As Union General Sherman’s army marched toward Goldsboro, the remnant of escaped Union soldiers hiding in the swamps of Robeson and Richmond County left with him. The only ones left in outlaw bands of the area were mostly Indians, the most important being the one led by Henry Berry Lowry. The Lowry gang would be the scourge of Robeson County for more than a decade.

Henry Lowry was no ordinary man — he had exceptional intelligence, handsome features, incredible endurance, courage and pride in himself and his Indian people. He never harmed a woman and treated them with courtesy and kindness. He was a natural leader with a spirit that arose only when he and his people had been oppressed for generations.

As the Civil War came to an end, there was a short period of nonviolence in Robeson County. Most citizens, regardless of race, sought to restore a sense of order and just get on with their lives. Even Henry Berry started courting his 16-year-old cousin, Rhoda Strong.

Why, she was known as one of the most beautiful girls around and would later be known as the “Queen of Scuffletown” — an area around Pembroke. Folks said she caught the eye of every man even though she couldn’t read or write, smoked a pipe and dipped snuff.

On Dec. 7, 1865, Henry and Ronda were married. The marriage ceremony was performed by a white friend, Hector McLean, at the old Lowry homeplace. There were many Indian friends and white neighbors in attendance. Everyone was enjoying themselves until Lt. A.J. McNair appeared with a company of Home Guard and told Henry Lowry to consider himself their prisoner.

Well, you can just imagine what a stir this caused. It was a tense moment to say the least. Rather than start a small war and maybe getting some of his wedding guests killed, Henry agreed to go with McNair even though there was no arrest warrant.

The next day, an arrest warrant was drawn up charging Henry Berry Lowry with the murder of James P. Barnes. Henry was originally incarcerated in the Lumberton jail, but it was soon determined that the structure was too insecure for such a well-known prisoner. You see, Sherman’s troops had tried to burn the jail and there wasn’t much left but the jail cells. So Lowry was taken to the Columbus County jail at Whiteville about 30 miles away.

The Home Guard thought they had Lowry this time, but Henry never stuck around to be tried for the crime he was charged with. Somehow Henry managed to escape, becoming the first man ever to do so from this jail.

Some say he filed his way out and escaped in the woods, while still handcuffed, and made his way back to his wife in Scuffletown. The mystery is: Where did he get the file? Some say it was carried to him by his young wife, concealed in a cake.

As a result of the jail break, sheriffs throughout North and South Carolina were told to arrest and detain Lowry in any way possible (that is if’n they could find him). This job would prove to be impossible because of Lowry’s knowledge of the swamps, friends and family that helped him.

Even though Henry Lowry was on the lam for more than a decade, he and his wife Ronda managed to have three children — Sally Ann, Henry Delaware and Nelly Ann, whose descendants still live in the area.

Through the years, some of the Lowry Gang members came and went. Let’s face it — how many men would want to camp in the swamps and live off the land for very long? The most constant members of the Lowry Gang were Henry Berry Lowry; his older brothers, Steve and Tom; two cousins, Calvin and Henderson Oxendine; two friends who were also his brothers-in-law, Andrew and Boss Strong, and two other Indians, John Dial and William Chavis.

In addition, there were two black members, George Applewhite and Eli Ewin, the latter better known as “Shoemaker John,” and one white member, Zachariah T. McLauchlin. This was probably the most integrated bunch of outlaws in North Carolina or maybe the whole country at that time.

All of these men had one thing in common: All had felt the sting of injustice from their fellow men at one time or the other.

Steve Lowry was the eldest and also considered the most violent and hot-tempered. He took part in about all the killings and robberies attributed to the Lowry Gang.

Tom Lowry was a little more even-minded, preferring to avoid bloodshed when possible. He thought what he was doing was out of a sense of duty.

The two Oxendines joined the gang mostly because of their close relationship to the Lowrys and, of course, because they were blood kin.

Boss Strong was just 14 years old when he joined up with the gang, but he soon became Henry Lowry’s closest and most trusted friend.

Andrew Strong, a very tall and robust man, didn’t join the gang until 1870. Although he always carried an innocent look on his face and a soft manner of speech, it was said: “the honey will drop off his tongue almost into the wound he inflicts.”

John Dial, an apprentice blacksmith, was also just 14 when he joined the gang. Just like the Lowrys, he had seen a lot of injustice to his family that he thought needed to be avenged.

The last Lumbee to follow Henry Berry was William Chavis. William was a fine-looking man about 30 years old. Chavis’s job in the gang was to make bullets for the other members. As soon as he was declared an outlaw, as eventually happened to all the Lowry gang, Chavis left Robeson County and was never seen again.

The two black members of the gang, George Applewhite and Shoemaker John, had both been ex-slaves. Applewhite was a mason and plasterer while Shoemaker, as the nickname indicates, was a shoemaker.

Zack McLauchlin joined the gang in 1870 and was the only white member of the gang. He was raised in the same area as the Lowrys and considered the Lowrys to be his best friends. That caused him to be shunned by the local white folks and he was considered an outcast.

Next time, I’ll tell you more on how the killing on both sides picked up and how two of the gang members would turn state’s evidence in an attempt to save their own skins.

J.A. Bolton is a member of the N.C. Storytelling Guild, the Anson County Writers’ Club, The Richmond County Historical Society, Story Spinners in Laurinburg and first-place winner of the ninth annual Bold-Faced Liars Showdown.

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J.A. Bolton

Storyteller