Sam Hose

Sam Hose, a.k.a. Sam Holt, a.k.a. Samuel "Thomas" Wilkes, né Tom Wilkes (c. 1875 – April 23, 1899) was an African American worker who was tortured and executed by a lynch mob in Coweta County, Georgia.

Sam Hose was born Tom Wilkes in south Georgia near Marshallville (Macon County), circa 1875. He grew up on a Macon County farm owned by the Jones family; his mother was a long-time slave of the family.

Wilkes moved to Coweta County, where he assumed the alias Sam Hose. On April 12, 1899, Wilkes/Hose was accused of murdering his employer, Alfred Cranford, after a heated argument. The argument was the result of Hose requesting time off to visit his mother, who was ill. Alfred Cranford threatened to kill Hose, and pointed a gun at him. Hose was working at the time with an ax in his hands. Due to the threat, he defended himself and threw the ax, killing Cranford. Wilkes fled the scene, and the search for him began shortly thereafter. Over the next few days, furor was caused by stories that arose suggesting that Wilkes sexually assaulted Cranford's wife, Mattie Cranford, and assaulted his infant child. On April 23, 1899, Wilkes/Hose was apprehended in Marshallville, and returned by train to Coweta County.

A mob removed him from the train at gunpoint in Newnan, Georgia. Former Governor William Yates Atkinson and Judge Alvan Freeman pleaded with the crowd to release Wilkes/Hose to the custody of the authorities. Ignoring their pleas, the crowd marched northward toward the Cranford home. The lynch mob grew, reaching an estimated 500 individuals, though some accounts purport around 2000. Once news of the capture reached Atlanta, large crowds boarded trains to Newnan. Mistakenly believing that these trains were loaded with troops, the mob stopped just north of Newnan.

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