The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-10-06

Oxford. o.. October 2.-Five men were
seriously injured and n narrowly
escaped lynching several times as the
result of last evenings riot at this
place.
Those injured are:
John Woodruff, marshal of Oxford,
believed to be fatally shot.
Jacob Manerod. deputy marshal, Sc
riously shot in the back and in the
shoulder.
Ernest Jotten, a country school
teacher of Monroe, O., believed to be
fatally shot in the abdomen.
Louis Spivey, of Wagersville, KY,
seriously shot in the back and breast.
Joseph Spivey, skull fractured by
stone, also of Wagersville, KY.
The Spivey brothers came here to
ers exposition, and began carousing in
a saloon. They pulled their revolvers
on the bartender, who elected them
n then they proceeded to raise more
trouble in other saloons. When
Marshal Woodruff undertook to arrest
S&3SlIl, 1iC NV oil SIIOl ~ -
of bullets in the crowded streets fol-
lowed the shooting of the marshal,
Deputy Marshal Manerod was shot
twice when he took the place of his
chief. During this fusilade in the
street, n Jotten, while returning
from his school to his boarding house,
was struck in the abdomen by a stray
bullet and he is in a critical condition.
After the shooting the men ran in
different directions, with crowds after
C. ones n each was hit in the
head with stones thrown by those
pursuing them. oui Spivey vas shot
by a citizen. The men were finally
lodged IN Jail.
The crowds that had been pursuing
the men in different directions finally
concentrated about the Jail and bat
tered down the door and tool Joseph
Spivey out to lynch him. There pos
sibly never was such an experience OF
any one in the hands of a mob as mis-
He was hauled from place to place
with a rope about his neck INC swung
up three different times and yet escap-
ed with his life. In the haste, the
mob did not pinion his arms or his
legs and he managed to use them so as
to prevent strangulation the first tine
he was hung. At another time, he
was let down hat he might write &
farewell letter to his wife and children
and at another time some one cut the
rope. Before the mob finally succeeded
in hanging him until dead. the officers
grabbed him and rushed him off to the
city prison, where the mob was held ir
bay for some time and finally order
enough was restored for speeches to be
made by ex-Mayor Flanagan, Rev
DR.. Thomas j. Potter and the brother
Of Marshal Woodruff. While .he
speeches were being delivered, the of.
fcers spirited the Spivey brothers into
the cellar of the Jail and thence out
through a coal chute and made good
their escape with them to h Butler
county Jail at Hamilton. Ohio, a dis.
lance of fifteen miles. The mob then
finding that it had been beaten, dis
persed.
This village, with it's three large IN
sttitutiOnS of learning, is noted for its
culture and order, but it was the scene
over a year ago of the lynching Of
Henry Corbin, a negro, for the murder
of Mrs. Horner and 9 striking feature
Of the attempted lynching last nigh:
was the part taken by the negroes
who protested every time the rope va
slackened and Spivey was let down
Some Of the negroes raised quite a
disturbance while proclaiming that if
surely have been lynched in the first
place without any n giving heed to
his appeals.
The town is quiet today Inc no
further trouble whatever is appre-
hended. Owing to the crical condition
Of the Spivey brothers no steps have
| hapn ia ken fOr their nrnIimfna ~ frjaf