Year: 1875

Graphic Account of the Lynching of the


Courtwright Brothers, at stevens


Point, Wis.


The Milwaukee Journal of Commerce
gives the following particulars of the
lynching of Amos and Isaiah Court
wright, at Stevens Point, Wis, for the
murder of Sheriff Baker


There were forty men, disguised, that
formed the lynchers. The two old men
were armed to the teeth with revolvers
and knives, waiting for the death-strug-
gle which they knew would come some
day before they reached the bar of the
court which could only slightly punish
them for their great crime. The old
men expected that an attempt would be
made to lynch them, and they had, in
some mysterious way, been provided with
arms with which to resist assailants to
the bitter, bitter death. The two
wretches took in the situation at glance
as they beheld their executioners. They
made move to draw their weapons, but
old Isaiah was knocked down and kicked
almost senseless before he could begin
his fight which he was afterward des-
tined to wage with all the ferocity of
demon, and the strength of fear and
despair.


Amos made no resistance just then,
but began to beg and pray. He was
probably watching his chance, though,
with all the cunning of a captured fox.
Isaiah was stamped and pounded until it
seemed as though nothing was left of
him yet he had the wiry frame OF a cat,
and all its tenacity to life. When the
outside of the Jail was reached, sudden
ly two shots were fired, it is supposed by
Amos. One of the bullets cut lock of
hair from a masker's head, while another
bullet passed through his shirt-collar.


The Courtwrights were evidently de-
termined to forfeit their lives only at the
sacrifice of more valuable ones. When
Isaiah had revived somewhat from the
awful pounding and kicking ne had re-
ceived, he was placed in position behind
one of the wagons In attendance, and
the procession started south on
one of the two main roads leading to the
depot, and, beyond, to Plover. Before
the strange cortege had gone 40 rods,
and nearly in front of the residence of
the Hon. George Hungerford, old Isaiah
renewed his fight.


With cat-Gke quickness he had drawn
a knife and began cutting right and left
among the men nearest to him. Prob
ably no human being ever made more
desperate efforts TO fight his way to life
and liberty. To the right, to the left,
to the front, to the rear, struck the thin
and sinewy arm of the crazed wretch.
The maskers who were there will
never forget the awful picture of that
night.


1t is an old, old man that is ut bay.
His form is thin, and wiry, and bent,
and shriveled. His white hairs glistened
here and there from among the patches
of clotted blood that had gathered from
the blows and kicks he had received.
His clothes are torn and ragged. Words
cannot tell the horrid wrinkles in that
distorted face, nor the quick breath
they cannot give the look in the sunken
eyes are powerless to describe the
writhing, struggling form that is making
its last effort to live. The old man is
strengthened by his despair. He cuts
wildly about him, and one or the
avengers receives the knife thrust that
may add one more victim to Isaiah
Courtwright's murderous list. Then the
old man is again overpowered, Knocked
down, trampled upon, hitched by the
neck to the wagon, and his body drags
the sandy roadway, along which he had
once walked a respectable man. He
never lived to be hung. Long before
the place where the hanging was to be
done was reached the old mans life had
gone out of its dishonored body.


Amos adopted n more sensible, but
cowardly course. He tried to soften the
hearts of the maskers by the most piteous
pleadings, accompanied by tears and
walls and prayers. But the men who
had determined upon doing what they
considered a sacred duty were not to Ee
moved. Amos WAS given certain length
of time to pray, and then the two bodies
of the murderers of Joseph Baker
swung lifeless i'll the waning moonlight
A terrible but, according to the general
belief, righteous retribution had over
taken Isaiah and Amos Courtwright.


The man who was stabbed by Isaiah in
his desperate fight for life was promi-
nent citizen. He is very badly cut, but
il could not be ascertaIned what his pros
poets of recovery were.


At one time, after old Isaiah was dis
armed, he shouted: "You cowardly


give me but a toothpick,
and j will fight my way clear of all of