evacuation
On January 6, two brothers named John and William Bryce decided to evacuate as many residents from Rosewood as they could by train. They were both wealthy train conductors and were familiar with people from the town. Late one night, they stopped their train near the town and picked up women, children, and young boys. They refused to take any black males over the age of 13 however, fearing that they may be targeted by mobs if they were to take them. When they arrived at the train station in Sumner, several white residents were waiting to take the refugees into hiding. A white general store owner, John Wright and Mary Jo, had been hiding many of the residents that boarded the train. They continued to hide others as residents fled to them from the mobs. The day after the evacuation, a mob returned to destroy and burn the last dozen buildings in Rosewood.