By STEVE GORDON, Special to the Register

Between late 1858 and early 1861, the Butterfield Stage Line came through Gainesville weekly.  The stage line attracted others to settle in the community.  
And the new arrivals and local citizens became suspicious of one another, creating tension.
On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began.  The Union Army pulled its troops out of North Texas leaving Cooke County unprotected.  Undesirables living along the Red River caused anxiety and fear.  By the spring of 1862, Cooke County was feeling the effects of the war. A Union blockade had closed the Gulf, the economy was crippled by war taxes, many basic materials were no longer available, many of the men were off fighting the war and there was fear of an invasion of the North Texas border by Union troops and unfriendly Indians.
On April 16, 1862, the Confederate government passed the Conscription Act, requiring all white males between ages 18 and 25, to register for military service.  Within five months, the maximum age was raised to 45. Thirty men signed a petition protesting the military draft which was forwarded to the Confederate Congress.  Rumblings of discontent were heard in Cooke County.
In early September, a local farmer, Ephraim Chiles, while drinking in a Gainesville hotel bar divulged details about a secret society known as the Peace Party to J.P. McCurley, a mailman.  Mr. McCurley reported the conversation to Confederate authorities who sent Newton Chance to infiltrate the group. Chance convinced Ephraim’s brother Henry that he wanted to be a member. He received the degrees of initiation with the secret sign, grip and password along with the list of the membership. Newton Chance’s brother Joseph was sent as a second witness to confirm the organization’s existence.
Cooke County leaders asked Governor Lubbock to send troops to Gainesville.  The governor requested the troops from State Confederate Commander General Herbert. The general refused as he needed all of his troops to defend the Gulf Coast. However, he did approve the temporary activation of Gen. Hudson’s district militia into Confederate service.
On Oct. 1, the Texas troops arrested over 150 men suspected as members of the Peace Party.  A citizen’s court of 12 jurors was assembled. A majority vote would determine guilt. On Oct. 2, Henry and Ephraim Childs were found guilty and hanged.  Within the next eight days, Henry Field, M.D. Harper, Jacob Lock, William W. Morris, and Edward Hampton were found guilty and hanged.  These seven men were considered ringleaders of the peace party.
When the jury decided on a two-thirds vote for conviction the remaining prisoners were found not guilty and were to be released in a week to allow time for an angry mob to “cool down.”  The mob, discovering the plan of the jury, threatened to kill all remaining prisoners unless 20 men were released to them.  Once the mob received the complete list, they settled on 14 prisoners who were hanged over the next two days.  The remainder of the detainees was to be released in a week per the original plan.
During the following week, a Gainesville citizen was ambushed and killed while hunting on the Red River. And the trial’s prosecuting attorney, while investigating the killing, was also shot and killed.  When the jury reconvened, three of the original members did not show up and three replacement jurors were chosen.  Presumably pressured by the angry mob, 19 of the prisoners had their earlier decisions reversed, were sentenced to death and hanged the following day.  The remaining prisoners were then released.  A total of 40 men had been hanged.
For more information on “October’s Reign of Terror,” visit www.greathangingevent.org.