By Steven Schlanger

Under the cover of darkness, a mob approached the Palmyra jailhouse on the evening of October 11, 1892, at approximately 11 p.m. Roughly twenty men had gathered for the sole purpose of committing murder; a justifiable murder in their minds, and one that they knew they would be able to commit without accountability or consequence. After all, their victim was a Black man accused of a hideous crime against a white person.

Twenty six year old William Young was probably aware that just a few months prior, another African American man, Joe William Anderson, was lynched in neighboring Louisa County, accused of “attempting to outrage a young white girl.” The practice of lynching African Americans was almost commonplace throughout the southern states, with more than 4,000 Black persons lynched in the United States between 1877 and 1950; and with 82 in Virginia alone. Racial terror was an accepted practice in many (white) communities, and Young must have known that those who were coming to kill him would be able to do so without ever facing judgment in a court of law.

Young may have assumed as well that his jailer, William H. Haden (Order Book/County Court), the man responsible for his safekeeping, would not protect him. Whether Haden acted out of fear for his own life, or was a willing participant in Young’s abduction and subsequent murder, we will never know. Regardless, Mr. Haden played a part in the violent death of a man he was supposed to guard and defend so that his prisoner could appear in court the following day. Since there is no evidence of a follow up investigation into the incident, one can only assume that Mr. Haden suffered no consequences for his actions and/or inaction; in fact, we know that he continued to serve as jailer in the months that followed (Court Order Book).

William Young – Pennsylvania Penitentiary Record

William Young had served time in a Pennsylvania penal institution when he was 19 years old for assault and battery and attempted murder. Prison records note that he was a “laborer,” “illiterate,” “single,” and “occasionally intemperate.” He stood five feet five and a quarter inch tall and weighed 155 pounds (prison release doc.). For his crime, he served three years and was released on May 13, 1889. His prison records also note that his mother was alive at the time of his release in Pennsylvania, and we can surmise that upon regaining his freedom he had returned to Fork Union in bucolic Fluvanna County, Virginia where his mother Dina Young Tucker resided.

His incarceration in the Palmyra jail stemmed from a gambling dispute that occurred in the woods near Kidd’s Store in nearby Scottsville. The group of gamblers was comprised of blacks and whites and at some point, either Walter Glass, a 17-year-old white man, or William Young, accused the other of cheating or stealing. According to news reports of the event, Young approached Glass sometime later near the community of Central Plains bearing a double-barreled shotgun and killed him instantly with a blast directly to the face. (The date of the murder is recorded as Sunday, October 8 in the County Death Registry.) Young ran from the scene but was eventually caught and brought to the jail. A hearing was scheduled (for possibly October 12), presumably to give Young a chance to plead his guilt or innocence. And he was by law entitled to legal representation.

News of the event was decidedly slanted. In one report Young was described as a “Negro Assassin,” one who had killed his victim after setting an “ambush.” Yellow journalism of this sort was typical for the time period. In May of the same year that both Anderson and Young were hanged (along with numerous others in different parts of the country), The Memphis Daily Commercial had published a frightening editorial that tried to justify lynching and other forms of brutality. “The generation of Negroes which have grown up since the war have lost in large measure the traditional and wholesome awe of the white race which kept the Negroes in subjection, even when their masters were in the army, and their families left unprotected except by the slaves themselves. There is no longer a restraint upon the brute passion of the Negro” (Gates, page 142). Similarly, on December 6, 1893, Virginia Governor Philip W. McKinney said that in the post emancipation period lynching was understandable given that the state’s African Americans had been “ignorant and reckless.”

County Order Book – Witnesses to Young’s Murder

Though a half dozen men reportedly accompanied Glass at the time he was shot, we do not know whether they were all white or who they were. We do know that George Tucker, Tom Brown, Patrick Brown, and T.L. Cauthorn were paid fifty cents each as witnesses of “a case of felony against William Young” (Court Order Book page 176). But, without a trial or an investigation by the authorities (that we know of), the truth was buried along with William Young’s corpse, said to be somewhere in a cemetery for enslaved people, which is now itself believed to be buried near a local road providing access to the Rivanna River.

Old Stone Jail, Palmyra, VA. Photo by Steve Schlanger

The Palmyra jailhouse is a formidable structure built in 1828 with native stone and timber (Historic Fluvanna, p. 19). It was designed by John Hartwell Cocke, a friend of Thomas Jefferson. According to Cocke’s specifications, the cells measured roughly twelve by fifteen feet with two window openings covered with gratings made of iron bars “one and a half inches wide by three-eighths of an inch thick,” and with woven “six-inch squares.” The stone walls of the jail were thirty inches thick, and all door frames were made of “bar iron not less than three inches wide and three quarters thick.” There was no running water and other than window light (when the interior and exterior shudders were open), all illumination came from oil burning lanterns or candles. The coroner inquest reported that Young “was securely chained to the floor, handcuffed and under three locks.”

Given the impregnable appearance and construction of the jailhouse, and how William Young was secured, one can safely assume that his abduction required either the assistance or simple acquiescence of the jailer, William H. Haden. The mob reportedly pulled the hinge pins on Young’s cell door, and then removed his chains and shackles before dragging him across the river. The news reports claim that the mob moved with stealth as they abducted William Young. “So quiet were the movements of the mob that no one but the participants (not even the jailer) knew.” The notion that a mob of that size could break into the jail that was and is still located in the center of Palmyra without anyone knowing, is hard to fathom. Residents’ homes were literally across the street. Also, there were only four cells located in the jail, and the jailer’s office is in the middle. Thus, for the jailer not to know what was happening is absurd.

Entrance to one of the cells at the Old Stone Jail, Palmyra, VA. Photo by Steve Schlanger

Young was not the only person locked inside the Old Stone Jail. Matilda Wills and Charles Perkins were both under the “protection” of jailer Haden at the same time. Wills and Perkins were both awaiting transfer to the Asylum at Petersburg, having been classified as “lunatics,” the term used in the 19^th century for mentally ill individuals. The Central State Lunatic Asylum at Petersburg was a facility for Blacks only. There is no record of why both individuals were adjudged as requiring hospitalization, however in the 19^th century and beyond one could be committed for any one of several “illnesses,” including menstruation, religious excitement, epilepsy, and even masturbation.

Both Ms. Wills and Mr. Perkins were most likely present in the Old Stone Jail on the night of William Young’s abduction, thus witnesses to the event. From their cells they would have heard the voices of the mob and possibly seen their faces through the bars. It is not known if they were ever questioned about the night of October 11, even though it is unlikely that their testimonies would have been taken seriously. However, in the November Court Order book (page 176), Mr. Haden asked to be reimbursed for burial expenses for Mr. Perkins, and in the December term a “Wm. Jo. Pace” asked to be compensated for “board and burial expenses of Matilda Wills” (page 180). Neither individual’s name appears in the death registry for Fluvanna County, thus we currently do not know the cause of death for either Ms. Wills or Mr. Perkins. Both were approximately seventy years old and may have succumbed to illnesses resulting from the harsh jail conditions. However, the timing of their respective demise, Perkins in November and Wills in December, is suspicious. Sadly, there is no record of the actual dates of their deaths or where their burials took place.

Enrance to Fluvanna County Courthouse, Palmyra, VA. Photo by Steve Schlager

The jail is adjacent to the original courthouse, also designed by Mr. Cocke, and it too is an imposing structure. Set atop a hill, this brick Greek Revival-styled edifice with its four stout Doric columns bears the inscription “Obey The Laws.” Once called the “Acropolis of Palmyra,” its architect envisioned his work as a proud temple of justice and a symbol of authority (Historic Fluvanna). Its interior walls were decorated with portraits of notable white citizens including Colonel Reuben Boston, who according to local lore, was the last Confederate officer killed before Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.

Coroner’s Inquest of William Young’s Lynching

William Young would never see the inside of the courthouse. Upon gaining access to the interior of the jailhouse, the mob removed the locks and chains that held Young to the floor of his cell. He was then taken across a wooden bridge that forded the Rivanna River to a cemetery for enslaved souls on the property of Mrs. M.C. Wills (Coroner’s Inquest). The bridge had been built in 1828 and was located directly across the main street from the jail. Surrounded by his killers, Young had a rope placed around his neck. As he faced his killers, Young asked for time to pray and “begged that his avengers shoot him” rather than be hanged (news article). He obviously knew that being hanged was a slow and torturous way of dying. But so too, did his killers, who ignored Young’s plea and watched him writhe from the limb of a tree. They left his body hanging once they were certain of his death, a sign to all people of color of the power and impunity enjoyed by certain members of the white community.

Young’s body was still hanging from the tree the following day. At 10 a.m., Coroner Thomas Cleveland held a brief inquest in the presence of Chief Constable James E. Thomas and a mixed-race group of six jurymen, four witnesses (to the inquest) and two gravediggers, suggesting that Young was buried at the cemetery for the enslaved at Solitude Plantation. The inquest noted that Young was “hanged by the neck till he was dead.” There is no record of a subsequent investigation, and though the courthouse to this day reminds all to “Obey The Laws,” those who denied William Young of a trial as well as his life, went unpunished for their crimes.

The-Richmond-Dispatch_10-13-1892_6_lynching_Phil-Young_Fluvana_ART.jpg

The Richmond Dispatch, October 13, 1892

Most of what we know about the events leading to the lynching came from newspaper accounts, often unreliable sources of impartial or accurate reporting when dealing with white mob violence. Young was identified in several news reports as “Philip,” the name of William’s younger brother, and in another as “Munro Young,” another Black man who lived near Scottsville. Only the coroner identified him as William. We also know that a George Tucker (Young’s half-brother), Tom Brown, Patrick Brown, and T.L. Cauthorn were paid fifty cents each as witnesses of “a case of felony against William Young” (Court Order Book page 176). Were these the names of those who identified and reported William Young as the man who shot Glass? Since these are not the same individuals named as witnesses in the coroner’s report, it is quite possible that they were those present at the alleged killing.

If we follow the “facts” as presented in the newspapers, whites and Blacks were gambling in the woods, someone was accused of stealing, Walter Glass was later “ambushed” and shot in the face with a shotgun filled with gravel, the killer escaped, and then was arrested while attending a dance. The whole scenario sounds implausible and from a 21^st century perspective. Was William Young a completely innocent man? Was Phil Young the so-called assassin, or was he too innocent? A member of the Black community in Fluvanna County shared a story handed down through the generations that there was an unrecorded and unreported lynching near Kidd’s store. Perhaps this legend factors into this sordid story? These and many other questions open a number of doors of inquiry, but with a paucity of documentation, voices crying from the grave are barely audible.

There is a certain degree of irony in this sad tale. The bloodlust of the mob not only denied William Young the opportunity to tell his version of what happened in a court of law, it also prevented anyone from knowing the truth of the circumstances that led to Walter Glass’ death. A greater irony perhaps is that by lynching William Young and leaving his body hanging for all to see, we can approximate the site of Young’s murder and burial because of the coroner’s report. However, in the case of Walter Glass, the specific site of his murder and where he was subsequently interred have never been located. Had there been a trial, a record might have survived and given the families of both men (and those of us in the future) some greater understanding of what happened during those two dark days in October.

By the end of October 12, 1892, two men were now dead: both murdered. So called vigilante justice and the lack of an official record of an investigation (if one ever took place), allowed the witnesses and participants to escape justice as well. And unless a document is discovered in a dusty attic or cobwebbed basement, we are left with yet another painful reminder of how lynching represented the ultimate perversion of justice.

Dr. Schlanger was a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and deputy superintendent of schools in the Nanuet Union Free District in Nanuet, NY for his career. He is also the author of a book for young readers titled The Magic Act: A Mystery by S. Roy Stevenson. He is currently an associate editor and reports editor for The Linking Ring magazine, a monthly publication of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. He can be reached at SRSEDD@gmail.com.

REFERENCES

Sources for identifying the name of jailer (“jailor”).