The January 1, 1893 edition of the Chicago Tribune​ in doing a very mundane review of the previous year provides us with a chilling view of what life, or more correctly death, was like in America.  The Tribune went to great lengths to compile basic statistics on murders, suicides, executions, disasters, and even lynchings.   They gathered information by montoring telegraph traffic throughout the year and therefore these figures must be understood to be more of a news sample than a comprehensive list.  Even so  it's difficult to go through these figures, realizing the ultimate toll the statistics meant to real people.

Crime and Punishment

Capital punishment was in favor in 1892.  There were 107 legal executions in 1892.  Surprisingly the number was down from 123 in 1891.  Georgia executed the most (14) people.  The executions were heavily skewed towards the South with 78 executions in that region.  Just over half (57) the executions were of Caucasians.  Forty four percent of the legal executions (47) were of African Americans and other people of color.  Additionally  two Indians and one Chinese person were executed.  These figures show that non-Whites were executed at a substantially higher rate than Caucasians.  Women represented four percent of the executions.

As disturbing as the figures from the legal executions were, the statistics for lynching tell a true horror story.  There were 236 acknowledge executions which were extra-legal.  Lynchings were most prevalent in the South and Western Territories.  The states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee each lynched more than twenty people.  Roughly 200 of the lynchings occurred in the South.  Judge Lynch was far more sparing of Caucasians, killing only 80.  An astounding 156 (66%) African Americans were included in the butcher's bill. Additionally one Indian was a victim.  If one delves into the statistics there are even more disturbing revelations.  Four Italians are identified, the only national group with this dubious distinction.  The reasons for the lynchings give us a look as to how lawless the nation was at this time.  Caucasians were the only group which had members lynched for livestock theft (total 21).  As one might expect murder loomed large as a cause give for lynching.  What might surprise the reader is that 53 lynchings were involved rape.  Of these only 10 percent were Caucasians and the remainder were African Americans.  Eight  lynchings were of African Americans for "race prejudice", in other words being Black around the wrong people.  The racism of the time is further evidenced by African Americans being lynched for robbery (13), insulting someone (5), arson (6), rioting (3), being a desperado (4), and even for defending themselves (1).  The Indian victim of lynching was for a rape.  One Caucasian was lynched by Indians for reasons unknown. 

As might be expected the categories of murders in the 19th Century are somewhat different than today.  The Tribune lists 6,791 murders (not including all those lynchings already noted).  The paper does not track the methods of murder, but does go into the perceived causes of homicide.  Our ancestors were a quarrelsome lot as 2,932 murders were quarrels with jealousy (513) and outrages (28) adding to that general category.   There were over 700 murders due to alcohol and 111 due to insanity.  Policing in this violent era was tough, as reflected in  240 deaths  for resisting arrest.  Social unrest created six deaths in riots and 32 in strikes.  Infanticide resulted in 314 murders.  A  most unusual pair of statistics is 376 murders by highwaymen and 148 highwaymen killed in turn.

Goodbye Cruel World

According to the Tribune roughly 3,890 suicides occurred in 1892, increasing 1891's total by roughly 500 souls.  It is of interest that the paper tallied not only the means of suicide, but the assumed reasons behind the act.  The top reason was despondency, accounting for roughly a third of the suicides.  Other reasons tracked were disappointed love, domestic infelicity, insanity, drinking, ill health, and business losses.  About a third (1,300) of the suicides were accomplished with firearms.  Poison was the second-most frequent form of suicide (1,010).  The list (in order of preference) goes on to include hanging, cutting their own throats, drowning, throwing oneself in front of a train, jumping from windows, self-immolation, starvation, and dynamite.  Single case suicide techniques included freezing, placing the head under a triphammer, and banging the head against a wall.

Disasters

What list of horrid events would be complete without a compendium of natural and man-made disasters?  Drowning was the most frequent (3,174) form of accidental death.  Wind (tornadoes etc.) killed 448 while lightning wiped out another 368 souls.  Fires killed 1,775 people.  Explosions killed another 700 while mining accidents killed 515.  Railroads were a major cause of death, killing an astounding 4,428 people.  Maritime and riverine accidents accounted for 3,346 deaths, not including the deaths of fishermen and whalers at sea.

That was the year that was.  For those who have forgotten the historical background for 1892; the United States had roughly 63 million residents and had grown roughly 26% since 1880.  It was an election year with Grover Cleveland being elected as President.  The Fall River Murders thrust Lizzie Borden into the national limelight as she was accused of the axe murders of her parents.  The Johnson County War in Wyoming pitted large ranchers against small operators.  The diesel engine was patented.  A new microbe, the virus was discovered.  The pledge of allegiance was first recited  in public schools as part of the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day.  The Dalton Gang had a bad day in Coffeyville, Kansas as an attempted bank robbery was thwarted by armed citizens.  The Stanley cup was created while a new sport called basketball made its debut.  Ellis Island became a port of entry for immigration.  The University of Chicago opened and women were admitted to Yale's graduate school.  Abercrombie & Fitch, as well as Vogue Magazine were new arrivals to the world of fashion.  Andrew Carnegie won a monopoly of the steel industry.  The world was captivated by a new hero, Detective Sherlock Holmes.

Picture if you will...on December 11, 1867 the Louisiana Democrat reprinted a then modern ghost story.  The tale (reproduced here)  involves several strange days in the life of Delos Wilnans of Southern Ohio.  The story incorporates the themes of gambling addiction, family abuse, death by embolism, catatonia, bereavement, pranks, hauntings, good guys with guns messing up, first aid, and escape technique.  I don't want to spoil the tale, but take a few moments to read through this remarkable series of unfortunate (and fortunate) events and enjoy your Halloween treat a little early.

On May 29, 1890  Richmond, Virginia dedicated a large statue to the memory of civil war general Robert E. Lee.  The occasion became a large gathering of the surviving soldiers who served the Confederacy.  Old soldiers' organizations from across the South attended as well as many soldiers who had served in the Grand Army of the Republic.  Robert E. Lee's son, Fitzhugh Lee, was serving his final year as the governor of Virginia.  The Confederate National Flags and even some Battle Flags were on display during the even along side a roughly equal number of Old Glories.  In public the talk was about national unity under the flag of the United States.  One old veteran opined to the press that he thought this would be the last time the Confederate flag would be on display in public, as the nation needed to move forward from the wounds of the war.  Observers from Northern States cast a jaundiced eye on the ceremonies, looking to see if the South was serious about its return to the fold.  There were many private celebrations where the old soldiers came together.  Dixie played on local stages was met with thunderous applause and rebel yells.  Even so, Old Glory, was a prominent guest at these festivities.  The speeches in the smaller reunions tended to be a bit more salty than those during the ceremony.  General Thomas Lafayette Rosser, an able cavalryman, railed upon the Reconstruction Period (1866-1877).  [As an aside Rosser gets a special note for directing battery fire that resulted in the first wartime  downing of an enemy aircraft during the War of the Rebellion.]  The tone of the events in late May was to continue with healing.  It is unclear what Rosser was up to as by 1890 the sold South was run by former Confederates and all occupation forces had been removed as part of the Compromise of 1877.  It was a period we now refer to as the Jim Crow Period and part of the compromise was that the Southern States would be left to deal with Negroes within their boundaries without interference from the North.

Along with Rosser's intemperate speech  he press was given a chance when several "young men" climbed atop a statue of George Washington and placed a Confederate Flag (unknown which one) in the founding father's hands.  They were roundly chastised by several of the old greybacks  in the crowd, but no one took down the flag.  The adornment of Washington's statue with a banner of rebellion created quite a stir with the old veterans of the Union armies and the Northern public in general.  The image of the father of the United States holding the symbol of a rebellion aimed at undoing the United States did not play well in most of the nation.   The Union veterans too wished to put the divisions of the war behind, but many considered that the romanticization of the "Lost Cause" would be an albatross around the nation for years to come if the old fellows couldn't nip it in the bud.  Perhaps they were right.   Watch for more blogs on this issue in the future.

The above newspaper clipping is from The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, May 30, 1890.

This purports to be an image of the ceremony in question.  Note that the flags all appear to be one of the later Confederate National Flags with the St. Andrews Cross in the upper corner by the flagstaff.

In my research on Flag desecration debates I stumbled upon interesting side discussions.  As Congress considered passing a flag desecration act, the topic of the cigar store Indian loomed large in many newspapers.  Here is an example from the Eureka Herald and Greenwood County Republican printed January 29, 1880.  This Eureka is in Kansas.  The article shows an early example of the commercial  use and abuses of Native Americans for advertising purposes.   The article drips with sarcasm and has a paternalistic undercurrent.   Today cigar store Indians are a curio from the past, but the issue of appropriating the images and likenesses of Native Americans as emblems and mascots is an echo from history that has yet to be resolved.

As Americans take sides in the latest tempest as to what constitutes desecration of the United States' most sacred symbol (the flag) and it's cousin (the National Anthem) it is the perfect opportunity to look at a sliver of the history regarding this topic.  Over the next few days I'll be featuring newspaper articles from the 19th century on a wide variety of subjects related to desecration of our national symbols.  In this, put aside your team colors, the only colors allowed past this point are red, white, and blue, and allow yourself to see how the current squawks have deep roots that echo into the present.  

The use of flags as symbols has long been a topic of controversy for our nation.  What are the appropriate uses of the flag and how should it be displayed?  Congress repeatedly dealt with the prickly issue of protecting the dignity of the flag.  Bills were crafted to prohibit placing advertising on Old Glory recommending fines and imprisonment.  Bills were introduced in 1880 and 1890 to that effect, neither of which went anywhere (see above).  It is interesting that Congress appeared to have more concern during the late 19th century on commercial uses of the flag above other abuses.  Today star-spangled advertising is all the rage.  Old Glory has become dresses, trousers, bikinis, rain gear, hats, boots, beverage containers, smokes, appliances, pens, blankets, buckets, and just about anything that the American entrepreneur can imagine.  Seeing Old Glory on a handkerchief that can be used to cover a balding pate as well as serve for many a less noble purpose, hardly raises an eyebrow today.

The above image is a newspaper clipping from the Mohave County Miner of May 31, 1890.  This was a widely circulated newspaper article and can be found in sources throughout the nation.  I have yet to find what happened to the bill after coming out of committee.

The Victorian era is birthplace of many of our current views about hauntings.  The Victorian cult of mourning heralded in an obsession with death and its remembrance.  Viewing the corpse in the home was replaced by a new industry, that of funeral parlors.  The public appetite for tales of the macabre was insatiable and the literature of the time reflected this.  Penny Dreadfuls were inhaled by a huge readership bent on experiencing that unique chill a scary story produces.  Spiritualists were celebrities.  The common churchyards competed with palatial, spraying cemeteries replete with benches and picnic areas where mourners gathered to remember their lost loved ones.

The following is a story printed in the March 21, 1877 edition of The Grange Advance, a newspaper printed in Red Wing, Minnesota.  Join us as we visit a haunted house.

If you lived in Kansas City in the mid-1880s odds are you would have taken great interest in the double homicide at No. 410 East Eighteenth Street.  Popularly known as the Conway murders, the grisly events of late October would echo for years to come.

On the afternoon of October 21, 1885, milkman John D. Conway returned to his home to find that his world had been changed forever.  In the bedroom he discovered the corpses of his wife Catherine and daughter, Katie,  Both had been murdered by vicious blows to the head.  The bodies were laying together in the bed, covered in blood.  

The police were summoned and the investigators immediately began to focus their attention on Thomas M. Turner, also a milkman.  Turner had been observed going to  the home several times during the day starting about 6:00 am.  The reclusive Turner had an arrangement with Mr. Conway to use his property as a distribution point for milk purchased from a Mr. Morland of Westport.  Each milkman maintained a separate route, returning to the Conway property to replenish.   As such Turner returned to the property several times on the day of the murder.    Turner claimed to have been there at 6:00, 10:30, 12:00 noon, 12:30, 1:10,  The murders were thought to have occurred at roughly 12:10 pm.  Turner testified that he observed nothing out of the ordinary and there were no indications on his clothing that he might have been the guilty party.

A bloody coupling pin was found to the rear of the premisses.  Turner had on occasion used such a pin as a hitching weight but could not produce his pin.  The coroner's jury determined that the coupling pin was the likely murder weapon and indicted Turner for the crime.

An unusual aspect of the investigation was the attempt to retrieve an image of the murderer from the eyes of the victims.  A photographer was brought in to photograph the eyes of both victims.  Many believed that the last images seen by a person at the time of death were somehow preserved on the retinas (see image from The Daily Commonwealth, October 24, 1885) .  Of course, this was a wasted effort.

Lacking any help from such spiritual photography as well as any physical evidence linking Turner to the murders a jury returned a verdict of not guilty, apparently directed but he judge to do so.  The circumstantial case presented by the prosecution did not hold.  The Columbus Weekly Advocate on February 4, 1886 describes the scene at the reading of the verdict, "After the verdict was announced, Mr. Conway, husband of the murdered wife, jumped up and warmly grasping Turner by the hand, and with tears in his eyes, congratulated Turner in the warmest terms."   No further suspects were tried for the murders and the case remains unsolved.

History was not done with Turner, wagging tongues continued to weave tales about the the reclusive milkman.  At the time of Turner's death (May 1888), his obituary included a complex fiction that somehow Turner and Mrs. Conway has known each other in younger days.  The gossipers went on to weave a yarn where Turner was in competition for the future Mrs. Conway in which Turner fabricated a letter to Catherine, purporting to be from Turner's competitor.  This letter broke things off between Catherine and the other young man.  Catherine went on to marry John D. Conway and supposedly she later found out about Turner's deception and fostered a strong hatred for him after that.  Turner's death of Glanders, an infection passed on by horses, donkeys, and mules, was sensationalized.  The death is horrific including symptoms of pneumonia combined with painful pustules covering the body.  The agent of Glanders, Burkholderia mallei, was at one time considered as a potential biological weapon.

There's nothing like a massacre to sell newspapers.  In August 1891 word came to San Francisco from the Arctic that the crews of the whalers Grampus and the Mary D. Hume while wintering on the McKenzie River had been massacred.  The initial report was doubted by William H. Williams, the Special Agent for the U.S. Treasury Department in the Pribilof Islands.   On October 5, 1891 the Mary D. Hume returned to port with its catch from three years at sea.  It seemed that Mr. Williams was right to be skeptical.   

In late October (27th) Louis Duffy, purported to be a crew member of the Grampus  arrived on the Mohican with a tale of vengeance and murder.  According to Duffy the crew of the Grampus had misused the local women and the Eskimo men repaid them by killing almost all of them.  The tale spread like wildfire and newspapers across the nation repeated the tale of abuse and revenge.  Duffy added details of his own tribulations and escape from the evil captain, who beat him severely and starved the crew.  Local newspapers had a field day embellishing the whole story.  Yet rumors persisted that there were problems with the tale.

On Halloween of that year the ghosts of the Grampus made their presence felt in earnest.  The fully-crewed Grampus arrived in San Francisco, with its holds containing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of whale oil.  It was no ghost ship.  The two-year voyage of the ship was a financial success and the ship had suffered the loss of a single sailor by disease.  Despite the fact that the massacre tale was a pure fabrication, newspapers continued to spread the initial story, with the news of the survival of the crew following weeks to months later.  As an example, on November 5, 1891 the readers of the Newton Kansan were reading Duffy's initial lies about the massacre.   With the Grampus safe in port, Duffy had long since faded into obscurity in San Francisco.

The Grampus and other whaling ships wintering on the McKenzie that winter had shown the bounty of the the northern whaling groups of Alaska.  The captain and crew had good things to say about their native hosts during the voyage.  The newspapers subsequently published accounts of mistreatment of the crew by the captain, starving them and hooking them along with dogs to dogsleds.  The crew claimed to be fed dog food and that they were beaten like dogs.  When several attempted to desert they were hunted down, abused, and returned to service on the ship. The Grampus​ had over a decade of whaling ahead of it, but none of the later expeditions matched the 1890-1891 voyage.

Source Left: San Francisco Chronicle ​November 1, 1891