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Judge Baker's tribute to R.A.C. Martin,
Bank of Columbia teller brutally slain in robbery

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Mr. Martin came to this place from Shelbyville atthe organization of the Bank of Columbia, andwas placed in charge of its business as its cashier.He very soon won the esteem of all who hadbusiness with the bank. He was an excellentbusiness man; kind and gentlemanly in his bearingwith all whom he came in contact.

Only two orthree years before his death he married one of thefair daughters of his old county and brought herinto our midst, and had established a happy home.Without warning and at his post of duty he wassuddenly shot down, and his home was madedesolate. At noon on the 29th of April 1872, hewas seated at his midday meal with his wife --happy in her love and in the prospects of aprosperous future which seemed to await him. Anhour later the assassins had done their bloodywork and his faithful wife, crushed andbrokenhearted, was weeping over his lifeless body.

That night, with the tolling of the bells and withthe sincere sorrow of the community, the hearsedrove out of town carrying his remains forinterment at his old home in Shelby county.

Looking back to-day through the long years thathave intervened, the deed of that bloody afternoonhas lost none of its enormity. Time has notsoftened any of its features, and the fact that itwas done in open day makes it none the less acrime. It was a cruel, cold blooded murder,committed for gain. We have no patience with thefalse and sickly sentiment which would makeheroes of its authors.

It has always seemed to us a misfortune to justicethat their crime here escaped punishment. Wehave always felt, since we saw the lifeless body ofR.A.C. Martin carried out of the bank, that somecrimes deserve the severest punishment, and thatno sentimentality or false sympathy should everlead a government to abolish the death penalty.Men who invade a peaceful community andruthlessly destroy a happy home, as was done inthis instance, should receive at the hands of thelaw death.