Notes:

•  "Between two and three o'clock on Monday afternoon, October 8, 1883, two Negro men, Wesley Brown and Charlie Adams were enjoying themselves, at a house of bad repute owned by Ada Gaston. She was a Negro woman who came from Birmingham but now lived in a house across the common, north from the fair grounds. This area, known as Pin Hook, was located near the railroad.
     Brown and Adams were also from the Birmingham area and may have known Ada before she moved to Huntsville. The men began to assault her. They cut her and slashed her clothes, inflicting a few slight flesh wounds on her person. Things were getting out of hand. Ada was afraid of being killed, so she sent a hasty word into the city for the police.
     When the messenger arrived at the police department with the complaint, William J. Street was present to answer the call. Officer Street mounted one of the horses kept at the station for this purpose, and rushed to the scene.
     Upon arriving at Ada Gaston's home, Officer Street observed her injuries and felt they were sufficient enough to arrest the two men. Using caution, he drew his pistol and headed for the front door. Street entered the house, arrested one man, and brought him out onto the front porch. The other man went out the back door. One of the women of the house, Euneline, supplied this man with an axe. He came around to the front where he knew the policeman was detaining his friend. He came up behind Officer Street and struck him with the sharp edge of the axe. The deadly blow landed above and behind Street's right ear and laid open his skull with an awful gash. Officer Street lay where he fell. The blow also knocked Street's pistol to the ground as he fell. One of the Negroes reached down and picked it up as he fled the scene. Some witnesses said William Street lived thirty minutes, while others said he died instantly.
     A hasty word was again sent into the city. The bearer of this information carried a much more serious message than the last dispatch. Officer William J. Street, one of Huntsville's most fearless and faithful policemen, had been murdered. The newspapers were quick to note that Street's murder was the first of an on duty policeman in Huntsville."

The rest of the chapter deals with the aftermath of this murder. - Simpson


Related Links:

•  Simpson - The Sins of Madison County, by Fred B. Simpson with Mary N. Daniel & Gay C. Campbell, 2000, chapter 2 starting on page 89.