Esters, Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, October 31, 1901

Killed By A Mob

A Negro at Hodgenville Shot Full of Holes


Hodgenville, Ky., Oct. 31– A mob of 50 or 75 determined citizens arrived in town about 2 o’clock this morning and took from jail Silas Esters, the negro who forced Granville Ward, a 15-year-old boy, to commit an unnameable act near Upton, and strung him to the courthouse steps after riddling his body with bullets. The mob was headed by young Ward, the negro’s victim, and his father, Mr. Thomas Ward.

So quietly and systematically did the mob (which was made up of fifty or seventy-five men) go about its work that the citizens of the town were in ignorance of the existence of a mob until the negro was in its clutches. The citizens composing the lynching party approached the jail, and upon their demand the keys were surrendered to them. The cell in which the negro was confined was entered, and the noose was adjusted about his neck. He was dragged down the jail stairs and out into the street. He managed to slip the noose from his neck and made a break for liberty. The mob, crazed with anger, made after the negro, howling and firing at him with guns and pistols. The negro fell when about 100 yards from the jail house, riddled with bullets. The noose was again placed about the negro’s neck and he was dragged to the court house and swung to the topmost steps.