January 21, 1886: Sidney Brown

I found a longer article on the lynching featured today, unfortunately the copy was not good and it is hard to make out a lot of it. Instead I will present this article from The Somerset Herald (Somerset, Pennsylvania) dated January 27, 1886:

A Negro Fiend Lynched.

ROCHDALE, Texas, Jan. 22.—Wednesday night Sidney Brown, a negro, waylaid Samuel Ford, a farmer against whom he had a grudge, beat him into insensibility and threw him on the railroad track to be mangled by the cars. Ford recovered consciousness and dragged himself home, two miles distant, with one eye knocked out and his skull fractured. The negro was captured, and was yesterday hanged by a mob. He was surposed [sic] to be connected with the mysterious Austin murder.

I will try to copy as much of the longer article as I can read. It comes to us through the pages of The Galveston Daily (Galveston, Texas) dated January 22, 1886:

HANGED TO A HICKORY TREE.

SIDNEY BROWN'S NECK STRETCHED.

A Negro Lynched for Highway Robbery and Attempted Murder—He Makes a Confession.

Special to The News.

ROCKDALE, January 21,—At an early hour this morning the peace officers were informed that Mr. Sam Ford had been robbed and left for dead, last night, about two miles west of the city, on the line of the International and Great Northern road. It was also learned that a negro man did the deed and afterward came back to town, stayed all night and started off early this morning, walking down the railroad toward Mil---.

CONSTABLE J. H. C-NE

and one or two other gentlemen started in pursuit about 9 o'clock, and easily tracked him to within a short distance of Milano (?), where he turned off and made for the Santa Fe, where he was caught, after going about two miles up the road. The negro had in his possession several bundles of goods which Mr. Ford had bought from F. S. Bl-ck, a merchant here, the evening before, and several other smaller articles taken from Ford's person including about $10 in money. The attack was made about dark, the negro striking Ford with some iron weight, and shooting at him three times. Supposing his victim dead, the culprit dragged the body across the railroad track, covering up the blood in the sand and left, expecting a train would come by and

MANGLE THE BODY 

so as to cover up the murder. Ford came to consciousness after a while and managed to get off the track and spent the balance of the night trying to get home, a distance of two miles, which he reached about daylight, being terribly bruised and -----ated, and having one eye entirely knocked out. After being arrested and placed in jail, the negro

MADE A FULL CONFESSION.

saying that he took Ford's clothes and things because he made him mad. Mr. Bl--k identified the goods in the negro's possession as those sold Ford. The negro says that he is from Austin and it is thought by some that he may possibly know something of the late terrible crime at this place. At this hour it is reported on the streets that Ford is dead, and it is confidently expected that the negro will be given his just dues to-night.

LATER—At -:20 p. m. an infuriated mob attacked the --li----- and demanded the negro who so brutally beat and left for dead the man Sam Ford. Notwithstanding the efforts of Constable J. H. C--- and those whom he had summoned, the mob forced their way into the --l------ and ---k the negro a distance of about --- ---- from town where they

HANGED HIM TO A HICKORY TREE.

The negro acknowledged all and tried to make peace with his God. The negro gave his name as Sidney Brown, who claims he was raised in ---l---- county, but had recently lived at Austin.

I think I copied that article correctly. It was slow going and I assumed a decent amount of words based on my experience in reading articles from the time period. The time above was either 8:20 or 9:20. Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.