Co. Man Maker of Electric Chair, Henderson Co., TX

Athens Weekly Review
July 2, 1936
County Man, Who Once Faced Death Penalty Himself,
Was Maker of the Electric Chair at State Penitentiary

The man who built the electric chair at Huntsville which may claim the life of Elmer Pruitt, Athens negro, as its second Henderson County victim, was a Henderson County man who himself remained under the shadow of the death penalty for eight long months until a higher court reversed a death sentence given him by a jury here.

He was Belton Harris, now deceased, whose sensational trial here in 1914 was widely quoted in the state newspaper and who later served fifteen years of an indeterminate sentence of five years to life, for the murder of his wife. The family lived in the Payne Springs community.

Attorney E. A. Landman, employed to represent Harris, fought to gain a new trial for his client, successfully basing his fight for a reversal on an error in the judge's charge. Joe Bishop, deceased, then district attorney; Earle Adams, acting as a special prosecutor, and Defense Attorney Landman were the principals in a bitter court fight here. Landman then took his cause to the higher courts, won a reversal, and later saw his client escape the death penalty.
The defendant, Harris, a highly skilled mechanic, quickly gained recognition of his ability within the walls at Huntsville and when the electric chair was adopted as a means of administering the death penalty in Texas he was selected to construct the chair which still remains in use.

Asked Tuesday morning for details of the Belton Harris case, Mr. Landman quickly recalled the trial, now forgotten, but which then was widely quoted in state newspapers. A lengthy account of the trial and the Athens lawyer's long fight in behalf of his client is preserved in copies of the Southwestern Law Reporter for the years 1914 and 1915, the reversal in the death penalty having come in January of the latter year.

Freed after serving 15 years of the sentence imposed at a second trial, Harris accepted employment at a sawmill near Huntsville. There he found an outlet for the mechanical skill which had caused him to be selected as the maker of the state's electric chair. He died two years ago while working at the mill in Walker County.

If and when Elmer Pruitt, convicted of the slaying of Mrs. Martha Jane German, reaches the electric chair, he will be the second individual in the history of this county to meet death by capital punishment.

Robert Giles, negro, is the only other person to ever have the sentence meted out in this county. Giles was executed at a public hanging in Athens on the 14th day of October, 1887. He was convicted of killing Albert Williams, another negro, and partially burned his body. The murder occurred on October 1, 1886 and Giles was indicted at that term of court. The late J. J. Faulk was district attorney and Joe A. McDonald was county attorney. J. M. Warren was foreman of the jury that indicted the negro.

Giles was granted a new trial and again given the death sentence.

Many of the present day Athenians saw the public hanging. A. F. Wood says he remembers it distinctly as do Will Lee and Tom P. Faulk.

Travel in that day was almost wholly by wagon and when the news spread that there was to be a public hanging the trek of wagons started toward Athens. Many of them came three days ahead of time and pitched camp and remained to witness the execution. The scaffold was erected near where the present Reierson home stands. Those who witnessed it say it was one of the largest crowds that ever gathered in Athens.

It fell to the lot of George Osborne, early day resident of Athens and sheriff at the time, to spring the trap. Senator J. J. Faulk related that a day or two before the execution Sheriff Osborne came to him very excited and much wrought up and said he wanted to talk to him about hanging the negro. He said he dreaded the job so badly that he did not believe he could do it; that he had asked his deputies and they had all refused. He wanted to know if there was anyway to get him relieved of the job. Senator Faulk related that when he told him that he had to do the job that Osborne threatened to resign. "I don’t feel like I can go through an ordeal of that kind," he said. The Senator said that Osborne finally promised to go through with it if he would assist him but that he flatly refused to even witness the execution.

The next day Osborne, he related, told him he had decided to go through with it. Will Lee related that Osborne sat near the scaffold with his knife and when the time came to spring the trap that he simply reached behind him without looking and cut the rope.

Only four men have been executed in the history of the third district. Ed Rushing, Negro, was hanged in Palestine for assault and murder and two were hanged at Crockett about the same period as the hanging here.

Submitted by Aaron Freeman

This site is owned and maintained by the Henderson Co., TXGenWeb County Coordinator. Content of this site has been gathered from many sources and transcribed records. Therefore, errors may occur. When in doubt as to the accuracy of data contained herein, go to the actual records yourself. The information contained in this website is for your personal use only. All pages, compilations, transcriptions and abstracts are protected by copyright law and may not be published in whole or in part without written consent of the author, contributor and/or webmaster.