The Assassination of Meredith Taylor Crossland Multi-Cache
The Assassination of Meredith Taylor Crossland
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You will be taking part in a short two stage multi cache. The first stage is found at the grave of M. T. Crossland, a state representative who was assassinated nearby. The final is a short distance away.
The Assassination of Meredith Taylor Crossland
Meredith Taylor Crossland, born in Tennessee and who later moved to the Echola area of Tuscaloosa County was known as a civic leader. In 1834, M.T., his wife Lucinda and others in the Echola community met and formed themselves into a presbytery and organized the Dunn’s Creek Baptist Church. During the Civil War, Meredith Taylor Crossland was known as one who fed and helped southern soldiers. His sons and sons-in-law served in the Confederate Army. M.T. himself served as Constable and Justice of the Peace in Tuscaloosa County. He owned slaves who helped with the family farm operations prior to the war. After the Emancipation Proclamation he let former slaves live on his land as sharecroppers. In 1865 M.T. took "Amnesty Oath" in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.
In 1868 he ran and was elected to the Alabama Legislature on the Republican ticket. Family members felt he ran to help hold the overriding Federal control during reconstruction. He attended a special session of the legislature in July 1868. His support for various measures raised the ire of local Klan leader Ryland Randolph, the editor of the Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor, and Randolph openly editorialized that Crossland should not be allowed to return to Montgomery when the legislature convened in regular session in November of 1868. Statements have come down through the generations and are still discussed at family gatherings in Echola, Alabama that an argument had ensued at a community store concerning some former slave owner's slaves who were now sharecropping on M. T.'s farm. Most of the citizens in West Tuscaloosa County did not agree with M.T.'s thinking regarding the freed Negroes. Words passed and tempers flared; a statement was made that M. T. would never get to Montgomery to be sworn in.
At this time during Reconstruction days, there was unrest and lawlessness in the county. Political confusion and violent feelings regarding the freed blacks caused federal marshals stationed in Tuscaloosa to acknowledge that they could not keep order in the outlying areas of the county.
On November 11, 1868, M. T. Crossland and Simeon Brunson, State Representative of Pickens County, were riding on horseback on their way to Tuscaloosa to meet with others to travel to Montgomery, Alabama, to attend the Oath of Office Meeting. As the two were riding on the Upper Columbus Road near the Sipsey River, only a few miles from his home on the Boyd Road, they were ambushed on the wooden covered bridge known as the Shirley Bridge. M.T. was carried back to his house and died three days later of his wounds. Crossland was buried in Dunn’s Creek Cemetery, the cemetery now known as Cemetery No. 2.
There was an investigation, but no one was ever charged with his murder, although there was a $5,000 reward posted. To add insult to the whole affair, Ryland Randolph, the Klansman, later won a special election to take his place. However, he was impeached and kicked out of the legislature not long after taking his seat.
The final can be found by reading the information at the gravesite and inserting numbers into the following coordinates:
33 21.4AB
87 47.9CD
A = There are two headstones, one new and one old. From the new stone, count the number of letters in the word on the third line.
B =On the new headstone, the number of words on the first line.
C = The day of his birth.
D = The last digit in the year of his death.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unatvat va n fznyy bnx nobhg 7 srrg hc
Treasures
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