Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1903-07-31
RACE WAR IN ILLINOIS
Mob Lynches Two Negroes and Burn
Their Bodies.
ONE WHITE KILLED, THREE WOUNDED
One Of the Mob Shot and Killed by Negro,
Who Is Taken from The Danville Police and
Hanged to Telephone Pole-The Mob
Then Attacks the Jail, but is Repnlsed by
Sheriff and Deputies.

Danville, III. (SpeciaD.-This city is
in the throes of race war.
Two negroes were lynched by mob
that grew in numbers from GOO to 5000,
and who battered down jail doors. After
killing their victims their bodies were
burned in the public square and hacked
with knives.
One negro, J. D. Mayheld, from
Evansville, Ind, who shot and killed
Henry Gatterman, white, was first
hanged by a mob of 600 men, who were
later fired upon by the Sheriff, three men
being wounded. The mob was clamor-
ing for the life of another negro named
James Wilson, who confessed to brutal
assault on Mrs. Thomas Burgess, wife
of farmer at Alvon, ILL.,, just north OF
here
The Mayfeld negro met his fate while
the mob was on the way to lynch VIII
son. The angry throng was passing
down East Main street, when Mayfeld
became involved in an alteration with
some of its members. They started after
him and he pulled a gun, firing into the
crowd.
Henry Gatterman, young butcher,
who recently returned from Fortress
Monroe, fell MORALLY wounded and eX-
pired in few seconds. The negro
turned and fled, but was caught by the
officers within a block of the scene OF
the tragedy and hurried to the. police
station with the mob in hot pursuit, tenn
porarily diverted from their march to
the county Jail.
The officers with their prisoner took
refuge in the city building, barricadng
themselves behind the door of one of the
offices. They could not check the mob,
however, for it secured long pole and
tried to batter down section OF the
wall and the door, both of which were
very thin. On account of the overwhe Inn
ing numbers of the mob it was useless
for the officers to resist
The negro was seized and rushed to
the spot where he had shot down Cat
terman. 1t was the work of an instant
to throw a rope around his neck and
swing him up to the nearest telephone
pole: The mob did not delay long, but
waited to see that their victim was dead.
His life was slowly stranged out and he
was left hanging, while the mob pro-
ceeded toward the county jail.
The mob changed its mind before at
lacking the jail and went back and cut
down Mayfed's body. They rushed it
to the public square and burned it in
bonfire, hacking it to pieces with knives
as it burned.
Then they charged the Jail and the
Sheriff and deputies fired, wounding
several members of the mob, some IA
tally.
After securing battering rams, it took
the mob about half an hour to wreck the
city prison. the negro being found hid in
a safe. He was pulled from the safe,
struck with sledges, knocked down,
jumped upon and stamped to death. A
rope was placed around his neck and his
lifeess body was dragged three blocks
through the street to the scene of the
shooting.
An effort was made to hang the body
to telegraph pole, but the rope broke.
The mob, which by this time numbered
5000, then dragged the body to the jail
and burned it.
Wilson, it is charged, went to the Bur-
CESS farmhouse while Mrs. Burgess was
alone and told her he was hungry. While
she was getting him something to eat he
entered the kitchen door and seized her.
He fed, leaving her half dead. After
ward she managed to crawl to the near
est farmhouse, where she told the story.
A posse of officers started in pursuit of
the negro. and when Wilson was cap
tured he was hurried to the county jail
to prevent lynching. There the negro
confessed.