Grand jury refuses to indict the 3 assailants, assailants set free on $500 bail.
The Wright County War, also known as the Lynching of Oscar F. Jackson, was a public lynching and the extrajudicial killing of a sharecropper, Oscar F. Jackson, via a mob in Rockford, Minnesota on April 25, 1859, for the murder of Henry A. Wallace. The death of Henry A. Wallace was never resolved and it remains a longstanding unsolved case in Minnesota. The death of Jackson is the first recorded incident of a lynching in the state of Minnesota. The affair is also the first time in Minnesota state history where the Governor of MinnesotaHenry Hastings Sibley declared a state of insurrection and utilized the militia to bring back order to Wright County.
In 1858 Henry A. Wallace, a wealthy settler to the newly established state of Minnesota came to Rockford Township in Wright County, Minnesota to erect a cabin on his land claim alongside Amos Moore near Lake Charlotte. Other neighbors in Wallace and Moore's vicinity were the Jackson family; Oscar F. Jackson, his wife Elizabeth, and Jackson's father-in-law George Holdship.[1][2] Wallace was elected as Rockford Township's Assessor while Oscar F. Jackson was elected as the Township's supervisor and the Justice of the peace. On September 21, 1858, Wallace was found murdered on his property in a cluster of willow trees with a mortal head injury which caused his death.[1] According to reports Wallace was last seen alive on August 27 with Oscar who had been a hired laborer on Wallace's property as a sharecropper to help Wallace harvest hay on his land claim.[3]
The Arrest and Trial of Oscar F. Jackson
Many township citizens and neighbors suspected Jackson to be the primary suspect for the murder of Wallace. Despite Wallace's disappearance Jackson appeared to be rather unconcerned about the entire affair, as displayed to others when Jackson refused to join in the search party to look for Wallace after his disappearance.
In October 1858 Jackson was arrested and after a Justice of Peace Court in Rockford was held over for a Grand Jury. Jackson was taken to the Ramsey County Jail awaiting trial. He was tried in a District Court and after a long and exciting trial was found innocent by a jury. Jackson was released from custody following a not guilty verdict on April 3, 1859.[1][2] This verdict did not settle well with the populace of Wright County, however, including Wallace's brother Hiram, who still felt that Jackson was guilty for the murder of Wallace. Wright County Sheriff Bertram and Justice of the Peace, Cyrus Chase Jenks, also sympathized with the citizens of Wright County and did not want to let the murder go unpunished.
The Lynching of Oscar F. Jackson
Five days later on April 8, 1858, three men; Hiram, Jenks, and Bertram went in search of Jackson in Hennepin County, Minnesota, and it was here where Hiram accused Jackson of theft, with Jenks then issuing out a warrant for Jackson's arrest. Sheriff Bertram issued the arrest warrant to Hennepin CountyDeputy SheriffAlfred Bruce Brackett who in turn arrested Jackson at the Apollo Saloon in Saint Paul, Minnesota.[3] Meanwhile, Jackson pleaded for his attorney, but Brackett refused. Jackson urged that the warrant was based on a false charge in a ploy to get him back to Rockford, where he would be killed. On April 11, 1858, the Honorable Isaac Atwater, a state supreme court justice, ordered for Jackson's release alongside a hastily written Writ Of Habeas Corpus.[3] Despite this Jackson was immediately re-arrested, as Jenks and Bertram had realized their error, gone back to Wright County and drawn up a second warrant. Atwater responded with a second writ of habeas corpus, and on April 13, 1858, Jackson was ordered to be released.
Jackson fled to his father-in-law George Holdship's house, where his wife Elizabeth awaited him. On April 24, a mob tracked Jackson to the Holdship farmstead and laid siege to the house, threatening to burn it down if Jackson didn't surrender. Wright County Sheriff Bertram swore to Jackson that he would not allow him to be harmed if Jackson agreed to be arrested, and Jackson complied.[4] Only a mile away from the Holdship residence the mob overtook Sheriff Bertram's wagon, which Bertram relinquished without resistance and proceeded to not report the incident to his deputies.[3]
The mob took Jackson to Wallace's cabin near Rockford where Jackson was suspended by a noose before being let go on two different occasions in order to extract a confession from Jackson for the murder of Wallace, which they failed to do. It was on the third and final time that Jackson was lynched from the gable of Wallace's cabin.[5] Jackson's wife Elizabeth was a witness to her husbands murder. A coroner's jury was called on the same day Jackson died the corner's jury concluded the following:
"We, the undersigned, composing a coroner's Jury on the body of Oscar F. Jackson, do agree that the deceased came to his death on the 25th day of April, 1858 by hanging by the neck; and that it was done by some person or persons, unknown to this Jury.-Signed John M. Keeler, foreman, A. Ackley, James Gilbert, O. L. Dudley, C. Champlin, J. U. Freed".[5]
Governors Response
As Minnesota had been a state for less than one year the Governor of MinnesotaHenry Hastings Sibley was not going to allow this injustice and public outrage to stand. On April 29, 1858, Sibley issued a reward for $500 for the apprehension and conviction of those responsible for Jackson's lynching, calling it a "high-handed outrage against the peace and dignity of the state".[3]
The $500 reward went unclaimed until July 1858 when Oscar's wife Elizabeth spotted Emery W. Moore at a gathering in Minnehaha Falls. Moore had been a member of the lynch mob, and it was his warrant that lead to Jackson's arrest at his father-in-law's house. Mrs. Jackson alerted St. Paul's chief of police, who arrested Moore for murder, and he was sent to Rockford to stand trial. However, before Moore could be tried for murder he was set free by a group of vigilantes.[3]
Fed up, Governor Sibley declared Wright County to be "in a state of insurrection" and sent in the state militia to put a stop to mob rule. The militia units sent to Wright County were; the Pioneer Guards, the St. Paul City Guards, the Stillwater Guards, the Dakota Rifles, the Washington Light Artillery, and the St. Paul Light Cavalry.[4][6] The militia units were also aided by 35 special policemen.[4][6] It was not until the state militia and police interrogated citizens until they found three of the mob assailants responsible for Jackson's lynching, there people were; Amer W. Moore, Hiram S. Angell, and John Edwin Jenks.[3]
Aftermath
The three assailants who were purported to have been members of the mob which killed Oscar F. Jackson were all acquitted due to hung jury which refused to indict any of the persons with the charge of murder.[2] The three assailants were each released with a bond of $500. The District Court met at Monticello, Minnesota October 2, 1859, after taking the solemn oath of office, the Grand Jury went into session but failed to take any action on the disturbances in Wright County. It was said that at least two of the County Officials were anxious that the jury should dissolve without issuing any indictments. Consequently, on the morning of October 4, 1859, the jury adjourned. Whether anyone appeared before the Grand Jury is not known.[1]
The murder of Wallace is still unsolved to this day.
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