Victim ID: VA1893020101
Victim Name: Sam Ellerson (McDonald)
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged with a horse
Accusation: Murder of two white men
Date: 1893-02-01
City: Richlands
Mob Composition: About 300
Summary: Sam Ellerson, also known as Sam McDonald, was an African American man from Buchanan County, who was lynched on February 1st, 1893 in Richlands, Tazewell County, for the murder of two white men. As a result of the murder of these two men, five African American men were lynched in less than three days in Richlands, including Sam Ellerson, Spencer Branch, Jerry Brown, John Johnson, Sam Blow and possibly another unnamed victim.
On Monday, January 30th 1893, Alexander Ratcliff and Benjamin Shortridge, two white merchants, were in Richlands, Tazewell, for business. After spending some time in a barroom, they “were followed by four negroes, and on reaching a rather secluded spot, the negroes attacked them and knocked them in the head. After robbing their pockets of $31.00 in money, they dragged their bodies across the railroad track and left them for the first train to run over” (The Big Stone Gap Post). On Tuesday, January 31st, 1892, “Jerry Brown was suspected of the murder, […] and on being questioned closely finally confessed, implicating three others, Spencer Branch, John Johnson and Sam McDonald. The authorities succeeded in capturing John Johnson and Spencer Branch and lodged them in jail, Sam McDonald in the meantime having escaped” (The Roanoke Times). On that same evening, a mob of about 300 people “largely composed of neighbors of Ratcliff and Shortridge from Buchanan” (The Times) took Jerry Brown from the jail and hanged him to a tree. When the mob returned to the jail to lynch also Branch and Johnson, they found out that authorities had taken the prisoners away for safe-keeping (The Roanoke Times). Later on that same night, “Word was at once sent to Honaker to capture Sam McDonald and hold him until [the mob] came after him, and about twenty people boarded the westbound freight Tuesday night to bring Sam McDonald back” in Richlands (The Roanoke Times). The following morning, February 1st, 1893, upon hearing that Branch and Johnson were detained in Cedar Bluff and that Sam Ellerson had been captured and bound to the same destination, a mob of about 300 people boarded the train to Cedar Bluff. Once there, they immediately took Ellerson in custody and then captured Branch and Johnson (The Roanoke Times) and brought all three of them back to the jail in Richlands. Ultimately, the mob “took them out and over the river to where they had hung Jerry Brown the night before” (The Roanoke Times) and before a crowd of about 500 people, including women and children, the mob put Sam Ellerson “on a horse, the noose put around his neck and the horse led from under him, launching him into eternity” (The Roanoke Times). Soon after, Spencer Branch and John Johnson were lynched in the same manner. The Roanoke Times remarked that “The lynching took place between the hours of one and two p.m. and was very orderly, there being no shooting or fighting, and not one of tho crowd wore masks. After the three were dead the mob dispersed, and a crowd of about fourteen proceeded to capture Sam Blow, who Johnson implicated in the Hunt murder, and on Thursday morning his body was found hanging from a tree at Cedar Bluff.”.
On February 17th, 1893, the Clinch Valley News reported that “The Commonwealth had summonsed from Richlands and neighborhood about sixty persons to appear before the grand jury to testify regarding the lynching of Jerry Brown, John Johnson, Spencer Branch, Sam Blow and Sam Kirkpatrick [Ellerson]. Three of these negroes were hung in the day time and none of the lynchers were in any way disguised. It has always been well nigh impossible to implicate individuals in such cases because of participation or an willingness of witnesses, but the matter will be sifted as far as possible to bring the guilty to trial.”
News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Big Stone Gap Post, Clinch Valley News, Richmond Dispatch, Richmond Planet, Roanoke Times, The Times
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1893-02-04)
Article Link (from Big Stone Gap Post published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from Clinch Valley News published on 1893-02-03)
Article Link (from Clinch Valley News published on 1893-02-17)
Article Link (from Richmond Dispatch published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1893-02-03)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1893-02-04)
Article Link (from The Times published on 1893-02-02)
Article Link (from The Times published on 1893-02-03)