Thomas Lloyd
Thomas Jefferson Lloyd (~1869 – June 12, 1889) was a Scott County man hanged by a mob after being accused of murdering a woman and her teenage son in a botched robbery attempt. He was the victim of Scott County’s first documented lynching.
Biography
Known as “Jeff” to family and friends, Lloyd was born about 1869, the son of James Jonathan Lloyd (1844-1925) and Elisabeth Reynolds (1848-1915). His siblings included Claborn Lloyd (1867-1950), Andrew Lloyd (1871-1919), Polly Lloyd Byrd (1874-1957), James Elbert Lloyd (1874-1949), John Henry Lloyd (1880-1940), Margret Lloyd Adkins (1882-1964), Lihugh “Elihu” Lloyd (1886-1912), Charity Sylvania Lloyd Boshears (1887-1968), and Benjamin H. Lloyd (1889-1967).
Jeff’s parents were married on Oct. 9, 1865 in Scott County. James Lloyd was the son of Andrew Lloyd (1815-1850) and Mary “Polly” Jeffers (1819-1877). Elisabeth was the daughter of John Reynolds Sr. and Cordia Smith. She had a brother named Elias Reynolds.
Murder of Talitha and Peter Harness
On June 5, 1889, Jeff Lloyd and his uncle, Elias Reynolds, were accused of murdering a Bull Creek woman — Talitha Harness — and her 18-year-old mentally disabled son, Peter Harness, during a botched robbery attempt at the Harness home.
Authorities said that Lloyd and Reynolds approached the house believing that Talitha Harness’s husband, a Baptist preacher, had money. Talitha and Peter were home alone. Lloyd and Reynolds knocked at the door, and demanded money. When Talitha refused, she was shot and killed. Peter fled the home, but was chased down and hacked to death with a garden hoe. His lifeless body was returned to the house, which was set afire. Neighbors discovered the burnt home the following morning, with Peter’s legs sticking out of the doorway. Lloyd and Reynolds were said to have escaped with $74 in cash.
The Knoxville News Sentinel called it “the foulest and most unprovoked murder ever perpetrated in Scott County.”
A warrant was issued for the arrest of Lloyd and Reynolds, though it isn’t clear what led authorities to connect them to the murders. They were arrested in Jellico, Tenn. by an ex-sheriff of Campbell County who recognized them inside a saloon. They were returned to a railroad depot at Buckeye, Tenn. (now Pioneer) and turned over to Scott County law enforcement.
Lynching
Lloyd and Reynolds were broken out of the Scott County Jail in Huntsville by a lynch mob on the night of June 12, 1889. They were taken to a location along present-day Baker Highway and hanged. A note was attached to their bodies stating: “Any man who sees this and gives it away or meddles in any way shall go the same way or be hanged until he is dead, dead, dead.”
It was the first documented lynching in Scott County’s history.
It is not known where Lloyd was buried. Oral history suggests he was buried approximately six miles “up New River” from Huntsville. Some believe this could be the Crowley Cemetery at Winona.
Thomas Lloyd’s brother, Elihu Lloyd, was shot and killed by Arthur Byrd during an altercation at Norma in 1912.
Read More: Scott County’s first lynching