- Police/Fire - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- [Photograph; caption reads: Jail on South Water Street where
lynching originated.]
-
- 1855 lynching traumatic for fledgling city
- A strong willow tree near the center of Janesville's old
public square was reduced to a jagged
- stump on July 13, 1855.
- The shady canopy for passerby was felled after a rope suspending
the dead body of David F.
- MAYBERRY was cut and the convicted murderer let down.
Pieces of the tree were carried away as souvenirs.
- MAYBERRY, sentenced the day before to a life term
in the state prison for the June 16 hatchet-
- slaying of lumberman Andrew ALGER, had been lynched
and hanged by a mob angered over his punishment.
- As Judge James R. DOOLITTLE read the sentence, a mob
of infuriated lumbermen waited
- quietly outside the courthouse for their victim to step out.
When he did, they rushed him, flung stones at the slayer and
cried for a rope.
- Sheriff HOSKINS and special police surrounded MAYBERRY
and tried to divert the crowd as
- it headed toward the jail. But the steps had been removed.
The entrance was barricaded with timber. They were pelted with
rocks.
- There was no escape.
- MAYBERRY dropped to his knees and pleaded for mercy,
but was ignored. Within minutes, he
- was dragged back to the public square. His hands were tied
with pieces of linen torn from his body, and he was strung to
the strong branch of a tree.
- "The tragedy did not end. The knot in the rope had been
left under his chin and he still breathed.
- MAYBERRY was let down," said an account in the
Janesville Gazette. The mob readjusted the rope, slipped the
noose around MAYBERRY's neck and drew it up again.
- This time, the execution was a success.
- The MAYBERRY lynching, truly a stain on the county's
record of progress toward civilization,
- was received in its day as the "bloodiest chapter in
the history of Janesville."
- It was, in fact, the only lynching in this community's history.
And, it followed one of the worst
- murders of that time. Until then, a historical account said,
Janesville's criminal record was remarkably free from such crimes.
- Theorists said the lynching happened for two reasons.
- First, some instigators felt the demonstration would cause
eventual repeal of the legislature's
- abolition of capital punishment in 1853. Jurors should choose
the sentence - hanging or imprisonment - in all murder cases,
they thought. Second, MAYBERRY had been convicted of "one
of the most bloody murders upon record."
- It happened four miles outside of Janesville on Milton Road.
ALGER, 50, was returning to
- Johnson Creek from a Beloit bank after completing lumber
transactions here and in Rockford, Ill. The man who made a livelihood
by harvesting timber and rafting it down the Rock River, had
$550 with him at the time.
- MAYBERRY met ALGER in Beloit and speculated
on the amount of money he had. He
- mapped out a dramatic robbery plan and headed out on foot
to get ALGER.
- MAYBERRY, just released from the Illinois state prison
after serving eight years for horse
- thievery, bought his murder weapon at a Beloit hardware store.
The convict then left Beloit to get ahead of his intended victim.
He waited along the route for the horse and buggy to approach.
- When it did, MAYBERRY feigned weariness and asked
ALGER for a ride. The request
- granted, the would-be-assassin got in.
- As the buggy approached a wooded area, MAYBERRY complained
of being cold. He rose,
- seemingly to fetch his coat, and grabbed the hatchet. He
whacked ALGER three times in the head, but the blows were
not fatal, according to reports of the event.
- The bleeding victim fell into the buggy, then was kicked
to the ground. He pleaded with
- MAYBERRY to stop, a Madison newspaper wrote, and offered
to give MAYBERRY "half his money." But MAYBERRY
"wanted it all," and finished off ALGER by slitting
his throat from ear to ear and stabbing him in the back and sides.
- He dumped the body in a hazel bush and headed to the home
of John McCOMB, a Rockford
- farmer and father of a man MAYBERRY knew in prison,
with ALGER's clothes, money, horse and buggy.
- That gesture led to MAYBERRY's demise. McCOMB
questioned MAYBERRY about his
- new rig and cash flow. After vowing confidentiality, the
assassin confessed to having killed and robbed a "pinery
bug" the day before.
- While MAYBERRY slept McCOMB got a neighbor
to fetch the Winnebago County Sheriff's
- Department. The killer was captured that night and held in
a Rockford jail. ALGER's body was found June 18.
- Fervor against MAYBERRY spread throughout the stateline
area.
- Rockford residents themselves became so angry they tried
to lynch MAYBERRY on three
- occasions. Each time, the sheriff persuaded them to abandon
their attempt.
- "Several hundred of the hardiest and most stalwart loggers
on the river, including the rough
- element," suspended work to attend the trial.
- MAYBERRY got to Rock County Jail safely by July 10,
when testimony began in a crowded
- courtroom. Throughout the trial, mobs tried "to take
the law into their own hands and extricate the prisoner."
- They nearly succeeded on July 12, the night MAYBERRY
was found guilty. As the convict
- walked down Court Street hill with deputies, a noose was
slipped around his neck. MAYBERRY threw it off, however,
and ran to the jail. That night, as many as 500 people gathered
outside.
- "The night was hideous with their shouts, throwing volley
after volley of stones in the window and
- door," the Gazette said. There also was an attempt to
ram in the jailhouse door.
- Mob law prevailed the next day when MAYBERRY, who
was sentenced at 8:30 a.m., finally
- stepped out of the courthouse after heavy guard.
- Scarcely 100 persons were sitting on the grounds. All appeared
tranquil. But a signal was sent from
- the courthouse. Suddenly, a crowd gathered around MAYBERRY
shouting: "A rope! Hang him! A rope!"
- They pelted guards with rocks and eventually got to MAYBERRY
to perform their mode of
- justice. The hanging induced "wild yells" from
the mob members, all of whom "were fixing upon their consciences
a stain which time can never obliterate."
- Juror Uriah SCHUTT cut down the tree the next day,
declaring he would put an end to the daily
- pilgrimages by the "morbidly curious." The limb
from which MAYBERRY was hanged was sent to the Museum
of the Historical Society for an exhibit. The balance of the
tree was made into canes, sleeve buttons, etc.
- Later, the Gazette wrote: "Although the intelligence
(of the lynching) is by itself startling, we can not
- say that we are much surprised by it... It is the result
of a deep seated feeling that the present law or manner in which
it has been enforced in this state is too lenient in cases of
an aggravated nature like this."
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