Jacob Henson, Jr.
MSA SC 3520-13743
Lynched in Ellicott City, May 28, 1895
Biography:
Jacob Henson, a young African-American walked over to his employer's
store, Daniel F. Shea, during the closing hours of February 19 to enjoy
a couple of beers. As the gentlemen locked up the store, they began
to get drunk. For some reason, a fight broke out between the two
over the beverages. Mr. Shea then struck Jacob Henson in the chest
with his fists 3 times. Enraged, Henson picked up the first thing
he saw on the ground, a hatchet, and proceeded to hit Daniel Shea in the
head with it a number of times, causing Shea to collapse in the corner
of the room. Frightened, Henson ran away from the store, but not
before John Dorsey caught sight of him fleeing the scene. Dorsey
then entered into Daniel Shea's store and found him dead. When Shea's
body was examined, doctors found over 20 distinct gashes in the skull of
the dead store keeper.
The authorities found Jacob Henson at his home in
Ellicott City, Howard County, MD and arrested him for murder. Henson
explained that he was hit first and that his actions were in self-defense.
Detectives found blood on both Henson's clothes, and the hatchet used to
kill Daniel Shea. While in custody, Henson confessed these events
to Deputy Warden Robert H. Hollman, sticking with his explanation that
it was in self-defense. Henson was held in the county jail on Ellicott
City's Main Street until the trial.
On March 28, Jacob Henson was in court for the murder
of Daniel Shea which occurred the previous month. Henson's lawyer,
a competent black man named W. Ashby Hawkins argued that Henson was of
unsound mind, and he pled to the jury not to sentence his client to death
by reason of insanity. Detective Herman Pohler of Baltimore also
heard the confessions given by Henson while in custody, and although he
agreed that Henson was slow, and stupid at times, he was still competent
enough to realize his actions. This conclusion was confirmed by a
number of doctors who interviewed Jacob Henson while he was in jail.
Chief Judge Roberts heard the case, and it took only 25 minutes for
the jury to deliberate, and returned a verdict of guilty to 1st degree
murder. The jury claimed that the attack was premeditated and organized
by Jacob Henson before the night in question. 1st degree murder was
a capital offense and Henson was sentenced to death by hanging, which would
take place on June 7. Henson's attorney immediately asked for a suspended
sentence because he was going to file for appeal based on the grounds that
Jacob Henson was of unsound mind, and did not know the difference between
right and wrong. The next day, Mr. Hawkins argued his case, and although
praised by State's Attorney McGuire for his impressive appeal, there was
just too much evidence stacked up against Henson, and on April 2, Judge
Jones found that Jacob Henson was guilty of the murder. This was
the first time that Justice Jones handed down a death sentence in any case
he had heard in his career.
There were a number of doctors from the Maryland
Lunacy Committee that interviewed Henson while he was in custody, and found
that he knew what he was doing, and therefore would be held accountable
for his actions. Mr. Hawkins stated that council would appeal to
Governor Brown for at least an executive clemency decision because of Henson's
lowered mental capacity. This is when tensions began to stir among
the community.
Jacob Henson could do nothing but wait for June
7 to arrive, and anticipate his execution. But on the night of May
27, afraid that the governor would be lenient on Henson and grant his lawyer's
wish of clemency and drop the sentence to life in prison. Just after
midnight, 15 or 20 armed and masked men approached the jail where Henson
was held. Warden Lilly's son-in-law, Robert Hollman, and a black
servant named Joe Geurus were watching the jail cells that night, and at
gun point, the two men could do nothing to protect their inmate from the
angry mob. It only took the men a short while to enter the jail using
an iron bar to break through the wooden door. Henson heard nothing
until the men used a sledgehammer to break the iron lock on the outside
of his cell door. Ordered to get dressed, Henson screamed for the
men to take mercy on him. The masked men then tied a rope around
his neck, bound his hands behind his back, and gagged him as they dragged
the murder out of the jail. The mob then led Henson to Merrick's
Lane beyond the Patapsco Heights area a short walk from the jail.
Afraid of what awaited him, Jacob Henson fainted, and was dragged the rest
of the way to a dogwood tree on the property of A.B. Johnson, where Jacob
Henson was hanged, dying of strangulation. A placard was left under
the body with the statement "Governor Brown forced the law abiding citizens
to carry out the verdict of the jury."
By daybreak, the body of Jacob Henson was still
in the tree, and Undertaker Hillsinger was ordered to place the body in
a coffin, bring it to the jail, and get an interment for the body somewhere
in Ellicott City. Unable to find a plot, the undertaker than looked
into some of the black cemeteries, but with no luch. When the relatives
of Jacob Henson were contacted, they originally planned to give their son
a proper burial, but since he was lynched, they wanted nothing to do with
the body. As a last resort, Sheriff Flower agreed to take the victim's
body to his farm, and bury him in the cemetery located there. During
this time, the dogwood tree that Henson was lynched was cut down and relec-hunters
took pieces of it home as souvenirs.
Governor Brown, upon hearing what happened in Howard
County, condemned the mob that lynched Jacob Henson, stating that the actions
of few reflected the community. But right after that sentence, he
stated "...the actions of the lawless mob breaking into the jail and hanging
the prisoner cannot be too strongly condemned," assuming that the hanging
would have been carried out anyway. The governor had put together
a team of doctors to determine the sanity of Jacob Henson Jr., and if they
would have just waited a few more days, they would have known that the
conclusion of the interviews revealed that Henson did know what he was
doing, and was of sound enough mind to commit the crime. Justice
Wallehborst summoned a jury of inquest to look into the matter, and just
like most of the lynchings, the jury concluded that "he died at the hands
of persons unknown to the jury." It was at this moment that Governor
Brown ordered from that day forward, any person awaiting execution would
be tried locally, then transferred to the State Penitentiary in Baltimore
City, and the execution would be carried out there, citing that local jails
were not secure enough to prevent interference, as it had been proven many
times before.
Link
to Lynching Profile Questionnaire
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