August 19, 1874: Tennessee Massacre

The lynchings that we'll be covering today are outrageous. It was heard across the United States, but today is relatively unknown. Like the lynching of Washington and Johnson mentioned earlier this week, this lynching was the result of tensions due to Reconstruction. I want to apologize ahead of time because this post is going to be very long.

Our first article about the lynchings is from the county where it occurred. It is covered by The Milan Exchange (Cairo, Illinois) published August 27, 1874:

THE WAR BEGUN!
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COMMENCING AT PICKETTVILLE!
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"Cleaning out the Country"— Twelve Fiends Arrested and Imprisoned!
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An Outraged People Rise Up in their Majesty and Lynch them!

For several weeks past vague rumors have been afloat of the negroes in this and Carroll counties arming and drilling regularly. It is said they have quietly bought all the buckshot that could be had in several country stores, and none of them have been seen hunting lately. Two weeks ago it was suggested by a number of our citizens that it would be well to organize a company here for guard and police duty, but our citizens thought it unnecessary and imprudent and the matter was dropped. Now, in view of the occurrences of the past few days, we think it very important that something should be done at once. We should have a military company in each town in the State. The issue is forced upon us and we dare not disregard it. The safety of our families may depend upon it. Our neighbors in the villages around are calling on us for help and we have no organized force to help ourselves. Read the following and judge whether we are saying too much when we urge prompt action on the part of our citizens.

Saturday night as James Warren and Monroe Morgan were going home from Pickettville, a band of thirty or forty negroes, ambuscaded just below the village, fired upon them and wounded Morgan's mule, peppering its head and shoulder with shot. Morgan and Warren fled back to Pickettville and gave the alarm. A posse was soon out in pursuit of the dusky fiends, and twelve of them were caught that night and Sunday and held for trial Monday. THe news of the trouble reached Milan Sunday morning, and it was rumored that the citizens of that section needed assistance and protection from threatened destruction by the blacks. A party of thirty of our citizens immediately equipped themselves and repaired to the scene of the action. When they reached Pickettville they found considerable excitement, but no one hurt, and apprehending no further trouble they returned.

Monday the negroes were tried at Pickettville before Esqs. Fly, Parker and Jordan, and all twelve were committed. They confessed their guilt, stating that they were organized and designed "cleaning up" the whites and controlling this country themselves. They mentioned three companies in this county—one at Humboldt, commanded by one Reagon, another at Hope Hill, commanded by Rial Burrow, and the one near Pickettville, under the immediate command of Col. Josh Webb, who says they have endured the whites as long as they can and must exterminate them and take charge of the farms and rule this country as they see fit.

Three or four hundred men were present at the trial, coming from various parts of the country to witness the trial of the would-be destroyers of their families and homes. Great excitement was manifested by the crowd; however, no demonstrations of violence were made toward the prisoners, who appeared very impudent, intimating that this was but the beginning—that we might check them for a while, but an issue must and would come.

Writs were issued for fifteen others, but as yet only two or three of them have been taken, among whom is Rial Burrow, captain of the Hope Hill clan. Considerable excitement prevails throughout the country, every citizen being on the alert and many of the negroes frightened.

It is rumored that two white women have been killed near Pickettville, but we have as yet not been able to trace it to anything definite. The mayor of Trenton, we learn, telegraphed to Jackson to hold a company in readiness, and an engine and train is at that point, ready to move at a moment's notice.

We have reliable information that a party of about eighty men went to Trenton Tuesday night and took sixteen negroes from the jail. Up to the time of going to press six of their bodies had been found riddled with bullets. It is supposed the others were killed and left in the swamp near that place.

LATEST

L. M. Jones telegraphs from Trenton to Gen. Campbell, at Jackson, that the excitement is without any real foundation and the help will not be needed.

It is due to the negroes here to say that they have made no demonstration and seem perfectly quiet, for which they deserve commendation.

Our next article comes from The Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, IN) and is dated August 27, 1874:

The negroes at Picketville, Gibson county, six miles from Humboldt, Tennessee, last Saturday and Sunday, threatened a riot on account of some supposed wrong done them, and manifested a strong desire to kill two or three citizens and fire and sack the town. On Tuesday sixteen ringleaders were arrested, taken to Trenton and placed in jail for safe keeping. About 1 o'clock next morning, 75 to 100 men entered the town, rode up to the jail, demanded and compelled the Sheriff to deliver up the keys. After the maskers had obtained possession of the prisoners they tied them together and marched off on the Huntington road. Half a mile from town six of the number were cut loose and ordered to escape, and as soon as that command was given a full volley was fired upon them, killing four and wounding the other two, one mortally. The remainder were carried up the river two miles and killed. Their remains were collected and are being taken care of. On the assembling of the court several speeches were made by the members of the bar denouncing the conduct of the disguised men who were from the country, and urging upon the Judge to give the grand jury an extra charge, ordering him to send out for witnesses all along the road, from here to Pickettsville, in order to arrest and punish the criminals. While the charge was being delivered, runners arrived in hot haste, with a report that a large body of negroes, well armed were marching to Trenton, which caused an adjournment of the court. Scouts were sent out, but returned reporting all quiet. There is no mistake that the negroes are well organized, and ready for action at a moment's warning.

Our next article is the first article I found on the subject. A warning, this article sounds like it is from a conspiracy theorist. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO) dated September 5, 1874:

THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE.
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An Inside History of the Affair—A Radical Plot to Affect the Fall Elections.

[From the Cincinnati Enquirer.]

From a party of prominent citizens of West Tennessee we learn the inside history of the late killing of negroes near Picketville, Gibson county, in that State. Picketville is near the borders of Carroll county, and is situated in what is known as

THE SKULL-BONE COUNTRY,

where during the war, Radical bushwhackers and negroes had it all their own way, and committed not less than two hundred murders for the purposes of rapine and robbery. Throughout that section the negro outrages have recently been frequesnt and horrible, and just before the election of the 6th of August, during the campaign preceding which the questions arising under the Civil Rights bill were bitterly discussed, the alarm among the whites became so great that in many instances women and children

SLEPT OUT OF DOORS,

believi[n]g they were in danger of being burned in their beds by organized gangs of blacks, led by white desperadoes, as they almost invariably are. The fears were founded partly on the plot overheard by one Bostwick, a Republican, and a member of Jack Rogers' Tennessee regiment, Federal, during the war, and partly on the frequent recurrence of murders of negroes by masked me, such as the late one in which an aged colored man named Dick McKinney, four miles east of Chestnut Mound, Smith county, was shot without provocation in his house, or the shooting of Julia Hayden, a school- teacher, at Hartsville, and which, though taking place since the event of which we are about to treat, are a part of its outgrowth and history.

To confirm Bostwick's statement of a contemplated rising on the 5th of August:

"Two or three negroes in the neighborhood of Gleason, Tennessee, in Weakley county, went to their employers on the morning of that day and gave up their guns and asked his protection. The citizens thereupon commenced arming, and to their dismay and in confirmation of their fears they found that not a pound of buck-shot nor a pistol could be had in Henry or Weakley counties."

The alarm turned out to be false, however, for that night, but on last Saturday week it was proved that Bostwick's warning was not idle. A few days previous Joe Whole and four other citizens of Picketville bought

A ROAST PIG

from a negro named Joe Webb, and, after eating what they wanted, gave the residue to a negro with them. Their right to do this was disputed by Webb and his friends, and a fight on the spot seemed imminent. The men reached home safely, however, leaving as it proved, the negroes thirsting for vengeance. On the Saturday named, while two young men named Munroe Morgan and James Warren were riding along the road, some three miles from Picketville, they were fired upon by some thirty or forty negroes hid in the woods. The young men abandoned their horses, which were killed or badly wounded, took to the woods and escaped to the town and alarmed the citizens. Suspecting a negro named Jim Walker of complicity in the shooting, a constable with a posse, proceeded to his house, where they captured a negro named Ben Ballard, who confessed that negroes chiefly from Humboldt and vicinity, had met Saturday night and organized to protect Col. Webb, colored, from ku-klux, and after that, to go to Picketville, kill five men, (the give concerned in the pig affair), burn the town, take possession of the lands, and to use their own expression.

"CLEAR UP THE NEIGHBORHOOD"

They had expected to meet another company of negroes that night, but they failed to come, and after the firing on Warren and Morgan, they dispersed. Sixteen negroes in all were arresed and tried before a magistrate, five more turning State's evidence in addition to Ballard.

THE LYNCHING,

as is already known, soon followed. Eighty-six men, armed and masked, called at the jail at midnight and demanded the prisoners. The jailer, being alone and helpless, gave them up. THey were first tied in couples, and then the couples all tied together, and marched out of town. Shortly after they had left, shots were heard, and next morning six negroes were found outside the limits of the village, four dead, one mortally and the other dangerously wounded, all having been shot several times. They were the six who had confessed, and the other ten

HAD MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED.

Where were they? A search of the country far and wide failed to develop any dead negroes, and it soon began to be whispered about by Radicals that the ten had escaped. They had, when the shooting began, according to the thin story circulated, rushed over a bluff, and bound as they were, had gotten away from eighty-six armed men. The citizens saw plainly through it all now. The Radicals and negroes, to counteract the effect of the discovery of their plot and the leniency of the whites—the very five men whom they had intended to kill first forming part of their safety escort from court to jail—had taken the negroes out, shot those who had betrayed them and from whom they feared further revelations, and released the others.

The moral is clear to the wayfarer. The very sun shines through the whole affair. The negroes are instigated and organized by white Radicals for election purposes, who themselves caused the lynching for effect, as told, while on the other hand, Governor Brown's offer of an aggregate reward of $43,000 for the lynchers shows where the Democrats stand. There are men in Gibson county ready to declare that the real hard criminal is high in position and far away from the actual scene of outrage, while the following figures will go far to show why Gibson county and vicinity should be selected for such deep and damnable political plotting. The county is the largest voting county in West Tennessee, except Shelby. Her white voting population is 5,000, negro 1,000. The Democratic majority is 4,000. Carroll, adjoining, and in three or four miles of Pickettville, has a voting population of 4,000—1,800 Democratic and 2,200 Republican. The civil district, "Alwood," in Carroll adjoining this Picketville county, is Republican by fifty majority.
 

I'm only including a portion of our next article because much of it repeats the same details that the others have already done. This article is from The Whig and Tribune (Jackson, Tennessee) and is dated April 29, 1874:

Right here we would be glad to close this sad and terrible story of ignorant passions run wild—all the result of the agitation of the civil rights bill, that acme of all villianies forced upon the people of Tennessee by the representative men of the colored race in this State. But it is our duty to go further, and tell the whole horrible story.

On Wednesday morning at one o'clock, a hundred or more masked men entered Trenton, overpowered the jail guard, took the sixteen negroes there confined for participation in the Pickettsville outrage—and murdered them to a man within a few miles of Trenton. This action was an outrage, that demands and has received the unqualified condemation of the people regardless of race. In Trenton an indignation meeting was held, and the lawless maskers denounced in unmeasured terms. The Governor has offered a reward of $500 each for the apprehension of the thoughtless, cruel and lawless maskers, who perpetrated this unncessary and shameful crime. Intense excitement grew out of this fearful outrage, and the negroes throughout Gibson county were greatly aroused and alarmed. Dispatches full of blood and thunder flashed over the whole country, and from the lakes to the gulf, and from ocean to ocean the crime of the maskers has met a universal condemnation. Yet is is true, that terrible as their crime was, it was provoked by crimes as great—crimes either perpetrated or contemplated by the blacks themselves. But while there are palliating circumstances in the matter, the lawless maskers who killed the sixteen negroes on Wednesday morning are murderers, and should be dealt with as such. These negro would be assassins, had been tried by the law, under the law they had been remanded to jail, they were in the keeping of the law, the law in the hands of white men, and there was neither reason nor excuse for the summary vengeance that was visited upon them.

Growing out of this fearful affair—Trenton, Pickettsville and Humboldt were agitated on Wednesday by the news that large bodies of negroes were marching on those towns. The wildest excitement prevailed, and dispatches were sent in every direction asking immediate help. One of these dispatches reached Jackson about 10 a.m., and within an hour two hundred well armed men were ready to march. A train was put in order, an engine fired up and everything was placed in readiness to move at a minutes warning. No satisfactory dispatch being recieved from the threatened towns, the two hundred men referred to, under the command of Gen'l Campbell, marched to the depot to emark for the seat of war. A finer body of men never marched on any occasion, or under any banner. But at the depot a dispatch was received that the services of the Jackson boys was not needed. Here, without further comment, we leave this whole terrible business, determined in future issues of the Whig and Tribune to discuss it more fully.

Our next article comes from The Herald and Torch Light (Hagerstown, MD) and is dated September 2, 1874:

A Slaughter of Colored People.

The news from the South for the several months past, has embraced a number of accounts of fights and riots between the whites and blacks, in which the latter are not only made to bear the blame, but pretty nearly all the killed and wounded. In nearly every one of these encounters the colored people are the greatest sufferers, and not unfrequently the only ones, and yet we are asked to believe that they bring on the collisions which result in such terrible punishments to them.—One of the most cruel of these stories came to us last week from a place called Pickettsville, Gibson county, Tennessee, as follows:—

"Nashville, August 26.—A number of negroes at Pickettsville, Gibson county, six miles from Humboldt, threatened a riot last Saturday and Sunday, on account of some supposed wrong done them, and manifested a strong desire to kill two or three citizens and fire and sack the town. Yesterday sixteen of the ringleaders were arrested and taken to Trenton and placed in jail for safe keeping—About 1 o'clock this morning between seventy-five and one hundred masked men entered the town, and riding up to the jail, demanded and compelled the Sheriff to deliver up the keys thereof.—They then took the sixteen negroes from prison, and after killing four and mortally wounding two on the confines of the town, rode off with the remaining ten, and are supposed to have killed them.—Nothing has been heard of the party since they left. Considerable excitement exists among the negroes, and the whites are taking steps to defend themselves in case of an outbreak.

The poor excuse, which is generally offered for lynching negroes in other Southern States, VIZ: that they are governed by carpet baggers, can't be availed of to mitigate this outrage.— Tennessee is Democratic, and overwhelmingly so, in all its departments of government, and it would be a remarkable occurrence, indeed, if a negro received less than legal justice from such hands.— We are, however, glad to perceive that a portion of the white people of Tennessee have denounced this frightful slaughter of the colored prisoners at Trenton, and that the Governor has offered a reward for the apprehension of those guilty of it.

Our next article comes from The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) and is dated August 29, 1874:

THE TENNESSEE LYNCHING.
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Indignation Meeting in Memphis—The Governor Urged to Vigorously Enforce the Law.

MEMPHIS, TENN. Aug. 28.—There was a large meeting of citizens held at the Exposition Hall tonight to express the indignation of the community at the barbarous murder of the colored prisoners taken from the Trenton jail. Mr. B. M. Estes presided, with Ex-Gov. Harris, Judge Archibald Wright and Charles Clatericht as vice presidents. Speeches were made by Ex-Gov. Harris, Jefferson Davis, Col. Duncan McRae, Gen. Forrest, and others, denouncing the cowardly assassination of the prisoners, and calling for the prompt and most energetic enforcement of the law against the perpetrators. General Forrest stated he stood ready to start to-morrow to assist the officers of the law in bringing the assassins to punishment. Resolutions were adopted expressing the horror and indignation of the community at the foul crime, and demanding of the Governor prompt and energetic measures for bringing the murderers to the bar of justice, and relieving the State, as far as possible, from the disgrace of such horrible crimes, asking the Government to employ the police experts of Memphis to assist in capturing the assassins, and to employ the best legal counsel int he State to assist the Attorney General in prosecuting them.

I could post article after article on just the fallout of this lynching, however, this post is already very long so it will suffice if I mention that: several towns in the South publicly denounced Gibson county and it's citizens for their actions by passing resolutions, the governor offered rewards for information, both Northern and Southern papers blasted the county for it's actions, and a lot was discussed about the Civil Rights Bill being pushed in congress. As far as I can see in the papers, nothing was ever done to prosecute the actual perpetrators and the names of the murdered were never revealed.

Thank you for joining us and, as always, we hope we leave you with something to ponder.

June 22, 1874: Clark Evans

Our first article comes from The Cairo Bulletin (Cairo, Illinois) published Tuesday June 23, 1874:

Sequal[sic] to the Halbirt Murder.

The Murderer, Clark Evans, Lynched.

CARROLLTON, ILL., June 22—At last we have the sad sequel to the horrifying details of recent Halbirt murder, in this county, which have been given in your columns, together with the particulars of the arrest of one Clark Evans, and his subsequent confession of the murder and other crimes of which he had been guilty in the course of the past few years.

At about 2 o'clock this morning the jail in this city was visited by a large number of men in wagons and buggies. The jailer was aroused by an alarm at the door, and the statement that the party on the outside were in possession of a party arrested for murder, whom they desired to imprison. When the door of the anteroom was opened some nine or en men rushed in, pushing one of their number before them, under pretense that he was the culprit. Getting fairly in the jailor discovered that they were all in disguise, either by wearing masks or with blackened faces, and at once suspected the object of their vist [sic]; but as quick as thought he was pinioned by several of the party, pointing cocked revolvers at his head, and demanding the keyes [sic] of the main door and cells. Simultaneously some of the party discovered the keys hanging near the barred entrance, and took possession of them. While one-half of the party held the jailor at bay, the other half proceeded to unlock the doors, going immediately to the cell where Clark Evans was chained down, and they released him by means of a hatchet and cold chisel. In a few moments they rushed back to the entrance, with Evans in charge, and hurried him into one of the wagons. On looking out into the streets the jailor saw a large number of persons afoot as well as in the buggies and wagons, and they hurried away in various directions. He gave the alarm at once, but could not get enough persons together at the hour to pursue. The sheriff and deputies started out, but could not get on the track of the fleeing party. About 7 o'clock this morning ex-Sheriff Bell, who resides at Providence, came in, bringing the news that a man was found by some passers by hanging to a tree by the road side, near the south approach to the Apple Creek bridge. Hurrying thither the officers ascertained that it was Clark Evans, the prisoner who had been taken from the jail a few hours before. The culprit was suspended in such a way that his feet nearly touched the ground by the bending of the limb but he was dead and cold.

A coroner's inquest was held, in the presence of a vast crowd of people, who had gathered from all quarters. The corpse was taken down and placed in a rough box made at the saw mill near-by, and then deposited in the Providence grave yard.

Of course, the authorities have not the remotest idea as to who composed the lynching party, but the whole affair was well planned and adroitly executed. One of the buggies evidently used by some of the midnight visitors, broke down within a block from the jail, by running off a small bridge. Doubtless as quick as the horses could be removed from it the parties accompanying it fled, as in the buggy were found an old felt hat, the sleeve of an old coat, two plugs of tobacco neatly wrapped in a portion of the county papers, a quart bottle with about half a pint of whisky in it, and a small leather valise containing some heavy twine, a cold chisel and a hatchet. This buggy has not been identified or claimed, but a rumor prevails that it belongs to a party residing near Whitehall. The whole affair has created a profound sensation, and so outrageous was the murder committed by Evans that but few are disposed to blame the parties who have taken the law in their own hands. The broken buggy is in the hands of the sheriff and will probably never be claimed.

Our next article is about the murderer and comes from the Decatur Daily Republican (Decatur, IL) dated May 4, 1874:

CARROLLTON, Ill. May 2.—It is quite definitely ascertained that a desperate character who hails from the vicinity of Montezuma, Pike county, Illinois, is the murderer of Mr. John Halbirt, which occurred near this city on Thursday night last. He is best known by the name Clark Evans, but has traveled under the names of James Bridges and William Owens.— Those who saw him on the day of the murder describe him as about five feet eight or nine inches high, fair complexion, short sandy or light hair, and no beard. He has two or three teeth out of the lower jaw, and is about twenty-four years old. When last seen he wore a pair of stogy boots, striped store pants with a patch on one knee, a close-bodied blue- black soldier's coat with frock tail, and a grayish cap. He carried away from Halbirt's house a suit of nearly new dark steel mixed clothes and a pair of light pegged boots nearly new, one of which had been cut below the instep and sewed up. Halbirt's son offers $300 reward for the arrest of the murderer, and late this afternoon news were[sic] received that parties were in close pursuit.

As you can see from the previous and will see in our final article, Evans was clearly considered an undesirable in the community. Our final article comes from the New York Times (New York, NY) dated May 6, 1874:

ARREST OF THE ALLEGED MURDERER OF JOHN W. HALBIRT IN ILLINOIS.

Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.

CHICAGO, May 5.—A special from Carrollton, in this State, says that Clark Ivans, twenty-four years of age, who was brought up in Pike County, is ascertained to be the murderer of John W. Halbirt, killed near that city on the night of the 30th ult., the particulars of which were telegraphed THE TIMES. Ivans was arrested this morning in Scott County, and all the evidence leading to his detection and arrest are almost positive proof of his guilt. He is supposed to be one of the party who murdered Dr. Foley two years ago in Pike County. His brother is now serving a term of twenty years in the State Prison for killing an old man in Pike County about four years ago. The culprit just arrested has but recently concluded a term of years at Joliet for breaking into the Catholic Church at Carlinville and stealing the church plate and jewels.

Thank you for joining us and, as always, we hope we leave you with something to ponder.

July 25, 1874: James Ross

Our first article is from the The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio) published July 30, 1874:

Hanging a Boy.
[From the New York Tribune.]

We do not consider hanging at all a fit penalty for horse-stealing, even when the punishment is inflicted according to law. We regard lynching of all descriptions as extremely undesirable. Hanging a boy eighteen years of age for any crime is, prima facie, a barbarous business. The St. Joseph (Mo.) Herald describes the murder of James Ross, who had been arrested for making free with the steeds of the farmers in that vicinity. Ross, in the custody of an officer, was on his way to jail, when he was seized, in spite of the Constable's remonstrances, by a mob of armed men. Resistance was useless. Ross was dragged from his horse and taken into "the timber." Then, for the first time, this boy seemed to comprehend the awful fate which awaited him. He shook with fear and cried for mercy. With one end of the rope about his neck, he burst into tears; he admitted that he had stolen horses; but then he added piteously that "he was a mere boy, and wanted time to reform." The only answer to this was the stern warning that he "had but five minutes left;" and four stout men significantly took hold of the rope. The lad was so agitated that he would have fallen to the ground if he had not been supported. Then he rallied again, and again besought mercy. He might as well have spoken to the deaf. Then came "silence for a moment," broken only by the tick of the watch in the spokesman's hand. There was no pity in their rigid faces. The shadows of night were gathering, and only a minute remained to him, when the boy began to pray, although in a tone so low that his words were indistinguishable. Then came from the executioner the cry of "Time's up;" and after the single exclamation, "O, my God!" the body of the young horse-thief was dangling ten feet from the ground. His hands were thrown wildly up to catch the rope, but a moment after they dropped lifeless on each side, and the boy horse-thief was dead. The executioners mounted their horses and rode rapidly away, leaving the corpse there alone with the night.

It is curious to notice how, under these wild frontier conditions, the law is upon the one hand contemptuously disregarded and upon the other studiously respected. After the lynchers had departed the Coroner came. He tenderly cut down the boy's body and proceeded to hold an inquest. The only witness examined was the bereaved Constable, who swore in the most satisfactory way that the lad had been taken from him. The death proved itself, and the jury found that the deceased died by violence "at the hands of some party or parties unknown." This was deemed quite enough by every horseowner[sic] in the county. Their equine losses had been avenged, and why should they too curiously seek for the avengers, especially when such a search might have been personally inconvenient to some of them? There was one horse-thief less in Holt County. So they thanked God, took courage, and kept perfectly quiet.

We suppose that a horse must be of more value than many boys in those regions of magnificent distances and of limited railway facilities. At any rage, horse-stealing there seems to be regarded as a trifle more felonious than murder in the first degree. That the law does not consider it seems to argue inefficient and defective legislation. If the plunderers of stables are to be hanged, would it not be a little better to have the operation regularly performed by the Sheriff, and after a due conviction of the plunderer?

We must confess that our prejudices are rather in favor of lawful proceedings, provided they are possible. There will, under the Lynch judicial system, sometimes be a danger of hanging the wrong man; and we suppose that no honest Missourian, though robbed of his whole stud, desires to be soothed by the murder of the innocent. If the public tribunals are inefficient, it is the people (horse owners included) who are to be blamed. If the legal penalty of horse stealing is not sufficiently severe, make it so by a new statute! If boys are to be hung, by all means try them first according to law.

Our next article is from The State Journal (Jefferson, Missouri) dated July 31, 1874:

ANOTHER LYNCHING.
————
A Boy of Eighteen Strung Up.
————

A terrible affair occurred in Holt county, above St. Joseph, on Saturday last. James Ross, a boy of eighteen, had been arrested for horse stealing. He was taken to Bigelow for examination, after which he was sent to Oregon to jail. On the way he was taken by a party of disguised men from the officers who were with him and hung.

The St. Joe Gazette thus relates it:
Ross was taken from his horse and led into the timber a distance of about fifty yards, and placed upon the ground. Then, for the first time, he seems to have fully realized his terrible fate and quivered like an aspen leaf. A rope was thrown over the limb of a stout oak tree, the prisoner was placed beneath it, and the fatal noose adjusted about his neck. One of the men then informed him that he had but ten minutes to live, and urged him to "make a clean breast" of all he knew in connection with the gang of horse theives that had infested the country. Ross burst into tears and pleaded for mercy. He admitted that he had stolen horses, but said that he was yet a mere boy and there was time to reform. He would give the names of none of those with whom he had been associated, and again begged that they would not hang him. The spokesman sternly informed him that he had but five minutes left, and at the same time four stout men took hold of the rope preparatory to giving the fatal swing. For a moment the prisoner seemed almost ready to sink to the ground, and two of the party stepped forward to support him.

The man rallied again and made another appeal for mercy. His captors were silent, and it was evident that all further appeals were useless. There was a silence of afully a minute during which the spokesman's hand could be heard. It was a sad and solemn scene—the young boy standing so close on the verge of the grave, the gathering shadows of night casting their gloom around those stern, determined captors, whose purpose it was evident no entreties could change. Another minute, and Ross was engaged in prayer, speaking in a tone so low that scarcely a word could be distinguished. But a few sentences had been uttered when the word was given that "time was up," and after the single exclamation "Oh my God !" the body of the horse thief was dangling ten feet from the ground. For fully two minutes there were strong convulsive struggles. The hands were thrown up to clutch the rope, and the legs were thrown violently around, with every evidence of intense suffering. Then the hands dropped to the side and the body hung a lifeless mass.

Our final article comes from The Holt County Sentinel published October 23, 1874. It describes the indictment of the men who lynched James Ross. It was rare for lynchings to be prosecuted and Ross' age and the fact that he was white probably led to the indictment of his murderers. Whether they were actually convicted or not is unknown. I am only going to include part of the article because it is a very long winded piece with comments from the judge presiding over the case.:

From the St. Joe Gazette.

James Ross.
————
THE EIGHT HOLT COUNTY MEN INDICTED FOR MURDERING HIM ADMITTED TO BAIL
————
 Ninety-six Thousand Dollars Pledged.
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The details of the lynching of James Ross in Holt county in July last are too familiar to our readers to require more than a brief recapitulation. Ross, a boy of sixteen, had been arrested for stealing a horse from Mrs,[sic] Marshall, of Holt county. He had brought the animal to this city and sold it to a man named Millar. Subsequently he he was arraigned before Esquire Long, at Bigelow, plead guilty, and in default of bail was committed to jail in Oregon. While being taken to Oregon in a wagon by Constable Rice, a band of masked men stopped the team, took Ross from the custody of the constable and lynched him. At the August term of the Circuit Court eight men, supposed to have committed the crime, were indicted for murder in the first degree. On Friday of last week they were arrested and confined in jail at Oregon. On Tuesday, the 13th, Judge Henry S. Kelly, of the circuit court, issued a write[sic] of habeas corpus, returnable on Friday, the 16th, and accordingly,at[sic] ten o'clock yesterday morning, the matter came up for hearing before the Judge at the Court House in Oregon.

The prisoners were present in court in person and by their attorneys. The motion for bail coming up, it was conceeded by Mr. Dungan, prosecuting attorney, that the evidence, so far as discovered, was not of such a conclusive character as to deprive the prisoners the right of bail. The Judge accordingly admitted them to bail in the sum of $12,000 each, the following well-known citizens of Holt county becoming their sureties; Wm. M. Catron, Daniel Gillis, Jno. W. Bridgman, Jno. Gresham, Edward A. Brown, James G. Catron, Christopher Catron, Wm. A. Hinkle, David S. Alkire, Albert B. Welton, Edmond D. McCoy, Archer Hamon, Thos. Everett.

We give below a copy of the record of yesterday's proceedings,filed[sic] with E. L. Allen, clerk of the circuit court:

THE RECORD.
STATE OF Mo.,} In the vacation of
HOLT COUNTY, } the circuit court.
Be it known that on petition of Frank Bridgman, Chauncey H. Graves, Soloman Catron, Wm. H. Symkins, John Foster, Charles E. Barnes, Royal Van Dusen and John D. Rice, showing that they were detained in custody by Wm. G. McIntyre, sheriff and jailor of said Holt county, by warrants issued on an indictment found against them by the grand jury of said county at the August term of 1874 of the circuit court, for the alleged murder of one James Ross. I, the undersigned judge of said circuit court in vacation, did issue the write[sic] of habeas corpus, commanding the said sheriff to bring the said parties before me at the Court HOuse in Oregon, the county seat of said county, on this day, together with the cause of their detention; and the said writ having been executed by bringing said parties before me as commanded, and the cause of their detention being by the returns admitted to be the same as that alleged in the petition.

And now the said partied[sic] move to be admitted to give bail for the appearance at the next term of circuit court of said Holt county to begun and held at the Court House in Oregon on the third Monday in December, A. D. 1874, to answer to the charges of murder as set out in said indictment:

And said motion coming on to be heard before me, the State of Missouri being represented by T. C. Dungan, the prosecuting attorney of said Holt county, and the defendants, petitioners, being present in person and by Messrs. Stokes, Duff, McKnight, and Wilkinson, their attorneys, it is admitted by the said prosecuting attorney, for the purpose of this motion only, that the proof of the guilt of said petitioners, so far as the same has come to his knowledge, is not evident, nor the presumption great, that they,or [sic] any of them, are guilty of the crime charged in the indictment ; it is therefore

Ordered by me that each of said petitioners be admitted to bail, and that they and each of them be required to enter into a recognizance in the sum of $12,000 each, with sufficient sureties, jointly and severally binding each petitioner with his sureties in that sum, for the appearance of said petitioners on the first day of the December term of the circuit court of said Holt county,to[sic] answer to said indictment for the murder of said James Ross, and not to depart the court without leave.

And the said parties having entered into the recognizance in the sum of $12,000 each, with approved securities, as above required, and thereupon the said defendants, petitioners, were ordered to be discharged from custody, and the papers are herewith ordered to be returned to the clerk of the circuit court.

Given under my hand this 16th day of October, 1874.

H. S. KELLEY,
Judge circuit court

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