, suddenly collapsed.