Our Family's Journey Through Time
by Omer C. Addington
The word Sheriff comes from old England. Each Shire had a headman known as a Reeve. The title Shire Reeve gradually came to be run together in the single word Sheriff.
The Sheriff was the chief law enforcement in a Shire, a name for the division into which England is divided, which corresponds to counties in America. The Sheriff, with his appointed staff of deputies, maintained law and order, executed mandates of the Shire, maintained the jail and custody of prisoners there in, summoned jurors to court sessions and in the early day of the Shire, executed criminals who were condemned to death.
In the early days of Scott County1832-1885 the Sheriff did the same thing the sheriffs did in England. In Scott County there have been four sheriffs who had to carry out the order of the court and the unpleasant duty and hang the convicted for murder.
Sheriff George McConnell was born February 24, 1770 in Lebanon, Dauphin, Pennsylvania. He came from Pennsylvania to Virginia and settled within the present limits of Russell County at Elk Garden, later migrated to the present limits of Scott County.
He was commissioned a justice of the peace February 15, 1815 by Governor William C. Nicholas for Scott County upon the recommendation of the court that he was a suitable person to hold such office. The oldest justice in said office in a county became sheriff. He held the office until he became the oldest justice and because of this became sheriff of the county. He served (1831- 1832). He hanged John Tumms November 9, 1832 for the murder of John Wright, the first man hanged in Scott County.
Sheriff George McConnell was a weaver by trade. In those days most every one had a spinning wheel to spin their wool and linen into thread, but not every one had a loom. So they took their thread to George McConnell to be woven into cloth. While living in Pennsylvania he had been a merchant and in Russell County at Elk Garden before moving to Scott County. He was also a farmer. He married Susannah Schnebeli. Sometime down through the years the name became Snavely which means "Dweller" in a grove on a narrow strip of land. American Varant of Schnebli.
Ten children were born to the union of Sheriff George and Susannah Snavely McConnell. George Jr. married Polly Compton, Kate married Jerry Lawson, Thomas Price married first Lindy Phillips and second Mary Davis, Elizabeth married James Stallard, Henry married Sallie Kilgore, Joab Watson married Rebecca Kilgore, Priscilla married Jacob Cox, William G. married Drussilla Fugate, Samuel R. married Nancy Allen, Susan married Nathan Dougherty. Samuel and Susan were twins. Sheriff George McConnell died in 1845. Susannah died in 1855. They are buried in the oldest known McConnell Cemetery in Scott County which is near Twin Springs High School at Glade Hollow.
Benjamin Estill was judge when George McConnell was sheriff.
In 1858 Baxter I. Pate was in the Scott County jail at Estillville (now Gate City) for the murder of John Lutteril. The murder was committed in an upper room of the old corner hotel (later Compton Hotel) which is now a vacant lot opposite Quillen Hardware. Pate's execution was the second execution by judical decree in Scott County. Baxter Pate was in jail under an assumed name, McDaniel Rhea.
Thomas Strong, one of the guards at the hanging, said "I do not believe Pate was hanged because of some very strange actions and maneuvers which took place that day."
Drayton S. Hale states, "Twenty years after the hanging I spent the night with a Mister Kelly in Russell County, who advised me that Pate was not hanged but lived in one of the Western states." Mr. Hale was also an eye witness to the hanging which took place June 25, 1858.
The letter which Pate wrote from the Estillville jail in 1858, resulted in the plan which saved his life by means of a fake hanging. He was placed alive in the casket which his brother Masons had brought from North Carolina and hauled back toward home. He was from the Bee Log Community of Yancey County, North Carolina. He was freed at the Tennessee-North Carolina line and headed for Texas where he prospered. The casket was given a proper burial in the family cemetery. No one now remembers which field stone marks the grave. Two persons were sent from Scott County to open the grave and verify his death, but were prevented from doing so under threat of death. In the meantime a Mason was serving as Sheriff of Scott County (1857-58).................
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