ELBERT COUNTY. 233 



increased his guard lo sixteen men, but many of these proved 

 to be the friends of the prisoners. On the night after his re- 

 turn from the attempt to secure the prisoners, in Wilkes jail, 

 the jail of Elbert was attacked by 200 men, the doors forced 

 open, and the Aliens permitted to escape. The friends of the 

 prisoners on guard, had, previous to the attack, taken the 

 powder from the locks of the guns of all the guards, from 

 whom any danger was apprehended, except one. Beverly 

 Allen fled to the most distant western frontier of the United 

 States. He lived to old age, apprehensive during his entire 

 life, that he might be arrested for the killing of Forsyth. Billy 

 Allen, whose crime consisted in being in company with his 

 brother when the act of violence was done, was permitted 

 soon after to return to his home, where he remained unmo- 

 lested during his life. As soon as search after Beverly Allen 

 had ceased, inquiries began to be made about the persons who 

 were engaged in his rescue. John Rucker, one of the rescuers, 

 used to amuse himself after the alarm had passed away, by 

 telling some of the incidents which he said happened to him 

 whilst concealed to avoid arrest, and which became a sort of 

 sing-song among all the little boys of the country for a long time 

 afterwards, i Middleton was Barnet's deputy. They were 

 small, active, quick-spoken men. One of the guard, Thomas 

 Gilmer, was a very fat man, weighing three hundred. Rucker 

 said he had fled to the Savannah river, and concealed himself 

 under its bank. Whilst hid, he heard a great many small 

 frogs crying " Middleton and Barnet ! Middleton and Bar- 

 net ;" and imitating what he was describing, he would com- 

 press his lips, and drawing his voice only from his teeth, very 

 quick, he would imitate the sound of the frogs. He said he 

 stood this cry withont flinching, but after a while he heard a 

 big bullfrog cry out, " Tom Gilmer ! Tom Gilmer!" and this 

 he would repeat with swelled cheeks, and full voice, which he 

 said he could not stand. He then plunged into the water, and 

 made for the Carolina side of the river. 



The Freemans — Col. Hal man Freeman and John Free- 

 man, were among the first settlers of Wilkes county. They 

 both engaged in the strife between the Whigs and Tories of 

 Upper Georgia, during the latter part of the revolutionary 



