"Here rest the ashes of Odus Davidson, born January 22, 1883. His life taken August 11, 1913, by misrepresentations born of excitement."

Words were written for headstone by the sister of Odus. The reason: Odus was possibly falsely accused of and hanged for the brutal murder of 18 year old, Ella Barham. Ella went,by horseback, to visit a neighbor for help in making a hat, and never returned. She was later found beaten and dismembered.

Influenced by Ella's father, George Solomon Barham, and the testimony of the witnesses at the inquest, but with no hard evidence or an eyewitness, the jurors suspected that Odus was guilty. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

In the Zinc schoolhouse, which was used as a makeshift courtroom, thirty people were called as witnesses, and at least twenty testified. Odus Davidson was made to press his feet into flour sprinkled on the floor so that the size of his feet could be measured against the footprints that were found at the creek. Although the footprints at the creek were larger, the demonstration proved damaging to Davidson, as some thought the prints at the creek were made larger because of the weight that the man carried—Barham's body—as he crossed the creek. The coroner's verdict concluded that Odus Davidson was responsible for Barham's death .

In Harrison on August 11, 1913, in the presence of a crowd that reportedly numbered in the thousands, Odus Davidson was hanged inside an enclosed scaffold. Immediately before his death, he declared his innocence to the crowd below and told them that he hoped the identity of the real killer would one day be known. The rope used to hang him was cut into pieces and tossed into the rowdy throng.

The day after the execution, Mitchell released a sworn statement that Davidson had allegedly written the day before he was hanged. In it, he asserted his innocence and forgave those whom he believed had wrongly convicted him.

Odus Davidson was the last man to be legally hanged in Boone County before the state changed its method of capital punishment to electrocution.

You can read the full story at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/ella-barham-murder-of-14243/