Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas. Page: 292 of 1,110

HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.

"When the scheme was fully disclosed it was
shown to have been instigated by two white
preachers from Iowa. They were in the
county about two years prior to the outbreak,
but they left and returned again, it vwas
charged, to fully develop their plans, which
were evidently laid during their first visit to
the county. As soon as their connection
with the scheme became known a committee
composed of Judge Hord, Uncle Billy
Miller and Mr. Knight, Judge Burford's
father-in-law, started to wait on them. One
of them was seen. When the committee approached
the negro quarter where he was
stopping, Uncle Billy Miller called him out
to acquaint him with the committee's mission.
He was eating breakfast and he reached
back to get a gun which was standing against
the wall near him. At that moment a shot
was fired from the outside. The preacher
then commenced crying and asked me to keep
the men from shooting him. He promised
to get out of the State in five hours, and the
committee left, but before he could get away
he was captured somewhere on Farmers'
branch, brought to town and put in jail.
The other preacher was captured and that
night they were both taken out, whipped and
told to get out of the State instanter. They
left, but we heard of them during the war
circulating stories in the North about us.
"After the burning of the town, which occurred
on July 10, 1860, when the mercury
stood 110 degrees in the shade, we whipped
every negro in the county one by one. One
of the negroes whipped became very sick

afterward, and, thinking that he was going to
die, he made a confession to his old mistress,
telling her all about the plot, which contemplated
the murder of herself and her husband.
He confirmed the statement of other negroes
that the two Iowa preachers had instigated
the entire plot. Upon his confession he with
two other negroes, one of whom was a
preacher, was taken out and hanged on the
bluff just above where the Commerce street
bridge now stands. Clayton Miller, Henry's
father, was a good old negro. Henry was
freed when he was a child. He was in no
way related to Commodore Miller, or to
Charlie Miller, who was sent to the penitentiary
some time ago."
JUDGE NAT. M. BURFOERDS VERSION.
In his search for additional particulars
concerning the burning of the town and the
trouble with the negroes, the News reporter
yesterday called on Judge Nat M. Burford
at his home on Akard street. If Judge Burford
lives until the 8th of next October he
will have been a resident of Dallas forty-four
years. Although one of the oldest settlers
and one among the patriarchs of the city, he
is young in step and memory. The reporter
found him mowing grass in the back yard.
Showing the interviewer to his room he said
that he could not recall dates with accuracy,
but he had a vivid recollection of the scenes
transpiring about thirty-two years ago in
Dallas.
" I was then district judge," he began,
"and I was then holding court in Waxahachie.