Thomas Ebbett

Thomas Ebbett, a White male, was shot and killed in Randolph County, Alabama, during a violent series of confrontations in August 1903. His death occurred amid a deadly dispute that began in a watermelon field near Beaver Creek, close to the community of Lamar. Contemporary newspaper accounts identified the suspected gunman only by the surname Sledge, a local farmer whose confrontation with a group of road workers escalated into multiple shootings, leaving several people dead and others seriously wounded.

The trouble began on Saturday, August 15, 1903, when approximately eleven men were working on a public road near Sledge's watermelon patch. After finishing their work, the men approached Sledge and asked permission to eat some of his watermelons. According to newspaper reports, Sledge agreed, asking only that they avoid damaging the growing vines. However, once the men entered the patch, they reportedly began cutting and slashing watermelons and vines indiscriminately. Sledge watched as his crops were damaged and warned the men to stop. When his warnings went unheeded, he left the field, retrieved a shotgun, and returned to confront the group.

The confrontation quickly turned violent. Sledge reportedly opened fire on the men, wounding nine of the eleven individuals present. The sudden shooting created a dangerous situation in the rural community, prompting authorities to organize a search for the gunman. Sledge fled the area immediately after the attack, and the Randolph County sheriff assembled a posse to pursue him. As reports of the shootings spread, the search extended through the countryside surrounding Beaver Creek and Wedowee.

The pursuit eventually brought the sheriff's posse to a steel bridge crossing the Tallapoosa River, approximately five miles from Wedowee. There, the pursuing men reportedly located Sledge and ordered him to surrender. Rather than submit to arrest, Sledge allegedly raised his shotgun and fired at the approaching group. Thomas Ebbett and another man, Robert Ford, were struck and killed instantly. Their deaths transformed an already serious shooting investigation into a multiple-homicide manhunt, with law enforcement officers and local residents attempting to locate an armed suspect who had demonstrated a willingness to use deadly force.

The violence did not end with the deaths of Ebbett and Ford. According to an August 18, 1903, newspaper account, Sledge subsequently encountered two additional men, identified as James Moore and Bud Wilson, along a roadway. The report stated that Sledge opened fire without warning, killing Moore immediately and inflicting what were described as mortal wounds on Wilson. Contemporary coverage described the overall incident as having claimed four lives and wounded nine people, although the surviving records do not independently establish Wilson's ultimate medical outcome.

Newspapers across the country carried accounts of the Randolph County shootings, describing the unusual circumstances that had led from a disagreement over damaged watermelons to a deadly confrontation with a sheriff's posse. Reports published in South Carolina and Texas repeated information originating from an Alabama newspaper dispatch out of Heflin. These early accounts identified Sledge as the person responsible for the shootings but did not provide his full name, age, or additional identifying information. They also offered few personal details about Ebbett, including his occupation, family relationships, or circumstances before he became involved in the pursuit.

At the time the initial newspaper reports were published, Sledge had not been captured. The sheriff and his posse were reportedly continuing their search, but the available historical accounts do not establish whether he was subsequently apprehended, killed during the pursuit, or escaped the authorities. No independently verifiable records have been located confirming criminal charges, a trial, a conviction, or a sentence connected to Ebbett's death. Consequently, although Sledge was publicly identified as the suspected killer, the ultimate legal disposition of the case remains uncertain.

Thomas Ebbett's death remains part of a disturbing episode in Randolph County's early twentieth-century history. What began as a dispute over damaged crops developed into a series of shootings that affected road workers, pursuing authorities, and other individuals encountered during the gunman's flight. Ebbett lost his life during the attempt to bring the suspect into custody near the Tallapoosa River. More than a century later, surviving newspaper accounts preserve the circumstances of his killing and identify the suspected perpetrator, but significant questions remain about the precise chronology, the conclusion of the manhunt, and whether anyone was ever brought to justice for his death.