Killing of Robert S. Maynard

Last updated

Robert S. Maynard was a 21-year-old man [1] from Illinois who was lynched in Jacksonville, Oregon, in May 1852 as a result of his murder of J. C. Platt. As Maynard was extrajudicially killed by hanging, this was the first recorded hanging and first recorded lynching in Southern Oregon, [2] where no courts had yet been appointed. [3]

Contents

Background

Maynard used the aliases Jackson Maynard and "John Brown," [4] [5] and multiple sources use solely Brown. [6] [7] He was described as a gambler, [8] [9] and as a man from Pike County, Illinois. [10] [11] Gold having been discovered late in 1851, [12] Jacksonville was only founded the same year of the killing, and the area was known at the time as Rogue River. [13] [7]

Murder

Maynard shot J.C. Platt [14] (also known as John D. Platt [7] and as Samuel Potts [6] [15] ) with a borrowed gun [16] because Platt called him a liar; [17] [14] the shot man "made no attempt to assault." [18]

Lynching

Maynard was executed by hanging [8] [14] by miners in what The Daily Alta California characterized as a "lynching." [7] Maynard asked the onlookers that they point to his grave and "say there lies a man who would not be insulted". [19]

As there were no organized courts of law at the time, [20] the killing was called "mob law" and "necessary" by press in New York; [21] likewise, the 1884 History of Southern Oregon described the extrajudicial killing as "a law higher, stronger, more effective than written codes [...] administered by the people's court." [22]

Conversely, Herman F. Reinhart attested a few years later that «excited miners [...] worked up a prejudice against the gambler», as gamblers had become «very obnoxious to the miners, who had lost money» with them, Maynard being one of those, and as a consequence the «miners were for lynching» Maynard right away. The miners appointed «fifty men (Vigilantes)» to keep Maynard from escaping until the hanging. [23]

Fifty years after the hanging, The Sunday Oregonian characterized the lynching as "swift and unerring justice of the miners." [24]

Related Research Articles

In the broader context of racism in the United States, mass racial violence in the United States consists of ethnic conflicts and race riots, along with such events as:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josephine County, Oregon</span> County in Oregon, United States

Josephine County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 88,090. The county seat is Grants Pass. The county is named after Virginia Josephine Rollins (1834-1912), a settler who was the first white woman to live in the county's boundaries. Josephine County comprises the Grants Pass, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Medford-Grants Pass, OR Combined Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson County, Oregon</span> County in Oregon, United States

Jackson County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 223,259. The county seat is Medford. The county is named for Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnston City, Illinois</span> City in Illinois, United States

Johnston City is a city in Williamson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,348 at the 2020 census. This was a center of coal mining in the early 20th century, having a peak of population in the 1920s. The mining jobs attracted many immigrants from Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacksonville, Oregon</span> City in Oregon, United States

Jacksonville is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, approximately 5 miles (8 km) west of Medford. It was named for Jackson Creek, which flows through the community and was the site of one of the first placer gold claims in the area. It includes Jacksonville Historic District, which was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1966. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,785, up from 2,235 at the 2000 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medford, Oregon</span> City and county seat in Oregon, United States

Medford is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Oregon, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census on April 1, 2020, the city had a total population of 85,824, making it the 8th most populous city in Oregon, and a metropolitan area population of 223,259, making the Medford MSA the fourth largest metro area in Oregon. The city was named in 1883 by David Loring, civil engineer and right-of-way agent for the Oregon and California Railroad, after Medford, Massachusetts, which was near Loring's hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. Medford is near the middle fork of Bear Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogue River (Oregon)</span> River in the United States

The Rogue River in southwestern Oregon in the United States flows about 215 miles (346 km) in a generally westward direction from the Cascade Range to the Pacific Ocean. Known for its salmon runs, whitewater rafting, and rugged scenery, it was one of the original eight rivers named in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Beginning near Crater Lake, which occupies the caldera left by the explosive volcanic eruption and collapse of Mount Mazama, the river flows through the geologically young High Cascades and the older Western Cascades, another volcanic province. Further west, the river passes through multiple exotic terranes of the more ancient Klamath Mountains. In the Kalmiopsis Wilderness section of the Rogue basin are some of the world's best examples of rocks that form the Earth's mantle. Near the mouth of the river, the only dinosaur fragments ever discovered in Oregon were found in the Otter Point Formation, along the coast of Curry County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount McLoughlin</span> Stratovolcano in Oregon

Mount McLoughlin is a dormant steep-sided stratovolcano, or composite volcano, in the Cascade Range of southern Oregon and within the United States Sky Lakes Wilderness. It is one of the volcanic peaks in the Cascade Volcanic Arc, within the High Cascades sector. A prominent landmark for the Rogue River Valley, the mountain is north of Mount Shasta, and south-southeast of Crater Lake. It was named around 1838 after John McLoughlin, a Chief Factor for the Hudson's Bay Company. Mount McLouglin's prominence has made it a landmark to Native American populations for thousands of years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siskiyou Mountains</span> Mountain range in Oregon and California, US

The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal subrange of the Klamath Mountains, and located in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately 100 miles (160 km) from east of Crescent City, California, northeast along the north side of the Klamath River into Josephine and Jackson counties in Oregon. The mountain range forms a barrier between the watersheds of the Klamath River to the south and the Rogue River to the north. Accordingly, much of the range is within the Rogue River – Siskiyou and Klamath national forests, and the Pacific Crest Trail follows a portion of the crest of the Siskiyous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynching in the United States</span> Extrajudicial killings in the United States by mobs or vigilante groups

Lynching was the widespread occurrence of extrajudicial killings which began in the United States' pre–Civil War South in the 1830s and ended during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Although the victims of lynchings were members of various ethnicities, after roughly 4 million enslaved African Americans were emancipated, they became the primary targets of white Southerners. Lynchings in the U.S. reached their height from the 1890s to the 1920s, and they primarily victimized ethnic minorities. Most of the lynchings occurred in the American South, as the majority of African Americans lived there, but racially motivated lynchings also occurred in the Midwest and border states. In 1891, the largest single mass lynching in American history was perpetrated in New Orleans against Italian immigrants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Ford (pirate)</span> American pirate (1775–1833)

James Ford, born James N. Ford, also known as James N. Ford Sr., the "N" possibly for Neal, was an American civic leader and business owner in western Kentucky and southern Illinois, from the late 1790s to mid-1830s. Despite his clean public image as a "Pillar of the Community", Ford was secretly a river pirate and the leader of a gang that was later known as the "Ford's Ferry Gang". His men were the river equivalent of highway robbers. They hijacked flatboats and Ford's "own river ferry" for tradable goods from local farms that were coming down the Ohio River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogue River Wars</span> 1855-56 conflict between Native American tribes and U.S. soldiers and settlers in Oregon

The Rogue River Wars were an armed conflict in 1855–1856 between the U.S. Army, local militias and volunteers, and the Native American tribes commonly grouped under the designation of Rogue River Indians, in the Rogue River Valley area of what today is southern Oregon. The conflict designation usually includes only the hostilities that took place during 1855–1856, but there had been numerous previous skirmishes, as early as the 1830s, between European American settlers and the Native Americans, over territory and resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banditti of the Prairie</span> Group of loose-knit outlaw gangs, during the early-mid-19th century

The Banditti of the Prairie, also known as The Banditti, Prairie Pirates, Prairie Bandits, and Pirates of the Prairie, in the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio and the Territory of Iowa, were a group of loose-knit outlaw gangs, during the early to mid-19th century. Though bands of roving criminals were common in many parts of Illinois, the counties of Lee, DeKalb, Ogle, and Winnebago were especially plagued by them. The new crime wave in the region of the frontier Midwest may have occurred following the crackdown on Southern outlaws by the rising vigilante-regulator movement and the breakup of the criminal syndicate of John A. Murrell and his gang, the "Mystic Clan", in the Southern United States. In 1841, the escalating pattern of house burglary, horse and cattle theft, stagecoach and highway robbery, counterfeiting and murder associated with the Banditti had come to a head in Ogle County. As the crimes continued, local citizens formed bands of vigilantes known as Regulators. A clash between the Banditti and the Regulators in Ogle County near Oregon, Illinois resulted in the outlaws' demise and decreased Banditti activity and violent crime within the county.

<i>Canyon Passage</i> 1946 film

Canyon Passage is a 1946 American Western film directed by Jacques Tourneur and set in frontier Oregon. It stars Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward and Brian Donlevy. Featuring love triangles and an Indian uprising, the film was adapted from the 1945 Saturday Evening Post novel Canyon Passage by Ernest Haycox. Hoagy Carmichael (music) and Jack Brooks (lyrics) were nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Ole Buttermilk Sky."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Britt</span>

Peter Britt was a Swiss portrait painter and American pioneer photographer, meteorologist, accomplished horticulturist, an early settler and developer in the Rogue Valley of the Oregon Territory. Britt is considered as one of the Pacific Northwest's most celebrated photographers, as well as the "father of the grape industry" in Southern Oregon. His photos of Crater Lake were instrumental in creation of the Crater Lake National Park in 1902.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John E. Ross</span> American politician

John England Ross was an American politician born in Madison County, Ohio. He led volunteer forces from Oregon in the Cayuse War and the Modoc War, prospected for gold in the California Gold Rush, and represented Jackson County, Oregon in the Oregon Territorial Legislature and Oregon State Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyrus Y. Jacobs</span> American politician and merchant

Cyrus Y. Jacobs was a grain mill owner, distiller, and merchant in Boise, Idaho. He served as mayor of Boise City 1879–1880.

The Danville race riot occurred on July 25, 1903, in Danville, Illinois, when a mob sought to lynch a Black man who had been arrested. On their way to county jail, an altercation occurred that led to the death of a rioter and the subsequent lynching of another Black man. At least two other Black residents were also assaulted. The rioters failed to overtake the police stationed at the jail and the Illinois National Guard restored order the next day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynching of Will Jones</span>

Will Jones was an African-American man who was lynched in Ellaville, Schley County, Georgia by a white mob on February 13, 1922. According to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary it was the 13th of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.

References

  1. ↑ ( The Oregon Statesman 1852 , p. 2): "He was twenty-one years of age."
  2. ↑ ( Plymale 1903 , p. 15): "this was the first execution in Southern Oregon"
  3. ↑ ( Plymale 1903 , p. 15): "there were no legally authorized courts"
  4. ↑ ( Plymale 1903 , p. 15): "a man who was called Brown by his comrades, but whose right name was Jackson Maynard"
  5. ↑ ( The Oregon Statesman 1852 , p. 2): "Robert Maynard, who went by the name of Brown"
  6. 1 2 "XLIII — Jacksonville". History of Southern Oregon. A. G. Walling. 1884. p. 360. LCCN   a14001444 . Retrieved 26 February 2024. Potts was shot dead, without provocation, by a gambler named Brown
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Lynching on Rogue River". The Daily Alta California . No. 166, Vol III. San Francisco: E. Gilbert & Co. 15 June 1852. Retrieved 26 February 2024. Brown, of Illinois, who killed John D. Platt [...] has been hung [...] trial at the hands of a committee appointed by the miners
  8. 1 2 David Newsom (9 August 1852). "From Oregon". Sangamo Journal / Illinois State Journal. Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections. p. 2. Retrieved 26 February 2024. a gambler shot a man [...] and at the expiration of a week the man pulled hemp!
  9. ↑ ( Plymale 1903 , p. 15): "Jackson Maynard, a gambler"
  10. ↑ Sacramento Daily Union 1852, p. 37: "John Brown, of Illinois"
  11. ↑ ( Reinhart 1962 , p. 2): "John Brown from Pike County, Illinois"
  12. ↑ ( Plymale 1903 , p. 15): "the mines on Rich Gulch within the limits of Jacksonville were discovered [...] late in the fall of 1851."
  13. ↑ ( The Oregon Statesman 1852 , p. 2): "Jacksonville, a small mining village on Rogue River"
  14. 1 2 3 "Oregon". Illinois Daily Journal. No. 360, Vol IV. S. & A. Francis. 31 July 1852. p. 2. OCLC   8821623. Robt. S. Maynard, from Illinois, shot a man by the name of J. C. Platt, at Jacksonville, because he had been insulted by him [...] executed in three days after
  15. ↑ ( Plymale 1903 , p. 15): "killed Samuel Potts"
  16. ↑ ( The Oregon Statesman 1852 , p. 2): "Brown said he was insulted, and that he would shoot Platt. He borrowed a revolver"
  17. ↑ ( Sacramento Daily Union 1852 , p. 2): "Upon being called a liar he shot his antagonist"
  18. ↑ ( Plymale 1903 , p. 15): "Potts made no attempt to assault Maynard"
  19. ↑ ( The Oregon Statesman 1852 , p. 2): "He said [...] buried in that grave (pointing to a grave nearby, which had been dug), and that the traveler would point to it and say there lies a man who would not be insulted"
  20. ↑ ( Plymale 1903 , p. 15): "at this time there were no county organizations, no courts"
  21. ↑ "The Territory of Oregon". The Ovid Bee. No. 24, Vol 15. Ovid, New York: David Fairchild and Son. 22 September 1852. p. 1. LCCN   sn83031494. OCLC   9887516 . Retrieved 26 February 2024. May 29 [...] This may be called "mob law," but it is a government that seems to be necessary in these new settlements, where courts are not organized [...] A white man was [..] hung, for the diabolical murder of a white man
  22. ↑ ( History of Southern Oregon 1884 , p. 360): "there was a law higher, stronger, more effective than written codes--the stern necessity of mutual protection--and a strong element had the courage and will to enforce it. Justice was administered by the people's court"
  23. ↑ ( Reinhart 1962 , pp. 37–39): "Brown was called of that class, then very obnoxious to the miners, who had lost money with them, and were mad at them for beating them out of their money [...] The miners were for lynching Brown right off [...] A guard of fifty men (Vigilantes)"
  24. ↑ ( Plymale 1903 , p. 15): "they had a wholesome dread of the swift and unerring justice of the miners"

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.