The Lynching of Bob Harper, 1892

From the Louisville Courier-Journal, December 28, 1892.

HARPER THE MAN

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Miss Anderson, of Bowling Green, Thinks He is Her Assailant

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Identification Not Positive, However, and the Negro's Life is Saved

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The Trial Will Probably Be Permitted To Proceed to a Close

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J.C. Called From His House and Shot Down Near Calvert City

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RIOT AT DANCE

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Bowling Green, Ky., Dec. 27.-(Special.)-This city is still in the throes of the wildest sort of excitement over the assault made on Miss Kate Anderson on the 11th. Bob Harper, the suspected negro, was brought before Judge Hines this morning and after the case was taken up in the afternoon the situation became startling. Miss Anderson, supported by her father, mother and sister, was at the trial. The Circuit Court room was filled to overflowing with a crowd of citizens, who stood upon the benches and railing around the bar.

To save Miss Anderson from embarrassment, the court, with only the officers and the prisoner, repaired to the County Court-room, where her testimony was heard. She was very slow to make a statement implicating the negro, and it was only by dint of the most persistent questioning that she finally said that according to her best knowledge and belief Harper was the man who assaulted her.

When this became known to the crowd on the outside the wildest excitement prevailed, and there were shouts of "Bring him out!" "Hang him!" etc., but County Attorney Sinus addressed the crowd and appealed for a trial for the negro, and quiet was finally restored. The trial then proceeded, and after hearing the testimony of Dr. McCormack adjourned until 9 o'clock tomorrow morning, when the investigation will be resumed.

Miss Anderson's identification is not positive enough to warrant the more conservative thinking people in taking the law into their own hands, and this is all that saved Harper's life. It is now thought the trial will be permitted to proceed to a close. Public opinion is still divided as to the negro's guilt, and only a thorough investigation will determine it one way or the other.

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From the Louisville Courier-Journal, December 29, 1892.

MOB VENGEANCE

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Bob Harper Taken from Court and Lynched At Bowling Green

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His Trial Cut Short By One Thousand Angry Men

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Rushed Through the Streets to the Fair Grounds and Swung Up

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He Asked to be Allowed to Talk While Choking to Death

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MISS ANDERSON POSITIVE OF HIS GUILT

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Bowling Green, Ky., Dec.28.-(Special.)-Bob Harper, the negro whom Miss Kate Anderson identified as her assailant, was lynched at noon to-day.

At 11:35 o'clock this morning a mob of a thousand men surrounded the courthouse where Harper's trial was in progress.

About fifty men with guns marched into the Circuit Court-room and took the prisoner from the court. It was done so quickly that there was hardly time for resistance. There was no attempt at concealment, and no man of the mob was disguised. Several well-known citizens led it.

The mob went to the Warren County Fair Grounds with the prisoner, which is nearly a mile from the city.

The mob rushed him along State Street and out Broadway and into the grounds. He was given an opportunity to make a statement and said, "I have tried to do everything in the world to prove my innocence. I am not guilty, and die with this on my lips. I have never done anybody harm. I am innocent."

He was told that he might pray, but declined, and a rope was then put over his head and he was swung on a limb.

After Harper had been swung off he made an effort to talk . . . and several nearest him understood the words to be: "Let me tell, let me tell," and it is believed he wished to make a confession of his guilt, but it was too late, and in a moment he was dead.

At four o'clock this afternoon the body was cut down on the order of County Judge Grider and taken to the undertaking establishment of Prather & Payne. The feeling on the part of the public is that, though the remedy resorted to was a severe one, it was a just one. . . .

When the crowd, for it can not be called a mob, took Harper from the court-house, Miss Anderson was at the time in the County Judge's office awaiting to voluntarily appear again before the court and make her statement as to the identification of Harper positive. When told that Harper had been taken to the suburbs to be hanged she said to Dr. McCormack that what she would then say would make no difference as to the negro's fate, but that it "was a comfort to know that he was beyond any question the guilty man."

No such work was ever done before in so orderly and quiet a manner. There was no loud talking, not a shot fired and no unusual demonstration. The men who composed the crowd were a resolute and determined set, and showed that they were merely meant to protect the virtue of their homes and their families, and they proceded about the work in a business like way. There can be no question as to Harper's guilt, and though his punishment was not brought about according to the forms of law, all will admit that it was a righteous one.

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The action of the mob has been expected almost hourly since the morning of December 14, when the crime was committed. The whole community has been wrought up over the assault, and the best citizens of Bowling Green and Warren county swore to avenge the wrong.

The Anderson family is one of the best known in Park City. They reside in a pretty suburban home, and the young woman is highly esteemed.

Between 10 o'clock am and noon on Wednesday, the 14th of the present month, Miss Kate Anderson, seventeen years of age, was left alone in the family sitting room by her mother, who called on a neighbor.

Miss Anderson was employed on a piece of fancy work intended for a Christmas present for a member of her family. She heard a noise in the rear of the house and paid but little attention to it, believing it to be the grocer or her brother returning from school. In a few moments she was startled by the appearance of a burly negro, who wore a mask and bonnet. She screamed, but was caught by the negro, who drew a knife and threatened to kill her if she did not submit to his desires, or if she uttered a word.

The young woman made a desperate struggle to free herself, but uttered not a word, believing it meant death. In the struggle, the negro's mask and bonnet fell. It was then he cut her throat from ear to ear and also inflicted other injuries by biting her on the cheeck and cutting her with his knife.

The negro then ran and made good his escape. He was afterward located at Oakland, ten miles from Bowling Green, and arrested. It was a difficult matter to prevent lynching as soon as he was caught, but, after speeches were made by numerous prominent people, the mob, which was three times organized, decided to await the result of the examining trial.