Licking County Sheriff's Residence and Jail

Licking County Sheriff’s Residence and Jail

ID: OH1910070801
Name(s) of People Lynched: Carl Etherington
Number of People Lynched: 1
Race: White
Gender: Male
Lynching Date(s): 1910-07-08
Year Marker Erected: 2014
Erected by: Licking County Commissioners, Licking County Records and Archives and The Ohio Historical Society.
City: Newark
County: Licking
State: Ohio

Marker Text: July 8, 1910 was a dark day in local history. Carl Etherington, a detective with the Anti-Saloon League of Ohio, had come to Newark to raid saloons and speakeasies for illegal alcohol. Etherington shot local saloon owner William Howard in self-defense, and was taken to the jail. In retaliation for the agents’ activities, a mob formed. The crowd stormed the north side door of the jail, forcibly removed Etherington, and hanged him from a telephone pole on the southeast corner of the courthouse square. Governor Judson Harmon intervened to restore order. Fifty-eight of the mob participants were indicted: 25 for first degree murder, 10 for assault and battery, 21 for rioting, and 2 for perjury. Etherington’s lynching received national attention because it stemmed from a local uprising against the Temperance Movement.