Masked Night Riders Tell Farmers What They Must and Must Not Grow, Jan. 25, 1921

Lexington, Ky, Jan. 23—Night riders Saturday night visited farmers in Bath and Fleming counties and warned them not to haul any more tobacco to market until prices were higher, according to reports received here tonight. The reports received from Mt. Sterling, Carslile and “Flemingsburg said that the growers were warned that their barns would be burned and that they would be dealt with severely unless they complied.

The band, consisting of 25 or 30 masked men, visited farmers near Sherbourne in Fleming county, 12 miles from Flemingsburg, and Bethel in Bath county, 12 miles from Carlisle. In all, about 15 farmers were visited, although the name of only the five were disclosed by the authorities.

T.B. Robertson, wealthy farmer, near Bethel, was called to his door at 12:30 o’clock Saturday night, according to a report from Carlisle. Four men standing with their back to him warned him that he was not to haul any more tobacco, neither was he to rent any of his farms to tobacco raising nor raise any himself.

The warning was accompanied by threats of violence to himself and his property if he failed to obey.

Thomas Croath, Jake Boyd, and a farmer named Stevens were then visited and the warning reported. The band next showed up near Sherbourn in Fleming county and warmed two farmers named Shields and Tomlin. They are known to have visited three other farmers but when the occupants came to the door they laughed and said they were “looking for a doctor.”

(From the front page of the Williamston Enterprise, Jan. 25, 1921)