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About Beverly Rash
Convicted of murdering his wife and put to death.
Beverly was charged with the murder of his wife , Mary. He was found Guilty and appealed the case to the supreme Court. He was again found guilty and was hanged in 1851.
The 1850 Census of Wilkes Co., NC shows their children living with Grace Brown, age 65. It is assumed that this was the mother of Mary Brown.
Birth: 1812 Wilkes Co, NC
Death: 1851 (39)
Son of Asa Rash and Nancy Coleman
Husband of Mary Brown
Father of Henry Rash, Temperence Rash, Grace Rash, Nancy Rash
Carolina Watchman newspaper
Salisbury NC, Thursday Dec. 4 1851
Execution of Beverly Rash
This man convicted six months ago of the murder of his wife was hung in the suburbs of this town on Friday last, about the hour of twelve.—The criminal was attended to the gallows by the Cabarrus guards, commanded by Capt. Slough.
There was an immense crowd present to witness the execution. Before being swung off, the criminal made a short address of about five minutes. He said "he felt like saying something to satisfy the curiosity of the spectators—that he had but a few minutes to live—that he had been a great sinner and was about to suffer justly, but he was innocent of choking his wife." "Some," he said, "would believe he had told a lie—he could not alter their opinions, and whatever they might think would make but little difference, as it would neither benefit or injure him—the truth of what he had said would only be known at the judgment bar of God, where the secrets of all hearts would be made manifest." He further said, "that he felt he had been regenerated, and would be saved, not from any merit of his own but through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ." After some conversation with the Rev. Mr. Morrison, who attended him at his request, and the Sheriff, he took a glass of wine and a chew of tobacco with the utmost indifference, and in a few minutes was launched into eternity! He met his fate with as much coolness and equanimity as if he were only retiring to the repose of natural sleep.
We have never before witnessed a public execution but it has been our lot to stand by the bed of many dying from disease and we do not recollect ever to have seen one, saint or sinner, who exhibited so little fear and so much fortitude in grappling with the grim monster. To hear a man under the gallows, with the certainty of being, in a few moments, in the presence of his God, so positively asserting his innocence and apparently with so much confidence trusting to a hope of future happiness, cannot but excite in the minds of spectators a feeling of doubt as to his guilt. Such was our feeling at the moment—but yet all the circumstances proved on the trial lead irresistibly to the conclusion that Rash either committed the murder or was accessory before the fact, having perhaps procured it to be done.
As we remarked above, this is the first execution we ever witnessed, and it strengthened the opinion we have long entertained, that such exhibitions have an unhealthy influence on public morality. The mixed multitude of men, women and children that surrounded the gallows on this occasion, looked on with as much indifference as they would watch the antics of a "dandy jack" in a ring. And to wind up the frolic, many returned to town and got gloriously fuddled , (just the condition in which to commit crime,) and, we understand, there was some fighting.
We do hope the legislature will take this subject in hand and put a stop to such revolting and demoralizing spectacles. It does seem to us that executions in some private place, removed from the public gaze, would make a much more awful and solemn impression, as well upon criminals as upon the masses of the people, and would have a more salutary influence generally. —Concord Mercury.
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Beverly Rash in Nancy Miller Thompson Smith's 2015 book The Genealogy of the Rash and Hammer Families:
BEVERLY RASH
Born: 1815
Where: Wilkes County, North Carolina
Father: Asa Rash (24)
Mother: Nancy Coleman (25)
Wife: Mary Brown
Mother: Grace ______ Brown (probably)
Died: Before 1849
Died: 28 November 1851
Children (born in Wilkes County, North Carolina):
1. Henry Rash was born 1836. He married Elizabeth Parker, August 12, 1856 in Wilkes County.
2. Grace Rash, born 1838
3. Temperance Rash, born 1840
4. Nancy Rash, born 1842
Beverly was charged with the murder of his wife, Mary. He was found guilty, and his mother appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Again he was convicted, and was hanged in 1851.
In the 1850 Census of Wilkes County their children were living with Grace Brown, age 65. She was probably the mother of Mary Brown Rash.
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When Beverly Rash was born in 1812 in North Carolina, his father, Asa, was 31 and his mother, Nancy, was 30.
He married Mary Brown.1815–1849, died at age 34.
He died Dec. 4, 1851, in Statesville, North Carolina, at the age of 39. He was executed after he was convicted of murdering his wife and the state supreme court affirmed the ruling.
Beverly Rash murder trial - Fayetteville North Carolinian, May 17 1851, Fayetteville, North Carolina:
JUSTICE WAKING UP.
The following particulars of a trial in Cabarrus county will show that juries there are not as hard to convince as some juries we have seen.
We have seen and heard of culprits getting clear when the testimony was much stronger than in the following case:
From the Salisbury Watchman.
CABARRUS SUPERIOR COURT.
Nearly the whole of this Term was occupied in the trial of Beverly Rash, who was indicted for the murder of his wife Mary Rash, and was finally convicted.— They had lived together most unhappily for more than six months, during which time he had inflicted some violence upon her and much savage indignity—even to the extent of stripping and driving her from his house in a state of nudity. A reconciliation was proved to have taken place two days before the death and this gave the prisoner’s counsel room to insist that malice did not then exist. But the great point of contestation was whether she died of violence at all. No one was present when any violence was done to the deceased: It had, therefore, to be determined by a post mortem examination. This was made by two young gentlemen, Drs. Long and Carter, who dissected the throat and declared that they found coagulated blood about windpipe - that some of the muscles about it appeared bruised, and that there was a rent on the side of the trachea an inch and a quarter or an inch and a half in extent longitudinally. They also said they saw no mark of violence on the outside of the throat. The persons who saw her immediately after her death, said that they saw none. The persons who washed and dressed the body on the day of the death saw none. A good many gentlemen of the Medical profession were examined on both sides as to whether it was possible to break the windpipe of a person in health as the deceased was alleged to be, by compression with the hand in the manner described by the witnesses? And whether such a phenomenon could occur without causing abrasions or some visible marks on the outside of the neck? In their statements we are glad to hear these gentlemen were more nearly unanimous than is usually the case on such occasions. From this testimony, and from other facts occurring about the death, and especially from the deportment of the Prisoner at that juncture, it was earnestly insisted by his counsel that no violence had been sufficiently proved as occasioning her death. That she did not receive any violence on the neck from the prisoner, nor from anyone else. They contended that she came to her death from a sudden attack of disease either from mania potu or some other attack that carried her off suddenly. There were many facts proved in the case from which they made this argument. And as to the rent on the windpipe, they thought it either a misapprehension of the young physicians, or that the rent had been made in the dissection which had been made hurriedly—in a crowd — and in a dark room.
For the State it was insisted that the violence was there, and that if the Physicians who conducted the post mortem examination were honest, which was admitted by the opposite counsel, there could be no room for doubt on this point: that they, and other Physicians, examined on the case, thought that the violence done to the throat was sufficient to have caused death-that the prisoner was the only person there that have inflicted the violence, and unless he could rebut the conclusion by some satisfactory proof, he must be taken as the author of it.
There was much ability exhibited on both sides, and much anxiety as to the result in the community.
Spiritous liquor was, as usual, at the bottom of this tragedy. The husband kept a still house and sold spirits. There was generally a debauched crowd about him. He drank freely himself, and she excessively. He became jealous of the companions that he had invited to buy liquor. Her rude drunken conduct caused him often to beat her severely, and to maltreat her otherwise. If he killed her it is just what might be expected: If he did not, his own life is in imminent peril from this must fatal evil, intemperance.
We learn that the prisoner has appealed to the Supreme Court.
- Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees by SmartCopy: Jul 16 2015, 15:23:00 UTC
- Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees by SmartCopy: Jul 16 2015, 15:25:58 UTC
- Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees by SmartCopy: Jul 16 2015, 15:00:01 UTC
Children of Mary Brown and Beverly Rash:
Henry Rash, b. abt 1836 Wilkes County, NC
Grace Rash b. abt 1838 Wilkes County, NC
Temperance Rash b. abt 1840 Wilkes County, NC
Nancy Rash b. abt 1842 Wilkes County, NC
The 1850 census shows the children of Beverly (incarcerated) and Mary (deceased) living with Grace Brown, age 65, and a young man named John Brown, age 22, whom I can only speculate to be a son of Grace and brother of Mary.
1850 census:
Name Role Sex Age Birthplace:
Grace Brown F 65 Wilkes Co NC
John Brown M 22 Wilkes Co NC
Henry Rash M 14 Wilkes Co NC
Grace Rash F 12 Wilkes Co NC
Temperance Rash F 10 Wilkes Co NC
Nancy Rash F 8 Wilkes Co NC
Event Place: Wilkes county, Wilkes, North Carolina, United States
Household ID: 288
Line Number: 11
Affiliate Name: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Affiliate Publication Number: M432
Affiliate Film Number: 649
GS Film Number: 444662
Digital Folder Number: 004204428
Image Number: 00047
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: N01140-2
Record Number: 1740
Citing this Record: "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4BL-6M8 : 4 April 2020), John Brown, Wilkes county, Wilkes, North Carolina, United States; citing family 288, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
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Beverly Rash's Timeline
| 1815 |
1815
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Wilkes Co, NC
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| 1836 |
1836
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| 1838 |
1838
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| 1840 |
1840
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| 1851 |
November 28, 1851
Age 36
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Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina, United States
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