1880 RANDOLPH CO, AR CENSUS = 

 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas
 RANDOLPH COUNTY–THE PIONEERS–THE COUNTY FORMED AND ORGANIZED–SEAT OF
 JUSTICE–BUILDINGS–LOCAL OFFICERS–ELEOTIONS–NATURAL
 HISTORY–WATER-COURSES–MINERALS, SOIL, ETC.–WOOD SUPPLY–VEGETABLE AND OTHER
 PRODUCTS–STATISTICS–TAXABLES–THE CENSUS–PUBLIC HIGHWAYS–THE GREAT WAR–LAW AND
 LAWYERS–INSTRUCTION–MORALS–TOWNS AND VILLAGES–SELECTED BIOGRAPHY.

 Randolph, like all the other counties, has had its share of suffering on account of criminal
 offenders. But few capital offenses, however, were committed prior to the war period. The first
 execution, in its present boundary, was that of a slave who killed his mistress, in 1830, and was
 hung in 1831, at old Jackson, then the county-seat of the mother county, Lawrence. Nothing now
 remains of this old town. In 1850 two men, Miner and McGee, waylaid a stranger, a Kentuckian,
 who was passing through the county. One struck him from his horse with a gun, dragged him
 from the road into the woods, and there left him for dead. His horse, and saddle-bags containing
 some money, were then taken, after which the assailants attempted to escape. The stranger
 recovered sufficiently to give an alarm. The offenders were caught by the citizens, and, upon
 being identified by the injured man, were tried and hanged for the offense. The victim died from
 the effects of his wounds. About the close of the Civil War two men, Brainard and Turpin, broke
 into a store and killed the keeper, for which offense they were tried and hanged. Later, during the
 reconstruction period, when chaos reigned, a number of murders were committed, and the
 offenders went unpunished. In 1877 Marcus A. Whitley killed Duke Summers, and subsequently
 was tried and hanged. In 1884 William H. Harper killed John Sellers. He was tried in Greene
 County, on a change of venue, found guilty, and there executed. A few individuals have been
 compelled to take the lives of antagonists in defense of their own. Ever since the reconstruction
 period law and order have prevailed here, and a safer or more peaceable community cannot now
 be found.

   From:
        RAlsup2@aol.com
     To:
        mari@netins.net

Source:   ARRANDOL-L@rootsweb.com
Subject:  Gates school
 

When I first started to school I started at the old Gates School. It was
located on what is now the Bode Farm, owned or leased by a Sellers Family.
Mrs. Files was my teacher.
Reba Morgan Alsup