BURNING AND SHOOTING

In 1848, it was lynching and flogging. Men suspected of connection with thieves were compelled to "hug trees" while there bare backs were exposed to the pitiless blows of the whip, or hickory withe; but in more modern days, burning and shooting have been the order of the day. Scenes of fire and bloodshed have been enacted that were a disgrace to civilization. For several years, one William Hicks and a family named Jones, had been held in bad repute, and suspected of being connected with much of the the mischief and petty thieving that had been going on in that neighborhood for years. Unlike the outlaws of thirty years ago, whose princpal occupation was stealing horses and passing counterfiet money, their successors were in the habit of stealing anything they could get their hands upon. Having tried the law as a remedy for these petty outrages, and failed, the Regulators determined to take the law into their own hands. Anonymous letters were sent to Hicks and Jones, warning them to flee from the wrath to come, and leave the country; but without effect. the suspected parties continued to live in the neighborhood, and still the petty depredations continued, until on a Monday night, June 10, 1878, a squad of persons unknown visited Hicks' premises and set on fire his two stables and a small frame building near the cabin in which he lived. Aroused by the fire, Hicks came out and was greeted with a volley of musketry. He was wounded in the head and right leg and foot, but "broke" for the brush and made his escape. The Vigilantes then visited Jones' and fired several volleys at the house, but failing to bring any body out, they dispersed. Since that time several suspected persons and families have left.

On Sunday morning, July 7, 1878, John Mason, who has long sustained a bad character, and well known to the officers of the law, was on his way from Cedar Rapids to the house of his sister, in Benton Township, when near Mills Creek, he became alarmed by something suspicious in the brush, and leaped from the buggy; he was fired upon by a party concealed in the woods, and fell mortally wounded in the hip before he could reach the shelter of the woods. It is said that Millard F. Tracy was about to fire at the fallen man again after he fell, but was prevented by Henry Fisher, and Mason was taken to Fisher's house where his wounds were dressed, and then he was started off in a wagon to Tracy's house, accompanied by G.F. McCoy and Charles Hanover. Between twelve and one o'clock, Sunday afternoon, the wounded man was lying on a bed in the Southwest corner of the south room in Tracy's dwelling. Hanover was sitting on the east side of the room.. Tracy and McCoy, it is said, were seated at a table on the north side of the north room. At this time a party of ruffians, numbering six or seven, it is said, disguised by wearing hoods drawn over their heads, and coats turned inside out, appeared at the door of the house, which was at the west side of the north room. Tracy and McCoy testified that the assassins fired a volley at them as they sat at the table, but did not injure them. However this may be, and their testimony is not received with implicit credence, the murderers passed into the south room to the bedside of Mason, and perforated his body with bullets. Five wounds, at least, any of one which would have proved fatal, were found by Dr. Lanstroth, of Vinton.

Information that a man had been murdered in Benton Township, as above stated, was brought to Vinton in the afternoon, when Sheriff Smith, Coroner Kirkpatrick, Dr. Lanstroth, and others started for the scene of blood, and found the dead body of the man lying where he had been murdered. The remains were brought to Vinton, arriving about midnight, and an inquest was held in the morning (Monday, July 8), the verdict of the Coroner's jury being, substantially, that the deceased came to his death at the hands of a party of masked men, by wounds inflicted by bullets discharged from revolvers.

The body lay exposed to public view on a table in the Court House yard for a time, and presented a most horrible and ghastly spectacle.

It is stated that Mason has several hundred dollars in money in his wallet, and a watch in his vest; the money he took out of the vest pocket and put under his pillow when he lay down in the bed in Tracy's house; but after his murder, no vest, money or watch could be found.

For cowardly brutality and cold blooded atrocity, this murder of Mason has seldom been equaled in the annals of crime. It was a startling culmination of a long-contined carnival of lawlessness, and awakened the citizens of the county to the necessity of prompt and energetic measures for the termination forever of this terrible state of affairs that has been so long a disgrace to the county. Nothing in the history of Indian warfare can exceed in save ferocity this cold-blooded murder of Mason. The following extract from the comments of the newspapers of this horrible affair, will make a fitting close for this, the latest chapter of Benton County history.

The good name of Benton County is involved in this matter. Every well-disposed citizen is interested in having all concerned in this great crime detected and punished. It matters not what was the character of Mason; he was as much entitled to the protection of the law as any man in the community. It matters not what the character, standing or number of his assassins; justice demands that they be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Mobs and mob executions can under no circumstances be encouraged or tolerated. Let no pains or expense be spared to apprehend and bring to punishment these great offenders against law and order.

Transcribed by Kate Connerth and submitted to
the IAGenWeb Project on October 28th, 1997.
Copyright © 1997 by Kate Connerth.