Morton, Nashville Tennessean, February 5, 1897

Article Transcription

Title: JUDGE LYNCH HOLDS COURT

And as a Result Robert Morton’s Body Dangled at the End of a Limb.

A MOB’S QUICK VENGEANCE

Negro Had Written an Insulting Note to a Reputable Young White Woman Near Bowling Green.

BOWLING GREEN, Feb. 4.—(Special.)—News has just reached here of the lynching of a negro by the name of Robert Morton at Rockfield, this county, last night. The telephone connections between here and Rockfield were burned down a few weeks since, and it is hard to get the full particulars.

A message from Petros, two miles below Rockfield, confirms the story, and gives the details as follows:

The negro resided at or near Rockfield, and a day or two since wrote a note to Miss Tommie Johnson, a prominent and well-known young lady of Rockfield, asking her to meet him at a secluded spot between her house and the depot yesterday afternoon.

It seems that she showed the note to some relatives or friends, who met the negro near the place designated in his note and attempted to capture him. The negro fled, and was pursued by the party, who fired four or fives times at him and wounded him once or twice. When finally captured, he was taken under guard to a vacant house, and while there another party came in and took the negro away from them and into the woods, where he was hanged. The crowd was composed of eight or ten men, and they did not return to the cabin, nor has the negro’s body been found. There is little doubt, however, that he was killed, and while none of the Rockfield people will say much about it, it is very certain that Morton is dead. The people of the vicinity of Rockfield are unusually law-abiding, and the insult to one of their most popular ladies must have been great to have caused them to have taken the law in their own hands.

A report just received since writing the above states that the negro’s body has been found, and cut down, though no notice has been sent to the Coroner, who resides here. The young lady, Miss Johnson, is related to quite a number of people in this city and all over the county. A first report stated that she had been assaulted by the black brute, but this proves to be untrue. The mob was exceedingly quiet, and, having accomplished its work, dispersed without stopping to look over the matter. No one knows, and in all probability will never know, who composed it.