Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1906-04-19
NECkOLo
A Mob Of 5000 Persons Took
Three Prisoners from Spring
field, Missouri, Jail
HANGED IN PUBLIC SQUARE.
two Of the Victims May Have Been
EnnOOsnt-TnteFiOR SheriR's Resi-
dsnoo Was WReOked-HRve
Called for Militia.

Springfield. Mo-, April ia mob
OF 5000 men and boys took two ne
groes, Horace Duncan and Jim Cope
land, from the Greene county jail
shortly before midnight Saturday
night and hanged them to the statue
Of the Goddess of Liberty in the pub
lie square and then built fire under
the bodies.
Two hours later the mob returned
to the jail, took out another negro,
Will Allen, accused OF murder, and
lynched him also.
The two negroes first lynched were
accused Of assaulting Miss Mabel Ed
wards, a young white woman who
came here from Monet, Mo-, Friday
to work as a domestic Miss Edwards
went driving Friday night with 8
man named Charles Cooper. In a Sc
cluded part Of the city the couple were
held up by two negroes. The man
was knocked unconscious and the girl
dragged from the buggy and abused.
Duncan and Copeland were suspect
ed and arrested. They were only par
TALLY identified, and their employer
vouched for an alibi for them, but the
mob was bent on vengeance and In no
mood to discriminate between gull;
and innocence.
The mob began to form shortly be-
fore o'clock, when crowd of boys
gathered at the square and ran west
on College street toward the police
station. A spontaneous spirit of law.
lessness seemed to break out stimuli.
taneously on the square, College street
and Campbell street. Every hoodlur
and loafer within hearing Joined the
mob Of boys and practically every per
son on the streets followed the moi
down College street to the city hold
over. No time was wasted there, fol
1t was generally known that the tw
negroes suspected of the Edwards as,
sault were In the county jail in Gus.
tody Of Sheriff Horner
Many people on the square thought
that the mob was merely bluff and
that there would be nothing done al
the jail. BY the time the Infatuated
mass reached the jail, however, It
numbered fully 5000 and to stop it in
its purpose was impossible.
Instead Of trying to gain an en-.
trance to the jail proper the lynchers
modified their forces at the front door
Of the sheriff's residence, which ad.
joins the Jail, and soon battered down
the door. Mrs. Horner, the sheriff's
wife, and her family had sought safety
on the second floor, and when the
front door finally gave way they were
removed to a neiehbor's home across
he street. Mrs. Horner was carried
from the house, having refused te
leave the place without her husband
The residence was crowded with
members Of the mob, who destroyed
furniture. dishes and paintings on the
walls. Nothing was left unframed in.
side the house. Every piece Of house
hold furniture was broken.
Sheriff Horner, with his deputies
Mack. Carr and King, together with ,
Sheriff Grain, Of Polk county ant
DupuC Uuiyeu oeEtes h1arsnEu sne
don. did everything possible to sta,
the mob from It's purpose, but then
afforts were of no avail. =
When at last the mob had secured !
the negroes they were dragged from :
the jail to the center Of the publ, /
square. II Is fully q mile to the !
square, and the mob marched down
one Of the principal streets Of tn,
own. shouting and firing pistols.
With a wild shout the two younl
negroes were strung up TO the lower
braces Of the statue Of the Goddess 7
Il Liberty. Both bodies hung limI I
md vhen hres were started undei Z
hem and bullets pierced their bodies {
not q muscle IN their bodies moved
8oiA had urobably ben SCARED b