SEASE (VETERAN WWI), HERBERT CRANTON - Baxter County, Arkansas | HERBERT CRANTON SEASE (VETERAN WWI) - Arkansas Gravestone Photos

Herbert Cranton SEASE (VETERAN WWI)

Burnt School House Cemetery
Baxter County,
Arkansas

US Navy
World War I
May 14, 1883 - July 27, 1923

Son of William P. and Sarah Matilda Hogan Sease
Married Dessie Lea McMahon

The Baxter Bulletin
August 3, 1923
The last chapter in the Herbert Sease case was written Saturday afternoon when he was buried at the Burnt School House Cemetery, a few miles from Cartney, at three o'clock. The northbound passenger train was met by a large crowd and the body escorted to the cemetery where services were held and he was laid to rest.
The funeral cortege was one of the largest that ever followed a stricken one to its last resting place in a section of Baxter County.
He is survived by a wife, four children and an aged father and mother, all respected citizens of Baxter County and the ordeal has been a terrible one for his parents as well as his wife.
The following article from the Arkansas Gazette of Friday morning from interviews with the condemed on Thursday before the electrocution.
(Note: This is not the entire article as printed.)
Declaring that God would intervene and prevent his electrocution which is scheduled for Friday morning, Herbert Sease, 40, of Baxter County, murderer, showed no emotion as he talked with friends and relatives at the pententiary yesterday, his last day on earth.
Whether his attitude is a pose adopted in winning sympathy or whether he has hypotized himself into his belief, Sease gave every indication of sincerity. He insisted that he will not die Friday. He even said that if he is put in the electric chair, the current will pass harmlessly through his body and leave him uninjured.
He has spent much of his time in the death cell reading the Bible and praying. Yesterday he declared that God had told him that he would be spared from death in the electic chair.
The last hope of Sease vanished yesterday when Mrs. Sease appealed to Governor McRae for a stay of execution and the governor refused, saying he could find no reason why he should override the verdict of the court. Mrs. Sease, who is said to be a woman of considerable education made a long and earnest plea to the governor and the executive showed signs of having been shaken by deep emotion when the inteview was ended. The governor said to have expressed deep sympathy for the wife, but remained firm in his conviction that the law should take its course and that he should not allow his personal feeling to interfere.
Sease was convicted of having shot R.H. Davidson, a neighboring farmer of Baxter County.
Sease was said to have conducted extensive moonshining operation in Baxter County and to have sold his whiskey throughtout north Arkansas. Because of his reputation as a 'bad man,' he is said to have practically defied the law for some time, and to have grown overbearing and arrogant. He made considerable money and is said to have been drinking heavily of the product of his own stills. Finally he was arrested on a liquor charge and is said to have blamed Davidson, a neighbor, of his arrest. He is said to have openly boasted that he would 'get' Davidson and to have boasted after the murder that he had killed the man. Apparently he wished to terrorize anybody who might have been inclined to interfere with his liquor operations.
While calmnly repeating his unflinching faith in his hold on life and laughing at the possibility of his excution in a manner to chill one's blood, the prisioner's display of nerve had the appearance of hullucination rather than a display of stolcism or courage. He talked rapidly and repeated much. His cheerful demeanor withal was one of the strangest ever witnessed at a local execution.
(From the files of Max Parnell.)

Contributed on 8/14/08 by ashaw444
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Record #: 43871

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Additional SEASE Surnames in BURNT SCHOOL HOUSE Cemetery

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Submitted: 8/14/08 • Approved: 2/21/13 • Last Updated: 2/24/13 • R43871-G0-S3

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