Volume 1 No. 4           The New Groveland Graphic serving Groveland, Mascotte/Green Swamp Area

date:  December 30, 2011 new releases every two weeks

The way things were: Groveland's Great shootout
by Linda Charlton
Graphic reporter
Dateline: Groveland

"Everybody was armed then," says 96-year old Julian Rowe. "Things were not always pretty."
Rowe is talking about Groveland in the early days. In particular, he is talking about the 1917 shooting death of Groveland businessman Gary Bogan Linton.
Linton and his wife Hilda ran Groveland's barbershop. When Linton died he left a pregnant wife and two sons, one of whom Rowe went to school with. A third child (Linton's only daughter) was born four months later.
Linton was also a deputy sheriff and, according to Rowe, was deputized just in time to be killed.
It all went down on July 19, 1917.
The United States had entered the "Great War" in Europe, but back home it was business as usual. It was a Thursday. The sun had set. The work day was over, but the drugstore was open and the commissary was open and there were folks downtown in the business district. Down at Pine Camp, workers had finished their cutting for the day, and the last trainload of logs had gone up to Groveland to feed the giant saw mill. Edward L. Griffin was a foreman at Pine Camp. As is evident from one of the quotes attributed to him in court records, he was also black. He was one of the men at Pine Camp who would sometimes ride the "skeeter" locomotive into town. On that day, he had done just that.
Within a few hours, Griffin was dead and Linton lay mortally wounded.
One day after the shooting there was an inquest into Griffin's death. Linton was still alive then. He died the following day. Whether or not he was conscious long enough to be told that the shooting of Griffin was officially "justifiable homicide" is an unanswered question.
According to testimony at the inquest, Griffin's body had not yet been removed from the drugstore where the shooting occurred. In all likelihood it had been moved from the sales floor into one of the rooms of the doctor's office; for as Rowe points out, the doctor's office was behind the drugstore, and was accessible through the pharmacy.
As the story has been handed down, Linton and Griffin were friends. So when Griffin started shooting off his pistol, Linton reasonably figured Griffin wouldn't shoot him. Lake County Sheriff T. C. "Thad" Smyth sheriff seems to have agreed for, according to Rowe, Smyth deputized him for the specific purpose of apprehending Griffin.
The drugstore and the barber shop were both at Main and Broad, on opposite sides of the street.
Testimony at the inquest has Griffin walking from the barbershop over to the drugstore early on, and then to the commissary. He may even have had a haircut or a bath, as the barbershop did offer customers hot and cold baths. The barbershop had a pay telephone as well, so it is entirely plausible that Linton used it to contact the sheriff once Griffin started shooting.
Initially Griffin wasn't shooting at any persons, but there was a law against discharging weapons in town - and he was effectively shutting down downtown business.
As told to Rowe, Linton was deputized by the sheriff specifically for the purpose of apprehending Griffin. Linton's grandson, Gary B. Linton III of Melbourne, just knows what his father told him: that granddad was a deputy sheriff.
Griffin was drunk at the time of his death. Apparently he was known for being in that state.
"But he was a good foreman," Rowe says. "At least that's what people said. I can't see it."
Rowe relates the story of one other time when Griffin shut down the downtown businesses. He was in the drugstore, drunk. He wasn't shooting during that incident but he was armed.
According to Rowe "He was considered a threat."
Workers at the drugstore dealt with the incident by plying Griffin with drink until he passed out and could be removed safely.
That did not seem to be an option on the day of the shootout.
As Griffin walked over towards the drugstore from the barber shop, "he hollered a kind of a cow whoop holler," according to witness Sam Brown.
Griffin then went into the drug store, came out, walked into the commissary, and bought $1.25 worth of shells for his pistol. Griffin appeared to be in a good mood. He shot off his pistol once on the porch of the drugstore, then went inside.
On being asked who was firing a weapon, Griffin reportedly replied "It was me, just trying my gun."
Then someone at the train depot a few blocks down fired their weapon three times. Griffin went outside again, fire two more times and came back in. The shots drew the attention of Linton, and of E.E.Edge. Edge was an entrepreneur, and arguably the single most prominent businessman in town.
As Edge testified, "I came in about 8:30 last night and heard considerable shooting ..."
Edge made inquiries to satisfy his curiosity, and was going to go home when he met Linton.
Linton reportedly told Edge "Let's go and take the pistol away from him," then continued to say that if Edge would not go with him, he would do it by himself.
So Edge went.
Linton carried a rifle. Edge carried a pistol - but it was not obvious. Once inside, Edge and Linton both tried to talk Griffin out of his gun. Linton subsequently ordered Griffin to put his hands up, pointing out that Linton would have to shoot if Griffin didn't comply.
Griffin did not take the suggestion well, responding with "Well, if you kill me there won't be anything but a dead nigger gone."
Edge tried to get the pistol out of his hands, but Griffin threw him down. Edge handed his pistol off to the pharmacist, who promptly took cover behind the record player - which Griffin then shot up.
From testimony, it appears that Linton was the first to fire inside the drugstore, just about the same time Griffin was drawing his pistol on him. Both men fired multiple shots, both men were mortally wounded.
Linton's last words at the scene were reportedly "Mr. Edge, I am shot and shot bad."
Linton was the first to go down and the last to die.
Linton is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, with a massive Woodsman of the World headstone. Griffin finally resting place is unknown. Realistically, he is either in Groveland's original black cemetery (now abandoned) , or else he is the cemetery in the Bay Lake area (also abandoned) where black workers and family members who died at Pine Camp were sent for burial.
As for Linton's widow, Hilda Linton, she went on to operate a taxi service, using a Dodge touring car, according to Rowe.
"There was another taxi in town, but she got most of the business," he said. "The town took care of her."

All photos are courtsey of Gary B. Linton. III."