Article #1:

COLORED WOMAN WINS SUIT AGAINST CITY

By the Assocated Press -
Springfield, ILL., Oct. 30th -
Mattie Walker, colored, whose household furniture was burned by the mob during the Springfield race riot, August, 1908, was awarded a verdict of $268 against the city in the Circuit Court yesterday. It was the first verdice for damages against the city on claims growing out of the riot.

Article #2:

PAYS FOR RACE RIOT DAMAGE -
Springfield, ILL., Begins Settling $45,000 in Judgements Growing Out of the 1908 Claims
Springfield, ILL., Aug. 8, - Springfield began the payment of approximately $45,000, in judgments, costs and interest, growing out of claims resulting from the race riots of August, 1908, to meet which the citizens recently voted a bond issue of $45,000.

Comptroller Clapp disposed of 55 of the 80 judgments obtained in the circuit court, disbursing $32,000.

The largest settlement was with Harry T. Loper, a former restaurant proprietor, whose judgment of $7,750 with interest and costs totaled $8,359.30.

Article #3:

NEGRO CONFESSES CRIME -
Colored Citizens Ask That Special Grand Jury Be Called To Punish.
Springfield for the first time since the memorable race riot in Springfield in August, 1908, there was a talk of a lynching here Friday night, following the arrest and confession of Charles Banks, colored, aged 18, that he had attempted to assault 10 year old Theresa Marie Akins Friday afternoon. Though there is some excitment in the extreme southeast portion of the city, where the girl lives, the people anticipate no attempt to take Banks from their hands. Expressing a wish that speedy justice be meted out to Banks, a delegation of colored citizens called on State's Attorney Burke and Judge Creighton and urged that a special grand jury be called to indict Banks.

Article #4:

TROOPS CHECK RIOTS, SIXTH VICTIM DIES -
Transcribed from the New York Times - August 17, 1908
Submitted by Source #1

Governor Orders Springfield Grand Jury to Indict the Lynchers
Mob Leader Confesses
Police Wring from Prisoner Story of How AGed Negro Was Killed - Miners May Renew Disorder at Funeral.

Springfield, ILL., Aug. 16. - Sunday was a day of armed truce in this riot-scourged city. The presence of 4,000 soldiers occupying every street and vantage ground overawed any turbulent spirits who might have desired to renew the rioting. Only one case of assault was reported to the police, a negro being stabbed by a small gang of hoodlums at the State Fair Ground. It was a day of exodus for the negroes. Fully 2,000 of them have left the city since Friday night. The only negroes to be seen on the streets were those on their way to the trains, and they were always accompanied by soldier guards. Some have gone to Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, and a few to the South. Some are known to have gone as far past the Mason and Dixon line as Louisiana. The arsenal was crowded to-night with negro refugees from Springfield and surrounding towns. About 200 men, women, and children sought shelter in the building and slept on the floor or in chairs. Most of these people were old and infirm, but they endured the hardships of their quarters rather than face the prospect of passing the night in their homes, beset with momentary fear of attack. There are still many negroes left in Springfield, but of these there are many who are planning to go at the first opportunity. In a week, it is predicted, the prosperous negro colonies will be like deserted villages. Forty or fifty negroes now in the employ of the various city departments will be discharged. Many of them are faithful, honest men of long service.

Governor Orders Lynchers Indicted:

Gov. Deneen to-night brought down the big stick on the Springfield City authorities and forced them to take steps which he expects will put an end to the rioting. He summoned State Attorney Frank L. Hatch before him and ordered that a special Grand Jury be convened to-morrow to indict the half hundred or so rioters who are now prisoners in the county jail. The investigation will be as direct and forceful as a military court-martial. It is expected that after the preliminary evidence is in true bills will be voted with regularity and precision. The Governor informed the city authorities that prosecutions must be real and vigorous. There is consternation all over the city as a result of this announcement. Already it has had a salutary effect on the people. Conversations like this may be heard:

"Well, I can prove where I was." - "I don't think it will amount to much." - "Everybody knows that mob has made our families safe."

Alarms were frequent during the evening, but in no case was there any circumstance which compelled the use of force. A fire early in the evening at East Mason and Fourth Streets brought out the largest crowd, but it was composed of curious persons easily handled. Three barns were destroyed by fire, supposed to have been started by mischievous boys. An attempt was made to-day to cut telephone and fire alarm wires leading into the City Hall, but was not successful. A policeman saw three men on top of an outbuilding, trying to reach the lines overhead. He turned in an alarm to the headquarters of Gen. Wells, commanding a provisional brigade, and the latter dispatched a wagonload of soliders to the scene. They arrived before the trio had done any damage, and the wire cutters fled, leaving their nippers behind. They escaped.

Sixth Victim Dies

Another victim of Friday night's violence died early this morning at St. John's Hospital, bringing the list of race riot deaths up to sundown to-nigh to six. Frank Delmore, a miner in the employ of the Capital Coal Company, was the one to die to-day of wounds received at almost the beginning of the rioting. John Caldwell, another coal miner, was shot at the same time in the crowd. He lived only a few hours. Delmore and Caldwell were in the crowd of thousands that went from Loper's restaurant, which the mob wrecked, to the negro quarter. At Seventh and Washington Streets, where the two received their death wounds, there was a saloon on the southwest corner owned by a negro known as "Dandy Jim." Some negro women lived above the saloon. When the crowd attacked "Dandy Jim's" place with bricks and stones, several shots were fired from the rooms above. The bullets found lodgment in Caldwell and Delmore. It was probably this act of the negroes that enraged the mob and led to the buring of twenty-five or thirty buildings in the "Bad Lands" and the lynching of Scott Burton, first victim of the whites, as a climax. Delmore fell with a bullet in his abdomen, Caldwell was shot through the lungs. The police hurried the injured men to the hospital, and the rioters continued their march of death and devastation. Caldwell is to be buried to-morrow. The police fear that the 7,000 coal miners in this district, who will attend the funeral, may become riotous after their comrade has been laid in his grave.

Confession by a Lyncher

Abraham Raymer, the man arrested last night on suspicion of being one of the mob that lynched the aged negro, William Donegan, at Spring and Edwards Streets, was taken from his cell this morning and put through a third degree examination by Chief Morris. Raymer has been in Springfield only a few months. He is a Russian Jew, and talks broken English. After an hour's gruelling he broke down and admitted that he was one of the mob that strung the old negro to a tree, after slashing his throat with a razor. He also gave the police the names of four or five of the mob whom he knew. From Raymer's story of the lynching it appears that there was no provocation for the lynching except that Donegan was married to a white woman. According to his statement the mob assembled at Seventh and Washington Streets about 8 o'clock in the evening. Just a block distant, at Seventh and Jefferson Streets, are the headquarters of Gen. Young. There were 200 men in the crowd. Not more than a half dozen knew where the rioters were going. One man had a piece of clothesline. He showed it to Raymer, who understood the use which was to be made of it. As the mob neared the home of Donegan the latter's wife and children fled through a rear door, but Donegan, who was almost blind from age, was unable to accompany them. Five or six of the rioters ran into the house firing their revolvers. Donegan was hustled out to the street, where the bloodthirsty rioters were awaiting his appearance. Raymer denies any part in the actual lynching, but the police believe he was one of those who placed the rope around the old man's neck.

At 3 o'clock Friday morning Raymer was one of the foremost of the crowd that lynched Scott Burton, the negro barber, at Twelfth and Madison Streets. He was seen by detectives who knew him and was threatened with arrest if he did not go home. At the wrecking of Loper's restaurant Raymer also took a leading part. A message written in Hebrew was found to-night concealed in one of Abraham Raymer's shoes. He wrote it after hsi sweat-box investigation earlier in the day. The note was translated as follows:

S. Singer, 110 South Seveth Street, Springfield:
Dear and Best Friend: As you love your children, please do something for me. I am locked up at the police station and they are going to hang me for being with the crowd that killed the old negro last night. I want you to try your best for me. Please come over and see me. A. RAYMER.

Singer, to whom the note was addressed, is a dealer in second-hand articles. He declared to the police that he had only a slight acquaintance with the prisoner.

Negro's Home Wrecked:

Five colored persons who were driven from their home at 1,144 North Seventh Street early this morning by a mob of rioters left for St. Louis this afternoon under a military guard. Those in the party were Clarence Harvey and wife, and Mrs. Ann Jenkins, mother of Harvey, with the young children. The Harveys lived in a house owned by a Peoria negro. Up to a few weeks ago the house was occupied by a colored preacher. The building is in one of the best residence districts of the city, and for a long time the white residents objected to the encroachment of a negro family. When the colored preacher vacated the house the owner was notified by property owners in the neighborhood that he must not rent the building to negroes in the future. After vainly trying to let the building to a white tenant the owner rented it to Harvey. Yesterday Harvey received word that the house would be burned over his head if he did not move out. Between 1 and 2 o'clock this mornign a mob of fifty or seventy-five men attacked the building. They had wrecked the structure before the arrival of a company of soldiers. The five occupants were escorted to the jail for safe keeping, where they remained until 3 o'clock, when they took a train for St. Louis. With the arrival to-day of the Second and the Seventh Infantry Regiments, Illinois National Guard, and two squadrons of the First Cavalry, all from Chicago, the entire National Guard of Illinois, with the exception of the Sixth Infantry and the Eighth Infantry, (colored), is on duty in Springfield. In all 4,200 guardsmen are in the city. A council of war was held at the Capital this afternoon by Gov. Deneen, Adjt. Gen. Scott, Gen. F.P. Wells and Col. Sanborne. A plan was adopted to render further demonstrations improbable. Col. Sanborne was put in command of the provisional brigade, consisting of the First and Second Infantry Regiments, with instructions to preserve the peace in teh territory west of Seventh Street. The two regiments established headquarters on the Capital grounds, their shelter tents bordering the State House on three sides. Gen. Wells, with headquarters at the County Jail, posted guards to cover the city east of Seventh Street. The first cavalry was detailed under Major Frank Bush at division headquarters under Major Gen. Young.

The Second Infantry reached this city at 3:30 p.m., under command of col. John Garrity. The manner in which a line of skirmishers was thrown out as the guardsmen debarked from the train gained applause from the crowd which had gathered at the railroad station to watch the arrival. The khaki-clad militiamen marched to the Capitol to a fife-and-drum quickstep, and their assignment to Col. Sanborn's brigade followed.

Complaints From Suburbs:

Several complaints were received from near-by villages and hamlets of the existence of threatening conditions. The most insistent came from Chatham, twelve miles south. The negroes there had become frightened at the attitude of their white neighbors and asked that troops be sent. Their spokesman was told that the best plan would be for them to come to Springfield and seek protection at the arsenal. The authorities are a bit worried by the condition in the outside sections. Minor deprediations, it is said, have increaded in the farming regions because of the influx of negroes. This afternoon an alarm reached the arsenal from Spring and Edward Streets, where William Donegan was lynched. A rapid fire squad was sent to the place on the double quick. Within five minutes the squad had cleared the streets for half a mile from the threatened corner, three companies of infantry being held under arms at the arsenal meanwhile. A court of inquiry which considered the case of Private Klein, who killed Earl Nelson with his bayonet while on guard on a train, reported to Adjt. Gen. Scott to-day that Klein's act was performed in the strict line of duty. Klein had been placed as one of a guard of the baggage car on the first section of the Illinois Central train which brought the First Infantry to Springfield yesterday. The train was a special one, and the baggage car contained property owned by the State. Klein guarded the front door, and was instructed by Lieut. Guilford to allow no one not officially countenanced to enter the car. At Kankakee four young men, according to the report, climbed to the front platform and attempted to enter the car. Klein barred the way, using the only weapon available, a bayonet. As the train started the four youths left the platform. Klein was not aware that Nelson or anyone had been injured. State's Attorney Cooper of Kankakee probaly will institute action against Klein in the Criminal Court at Kankakee. The Attorney General of the State is compelled by law to defend National guardsmen in such cases.

Article #5:

New York Times - August 15, 1908

ILLINOIS MOB KILL AND BURN -
Foiled in Attempt to Lynch Two Negroes, Angry Whites Start Destructive Raid
Troops Bring Gatling Gun
Mob Sets Fire to Negro District and Refuses to Allow the Fire Department to Work
Two Known Dead; Many Hurt
E.W. Chafin, Prohibition Candidate, Hurt in Defending Negro - One Restaurant Wrecked

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 15. - Race riots are raging here as the result of an attempt to lynch two negro prisoners in the county jail. Two persons have been killed and many wounded and much property destroyed.

Using the Fire Department to distract the attention of the mob, the Sheriff borrowed an automobile, slipped the negroes from a rear door of the jail, and got them away to Bloomington. This greatly enraged the whites, who found out the owner of the automobile, went to his place of business, destroyed it, and also the automobile. The anger of the whites grew with each outbreak and pursuit of negroes was begun.

At 1 o'clock this morning (2 o'clock New York time) the sky over the east end of Springfield was aglow, and it was reported that several houses in the east end, where the negroes live, were afire. The fire companies were helpless to fight the blaze, as the rioters refused to allow the fire apparatus to approach the burning houses. Outside troops have not yet arrived, but are expected momentarily.

Gov. Deneen has taken command of the situation in person. He ordered troops from surrounding towns, and they are now arriving in special trains. The local forces have been on duty since the first outbreak. A Gatling gun was placed at the head of one of the streets, closing it entirely to traffic.

Chafin Hurt by Rioters

At the time the riot began Eugene W. Chafin, the Prohibition candidate for President, was addressing a meeting in the Court House yard. A negro, pursue by a mob, came dashing up the platform, and in endeavoring to protect the man from his pursures Mr. Chafin was struck in the face with a brick, and badly injured. However, the negro had gained time to make his escape.

The mob then proceeded to break up the meeting, and in the fight that followed a number of men were hurt. At 9 o'clock last night the situation was so serious that Mayor Reece ordered all saloons closed.

Mayor Roughly Handled

Shortly after 11 o'clock the Mayor attempted to address the mob at Fifth and Monroe Streets. The shout was raised: "Throw him into the fire!"

The Mayor was seized and roughly handled. He was rescued by friends, who came to his assistance through a shower of bricks and other missiles, and hustled him into a nearby cigar store. The mob showed its animosity toward the Mayor because of his appointment of negroes on the police force. During the afternoon it was alleged that Police Officers Loomis and Burton, both colored, had made themselves obnoxious to the crowd.

There was desultory firing at midnight. Along Washington Street, locally known as the "levee," there is not a negro resort that has not been raided by the mob. It is believed that a number of men have been killed, and that their bodies will be found at daybreak. It is unknown that a large number were wounded either by gunshots or by bricks and stones.

While the mob was wrecking the Loper restaurant in the very heart of the business district of the city, there was trouble in other parts. On East Washington Street, one of the tough districts, there was a fight, and two or three stores were wrecked. Negro saloons were the especially object of the vengeance of the mob. The negro residents, with few exceptions, had fled for safety when the trouble began, but those who remained in the neighborhood received rough treatment. Some of them were armed, and showed fight.

In one of these melees Al Byerline, George Stusse, and Angelo Aliganinia were shot. All of them are seriously injured. Several white persons were shot by negroes firing from windows along the streets.

Troops Train Gatling Gun on Mob

Early last night Gov. Deneen was asked for troops and ordered out Company C, Fifth Infantry; Troop D, First Cavalry, and the Gatling gun section of this city, and also Company M from Decatur, Peoria and Jacksonville. Col. R.J. Shand of the Third Infantry, Assistant Adjutant General took command.

At a late hour last evening he placed a Gatling gun in Fifth Street and ordered the street cleared. Driven from this place the mob dispersed and went through the streets in the east part of the city where the negroes mostly reside, and there has been trouble in that district all night.

Cause of the Uprising

The inciting cause of the trouble was an attack made Thursday night upon Mrs. Earl Hallam by a negro at her home in one of the most thickly settled residence districts of the north part of the city. Public prejudice had been aroused against the negroes about a month ago when Clergy A. Ballard was murdered in his own home by a negro who is under indictment for murder, the indictment being found by special Grand Jury convened by Judge Creighton of the Circuit Court.

Early yesterday George Richardson, a well-known negro, was arrested for the attack on Mrs. Hallam, and immediately thre began to be threats of trouble. The identification of the negro by Mrs. Hallam aroused popular fury. All day a crowd gathered about the jail, which was closely guarded by all the available deputies and members of the city police force. Threats were made that both negroes would be taken out and lynched. Sheriff Charles Werner made arrangements to take the men to Bloomington, and by a feint about 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon the attention of the crowd ws distracted by an alarm of fire while the men were placed in Harry T. Loper's auto and whisked away to the railroad station near the Fair Grounds, where a train was stopped to let the Sheriff's men and their prisoners get on board.

Mob Wrecks a Building

As soon as this was known the mob began howling for vengeance against the man who had assisted in the escape of their prey. The cry "Come on to Loper's" was raised, and a few minutes later bricks were crashing through the windows. Loper met the mob with a rifle. They paid no heed to him, and he was driven into the back part of the building, where he was forced to witness the complete destruction of this property. The restaurant was the largest in the city, and had a large trade. Within an hour it was a complete wreck. All of the furniture was taken out and piled on top of the automobile, which had been turned over on the street, and then a match was applied to the gasoline tank. The bonfire raged until midnight.

The police were utterly powerless to cope with the mob, and the Fire Department, which had been called out, was not allowed to extinguish the flames. Thousands of people thronged downtown to witness the scene, and the streets were blocked with a solid mass of humanity. At times shots rang out and there would be a momentary panic, but curiosity was stronger then fear. At 10 o'clock Louis Johnson, a nineteen - year-old boy, was found dead in a rear stairway leading to the basement of the building. He had been shot through the groin. In one mix-up to-night a trooper attempted to separate the combatants, and was nearly overwhelmed by the disorderly persons who were in pursuit of several other cavalrymen to the scene, but they were all disarmed, and their guns carried away by the rioters.

Prisoners Taken to Peoria

After midnight Joseph James and George Richardson, the two colored men who had been sent to Bloomington for safe-keeping, were removed to the county jail at Peoria, as it was thought they would be safer in that city. Heavily guarded by deputies, they were put aboard a special Interurban car and hurried to Peoria, where they were received by the county authorities.