792. Pensacola's Scenic Highway Injustice 1910

This story is about a sinister side of our history in Pensacola but one that should be told in hopes that it's never repeated! It began in July 1910 when a Negro male, later identified as Bob Matthews is alleged to have entered the home of 49-year old James M. Snowden located near the Irwin Turpentine Company about fifteen miles northwest of Pensacola in the community of Klondike. This area today would roughly be off Mobile Highway in Beulah. Matthews had been employed with the company for a short time and lived in a shack near the victim’s home. Snowden himself was also a turpentine worker at the plant as well. Late on the night of the incident, the suspect allegedly entered the bedroom of Snowden’s 13-year-old daughter Delia and attacked her. The startled young girl started screaming for help at which time her assailant started choking her around the neck to silence her. She was finally able to break away from his grasp and yelled for her father. Snowden rushed to her room at which time the suspect jumped out the window and escaped. Her father and her 19- and 17-year-old brothers ran out into the yard, but the suspect was long gone into the dark night.

Sheriff’s deputies searched the area and found Matthews in his nearby shack about to go to bed. With the forensics of the day, the detectives took the measurements of the footprints they found outside the Snowden home and matched them with Matthews shoe type and size. When questioned about why he was just going to bed at such a late hour he said he had just returned from a social event when the deputies arrived. But during the questioning, Matthews took off running and escaped. A massive manhunt began and lasted for several days involving numerous law enforcement officers. He was finally located near the banks of the Perdido River and was shot by one of his mounted pursuers. The wound was painful but not critical and Matthews was able to crawl into the swamps near the river and again escaped. At first, he was thought to have died in the swamp, so Sheriff James Van Pelt called off the search and disbanded the posse.

However, four months later Santa Rosa Sheriff John Houston Collins heard of a man answering Matthews’ description located in his county. He and his deputies surrounded the suspect’s quarters and took him into custody. The suspect was transported to the Milton jail and word was sent to Sheriff Van Pelt. However, work began to spread that a rapist of a white teenage girl was in the local jail. Men started gathering and soon formed a mob with the purpose of hanging Bob Matthews. It was not long before the mob gathered their courage enough to storm the Milton jail looking for their soon to be victim. But the deputies had seen the situation developing and had whisked Matthews out the back door and hid him in a nearby ice box until the mob had dispersed. When Sheriff Van Pelt arrived the next day he ordered the suspect transferred to the jail in Defuniak Springs in Walton County.

On November 21, 1910, Escambia deputy William Archie Bowman arrived quietly in Defuniak Springs. Shortly after dawn, he took Matthews to the train depot to catch the 7:30 AM west bound train to Pensacola. A single deputy was used to keep the attention of the public minimized and thus ensure the safety and security of the suspect. When train #4 arrived, Bowman telegraphed Sheriff Van Pelt then boarded the train with his prisoner.

Bowman handcuffed his prisoner with an added precaution of chaining him to the bench. When the train pulled into Milton, Santa Rosa Sheriff John Collins boarded because he was on his way to Pensacola to testify in an unrelated case. Seeing Bowman, the sheriff volunteered his services to the lone but very anxious deputy. When the plane reached Gull Point, off today’s Scenic Highway, a passenger came through the car and whispered to the sheriff that a mob was going to board the train and take the prisoner off. So, as a precaution the two officers decided to order the train to run non-stop the rest of the way into Pensacola in order to eliminate the mob's ability to board. They also locked both doors to the smoking car and then pulled down all the shades on the windows to prevent anyone from seeing inside.

However, when the train reached Gull Point a group of masked men were waiting on the tracks flagging the engineer down. Before the train had come to a complete stop Flagman Robert E. “Buck” Conners jumped to the ground and confronted the mob coming toward him. Some of the men pulled out pistols and ordered Conners to raise his hands above his head. This he did, but secretly gave his engineer the sign to “clear out.” The throttle was lowered, and the train slowly began to gain momentum. Seeing what was happening, the mob rushed the train and climbed up the stairs and down the gangways. They made their way to the smoking car and found the doors on both ends locked to keep the intruders at bay. However, the men used the butts of their pistols to break the windows and rushed through the smashed openings.

As they rushed inside, they found Sheriff Collins standing in their way with his pistol pulled and pointed at the oncoming mob of men. Without hesitating, the masked men overwhelmed the sheriff and pushed him to the back of the car with guns to his head and his arms held tight. Another group rushed the back door and attacked Deputy Bowman from the rear. He was likewise overwhelmed and subdued. His pockets were rifled for the prisoner’s handcuff keys and Matthews was quickly grabbed by the enraged mob. Several of them ignored his pleading and began beating him with several powerful kicks to the head. The colored passengers became so frightened that they jumped out the windows of the moving train even though the mob ensured them they would not be harmed.

In the meantime, the masked men picked Matthews up and passed him through the shattered door window to their comrades waiting on the rear platform. Matthews was stood up straight on the platform while pistols were fired into the air, amid the excited cries of the women still on board. The 41-year-old conductor Julius Eggart was able to keep a semblance of order throughout the forward portion of the train but could do nothing for Matthews. But the prisoner gathered his courage and made a suicidal leap from the rear platform of the moving train even though his arms were still handcuffed together. However, one of the masked men grabbed his right arm and held onto the dangling prisoner for dear life. Still in the grasp of his captors, Matthews was dragged behind the train for about half a mile across the rocks and railroad ties. Near the railroad trestle about a mile south of Bohemia the captor lost his grip on his prisoner and Matthews fell by the tracks rolling along in a jumble of arms and legs until he came to a rest. He was seen to jerk spasmodically and then lay very still. Not to be robbed of their vengeance, his captors began jumping off the moving train to make their way toward their fallen prey.

Reaching his prostrate form, they ravaged his body until their blood lust was exhausted. Later examination revealed a broken neck most likely from the fall and a broken right arm where his captor had held him to the train. Additionally, his entire body was covered with scrapes, bruises, and lacerations.

The masked mob finally moved on down the tracks heading for Bohemia and their homes and families. Behind them came Deputy Bowman who had jumped from the train and made his way to the body hoping to gain evidence as to the identity of the attackers. However, by the time he arrived the mob had disappeared. Bowman chose to stay with the body until help arrived while Sheriff Collins remained on the train until it reached Pensacola. He immediately notified Sheriff Van Pelt as the Escambia sheriff loaded up an automobile with personnel and drove to the Bohemia station. They carried Matthews back to the automobile where it was transported to Pensacola around 2:00 PM and placed in the morgue of Frank Pou. Van Pelt knew that Matthews was approximately 55-years-old of which about twenty-five of those were spent in the Florida State prison system. He had been incarcerated for the murder of another Negro man until his release around 1909 when Florida Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward took pity upon him and granted him a pardon.

When Van Pelt notified the justice of the peace, Judge Ruben L. Nickelson of the arrival of Matthews' body, the judge convened a jury for a coroner’s inquisition into his cause of death. Selected were Celestino H. Gonzalez a 30-year-old county court bailiff from Florida, Edward P. Preston a 26-year old linotype operator, Joseph Everett Maura a 67-year-old city inspector, Harry DeBroux a 35-year-old engineer from Belgium, Albert S. Johnson a 31-year-old merchant from Sweden, and George Suarez a 41-year-old bayman from Florida. In their presence, Matthews' body was minutely examined, and the available witnesses were questioned.

After reconvening in November 1910, the coroner's jury determined that there was no way to identify any of the masked men who murdered Bob Matthews. By law, Matthews was considered innocent until proven guilty regardless of the evidence they had or didn't have against him. However, the illegal actions of the mob robbed him of the opportunity to prove his innocence or the state to prove their guilt. Regardless, he was buried in the Potter's Field Cemetery located across the street from today's Escambia County Sheriff's Office.