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November 25, 2025

Wesley Milam and the Gang - 1866

On March 1, 1866, four men were charged with breaking into the enclosure of Sarah McNeil and forcibly taking 10 bushels of corn, 20 pounds of bacon, and other items. Sarah's daughter N. C. McNeil tried to stop them. The four men were Washington Hays, Wesley Milam, Alfred Davis, and Hardin Foster.

Grand jury indictment, Fall 1866.

The 1870 census lists a Sarah McNeil, age 44, living on Lewis Fork. In addition to her oldest daughter Nancy Caroline, age 24, there were 7 others in the household. Sarah's husband William H. McNeil had been killed during the Civil War.

Of the four thieves, I wonder if Washington Hays was the soon-to-be sheriff of Wilkes County? Joseph Washington Hays was the Wilkes sheriff from 1868 until 1870. Surely he wasn't stealing a widow's corn and bacon, then being elected sheriff! Who would want to elect a criminal as their chief law enforcement officer? That could never happen, could it?

When I first pulled this record, I intended to use it to tell a light-hearted story about a prank to take items from a corn crib. Unfortunately, this story quickly turned much darker.

Another of the thieves was Wesley Milam. At this same term of court, Milam was charged with having committed murder on April 18, 1865. Who did he murder? He murdered Sarah's husband, William H. McNeil with a rifle, shooting him in the center of the chest. That means that he and his gang were stealing food from the widow of the man who he had killed.

Court papers show that Wesley Milam and Alfred Davis -- and possibly Hays and Foster -- were held in jail in 1866. During that time, Milam was transported along with another prisoner to Richmond Hill to see Judge Pearson in Yadkin County. That other prisoner just happened to be a man named Tom Dula who was also in jail for murder! Maybe you’ve heard of Tom Dooley who murdered Laura Foster in June 1866. They were serving time together in the jail in Wilkesboro, and that building can still be toured today through the Wilkes Heritage Museum.

A final paper shows that in the fall of 1866, Alfred Davis escaped from jail. I don't know if they ever caught him. I believe these men were part of the Harrison Church gang who were robbing, assaulting, and killing people during and soon after the Civil War. They spread their terror throughout the county, especially in the Lewis Fork area.

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