Charley Carroll was a young white youth born on June 6th, 1897. He and his siblings lived with their parents, John and Delphinia Carroll in Beespring, Edmonson County, Kentucky. His mother was Delphinia Carroll (01/12/1862-12/06/1929). His father was John Irvin Carrell (01/09/1856-1900). Charley had several siblings, Acie (1890-1989), Lawson(1885-1949), James (1881-1970), Emma (1889-1981), Patrick (1877-1937), […]
The Walker family was a family of 7-8 people who resided on a farm in Hickman, Kentucky during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The members of the family included David Walker, born in Tennessee in 1870, his wife Annie Walker, born in Tennessee in 1871, and their five to six children with ages […]
Wade Patterson was born in 1885 to Sam and Fannie Patterson. Seven years later, in 1893, Sam and Fannie welcomed another son, Sam, Jr. In the 1900 Kentucky census for the Patteson family, the sons Wade and Sam could read and write. Sam Patterson, the father, was a farm laborer. According to the 1910 Kentucky […]
Elmer Hill’s exact birth date is unknown from census records, but due to his death records, it was either in 1880 or 1881. He was born to the parents of Thomas White Wheat and Milley Catherine Hill. The parents bore two daughters as well, Minnie Jane Hill on May 22, 1886, and Mary Belle Hill […]
Brack Kinley was born in February of 1886 in McCracken County, Kentucky. Referencing the 1900 Census, he was written as ‘Brook Kinley’ and was 16 years old at the time. He stayed with his uncle Ben Willis and his family. Ben and Hester Willis had Brack’s younger sisters, Lulu and Martha Kinley. He could not […]
Lawrence Dempsey was born in 1877 in Fulton County, Kentucky. There is no available census data showing his birth month or date, or the name of his parents. Dempsey first appeared in the newspapers in Fulton County, Kentucky. The Illinois Central Railroad Company had several railroads going through Western and Central Kentucky, specifically, Fulton County. […]
Vanessa Sanchez, writing for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, states that newspapers in Kentucky with predominantly white readerships blamed the victims of lynchings by using racial stereotypes in their reporting. See Sanchez’s full reporting on the issue here. The materials within the collection provide insight into the lynchings of Virgil Jones, John Jones, […]
Ellis Buckner was born on August 1, 1892, in Henderson County, Kentucky. According to the 1910 Census, he boarded with another family at the time, the Kennedys. RH and Virginia Kennedy had three daughters, Mary, Ora, and Lucille. At 14, Buckner was able to read, write, and attend a school which was rare for an […]
According to the 1900 Federal Census, Jake McDowell was born February 1855, married to Minnee McDowell for 19 years, having 9 children although there are only 2 sons and 6 daughters listed on the census by name. He worked as a farm laborer and owned his home, as opposed to renting. Jake McDowell was arrested […]
William Potter’s lynching is extremely graphic and is strongly issued as a trigger warning. Located in Livermore, KY, William Potter was accused of shooting Clarence (Frank) Mitchell, a 22-year-old white man in a barroom. On April 20th, 1911, a local sheriff was hiding him in the Whitaker Opera House and Skating Rink basement and a […]
