The 1909 Buckingham Murders: Part I

The Slate River Ramblings post concerning the brutal murder of Curtis Nunley Branch, night watchman at the Mateo Post Office, mentioned the murder of the Stewart brothers several years earlier.

Undoubtedly, the murder of the Stewarts was one of the most sensational in the history of Buckingham County. The twists and turns of the resulting trials held the public’s attention for over two and a half years. The Richmond newspapers closely followed the developments and coverage extended throughout Virginia at least as far as Alexandria, to Washington DC, and to Baltimore.

In the coming weeks, highlights of this complicated and sometimes shocking story will be serialized at Slate River Ramblings. Feel free to comment as the tale unfolds. If you recognize the Stewart brothers, please contact me. Their mother may have been a Jones or a Brown. At the time of their death, however, apparently no kinfolk were involved in the search for their murderers.

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On April 17, 1909, Thomas and William Stewart were brutally murdered in their home, which was burned to the ground with their bodies inside. The brothers lived in southwestern Buckingham County near the Appomattox County line. Three men, one white and two black, were eventually charged with the crimes of murder, robbery, and arson in connection with the death of the Stewart brothers.

From the outset, newspaper coverage was lively. On April 20, 1909, Richmond’s The Times-Dispatch broke the story, reporting that the Stewart brothers were burned “to an unrecognizable mass of flesh and charred bones.” The following day, the newspaper printed informative background about the two men:

Among the ignorant people of the county it has been supposed that the Stewarts had a large amount of money in their cabin, though they never gave any evidence of being hardly more than paupers, so low was their scale of living. It is thought that the motive of the killing was the hope of finding the hoarded treasure.

The men lived in a cabin on the Tower Hill Road, near Antioch Baptist Church, not far from the Appomattox line, in one of the most respectable sections of the county. They made their money by cutting [railroad] ties and dealing in a small way in lumber. Their father in the old days was a slave trader and is reputed to have left them a large amount of money, to which they have added from their earnings in the woods. They had never been in any trouble and were considered harmless though not desirable citizens.

In the weeks and months following their murders, the Stewart brothers were described primarily as solitary bachelors, uninvolved in the community around them. Whose wrath did they invoke and why? Was robbery really the motive? Why destroy their home and their meager possessions? Was it, as the newspaper suggested, to cover traces of the crime and make the deaths appear accidental?

Coming Next: The Stewarts of Buckingham