February 11, 2021 / Joanne Yeck

Buckingham County Crimes: The Murder of Meade Hanes, Part V

Buckingham County Courthouse, 1914, before the concrete fence was proposed.

Courtesy Small Special Collections, University of Virginia.

Need to catch up? Click here to begin the series: Buckingham County Crimes: The Murder of Meade Hanes, Part I

The article printed in Richmond’s Times-Dispatch on May 7, 1913 continued as follows:

Yesterday, while Blackwell Hanes, the boy’s father, was at Buckingham Courthouse attending a good roads meeting, young Meade Hanes, with the assistance of a hired man, was engaged in plowing and cleaning up a field near his home. While he with a mattock was cutting down some bushes his companion with the plow saw a man approach on horseback and fire repeatedly at the boy. The boy fell, and his companion saw the man ride off. He immediately ran to notify the family, but when they arrived the boy was dead, or died within a few minutes thereafter. Three of the five shots took effect in the boy’s back, piercing his vital organs.

Mott Glover then deliberately rode to Buckingham Courthouse, where a large number of the County citizens were gathered, and he gave himself up to the sheriff, saying he had killed a man. Blackwell Hanes, the father, was at the time in the courtroom listening to a good roads speech, and when he was taken aside and told of the horrible tragedy he collapsed and had to be carried to his buggy and driven home.

No motive whatever is known for the murder except jealousy on the part of Mott Glover. It is reported that he has already employed Senator Sands Gayle as counsel, and will also employ an array of counsel for his defense.

Both families stand high in the county they have wide connections on every side, and there are hundreds of near kinsman of the families in the county and adjoining counties.