July 5, 1905: Joe Woodman

Today we learn about an Arkansas lynching through the pages of The New York Tribune (New York, N. Y.) dated July 7, 1905:

LOVED WHITE GIRL; DEAD.

Negro—Body Riddled.

[BY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.]

Little Rock, ark., July 6.—A negro, supposed to be Joe Woodman, of Rives, Ark., was lynched last night near Dumas, eighty miles from Little Rock, for eloping with the sixteen-year-old daughter of J. S. Small, a white man. The negro, a coal black man, had induced the girl to go with him, and they were seen together on the train.

Sheriff Gould, of Pine Bluff, found them together at Tama and took them to Dumas.

An infuriated mob from Rives met them at the station, and the officer, with the greatest difficulty, landed his prisoner in jail. The mob went about their work quietly during the night. They broke open the jail, an insecure affair, took the negro about half a mile from town and, while he begged piteously for mercy, strung him up to a telegraph pole. His body was then riddled with bullets. A coroner's jury to-day found he died at the hands of persons unknown.

Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.