The Murder of Elijah Blankenship

Disclaimer: This is a legend passed down by word of mouth.  I have not proved or disproved this legend.

Here is another legend from the darker side of Izard County’s history.  This is a legend about the murder of Elijah Blankenship.

Elijah was about 7 years younger than his wife, Sarah Jane Goodrich Blankenship, and they had five children together, Poline, Mary, Elijah, Jerusha, Altha.  They lived on Pine Ridge just off state hwy 56.

Elijah was cruel to his family and a heavy drinker.  He was known to spend their money on liquor instead of providing for his family.  It has also been said that Elijah would hide the money under rocks to keep it away from Sarah Jane.  Elijah would come home drunk and beat Sarah Jane and threaten to kill her. Instead of whipping his children, Elijah would make them place their hands on a hot wood stove for punishment.

Sarah left Elijah sometime around August 1877. Elijah had this notice printed in

The Melbourne Clipper on August 7, 1877:

“Notice

Is hereby given that my wife Sarah J. Blankenship has left me without just cause and that I will not be responsible for any debt, contract,  or promise she may make from this date henceforth.  This September 13^th, 1877. Signed Elijah Blankenship”.

But, by 1880 Sarah Jane was back living with Elijah.  Sometime in 1880, Elijah came home very drunk and said when he got up one of them is going to die.  Sarah was unable to take the abuse anymore.  So sometime during the night Sarah sewed a sheet around Elijah so he could not move when he woke up.  Sarah then took an ax and struck Elijah in the neck cutting his Jugular vain and took the children and hid.  Some how Elijah managed to get out of the sheet and get on his horse, or mule.  Elijah was able to ride to the end of their lane before falling from his horse and bleeding to death.

Some believe Elijah made to the Doctor in Brockwell and got treated.  After he healed he moved north and started a new family.

It has been said it was Sarah Jane’s half brother, Tom Rushing, who killed Elijah.  Sarah admitted to the murder  because the courts would be more lenient on a woman. 

During the preliminary hearing the judge, who is believed to have been Judge Cap Hanley Sr, said “You should have chopped the old devil’s head off a long time ago”.  The judge dismissed the case.  After the hearing was over the Goodrich family moved to Texas to start over.  We may never know which one killed Elijah or what was said at the hearing because all the records of the hearing were lost when the court house burned down on the mourning of April, 11^th 1889. 

I have tried to lay the facts of the legend out so the reader can decide for them selves what to believe.  I have, have you?

Update

I received this e-mail from Mr Loven who lives in Texas:

         "The story you have on your page about Elijah Blankenship is a truth, my Poppie  was the last child of Elijah and Sarah Jane Goodrich Blankenship, she was pregnant with him when she killed their father, and she fled to Hill county Texas, she and their son Elijah Conway Blankenship lived in Abbott Texas and Sarah died may 6/1908, and Elijah Conway had a wife Margret Larinda they married and had 8 children, and Elijah Conway passed away 3/12/1918. Poppie would never talk about his family much more than to tell a story or two about growing up in Hill Co. Texas where they fled to. Elijah and his mother Sarah are buried in the Jessie Cemetery, his sisters Mary and Jerushia Anise Blankenship both married Mary married a Merriman E. Simmons and her and her husband are buried in Lubbock City cemetery, Jerushia Anise married a  Adolphus Andrew Loven, she is buried in the Breckenridge city cemetery, her husband is buried in the Afton Cemetery. I have been unable to find out what happened to Polina Jane or Atha because I can find no records of them after Arkansas so I am guessing they died young or something to that affect I have a Auntie that my Poppie named Alpha Jane because he said it was after his two sisters that passed away and he never knew them. My Aunt Johnnie had an old bible of where the names of the kids and married and birthdates were in it, it belonged to Sarah and I wish I knew where that bible was today, but I guess you never think about things like that when you are young and can only wonder what happened to it later on in life".