The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-07-18
THE LYNCH1NG OF HOWARD COOPER.
He is Taken from the jail at the Dead
Hour Of Night and Suspended to
Tree-An Orderly Crowd of
Avengers.

ed of without the Intervention of the Supreme
Court of the United States Our readers are all
familiar with the facts connected with this terrible
afair-how the young colored man, Howard
Cooper, brutally assaulted daughter of Mr.. d.
G. Gray, of the Sd district, who narrowly escaped
with her life; of the subsequent arrest, trial and
conviction of the assailant and the still later eff
forts of the counsel for Cooper, who, not content
with having appealed his case to the highest tri-
bunal in the State, where the decision was against
their client, proposed to still further delay the
execution of the doomed man by carrying it up
to the Supreme Court of the United States, not
because they believed the man innocent, but SIM
ply because they (the counse) claimed that the
Grand Jury which indicted Cooper was illegally
constituted, in that there colored men
upon it.
| WHY COOPER WAS LYNCHED.
The friends and neighbors of Mr.. Gray and his
family, who at the time of the preparation of the
crime secured the country in search of the william
with the full intention of stringing him up to the
nearest tree, had he been found, were content,
after his arrest to let the law take its course and
when Cooper was sentenced to be hanged on the
31st of the present month, all felt satisfied that
the law would be carried out and that the culprit
| would be made to suffer the extreme penalty for
his crime. But when these same neighbors and
friends saw by the papers that efforts were being
made by coored societies and individuals in Bal
tmore to raise funds to pay the expense of carry
it might perhaps be many months, should the
movement be successful before Cooper's case
would be disposed of, and that if it were sent back
to Baltimore county it would involve another
trial that would again compel Miss Gray and her
| family to pass second time through the terrible
ordeal which they were compelled to undergo when
the first tried in the City Criminal Court.
In order to avert this they determined to take
the law in their own hands and thus save the in
! nocent victim of Cooper any further modification
and shame in being obliged to again appear in
court and detail her terrible wrongs before gaping
crowds ofspectators.
ORGANIZATION FOR THE WORK.
With this determination fully fixed in their
minds company was organized in the Sd dis
trict to come to TowsontOwn, take Cooper from
the Jail and hang him to the nearest tree and how
successfully they carried out their plans we will
detail as briefly as possible.
1t was nearly IL o'clock on Sunday night last
when body of men, numbering between forty
and fifty, marched quietly into town by way of
| the avenue leading to Charles street avenue, hav-
ing left their horses and vehicles concealed short
distance from town. The body halted in the rear
of the Court House, while the leader went to the
| Jail and called Sheriff Knight. The Sheriff made
his appearance at window and was told the
object of the visit. He said that he would not de-
liver Cooper to the lynchers and that being sworn
| to protect his prisoner, he proposed doing so to
the best of his ability. The leader then went
back and informed his men of the Sheriff's deter
mination. The plans then altered and they
decided to batter down the Jail doors in order to
get at their man. They accordingly secured the
butt of large flag pole and carrying it upon their
shoulders to the rear of the Jail and using it
battering ram, were not long in bursting in the
| door and gaining admission to the lower tier of
| cells
TRIED TO oUTwIT THE LYNCHERs.
Once inside the Sheriff and night Waterman
l - ekn loa1 49,
second tier and made a very determined but fruit
less resistance. Some blows were struck and one
man was thrown fell over the railing, but the
Sheriff and his only assistant were soon overpow-
cred and held in the vise-like grip of several stall
wart men. Then the search for Cooper commenced.
| Finally his cell was found and crow bar
secured with which the lock was wrenched
| off, When the leader entered the cell it appeared
| to be empty, but upon searching about Cooper
was found lying fiat upon the iron bedstead, with
the mattress on top of him. He was hauled from
| his hiding place, when he denied that he was
Cooper, but the men knew him and told him so.
| He then asked what they were going to do with
him, and was told that he would pretty soon seen.
He was hustled out of the Jail and thin rope
was thrown over his head. He did not utter
word and made resistance and the lynchers
were unable to tell whether he scared too bad
to talk or whether he was utterly Indifferent as to
| his fate.
About fifty yards east of the jail! fence stands
sycamore tree. He was taken to this and the rope
was thrown over a small limb not more than nine
feet from the ground. The doomed man then
admitted that he was Howard Cooper and called
out "good- bye" as the rope commenced to tighten
about his throat. He was hauled up from the
ground and the rope was fastened about the butt
of the tree to keep it from slipping. He strug
gled slightly, but was quiet and it was thought
he was dead. The body was then lowered but
| the men were not satisfied that life was extinct
and he was again pulled up and left hanging
The whole affair was conducted so quietly and so
expeditiousy as to convince those who were look
ing on that the plans of the lynchers had been
well matured beforehand. After the lynchers
were satisfied that their work had been fully ac-
complished they quietly withdrew and started for
their homes. They all masked so that it
was not possible to identify any of them.
EXCITEMENT IN TowsoNTowM.
The news that Cooper had been lynched spread
rapidly through the town and the morning
wore ON large numbers of people went to the Jail
to look upon his body it dangled from the limb.
1t was CHASTITY and revolving sight and one not
soon to be forgotten by those who witnessed it.
THE INQUEST AND VERDICT.
About o'clock Justice James Miller appeared
upon the scene with jury of inquest. The body
was then taken down and removed to the lower
floor of the Jail. Drs. Piper and Massenburg,
who examined the body, testified that Cooper had
died of strangulation. The Sheriff and watch
man Nelson also gave their evidence before the
jury, which rendered the following verdict: "The
jury find that Howard Cooper, found dead hang
ing to tree outside of the Jail yard and near to
it, came to his death by strangulation, he having
been seized by force by body of armed men, un-
/ known to the jury, who on the early morning of
| this July 13th 1885, forced the Jail by breaking
open the door of said Jail and the lock of his cell,
taking said prisoner and hanging him as found.
We likewise find that Sheriff Knight and VIM. Mel
son, the night Waterman on duty, did all in their
| power to prevent it, but were overpowered by a
| large force"
Later in the day Cooper's body was placed in
rough pine coffin and given to his mother, who
took it away for burial. She appeared to be the
| only person who manifested the slightest sympa-
| thy for him.
| GLAD THAT He WAS LYNCHED.
When Mr.. Gray was informed the Cooper had
been lynched he said "I glad justice has
| been done. Every right-minded man will say
| my friends acted wisely. Another trial would
have been too much for Katie to bear, and God
knows could not have stood it."
HOW THE LYNcHING WAS PLANNED. &c.
| One of the men who was engaged in the lynch
ing tells the following story of how the affair was
| planned and carried out: "When we received in
| formation that enough money would be raised to
1
| Court we concluded that the only way to save
Miss Gray from further mental suffering was to
act promptly. We thought that ifthe money was
gotten together on Sunday Cooper would prob
ably be removed to Baltimore city Jail on Monday.
| All of Mr.. Gray's neighbors and friends had been
wrought up to the highest state of indignation at
the intense agony his daughter and family have
undergone, and when we ascertained that the
law was going to cause another delay we deter
mined to take matters into our own hands. We
arrived at that determination at midday on Sun
day, and five minutes later messengers were
dashing from place to place notifying the neigh
bors to be ready. The man we selected for our
captain is one of the pluckiest, coolest fellows you
ever saw. He is farmer, about medium height,
weighs perhaps ITO pounds, and is active and
| full of fire.
"The meeting place was on the Powder Mill
road, at the end of Charles street avenue. We
were all there at IL o'clock that night. Some OF
the men were in buggies, some in two-horse
carriage, one in rockaway, and about fifteen on
horseback, making, think, thirty all told. We
left the meeting place at half past IL and went
within quarter of mile of Towsontown and
tied our horses. Our leader rode into town and
up to the York road car station, where he in
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