Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1922-06-01


ruse, and when the portal was
opened the three men rushed in, over
towering the sheriff and his deputy.
the other members of the posse hur-
rying forward. Quickly Wildrick was
found, hailed forth unceremoniously
with a rope around his neck, and
hung to a tree'close by in the rayine,"
as the Portage Register recorded;
and that paper closed its account of
the tragic occurrence by calmly de-
claring that members OF the mob "be-
| iieved they had sacred duty to them
| selves and to the community to per-
form, and our verdict is that they
performed it directly and in order
performed it we'll" A. J. Turner,
father of F. ]. Turner, now professor
of American history in Harvard Uni
versity, was one of the editors. No
person participating in the episode
ever was punished AS a boy in Bara-
boo stood by and observed one man,
paper in hand, accost another myster-
iously and, after a whispered explana-
ton. obtain his signature. The posse
to lynch Wildrick was thus being
formed.
Gates was 65 years Of age and left
son Leroy, a man of much indi-
viduality, who wrote for the Kilbourn
paper under the pseudonym of Dell
Pilot. Long years before he died,
when he sought to remove his moth
er's body to- the Kilbourn cemetery
from it's rural resting place on the
west bank of the Wisconsin river,
below the village, the casket was
found empty, ghouls, presumably
doctors, having robbed the grave for
anatomical purposes.
X y =
Wildrick was mobbed on Septem-
Der 25 Only nine days before, on the
streets of Portage, w. H. Spain shot
and killed Captain Barney Britt,
farmer Of the town of Winnebago, and
was lynched a few minutes later. The
two men had enlisted from Portage
| for the Civil war in Co. D. 10Th Wis
cOnsin infantry. Britt rose TO a
captaincy; Spain remained a private.
A bitter feeling between the two
men developed during the war. due, it
was said, to the captains domineering
conduct, and it continued after. The
men never met but their quarrel was
renewed, and on this fateful afternoon
Ney had exchanged hot words as
usual, when Britt, who imprudently
| followed Spain, was shot through the
heart A mob swiftly assembled and
Spain was strung up to a tree near
the junction of Lock and Wisconsin
| streets.
! Spain had formerly been register
of deeds in Adams county and for six
months before his death had practic-
ed law at Portage. He was Pat Wild
rick's attorney in the Gates robbery
defense. His successful activities in
behalf of the notorious desperate
gave him both notoriety and i'll re-
pute. He was fiery-tempered, and
had been knocked down on a Portage
street by Dan Ginder for some ugly
sentiment growing out Of that case.
It was suspected that the pistol with
which Britt was killed had been Sc
cured for the purpose of shooting
Ginder. Britt was janitor and left
wife and eight children, Spain
wife and four.
4 y X
On September "a, the day before
| Wildrick was lynched, r. H Davis,
miller at Lemonwier, was found on
the railroad track five miles above
the site of Gates murder. He had
been killed and robbed and his body
placed upon the rails. He was known
, TO have several hundred dollars in
his possession. This money was gone
: and his pockets were inside out. A
train had run over the body. Davis
was 60 years old. His murderers dis
, appeared and naturally the whole
, neighborhOod for twenty miles around
was frenzied with excitement due to
the crimes of Wildrick, the murder
of Britt and Gates, the horror of the
Davis tragedy and the exasperating
Hardness of justice.
y y y
Not during the fifty years since has
mob violence occurred in that neigh
borhood. The lynching of Wildrick
and Spain purified the atmosphere.