Elisha Davis (Execution of) 

Elisha Davis was an African American man hanged at Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) on June 25, 1904, for rape. His was the last of five public executions of rapists in Arkansas between 1901 and 1904.

On May 9, 1904, fourteen-year-old Katie Ross and her younger sister Jodie, daughters of “moderately well-to-do river-bottom farmer” Thomas N. Ross and Matilda Ross, were heading toward their home at Kearney (Jefferson County) when a Black man reportedly came out of the woods and grabbed Katie. A newspaper reported that “the brute…choked her into insensibility and then accomplished his purpose before he left her nearly dead upon the highway.”

Officials began arresting Black men who fit the girls’ general description of the assailant, and Katie Ross identified Elisha Davis (called Robert Davis in some early news articles) as the man who had attacked her. Jefferson County sheriff James Gould sent a posse and bloodhounds in search of the culprit in hopes of getting Davis to jail without him being lynched. Thomas Ross, however, saw lawmen spiriting Davis toward a train and pulled a pistol, shooting Davis in the back twice and wounding a deputy before the suspect was taken to the state penitentiary for safekeeping.

Davis, who suffered only minor flesh wounds, was indicted for rape on May 14, and a trial was held on May 23. The judge ordered most of the onlookers out of the courthouse as Katie Ross testified, and “her evidence [was] the most damaging…she did not waver on cross examination.” Her little sister also identified Davis as the attacker, testifying “there sits the old scoundrel over there.” It took the jury just five minutes to return a verdict of guilty, and Davis was sentenced to hang on June 25, 1904.

The execution would be public because the Arkansas General Assembly in 1901, reacting to John Wesley’s sensational rape trial in Arkadelphia (Clark County), had removed limitations on the number of witnesses at hangings with the view that “executions of rapists [are] an object-lesson, therefore the barrier should be removed.”

Davis from the start had no expectations of a pardon from Governor Jeff Davis and “says that he is sorry he committed the crime, and hopes to make peace with God,” according to reports. Initially stating that he preferred to do his own praying, Davis eventually accepted the ministrations of Baptist preacher J. C. Battle, who baptized him in the county jail on June 14, 1904.

On June 25, around 5,000 people, most of them white, gathered at Pine Bluff to witness the execution. The Pine Bluff Daily Graphic wrote that “people came from miles around and the streets of the city were filled with people as though it was circus day.”

Davis had a “stoical demeanor” and made no statements as the police wagon drove him from the jail to the gallows built on the poorhouse grounds. A correspondent wrote that “he walked up the steps of the gallows with a firm step, and even went as far as to assist the officers in adjusting the straps” that bound him in preparation for his hanging.

At exactly 2:00 p.m. the trap door was opened, and “as the body fell the neck was broken. A few quivering jerks were all the motions made by the man at the end of the rope. He died without a groan.” Doctors declared him dead nineteen minutes later.

Following the execution, local photographer W. H. Orndorff sold photos of the event from his Pine Bluff studio, and “one scene represents Davis just before the drop was sprung.” No relatives claimed his body, which was taken to the Holderness-Sinyard funeral home and dissected by local physicians before being made available for public exhibition, which the Newark Journal reported “is attracting much attention.”

In addition to Wesley and Davis, three other Black men—Charles Anderson, Essex Pippin, and Hall Mahone—were all executed in public after being convicted of rape in the first years of the twentieth century. The state’s public execution exception for rape convictions was rescinded in 1905.

For additional information:
“All Over Arkansas.” Arkansas Gazette, June 29, 1904, p. 2.

“Assailant of Katie Ross Convicted.” Arkansas Gazette, May 24, 1904, pp. 1, 2.

“Baptized in Jail.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, June 20, 1904, p. 1.

“Begins to Fear.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, June 24, 1904, p. 1.

“Body of Davis.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, June 28, 1904, p. 1.

“Brutal Assault of Child.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, May 10, 1904, p. 1.

“Date for Hanging.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, May 24, 1904, p. 1.

“Davis Body on Exhibition.” Newark Journal, July 1, 1904, p. 1.

“Davis Is Indicted.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, May 15, 1904, p. 1.

“Davis Will Be Hanged June 25.” Arkansas Gazette, May 27, 1904, pp. 1, 2.

“Expiated His Crime.” Arkansas Democrat, June 26, 1904, p. 1.

“Gives Up All Hope.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, June 16, 1904, p. 1.

“His Life Pays the Forfeit.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, June 26, 1904, pp. 1, 6.

“Negro Brute Convicted.” Arkansas Democrat, May 25, 1904, p. 1.

“Poor House Grounds.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, June 19, 1904, p. 3.

“Sees No Preacher.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, June 10, 1904, p. 1.

Untitled. Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, June 28, 1904, p. 5, col. 2.

Mark K. Christ
Central Arkansas Library System