August 29, 1902: Joseph Labarge

Today we learn about a lynching in Michigan through the pages of the Akron Daily Democrat (Akron, Ohio) dated August 30, 1902:

KILLED

By an Infuriated Mob

Evidence That the Victim Was Innocent.

Toledo, O., Aug. 30.—Lying on a rudely improvised couch in a livery stable in Monroe, Mich., is the body of Joseph Labarge, aged 23, of Toledo, who yesterday fell a victim to an infuriated mob. Now, shocked by the deed committed, the citizens of Monroe seem inclined to indignation at it.

Joseph Labarge went, when about 13, to live with Walter Lemerand and his wife, who recently moved from Toledo to Monroe. He was, according to Mrs. Lemerand's story, a good boy and did more to provide for the house than her husband. She grew to love him very dearly, but denies that there was any cause to suspect the nature of intimacy. Labarge with his brother and father has been boarding here and this morning after breakfast he went in response to a note from Mrs. Lemerand, to Monroe.

Lemerand, returning from his labor, met Labarge leaving the house and asked Officer Beaudrie, a cousin of the deceased, to arrest the man who had assaulted his wife. The policeman gave chase and Labarge ran, outstripping Beaudrie, wso [sic] is a heavy man. The officer told some men to catch the escaping man, who had assaulted a woman. nI [sic] a minute an angry mob had gathered and believed they were chasing a criminal. When on the outskirts of town he was surrounded by about 40, who opened fire, and at least half a dozen shots were exchanged, one of which proved fatal.

The officers have in their possession a revolver, a 38 Colts, taken from Lynette Bloodgood, a wealthy retired capitalist of Monroe, and it is said the fatal shot came from that revolver. Labarge's starting to run is accounted for by his father from the fact that he was out of Mansfield reformatory on parole, having served 18 months for robbing a clothing store. The term, it is said, made a good man of him.

Two letters are in possession of the authorities, written by Mrs. Lemerand to Labarge, in which she calls him "dear," and signs herself "all your own." But their is nothing further to indicate a wrong between the two. The woman was about 10 years Labarge's senior.

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

October 13, 1901: Letter to the Editor of The Saint Paul Globe

DELIVERED INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY.

To the Editor of the Globe:

Your correspondent offers, in making this communication, as his excuse, the deep and intense interest manifested by the colored people of St. Paul in the case of Henry Summers, now under arrest in this city charged with being a fugitive from justice by the authorities of the state of Tennessee, as well as the unjust and unwarranted aspersion upon our sense of moral discrimination which is cast by the editorial of the St. Paul Pioneer Press in its issue of Saturday, Oct. 12, 1901, entitled "An Unpleasant Duty."

In said editorial it is made to appear to the good people of this state that the colored people have made a great ado and bustle over a condition of affairs in Tennessee that is purely imaginary, and that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves to have exhibited our sympathy for the alleged murder.

We are much surprised and pained to know that such a position is taken by the St. Paul Pioneer Press, when the known facts and the past bloody record of the state of Tennessee fully justify our people in their assumption that Summers will be given short shrift if he ever reaches that state. It is an assumption made by men in all phases and circumstances of life, that a state of affairs once shown to exist, still obtains, unless the contrary appears. In the first place, many of us who fear for Summers, are former citizens of Tennessee, and our experience alone of the summary methods of dealing in that unhappy state with negroes accused of crime, especially in remote localities like Bolivar, Hardeman county, lead us to believe, with a conviction amounting to a moral certainty, that this man will be illegally punished. Some of us have seen with our own eyes negro men and women mobbed and brutally beaten in that state, killed and otherwise ill-treated solely because in some way or other they had managed to come in opposition to some white person, and the authorities of the law stand idly by, aye, even participate in the evil deeds. We don't say these things because we wish to calumniate our native state, but because these things are true. None of us can believe that Summers, who is accused of splitting a white man's head open with an ax, will be allowed a chance to escape by way of the courts of law. Oh, no. The spirit of the old law, that a negro who struck a white man should be punished with death, still survives, and animates the descendants of its authors.

The lynching of negroes is not common in Tennessee, says your apologist for the governor's decision. My God! What constitutes his idea of common? Eight lynchings this year, one per month, and one of them a woman (for theft)! One hundred and sixty-nine in the past sixteen years! I refer you to the statistics kept by the Chicago Tribune, and published in its issue dated Sept. 1, 1901. I have only to turn the pages of the Pioneer Press of the last two weeks to cite cases of brutal and unprovoked mob violence upon unarmed and defenseless blacks, and nothing done about it. Yet Tennessee is an honorable state, and a model in this respect for all the old slave-holding states.

In the case of Summers it is said that the officers of the court and responsible authorities have joined in the assurance that Summers will not be lynched, but will have a fair and impartial trial. What do they expect? Will they confess their inability or their unwillingness to give this man, for whom they are so anxious, a fair and impartial trial? But assurance? Yes, assurance and nerve, but no insurance; no pledges do they offer, no, not even their honor. Nothing but a hurried petition, gotten up in a harum-scarum sort of a way. And why do they send a petition to our governor? Why do they not assume that Van Sant would do the right thing? How have they shown that they have taken or will take any precautions against the lynching of Summers? None; but they will excuse themselves on the ground of overwhelming force, as is usual.

It is said that there have been no mobs in Hardeman county, Sheriff Sammers says different. He alleges that some time ago he was compelled to lay out in the swamps of Hardeman county with two negro prisoners, in hiding from the mob, and that one of the negroes died from the exposure—and this before our governor. As to the disposition to lynch the murderer of William Lewark, how can it be said that there was no manifestation of the sort when men were at that very time scouring the country in search of the suspect. He was not lynched because he was not caught. in so far as time is concerned, excitement, etc., it is well known that the appetite is only whetted by its hunger, and that some of the most barbaric of lynchings have taken place long after the commission of the alleged crimes. It is the chronic lynching habit that tells; excitement is too often the end, not the means. The revolting circumstances admittedly obtain only in about 5 per cent of the crimes for which men are lynched in the South. 

Then, as to this remarkable statement:  "If found guilty he will not even be hung; for, under the laws of that state, his punishment will only be twenty-one years imprisonment!" O most liberal Tennessee! Most advanced of all the states! To have abolished the death penalty for murder in the first degree and substituted only twenty-one years imprisonment! Only another reason, if true, why this man will be lynched, for, according to their own testimony, it is the law's delays and the inadequacy of its punishments that is constantly put forward in extenuation of lynchings. Is Summers so great a favorite with the people of Tennessee that he will be permitted to escape?

The very respectable Pioneer Press looks down from its lofty position of immaculate purity and observes, that the circumstances of the killing having occurred in a house of ill-fame should moderate the sympathy of respectable  colored people for the alleged murderer. Does the Press assume that we are of such mental density and so morally perverted that we can not distinguish crime in color? That some people not of African descent confound color with crime is well known, but we deny the imputation. Why does not the venerable Pioneer Press in its animadversions take into account the looseness of the moral code as practiced in the South with regard to white men and negro women? It is universally held excusable for young men to sow their wild oats among negroes. And it nowhere appears from the case that this was a house of ill-fame, as we understand the term. Simply that this Lewark intruded himself by force and arms upon a colored man and woman, unmarried, seems to be the size of it. White people of the South, as a general thing, regard all negroes as socially equal, so that your point falls. Personally, I know of cases where black husbands have lost their lives insisting that white men keep away from their homes and the refusal of the law to interfere, and there are few of us living here in St. Paul from the South who cannot testify to like circumstances.

Negroes have no rights which white men are bound to respect seems to be the trend of decisions North and South. For the colored people of St. Paul it is safe to say that none of them has a personal interest in this man Summers, and that in common with the other citizens of this country we wish justice done. We manifest no desire to save an offender from the just deserts of his crime, but we do not believe that our governor is justified in sending Summers back, and we believe that the Pioneer Press has done us a great wrong  by the publication of the editorial referred to, and paved the way for a gross misconstruction of our motives and desires in this matter in the minds of the people of the state of Minnesota and of the great Northwest.

—Gustave B. Aldrich

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

June 9, 1900: Seth Cobb

Today we learn about a lynching in Louisiana through the pages of The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) dated June 11, 1900:

HANGED WHERE MARLER FELL.

Louisiana Mob Puts a Negro to Death on a Store Porch.

Baton Rouge, La., June 10.—All is quiet at Devall today. It is thought that the lesson taught there last night will have a salutary effect upon a dangerous class of negroes who had been giving much trouble.

The assassination of Marler, of course, aroused the populace to fever heat, but the immediate cause of the lynching last night was threats made by Seth Cobb against the life of Hugh Corcoran. Cobb was apprehended, taken to Sedenbach's store and hanged on the front gallery where Marler fell. An attempt was made to arrest another negro who escaped, but not before he had fired upon and wounded one of the pursuers slightly in the leg. Several other negroes were whipped.

There has been absolutely no news from the posse in search of Richardson, Marler's assassin, although everyone feels sure that his capture must be a matter of a short time. Sheriff Young went up again to the scene of action this evening and nothing will be omitted to effect a speedy capture.

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

August 9, 1898: Will Sanders, Dennis Ricard, Manse Castle, Rilla Weaver and Susie Jacobs

Today we learn about a lynching in Arkansas through the pages of the Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) dated August 11, 1898:

The Governor of Arkansas owes it to decency, law and order to hunt down the members of the mob who lynched three men and women at Clarendon on Tuesday morning. The men who did that awful deed had been assured that there would be a fair trial and justice would be dealt out to the murderers and those who plotted murder, but the blood-thirsty Arkansans were not to be balked of their prey and they lynched their victims forthwith. We are supposed to be a civilized nation, and the people of Arkansas would resent any assertion that the men of the mob are not civilized, but they have no defense whatever.

An Arkansas Tragedy.

Three Women and Two Men Lynched for Murder.

Little Rock, Ark., Aug. 10.—The Gazette prints the following account of the lynching at Clarendon:

Five people, three men and two women, were lynched at Clarendon at an early hour Tuesday morning. All of the victims of the mob's wrath were negroes. They were accused of the murder of John T. Orr, the wealthy young merchant, who was assassinated a few nights ago. Their names are:  Will Sanders, Dennis Ricard, Manse Castle, Rilla Weaver and Susie Jacobs.

While the five bodies swung in the early morning breeze, the body of the widow of the murdered man lay rigid in death in her cell in the county jail, with only the soft, sweet voice of her three-year-old child to break the midnight silence of the gloomy jail, as the innocent little tot vainly cried for mamma.

Somewhere a young woman, once prominent in Clarendon society, is a fugitive from justice, hunted by the officers of the law, charged with murder. Her name is Miss Rachel Morris, and she is the only survivor of the coterie of seven named in the coroner's verdict as being responsible for the tragic death of John T. Orr. Mrs. Orr died by her own hands. After completely breaking down and making a partial confession, in some way she obtained a quantity of poison and took the dose about 2 o'clock Monday afternoon. She never regained consciousness. The details of the fearful work of the mob are unobtainable at this hour. At 11 o'clock Monday night the last dispatch was received direct from a Gazette correspondent. It was stated in the dispatch that ev[e]rything was quiet, the prisoners being in charge of Deputy Sheriff Milwee and that there was no prospect of a lynching before morning. It is evident from this that the lynching occurred at a very late hour and that the mob planned its work so well that their appearance was in the nature of a surprise. Sheriff Jackson was not in Clarendon when the lynching occurred, having been taken seriously ill.

Last Friday night, while making a glass of lemonade in his home, an assassin crept up to his window and fired a shot in Orr's body, from the effect of which he died the following day. Mr. Orr had just returned from choir practice at a church of whose choir he was a member, while his wife was the organist.

Blood-hounds were put on the trail, but they were unable to run down the assassin.

After an inquest, extending over two days, a verdict was returned charging Mrs. Orr, the murdered man's wife, with being the instigator of the crime. Miss Rachel Morris, Manse Castle, Will Sanders, Dennis Ricard, Rilla Weaver and Susie Jacobs, the five last named negroes, were charged with complicity in the crime. Castle was arrested Sunday and barely escaped lynching Sunday night. The mob had already gathered to swing him up and would undoubtedly have carried out their plan but for the earnest appeal in behalf of law and order made by Judge Thomas, who appeared on the scene just in time to prevent the lynching. He addressed the crowd, beseeching them to let the law take its course and promised that the accused should have a speedy trial.

Castle was accused of firing the shot that killed Orr, but he denied his guilt. According to his story, one of the negro women involved in the case had told him that Mrs. Orr wanted her husband killed and would pay $200 to have the deed done. Castle agreed to the proposition, but later weakened and turned the job over to Ricard. Ricard likewise denied his guilt and accused Castle. The negro women in the case had been employed as cook and servant in the Orr household, and it was shown at the inquest that they had simply acted as agents of Mrs. Orr in securing a man to do the murder. What connection Miss Morris had with the case is not clear from the information at hand.

After the arrest of Mrs. Orr and the five negroes Mrs. Orr made a confession. She admitted that she had said to her cook that she wished her husband dead and that she would be willing to give $200 to anybody to kill him. But she denied that this was uttered while in a fit of anger and that she was innocent of any criminal intention. Her husband abused her, she said, and once struck her and she, being of high temper herself, sometimes said on anger what she did not mean.

John Orr was, several years ago, a theatrical man, and in 1890 was manager of a theater of a small Wisconsin town. There he met and married his wife. The marriage was clandestine and the bride's parents were bitterly opposed to it. The Orrs lived happily but a short time. Both were hot-tempered and quarrels were frequent. A few years ago they settled in Clarendon, where the husband engaged in business. He prospered and was considered wealthy at the time of his death.

A three-year-old daughter, the only issue of an unhappy marriage, is left an orphan.

How the Lynching Was Done.

St. Louis, Mo., Aug. 10.—A special to the Post-Dispatch from Gray, Ark., gives the particulars of the lynching at Clarendon as follows:

"At midnight the mob composed of 300 citizens visited the Monroe county jail at Clarendon, took therefrom four colored prisoners charged with the murder of John T. Orr and lynched them. The mob was a most orderly one, not a word being unnecessarily spoken and not a shot being fired. They marched to the jail and demanded the keys of Deputy Sheriff Frank Milwee, who was in charge. He at first refused their demands, but seeing their earnestness, turned over to them the keys. A committee of the mob went inside the jail and brought out the prisoners, Manse Castle, Saunders, Dennis Record [sic] and the negro cook, Rilla Weaver, Susie Jacobs not being included. They were taken to the old mill, near the river, a few hundred yards from the jail, strung up and with placard attached to their bodies. Mrs. Orr, believing that she would meet death at the hands of the law, took poison. She died late yesterday afternoon in the jail.Just before she lapsed into unconsciousness she willed all her property to her little daughter, Neva, and placed it in trust with the Clarendon lodge, Knights of Pythias, of which her dead husband was a prominent member."

The Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N. C.) dated August 11, 1898:

THE ORR MURDER IN ARKANSAS.

Tragic Denouement of the Assassination of a Wealthy Merchant of Clarendon.

FIVE NEGROES LYNCHED.

Mrs. Orr Committed Suicide in Jail, After Making Confession—Story of the Crime—A Young Society Woman Implicated.

By Telegraph to the Morning Star.

LITTLE ROCK, ARK., August 10.—Five negroes are hanging from the limbs of trees near the railroad track and the widow of John T. Orr is dead in her cell. This is the tragic denouement of the assassination of John T. Orr, a wealthy merchant, at Clarendon, a few nights ago. The wife died from a dose of poison, self-administered, while the negroes, her associates in crime, were strung up by a mob of citizens.

The lynched are Manse Castle, Dennis Ricard, Rilla Weaver, Susie Jacobs and Will Sanders.

At midnight a mob, composed of three hundred citizens, visited the Monroe county jail at Clarendon, took therefrom the prisoners charged with the murder of Orr and lynched them. The mob was a most orderly one, not a word being unnecessarily spoken and not a shot being fired. They marched to the jail and demanded the keys of Deputy Sheriff Frank Milwee, who was in charge. He at first refused their demands, but seeing their earnestness, turned over to them the keys. A committee of the mob went inside the jail and brought out the prisoners and hanged them to the tramway of the Halpern saw mill, which stands about one hundred yards in the rear of the jail.

The Murderers.

Will Sanders was the one who fired the shot that killed Mr. Orr; Rilla Weaver was the mother of Sanders, and cook in the Orr household; Dennis Ricard was the "hoo-doo doctor and conjurer," who tried to poison Orr with boiled snake heads; and Manse Castle volunteered to do the job and transferred it to Sanders. Miss Rachael Morris, accused of being an accessory before the fact, has disappeared and her whereabouts are unknown to the officers.

A placard bearing these words was attached to the bodies:  "This is the penalty for murder and rape."

The negroes remained where they were hung until 9 A. M. to day. Great crowds viewed the sight. The negroes seem to endorse the lynching and many of them are open in their expressions of satisfaction over the death of Dennis Ricard, whose arts of hoo-doo and conjuring made him an object of dread to them.

While the five bodies swung in the early morning breezes, the body of the widow of the murdered man lies dead in her cell in the county jail with only the soft sweet voice of her three-year-old child to break the midnight silence in the gloomy cell, as the innocent little tot vainly cried mamma. Somewhere a young woman, once prominent in Clarendon society, is a fugitive from justice, hunted by the officers of the law, charged with murder. Her name is Miss Rachael Morris and she is the only survivor of the coterie of seven named in the coroner's verdict as being responsible for the tragic death of John T. Orr.

Mrs. Orr died by her own hand. After completely breaking down and making a partial confession, in some way she obtained a quantity of poison and took the dose about 2 o'clock Monday afternoon. She never regained consciousness.

Story of the Crime.

Last Saturday night John T. Orr was assassinated while making a glass of lemonade. He had just returned from choir practice where his wife was organist. The crime was shrouded in mystery, until Miss Morris told somebody that she knew who fired the shot.

After a coroner's inquest extending over two days, a verdict was rendered charging Mrs. Orr, the murdered man's wife, with being instigator of the crime. Miss Rachel Morris, Manse Castle, Will Sanders, Dennis Ricard, Rilla Weaver and Susie Jacobs, the five last named negroes, were charged with complicity in the crime.

Mrs. Orr's Confession.

After the arrest of Mrs. Orr and the five negroes, Mrs. Orr made a confession. She admitted that she had said to her cook that she wished her husband dead, and that she would be willing to give $200 to anybody to kill him. But she said this was uttered while in a fit of anger, and that she was innocent of any criminal intention. Her husband abused her, she said, and he once struck her, and she being of high temper herself, sometimes said things in anger that she did not mean.

Mrs. Orr, seeing that she would meet death at the hands of the law, preferred another route and consequently took poison. She died late yesterday afternoon in jail. Just before she lapsed into unconsciousness she willed all her property to her daughter Neva and placed it in trust with the Clarendon Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of which her dead husband was a prominent member.

John Orr was several years ago a theatrical man and in 1890 was manager of a theatre in a small Wisconsin town. There he met and married his wife. The marriage was clandestine and the bride's parents were bitterly opposed to it. The Orrs lived happily but a short time. Orr prospered and was considered wealthy at the time of his death. His life was insured for $5,000.

It appears from letters received by Mrs. Orr in the name of her cook, Rilla Weaver, through whom all the correspondence was conducted, that Mrs. Orr and Rachael Morris were to remain here until Mr. Orr's insurance money was collected, and then go to New York where they were to meet two men and form a theatrical company. Mrs. Orr was also in correspondence with other men.

An article in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, N. Y.) dated August 10, 1898 mentions that five people were lynched in the following excerpt:

FOUR PERSONS LYNCHED.

. . . Four people, three men and one woman, were lynched at Clarendon at an early hour this morning.

Such was the startling news reaching Little Rock shortly after 1 o'clock. Every effort to confirm the news was made by the Gazette and although telegraph communication was suspended for the night and it was impossible to reach a correspondent, all doubt about the truth of the report was cleared away when at 3 o'clock this morning the telegraph operator in the Cotton Belt Railroad office at Clarendon was reached.

"Is it a fact that a lynching has occurred there?" he was asked.

"Not just one, but five," he clicked back. "I saw the bodies myself. Four of them are hanging to a limb of a tree not far away and a few yards further the body of the fifth is dangling from a gallows of the same kind.". . .

No articles really explained what Susie Jacobs was accused of and it was hard to tell if she was even lynched. The correspondent reported seeing a fifth person who was lynched so we can assume that the fifth person was indeed Susie Jacobs. 

Side note:  One of the men that Mrs. Orr, formerly Mabel Barker, was in correspondence with was Arthur C. Archer, the Mayor of Caldwell, Ohio. A letter from him arrived after Mrs. Orr was arrested, enclosed in the letter was a picture of him and he wrote of visiting her for a month. He was embarrassed once it came out in the papers that he had been writing to a murderess and he made a statement that he didn't know her real name and it was all in fun.

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

June, 1895: Attempt to lynch Tom Harris

This Thanksgiving, I've decided to feature a lynching that led to wounded but no apparent dead. We first learning about the trouble brewing through the pages of The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois) dated June 7, 1895:

HIS TEACHINGS OBJECTED TO.

Man Preaching to Alabama Negroes Ordered to Leave the Country. 

Tuskegee, Ala., June 6.—About twenty of the best citizens of this town gave Rev. Mr. Kelly, a white man, of Ohio, a surprise party at 7 o'clock yesterday evening by calling on him and informing him, through their spokesman, Dr. W. J. Gautier, that his presence here was obnoxious and disgusting to the white people of Macon County, and especially to the citizens of Tuskegee, and that he must leave Tuskegee and Macon County on the first train that passed Chehaw, the railroad station, at 1 a. m., or abide the consequences. Kelly is a white man pretending to be a minister. He claims that he was "called" to preach to the negroes of the South. He has been holding a protracted meeting here in the negro church for the last ten days, eating, sleeping, and mingling altogether with the negroes, and making his headquarters with Thomas Harris, where he was found by the committee that waited on him. He is teaching and practicing social equality, which will never be submitted to by the people of this section.

Our next article comes to us through the pages of The Richmond Planet (Richmond, Virginia) dated June 22, 1895:

A MOB'S FURY.

COLORED MEN SHOT DOWN. 

Alleged Social Equality, the Cause.

PHYSICIANS REFUSE TO ATTEND THE WOUNDED COLORED MAN WHO ENTERTAINED A NORTHERN WHITE MAN.

Tuskegee Institute Closes its Doors upon the Hunted Unfortunate.

[Tuskegee, Ala., News, (white) June 13]

Last Saturday night about 10 o'clock the residents of Tuskegee were startled by a wild hubbub in the N. E. end of the city—a furious barking of dogs was accompanied by other sounds of a more startling nature—Suddenly four or five pistol shots rang out on the air, followed by agonized screams of women, and a man's voice shrieking in pain. It was terrible to listen to:  "Help! Help! My God, they have killed him—Oh they have killed him!" These words shrieked over and over soon drew a crowd of men and boys to the residence of Mr. John Alexander where it had been found that Mr. Alexander had been accidently [sic] shot and was supposed fatally wounded by a mob of masked men who had entered his premises in pursuit of Tom Harris, a notorious mulatto man, Negro lawyer and rather a seditious character, who had against Mr. Alexander's orders taken refuge within his home from a pursuing mob. Tom Harris is a very ambitious and rather an idle Negro man, extremely unpopular with his own race on account of his airs of superiority, and having little influence with them.

THE EXTENT OF HIS OFFENDING.

So far as known he has never been guilty of any crime whatever,  but his impudent utterances and insolent bearing have made him very obnoxious to the white people, and once before now he has had to leave the city on a prolonged stay. He purchased some years ago a very comfortable home for his family—the Hayden residence in the immediate vicinity of Mr. Alexander's home, and there his family reside. His wife is considered a model colored woman, she is industrious, virtuous and thoroughly orderly in every respect and has endeavored to raise her large family of children with propriety. His eldest son, Wylie, is a well-known young yellow man who has a butcher's shop here. Some two or three weeks ago a yankee preacher named Kelley appeared in this county.

THE NORTHERNER'S VISIT.

He put up with respectable citizens at Cross Keys and was told that he might preach to Negroes, but that in this part of the country social equality was not tolerated. He conducted himself accordingly there, but coming to Tuskegee he was entertained at Tom Harris' house, and it is said walked the streets between two of Harris' daughters, holding an umbrella over them. It is also stated that he preached social equality, and from the pulpit denounced certain citizens of this place, calling no names but making such pointed remarks that there could be no doubt of his meaning, and that Tom Harris had given him the dots.

LAWLESS CITIZENS ASSEMBLE.

A meeting of citizens was called in which all rash suggestions were voted down, but it was resolved that a committee of citizens should go to the house of Tom Harris and order the yankee to leave our city within six hours. This was accordingly done. It was well and good, and the matter should have ended there. But Saturday night a letter was taken home by Wiley at a late hour 

(probably from the Post-office) and the Negro could scarcely have had time to have made an escape after receiving it before the arrival of the mob at his house. Instead, however, of immediately retreating from the neighborhood he took the letter over Mr. Alexander's and calling from the front gate requested to see him, Mr. Alexander was at the time seated on his front gallery with his daughters.

ASKING ADVICE OF A NEIGHBOR.

He stepped into the road and Tom Harris told him of the letter and asked his advice, directly looking down the moonlit road claimed, "There they are now, coming to kill me!" and rushed into Mr. Alexander's front yard. Mr. Alexander seeing the approach of several masked men, recognized the danger to his family and rushed into the yard attempting to run Tom Harris out, at the same time calling to the men not to shoot for fear they might kill or frighten his daughters. The mob however, not to be deterred from their purpose rushed into the yard and one of them putting his pistol within a foot of Harris fired meaning of course to kill him.

ANOTHER GOT THE BULLET

The Negro squatted in time to avert the shot which struck Mr. Alexander  (who was immediately back of him trying to evict him from the premises,) hitting him in the throat, the ball ranging toward the spinal column where it lodged. Other shots followed in immediate succession and Tom Harris was wounded in the leg and fell as he was running down the road, and it is said the bone was shattered. The screams of pain were from the wounded Negro who called loudly for help, but no attention was given him excepting by his family who gathered around him, though in the crowd that rushed to the scene were several medical men who proceeded to render Mr. Alexander all the assistance in their power.

WOUNDED THE WRONG MAN.

It was thought at first that Mr. Alexander was mortally wounded. He is said to have borne himself with wonderful coolness and nerve, and though probing for the ball was unsuccessful he has rallied, to the surprise of all, and bids fair to recover. If he does it will be due in large measure to the devoted attention he has received from our medical men, who, as well as every other citizen of this community, feel the greatest sympathy for him in his suffering and for his family in their anxiety and distress.

NO WHITE DOCTOR WOULD ATTEND HIM.

Failing to get any white doctor to attend his father, Wylie Harris took him over to the Normal School that night, where however he was not received, for Booker T. Washington, the president of the Negro school has ever conducted himself and his school in the most prudent and conservative manner, and learning that a mob was in pursuit of Harris he told him that he could not be admitted there. What has become of Harris we do not know. That he is painfully wounded is certain, and after the vindictive demonstration to which he has lately been subjected, it is scarcely probable that he will ever again attempt to make his residence in this city. The lawless action of these masked men cannot, be too severely condemned.

MR. HARRIS HAD DONE NOTHING.

The first place Harris had done nothing to make him amendable to law. Personal dislike and a vindictive feeling of animosity give no excuse for any attempt on a man's life be he white or black. In the second place the unlawful entering of the premises of Mr. Alexander and shooting him, an entirely innocent person, even though it claimed that hurt to him was not intentional, was a most unprecedented outrage, and we call upon the Sheriff of Macon County to do his duty in this matter. If he will, we believe that he can

The same edition included the following statement which echoes with sentiment heard more recently:

Editorial Opinion.

The shooting of Mr. Edward Harris, at Tuskegee, Ala. on the 8th inst. by a mob of lawless white men was outrageous. He should have been armed and have shot down his assailants.

We shall await to hear the explanation of Prof. WASHINGTON with reference to his refusal to admit the wounded man. The institution should have been used as an asylum in this case and its doors should have been a mighty bulwark against the assaults of these lawless parties.

    

It was difficult to find, in a newspaper, if either man died as a result of the attempted lynching. I did however check the 1900 US Census for Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama and discovered a John Alexander, white, living with his family and having a neighbor Thomas Harris, black, living with his family. Their ages fit for them to possibly be the same men, but whether or not they were is merely conjecture.

I hope you have an enjoyable holiday. Thank you for joining me and as always, i hope I leave you with something to ponder. 

December 16, 1893: Henry Givens

Today we learn about a Kentucky lynching through the pages of the Crittenden Press (Marion, Kentucky) dated Dec. 21, 1893:

Over in Hopkins.

(From the Hustler.)

On going to press news comes from Nebo that a negro by the name of Henry Givens was yesterday morning found near his home two miles west of Nebo, tied to a tree with his body riddled with shot. His skull was crushed, both eyes shot out and his body generally, especially about the abdomen, was terribly mangled. The negro is said to have a bad reputation in the community. Coroner Rodgers went down yesterday to hold an inquest, but has not yet returned. We understand that the negro had attempted to poison several different persons, both white and black. Up to the present there is no clue to the ones who mobbed him.

JUDGE LYNCH'S WORK.

Body of Henry Givens, Colored, Found Hanging to a Tree.

Henderson, Ky., December 16.—Henry Givens, colored, was lynched near Nebo, Foster county, early this morning. Givens was accused of poisoning stock and with the intention of poisoning a school well. Last night he was ordered to leave town, but drew a pistol on the self-appinted [sic] committee. This morning his body was found tied to a tree and filled with bullets.

May 20, 1892: Arthur Burrows

Today we learn about a lynching in Texas through the pages of The Evening World (New York, N. Y.) dated May 21, 1892:

A Texas Way of Lynching.

(BY ASSOCIATED PRESS)

HOUSTON, Tex., May 21.—At Midway, Madison County, last night, a mob went to the house of Arthur Burrows, who was accused of ruining a young girl of the neighborhood and shot him five times, killing him instantly.

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