There is little extent biographical information on Jobe Grainger. According to contemporary accounts, Grainger was an African Americans man who lived in Simpson County until 1891. He worked as a farmhand in the town of Franklin near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. His name was various spellings
There is little extent biographical information on Jackson Williams. The name “Jack Williams” and “Jackson Williams” were common, with over 40 distinct Jack Williams recorded in the census during the late 1800s. Yet, data from contemporary accounts found that that Jackson Williams was a white
According to the 1880 U.S. Census, James Stone, an African American man, was born in 1875 to Henry Stone and Azora Stone. Henry Stone was born around 1830 in Tennessee, and it is likely that he was formerly enslaved. Azora was born in 1850 in
William Thacker was a white lynching victim, which accounts for the detailed documentary evidence of his life and death. Thacker was born on May 5th, 1859 in Lawrence, Kentucky. He was raised by Nathaniel and Lucrecia Thacker and was the eldest of 4 children. In
Walter Merrick was one of approximately twenty white men lynched in Kentucky between 1880 and 1950. Merrick’s race and the unusual circumstances of the lynching accounts for the abundance of official evidence detailing Merrick’s life and homicide. Merrick was born in March 1891 in Caldwell
The family of William Butcher appears in the 1880s U.S. Census. Butcher’s mother and father were African Americans born in Tennessee around 1860. They were likely enslaved. In the 1880 Census, John Butcher, William’s father, was listed as a 25-year-old farmworker and Alice Butcher, William’s
While not much is known about Raymond Bushrod’s early years, it is worth noting that Bushrod spent significant amounts of time in Indiana, not Kentucky. According to the 1880 census, Raymond Bushrod’s parents were Horace and Nina Bushrod. Raymond had three siblings, Susan and Horace
Robert H. Coffey was born in 1846 in Christian County, KY to Asa and Sidney Coffey. He lived in the 1st District of the county until the age of 14 when his parents moved him and his 7 siblings to the Second Township in Washington,
Robert L. Morton was a 21 year old Black man who lived until February 1897. He was born in Pilot Knob, Simpson, Kentucky, approximately 12 miles away from Rockfield. His occupation was unknown. The 1880 Federal Census has no record of Robert Morton's mother or
Richard James was born on December 19, 1882, in Kentucky. He was of mixed race and worked as a farm laborer. He was married to a woman named Nora James, and they lived with his stepfather Henry Smith, according to the 1920 census records. They
