A letter from Robert Gilmore, 1925-1994, to his sister Betty...
Tuesday, March 16, 1993

Dear Betty and All:
I realize that I should have called you this past weekend when all of you were so badly hit by the big snowstorm. We were extremely fortunate here in Cincinnati, because we only got about two inches of snow this time.

At your suggestion, I wrote to Arlo Essex at Independence, Mo, recently and yesterday I enjoyed a lengthy response from him. He is planning on going to his 50th class reunion at Deer later this year.

I will attempt to duplicate all of this letter, so that you will have an extra copy to send to your friend Colleen Haynes. Yes, I do remember her. You and she were the salt and pepper gals, blonde and brunette.

Now, about the year or two when we lived at Lurton, 1927 for sure, 1926 maybe. Dad taught there... Virginia was two, Alice was eight and I was seven years old. Our Grandpa Marshall McElroy had gone south to Russellville on the mail car just before Christmas, 1927. Back then the mail car only ran every couple of days and there were only two or three cars which passed daily. The mail car and perhaps a drummer (salesman). You weren't born until the following year (1928) when we lived on Smith Mountain (Near Crossroads).

Now, back to my story: Grandpa Marshall McElroy had bought a team of mules, harness, wagon, etc. at Russellville. He drove them north and arrived at our house at Lurton on Christmas Eve, (1927). He arranged to put the team (to bed) in I. C. Sutton's barn, within sight of our house. We lived in a red house high on the bank opposite I. C. Sutton's store, in the heart of Lurton.

Dad taught school at the Lurton schoolhouse and we had a school program on Christmas Eve. I delivered my famous poem (verse) which ended: "And I bet the bravest man would cry whenever the soap gets in his eye." (We were very self conscious).

Grandpa stayed a day or two and I went home with him to the old McElroy homestead at McElroy Gap (Log Cabin). He had an old Edison phonograph which played round cylinder records the size of a small drinking glass (with no bottom). I even recall some of the records like "Pop Goes the Weasel". I went home on the mail car after staying a couple of days. Grandma McElroy wasn't there at the time, she was gone somewhere.

Anyhow, sometime during 1927, the Newton County Bank was robbed by armed gunmen. Three, I believe, but am not sure. There must have been some kind of telephone service, because the word was passed to someone at Lurton that the bank had been robbed and that the armed robbers were headed south in a Lincoln car. The message was to stop them, block the road and hold them at bay until the sheriff could get there. Remember, there was no FDIC or any recourse if the bank was emptied!

So, I. C. Sutton's truck was placed crosswise in the road and anyone who approached was to be stopped; a Lincoln car in particular. They expected three or four heavily armed and dangerous men. There was no holdup of traffic, because there wasn't much traffic. So, several of the men in town stayed behind the truck. When the Lincoln car finally approached, most of the men scurried for cover. When the getaway car got within about 100 feet, an unarmed man by the name of Cap Haynes stepped out from behind the truck and flagged the car to a stop!

There was only one occupant, the driver, who had a few dollars and was unarmed. He was also quite un-cooperative and wouldn't say where he had let his accomplices out of the car, so the story goes. They all surfaced a few days later when they went to a country grocery store for supplies. (grub).

Don't know where this was, but the grocer notified the sheriff and he found them holed up in an abandoned house in the woods.

Anyhow, the getaway driver, I believe was named Ed Foreman. Later, in 1937 when we visited the State Pen at Little Rock on our Senior trip from Deer School, our guide pointed out Ed Foreman to us, and he was doing hard time for his part in the robbery. They were all sentenced to the State Pen for several years. Bank robbers weren't handled with kid gloves then, and No Miranda rights! That's the way the story was told to me and parts of it are also clear in my mind.

Now for a change of pace, Mr. I. C. Sutton was a great guy. His kids, Mary, Harry and Bert were our playmates. He arranged for us to see silent movies at the schoolhouse. You could see the actors, but there was no sound. The message came in typed words at the bottom of the picture and each child read the script for himself. Must close.
I love you too, Robert Gilmore

PS: I saw some or all of this drama unfold at Lurton in 1927...Cap Haynes was a very brave man. Was he a relative of Colleen? Robert G.

The brave man Robert spoke of was my paternal grandfather, Aretus 'Cap' Haynes. He operated a stave mill at Lurton from 1926 through 1928.

Papa Cap Haynes...front, third from right

Several others remember the Newton County Bank Robber and Papa Cap Haynes. Doyne Heffley tells me he remembers when he was a twelve year old boy, he'd stand around and watch them work at the stave mill at Lurton. He said my father, Errol and his brother Coleman were young men and they worked in the mill. Harry Sutton says he remembers the bank robbery incident, also.

Robert Gilmore wrote me he remembered this incident as if it was yesterday, that he always thought Cap Haynes was the bravest man he ever knew. Sadly, Robert passed away later in 1993 of cancer.

Robert Gilmore was a brave man himself, he wrote this letter in March, 1993, a few months before his death, knowing he didn't have much time. I hope you that remember Robert will write his sisters Alice and Patty and let them know about reading his letter here. His sister and my friend, Betty Lou passed away in July of 1996. She had sent me all the Gilmore information handed down to her through her father Walter and brother Robert.

Colleen Haynes Rongey would enjoy hearing from anyone who remembers her Papa Cap Haynes or anything about the Newton County Bank robbery...