Wednesday, November 30, 2022

History Snapshot: The Lynching of Henry Mason in Rustburg, Virginia

 


November 30, 1885, In the early morning hours a group of disguised white men broke into the jail of Campbell Court-house in Rustburg, Virginia, and took out and lynched Henry Mason for the murder of white farmer Robert Hammersley on the 20th of November. Hammersley was a popular planter who was found on the road about a mile from Rustburg killed with an ax. The sheriff, Major Adam Clement conducted a legitimate investigation and found that the planter had been seen with a Black man on the night of his murder and had stopped at a general store, the clerk remembered Hammersley had a large amount of cash and had bought some candy and tobacco during the investigation wrappers from the candy were reportedly found in Mason’s home and some of Hammersley’s personal papers. Mason was reported to have confessed and added that another negro Jeff Wilcher had done the murder. According to the Alexandria gazette Sheriff Clement had previously, successfully stopped the lynching of Mason and this is why the early morning kidnapping. Mason was hung and then his body shot to pieces. No one was ever charged with his murder and there are no reports of an arrest or lynching of a Jeff Wilcher


Sources:

https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/valynchings/va1885113001/

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025007/1885-11-23/ed-1/seq-2/

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