Enjoy a sample of our Newsletter

"2 Hoots & a Hollar".

Lynching

Jun. 27, 1874 – White Hall REGISTER

 A Man Up A Tree:  About midnight, last Sat. night, a buggy containing 3 men and a led horse, came into Carrollton from the north, turned west at bank corner, circled square a time or two.  About the same time, another similar group came into N. E. corner of the square & passed round on South side.  The two met at the co. jail.  Jailor Halbert was not looking for them.  They roused him & told him they had a prisoner for him, & when he got keys, they took him into custody & opening the jail secured Evans, the murderer of John Halbert, & put him into one of the buggies & the two buggies passed off north at a sharp speed.

They were seen to pass out at the N. W. corner of square & take the W. H. road.  In about 15 or 20 minutes the 2 horsemen followed under whip.  These horsemen, it seems, had been guarding Jailor Halbert, while the Evans party should get on ahead.

 Next morning about sun up somebody accidentally, of course, happened on a body hanging to a tree near the Belltown bridge & all who saw this were filled with wonder as to who took such a sudden “rise in the world”!  But when they put the two ends together, it occurred at once that some men, without a very hard struggle, had taken the murderer Evans from Carrollton jail & hanged him to a tree in Belltown.

 The jailor doesn’t claim to have known or recognized any of the parties doing this deed.  A coroner’s inquest was held Sun. & the body buried.

 Transcribed by Diane M. Loy

Tri County Preservation Society

RR 1 Box 9

Carrollton, IL 62016

Be sure to include the title and date of the article.

To read more  join our group. Either by becoming a member for $20.00 annually. Or by volunteering to help complete the mountains of materials needing saved and transcribed.