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1908 Race Riots
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People Involved
Transcribed from the State Journal Register - 2008
Submitted by Source #1
Charles Werner, the 84-year-old namesake of former Sangamon County Sheriff Charles Werner, has no doubt why his grandfather whisked two black men out of Springfield just steps ahead of a lynch mob.
"It was definitely a sense of duty. He was a very honest man," said Werner, who lives in Chatham.
The original Charles Werner was born Nov. 1, 1853 in New Haven, Conn. His parents moved to Springfield in 1858. Eventually, the young Werner became a farmer.
Werner farmed about five miles east of Springfield but moved to the city in 1906, when he was elected sheriff. He had been active in Democratic politics, and had served as a member of the county board of supervisors, road commissioner and school director.
In November 1906, the Illinois State Register, a paper friendly toward Democrats, described Werner as "one of the most popular men in politics in the county."
"He is one of these men, big physically, big mentally and big in character who makes friends readily. He is an ideal man for sheriff, and if elected will certainly fill the office and serve the whole people as they should be served by a sheriff," the Register stated.
About two years after his election as sheriff, Werner faced a crisis involving two black men who were being held in his jail. One of the men was accused of murdering a white man; the second was accused of assaulting a white woman. An angry mob demanded that the sheriff release the men so they could be lynched.
Werner instead called on the fire department to create a diversion, and he then sneaked the two men out of the jail and into a waiting car owned by Harry Loper, who ran a nearby restaurant. The car took the group to a train, and they were safely transported out of the city.
Denied its revenge, the angry crowd turned its destruction on Loper's restaurant and then began targeting black businesses and black homes. Seven people would die over the next few days as the city was plunged into violence.
One hundred years later, the sheriff's grandson still bristles at the suggestion that his grandfather could have done more to stop the destruction.
"He discussed that with me," Charles Werner said. "There was no way he could do more than he did. He was outnumbered by 2,000 to 3,000 people. I don't know where they (critics) get their thinking ... Here he had a small force, and these people were throwing bricks, rocks and everything else at him."
Werner didn't run for re-election as sheriff, but he continued living in Springfield. The younger Werner lived with his grandfather until the former sheriff died in December 1937.
"He was kind of a quiet man. He didn't speak a lot about things. I was too young to ask a lot of questions about the riot, but I did know a few things," Werner said.
The former sheriff's obituary stated that he died at St. John's Hospital after "four years of invalidism."
Not everyone was fond of Sheriff Charles Werner.
Col. Richings J. Shand, leader of the Springfield militia who filed a report for the Illinois office of adjutant general about the militia's response to the rioting, repeatedly clashed with the sheriff.
Shand met with the sheriff at about 4:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, before the riot began, and suggested the sheriff ask that the governor call out the militia.
"I was informed by the sheriff that that he did not consider the situation at all serious, and there was no necessity of ordering out the troops," Shand wrote in his official report.
Shand eventually was able to change Werner's mind, and a few Guardsmen were mobilized.
After the rioting started, the two clashed again when Werner initially decided to keep the militia soldiers close to the jail instead of allowing them to go out into the city and confront the mobs. Shand tracked the movement of the crowd during the first night of rioting and argued that the mob was mostly led by a group of cowardly "bums and hoodlums."
Eventually, the sheriff and Shand took a patrol out into the city, but the two continued to have disagreements. Werner, for instance, was hesitant about using force, while Shand ordered his own men to fire their rifles at the legs of the rioters.
"I was in the riots in Cincinnati in 1863 when the riots occurred there in which 100 people were killed and court house was burned. I knew that sheriff Werner would hold the jail, even at the expense of bloodshed, and when at 4:30 o'clock this afternoon he telephoned me asking me to have my automobile on the alley on Sixth Street between Washington and Jefferson at 1 o'clock sharp, in order to take his deputies and the negroes, Richardson and James, out of the city, I decided I would do as requested. I didn't care whether the negroes were hanged if they were guilty, but I wanted to avoid the bloodshed that would be the result of an attack on the jail."
On Aug. 14, 1908, restaurant owner Harry Loper got a call from the Sangamon County sheriff that would change his life forever.
| Loper owned one of the few automobiles in Springfield at the time, and the sheriff wanted to use the vehicle to sneak two black men out of town before they fell into the hands of a lynch mob. Loper agreed, and the two men were whisked away to safety. |  |
By helping the sheriff, however, Loper earned the wrath of the mob. It wasn't long before they turned their anger on Loper, burned his car and trashed his downtown restaurant.
While Loper survived the riot, the event appears to have ended his days as a restaurant owner.
| His restaurant at 223-225 S. Fifth St. had been one of the most popular in town, but in 1909, he decided to leave the restaurant business and get into the movie theater business. |  |
Loper initially ran the Lyric Theatre in the same building where he had operated his restaurant.
Around 1920, he renovated the building at 216-218 S. Fifth and opened the New Lyric Theater.
In 1983, Loper's granddaughter, Linda Hansen, was interviewed by The State Journal-Register.
"The Lyric was special," Hansen said. "The Lyric had the first Wurlitzer theatre organ in Springfield and the first of the large movie screens. The first talking pictures in Springfield were shown at the Lyric. The front of the building was beautiful ..."
The Lyric later became the Trivoli theater. It was turned into a sportswear store in the 1950s and went through several other uses, including the local headquarters for Jimmy Carter's 1980 presidential campaign.
The building was razed to make room for the Lincoln Square Apartments. Loper's 1948 obituary said that after he retired, Loper spent time with his children, two of whom lived in Chicago. Loper's wife, Mary, died in 1940.
Loper's obituary did not have a single reference to the 1908 riot or his efforts to stave off the pending violence.
| Barber Scott Burton had been warned about the riotous mob tearing its way through the Badlands, the black neighborhood where he lived. |  |
Rioters torched 40 buildings late Friday and early Saturday, focusing on those where blacks lived and avoiding those of whites. Burton's barbershop at Ninth and Jefferson streets was one of the first buildings burned to the ground.
Anticipating further danger, he told his wife, Kate, and his children to flee from Springfield until it was safe to return. He stayed and armed himself with a shotgun for protection.
The destruction went on for four hours. The mob arrived on Burton's doorstep at 322 N. 12th St. about 2 a.m. Saturday. He fired at least two rounds of buckshot into the crowd as rioters converged on his front door.
"Apparently the ubiquitous Kate Howard was again among those in the front ranks. After the riot she 'exhibited ... proudly the buckshot wounds in her fleshy arms' to a reporter as proof of her participation in the rioting," Roberta Senechal wrote in her book documenting the riot.
Burton, 56, tried to flee out a side door and through the back yard, but the crowd grabbed him and began to beat him unconscious.
He was dragged into the street while some of the rioters retrieved a piece of clothesline from a neighbor's yard. They hauled Burton to a saloon at 12th and Madison streets and hung him from a dead tree.
"By the light of the flames from the burning buildings, the rioters mutilated the dangling corpse," Senechal wrote.
But they did not stop there. For 30 minutes, the mob riddled Burton's body with bullets, slashed it with knives, tore most of his clothing away from his body and tried to start a fire under the tree. Who knows how long it would have continued had a skirmish line of troops not approached the crowd and ordered them home. After much resistance, the troops eventually fired bullets into the crowd, which put an end to the rioting.
It is unclear what happened to Burton's body, but by midday Saturday curiosity seekers and souvenir hunters had torn apart the tree where he was lynched and carried away pieces as keepsakes. Photographs were taken of people standing around the tree prior to its destruction.
A coroner's jury ruled that Burton died at the hands of "parties unknown" because four witnesses who had agreed to testify did not show up for the inquest.
No one was arrested or tried for Burton's death.
Probate records show he owned no real estate or cash when he died. His estate included beds and bedding, a sewing machine, carpet, furniture, curtains, family pictures, schoolbooks, two trunks of clothes, "wearing apparel of family of 6 persons," barber chairs, mirrors, razors, shaving mugs, a stove, towels, barber straps and other small barber supplies.
Burton was born in Georgia, and it is unclear when or why he came to Springfield. It may have been in the early 1880s; Census records show his oldest child, Charles, was born in Illinois. City directories of the time show he was a barber living at Spring and Edwards streets in 1884. He was listed as a barber for several years, as a teamster in 1891 and as a laborer from 1891 until 1893.
He then went back to barbering, first with William Morgan in 1904 at the shop at Ninth and Jefferson streets, and then apparently for himself at the same shop.
Burton first was married to a woman named Mary Johnson, but they divorced in 1882. They adopted a son named George, according to Census records.
He married Catherine "Kate" Qualls in 1883, with whom he had two sons, Charles and Thomas, and three daughters, Mattie, Mary and Jessie.
It is unclear what happened to Kate Burton after her husband's death. The 1909 city directory lists her as a domestic living at 204 N. 14th St. Her name does not appear in subsequent directories, so she may have remarried or moved.
Scott Burton, was dragged from his home, beaten unconscious and dragged to 12th and madison where he was hanged from a tree in front of a saloon.
After the first World War ended in 1918, Lt. Col. Otis B. Duncan returned to his hometown of Springfield with a chest full of medals and the distinction of being the highest-ranking black officer who served in the American Expeditionary Force.
Ten years earlier, however, Duncan had been just another target of the white mob during the Springfield Race Riot. He and his family endured having their home ransacked and many of their possessions stolen.
Duncan was born in Springfield on Nov. 18, 1873. His father was a freed slave who served in the Union Army during the Civil War and later worked as a grocer in Springfield. His mother, Julia, was the daughter of William Florville, known as "Billy the Barber," who was friend, barber and honorary pallbearer to Abraham Lincoln.
Duncan lived at 312 N. 13th Street, and his house was targeted in the riot.
A mob forced its way inside the house, where rioters smashed a piano, shattered furniture and used Duncan's military saber to gouge out the eyes of a portrait of Duncan's mother.
The Duncan family was not home when the house was ransacked.
The mob then left the shattered house, taking with them the saber, clothing and jewelry.
Duncan died May 17, 1937 at age 63. The American Legion Post 809 at 1800 E. Capitol Ave. is named after him.
Race riot casualties listed in the Illinois State Journal Aug. 16 and 18, 1908, included Louis Johnson of 1208 E. Reynolds St.
His condition was certain, but the reported cause of his death and the way he was remembered point to miscommunication.
The Aug. 16 newspaper said Johnson was shot through the abdomen, dying "almost instantly." However, the Aug. 18 newspaper said he was killed by falling glass at Loper's restaurant.
The New York Times reported in its Aug. 15, 1908, issue that: "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."
Johnson's funeral was held Aug. 17 in Illiopolis, and he was buried in Mechanicsburg Cemetery, according to the Aug. 18, 1908, Illinois State Journal.
However, a city man discovered decades later that Louis Johnson actually was Louis Johnston — with a "t."
John Colwell wanted to keep from his family the fact that he was wounded during the 1908 race riot.
He probably didn't want to worry his wife, Mary, and five daughters, Jennie, Emma, Blanche, Sarah and Margaret. But Jennie found out about her father's death on her way to work.
"Unaware that her father had even been shot Jennie Colwell, the eldest daughter of John Colwell, 1517 Matheny avenue, was notified of his death at 11:45 o'clock yesterday morning, just as she was leaving for work," stated the Aug. 16, 1908, issue of the Illinois State Journal.
"Mrs. Colwell, who had missed her husband during the night, supposed that he had remained up to see the excitement, and because of her confidence in him, did not dream he was a victim of the mob."
Colwell, who was white, was a miner at Sangamon Mine No. 2. He reportedly was on East Mason Street watching the "Badlands fire" when he was shot in the abdomen by an unidentified black man.
Buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Block 21, Section 8, Colwell's gravesite bears a marker donated by the not-for-profit group Monument 1908 Inc.:
John Colwell Age 42 Died Aug. 15, 1908 John was killed during the Springfield riot of 1908. His death was a catalyst for the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Lest we forget
Frank Delmore, a white man, was said to have been a race riot bystander when he was struck in the lung by a stray bullet at Seventh and Washington streets.
"The death of Frank Delmore, which occurred at 3:30 o'clock yesterday morning at St. John's hospital, increased the number of dead to four," said the Aug. 17, 1908, issue of the Illinois State Journal.
"Delmore, who is a coal miner, lived at the Windsor hotel, and was struck in the left lung by a stray bullet at Seventh and Washington streets Friday night.
"When brought to the hospital it was not thought that he would succumb to the wound; and he did not lose consciousness until a short time before his death…
"Delmore was one of a number of homeless infants brought to this city eighteen years ago from New York and was adopted by a family of the name he carried. He had two adopted brothers, with whom he had been staying at the Windsor hotel."
Delmore was buried in Calvary Cemetery, according to the Aug. 18, 1908, Illinois State Journal.
What seems certain is that the dead in the Springfield race riot included a man with the last name of "Scott."
However, he may have been G.J. or J.W. Scott, according to the various newspaper articles, and little is known about him.
The Aug. 15, 1908, New York Times lists a G.J. Scott as a dead man "shot by stray bullet."
The Aug. 16, 1908, Illinois State Journal listed a J.W. Scott of Second and Adams streets among the injured in the "Revised List of Casualties." He was expected to die, the newspaper said.
Scott regained consciousness early on the morning of Aug. 16, 1908, for the first time since he was injured, the Aug. 17, 1908, Journal said.
But by the time of the publication of the Aug. 18, 1908, newspaper, he was dead. "... (S)hot in lung by negroes at Seventh and Washington streets Friday night," the newspaper said.
Many blacks left Springfield during the 1908 race riot, boarding trains in "bunches at country stations," according to the Aug. 16, 1908, Illinois State Journal.
However, blacks traveling by train were turned away from some cities, including Peoria.
"If a black alights in Peoria, he is taken in charge and at the first opportunity sent from the city," the newspaper reported.
"We have all we can do to take care of our own colored population," the Peoria chief of police said, "and we will run no risks."
Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Paine of 646 N. Second St. in Springfield fled with their infant child, but tragedy still resulted.
The child died at Pittsfield, according to "Summer of Rage: The Springfield Race Riot of 1908" by James Krohe Jr.
"A black infant perished on the road to Pittsfield, southwest of Springfield," Krohe reported. "The baby, whose parents had been denied refuge from the elements in the white towns along the route of their march, died of exposure."
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Abraham "Abe" Raymer, 20, a Russian Jew from St. Louis, had worked as a waiter, vegetable peddler and theater barker in Springfield. He moved to Springfield from St. Louis a year before the riot. With few local connections, he was easy to blame. Raymer was accused of murder in the death of William Donnegan, and of destroying Harry Loper's restaurant and car. Springfield resident Margaret Ferguson, born in 1904, was interviewed in 1975 for the University of Illinois at Springfield's Oral History project and suggested the mob used men like Raymer to point out homes of prominent blacks to target. Otherwise, the rioters may not have known where blacks lived. During Raymer's first trial, Donnegan's wife testified she knew him because he delivered vegetables to her house the previous spring and that Raymer was among those who entered the house and dragged her 84-year-old husband outside. Loper himself testified that Raymer was in the forefront of the mob, saying he had Raymer in his rifle sights while the rioters were in front of his restaurant. Loper said he didn't fire for fear of hurting bystanders. Despite such evidence, two juries acquitted Raymer of both the Donnegan and Loper charges. He was convicted of petty larceny after a fourth trial in late December — for stealing Major Otis Duncan's sword from Duncan's ransacked home. The jury determined the value of the sword to be $13. Raymer, the only person convicted in the riot trials, was fined $25 and sentenced to 30 days in jail. |
 Ernest Humphrey - left, and Abraham Raymer. |
Ernest "Slim" Humphrey was a tall, young vegetable huckster arrested Aug. 15 at Spring and Edwards streets after William Donnegan was lynched.
"Humphrey is believed to know something of the deed," the Illinois State Journal said. Witnesses said a man of Humphrey's description was a ringleader at Donnegan's.
On Aug. 20, Humphrey was indicted on four counts of malicious mischief and property damage. Later indictments charged him with arson in the burning of Inez Smith's home at Ninth and Madison streets and the torching of Loper's automobile. He also was indicted for the murders of Scott Burton and Donnegan.
Before he went on trial in early October on charges he was responsible for the sacking of Loper's restaurant, prosecutors dismissed the murder indictment, saying it was faulty and that Humphrey would be reindicted by a future grand jury.
Humphrey presented an alibi defense, testifying he was home with his wife and sister at 1132 N. Sixth St. until 9 p.m. on Aug. 14 and didn't leave home until the next morning. Several witnesses corroborated the time frame. But other witnesses put him at Seventh and Washington streets at 10 p.m on Aug. 13.
Humphrey was found not guilty after nine hours of deliberations on Oct. 10, but remained in jail for four months awaiting trial on the other charges.
In mid-December, after failing to convict any of those charged in the riot, the state dismissed the murder charges against Humphrey.
Kate Howard was a Levee boardinghouse owner who made no bones about her hatred for blacks.
That hatred boiled over on Aug. 14 and 15, 1908, when she urged a white mob to attack Harry Loper's restaurant and allegedly participated in the shooting and hanging of Scott Burton.
Dubbed the "Springfield Joan of Arc" by the local press, the 41-year-old Howard is said to have urged the mob to storm Loper's with cries of "What are you waiting for, boys!" while questioning the backbone of those who hung back. She reportedly boasted of her participation in the looting of Loper's Restaurant, and police found table linens, silver and other items from the restaurant inside Howard's boardinghouse at 113 1/2-115 1/2 N. Sixth St.
Indicted by a special grand jury on Aug. 20 for rioting and damaging property, Howard claimed she had been in such a frenzy that she couldn't remember leading the mob.
She denied having anything to do with Burton's death and said she followed the mob only as far as 10th and Madison streets, where she sat on railroad ties and watched until going home at 4 a.m.
She said her intent was not the taking of life, but "driving the negroes from Springfield."
When the grand jury also indicted Howard for participating in the murder of Burton, a sheriff's deputy was dispatched to her home to arrest her.
She asked the deputy for permission to change her dress before departing, then asked to use the bathroom, where she apparently took cyanide. She swooned and nearly fainted at the doorstep of the jail. Once inside, she fell and died before the attending physician could do anything to help.
Although popular opinion after the rioting blamed much of the violence on local drunken riffraff, Murray Hanes, who became a noted Springfield architect, was among those who at least counted themselves as onlookers.
Hanes' participation, as well as those he knew, suggest that, at least during the early hours of the riot, those from all walks of life joined in.
Hanes, 21, had returned to Springfield on the Interurban Railway from a day of fishing with a friend when he saw people hurrying to the jail. He didn't go downtown immediately, but when he got to Dodd's Corner at Fifth and Monroe streets — a popular gathering place for young people — he saw Harry Loper race by with passengers in his car.
A couple of hours later, Hanes saw an "enormous" crowd in front of Loper's restaurant, where the car already had been turned over and burned. Hanes said he knew quite a few people in the crowd, many of them well.
"Yes, they were not what you call hippies today," he told an interviewer for the University of Illinois at Springfield's Oral History project in 1972.
Hanes also told the interviewer "one of the (rioters), the heir to one of the big firms here, came out of there (Loper's) with a whole armload of silverware."
"He tried to give me some of it and I wouldn't take it, and he hated me all my life," Hanes said
Hanes designed Iles and Butler schools, the Myers, Bressmer and Ferguson buildings, and the old police station that opened in 1928.