The Lynching

On July 14, 1893, in the law-abiding county of Lawrence, in which Lincoln visited and which claimed the earliest school integration in the state of Illinois, a black man was lynched by an angry mob.  None of the leaders of the mob were apprehended, and no steps whatever were taken to bring the murderers to justice.

Allen Butler was once a slave. He was born in 1816, and belonged to Jacob Biser, living at Broad Run, near Burkittsville, Frederick County Maryland, on the farm, later in 1893, occupied by Mr. Greenbury House. Mr. Biser was the grandfather of Hon. M J Grove, of Frederick County, Maryland, and Mr. John Biser, of Frederick Maryland.

Allen Butler, then a slave and Mary Ann House, a free Negro woman, were married at Jefferson, Frederick County, Maryland July 24, 1841, by a minister of the German Reformed Church, with the consent of Butler's owner, and in accordance with the custom governing such marriages in Maryland. They lived together in Maryland and to them were born four children, John H Butler, Catherine Brooks, an infant who died in infancy, and another who was killed in the War of the Rebellion.

At the death of his owner, Mr. Biser, Allen Butler became the property of his wife Margaret Biser. Mrs. Biser hired him out to John Schindler, the father of Rev Dr Daniel Schindler, living at Broad Run. About 1853, Mr. Schindler bought Butler and he moved to Springfield, Ohio, taking Butler with him. Butler drove the six-horse team of Mr. Schindler from Burkittsville to Springfield, where he became free and later became quite well-to-do, accumulating considerable property. His family remained in Maryland.

On November 14, 1854, Allen was united in marriage at Springfield, Ohio to Mariah Conway, a free Negro woman by the minister of the gospel, according to the laws of Ohio. He and Mariah lived together as husband and wife in Ohio for 14 years, and during that time two sons were born to them, William D and Oscar Butler and a daughter Harriet, “Hatie”O. Butler.

In 1868 Butler moved, with this second family, Mariah, William D and Oscar Butler to Lawrence County Illinois where he and Mariah lived until his death in 1893.

On July 14, 1893, Allen Butler, who was well known in the community, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of the entire country, was made the victim of the mob and hanged because his son, William had become unduly intimate with a 15 year old white girl by the name of Ida Elkins, who had been a servant around his house for three years. There was no pretense as to the facts.

The girl lived at Butler's house as a servant, and she and Butler's son fell in love with each other. Later it was found that the girl was in a delicate condition. It was claimed, but with how much truth no one was ever able to tell, that the father had procured an abortion, or himself had operated on the girl, and that she had left the house to go back to her home.

Allen never claimed to be in any way responsible for the action of his son, but the authorities procured the arrest of both father and son, the latter on a charge of assault and the father, a horse doctor on a charge of malpractice for performing an abortion on a 15-year-old white girl. Both waived preliminary examinations, and as the boy could not make bail he was placed in jail.  Allen gave bail to appear before the Grand Jury when it should convene.

 On the same night, however, the mob of about one hundred men took the matter in hand with the intention of hanging the son. It assembled near Sumner, while the boy, who had been unable to give bail, was lodged in jail at Lawrenceville. As it was impossible to reach Lawrenceville and hang the son before dawn, the leaders of the mob concluded they would go to Butler's house and hang him. Butler was found at his home, taken out by the mob and hanged from a cottonwood tree.

At first the local newspapers tried to make the lynching appear to be a case of suicide and that Butler was led to self-destruction by remorse over the deed with which he was charged. The old man, who had for 25 years been looked upon as a model man in whom everybody had confidence, could not face the law, and about daylight went out near his barn and taking some binding twine made a rope, throwing one in over a limb of a cottonwood tree and hanged himself. Butler confessed to S C Lewis, an attorney, that he was guilty as charged; also, that he had been having intercourse with the girl for a year past. Thirty years after the fact the Sumner Press was still perpetuating the lie. “Bearing out the old superstition, it was observed that the tree upon which Allen Butler hung himself withered and died while in full leaf.”

There was strong feeling however in Lawrence County that Allen Butler was lynched after a confession had been forced from him by the mob. Many disbelieved the suicide story and declared that it was simply started to cover the disgrace of a lynching. As noted earlier, none of the leaders of the mob were apprehended, and no steps whatever were taken to bring the murderers to justice.

After Butler’s death his wife, Mariah and son Oscar returned to Ohio leasing the Butler farm to Wade Vangilder. On September 18, 1893, William D and Oscar gave a mortgage on the lands to Gee B Barnes and Stephen C Lewis, but then were unable to make the payments.

 The resulting lawsuit for judgment on the mortgaged lands resulted in an inheritance controversy by the heirs of the first marriage.

S. C. Landy, Judge of the Circuit Court in Lawrence County found (1) that the first wife and children were the legal heirs and (2) that the ‘marriage’ to Mariah was void and her children were not legitimate heirs of Allen Butler and had no interest in the real estate thus making the mortgages they had given null and void also. This judgment was apparently based on an Illinois Statute passed in 1891 making marriages between slaves valid and binding in Illinois, and children of such marriages legitimate. Thus, since no divorce had been ever granted in the first marriage, the second union was considered void.

However, on appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, Gee E Barnes, attorney for the second family, argued that despite the Illinois law, the laws of Maryland should apply to this case since the first marriage occurred there. The question as to the validity and effect of marriages between men and women celebrated when in a state of slavery was not binding upon the parties if repudiated upon emancipation.

Depositions from attorneys in Maryland, offered by J E McGaughey and PG Bradbury, attorneys for the first family, set forth the law of slave marriages in that state and argued that they were just as valid as any other marriage.

The court discussed at length the general history of slave marriages before the war which were treated the same as marriages between infants (boys under the age of 14 and girls under the age of 12 yrs) or between lunatics or insane persons. Such marriages were voidable but could be repudiated or ratified when the disability ceased.

The Supreme Court chose to apply the law in cases of marriages between slaves who ratified or repudiated the marriages after they become free. Allen Butler engaged in no act to affirm his slave marriage, but in fact repudiated it upon his emancipation by marrying another woman, with whom he lived for nearly 40 years and raised a family together. Mary Ann, the other party to the slave marriage, by her conduct repudiated it also. She formed illicit relations with another man by whom she had several children. Thus, the marriage of Allen Butler and Mariah Butler was lawful, and the first wife Mary Ann and her children had no interest in his estate. The disaffirmance of the slave marriage rendered it null from the beginning, making the children of such a marriage incapable of inheriting from the father.