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Killing of Robert S. Maynard

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Robert S. Maynard was a 21-year-old man[1] from Illinois who was lynched in Jacksonville, Oregon, in May 1852 as a result of his murder of J. C. Platt. As Maynard was extrajudicially killed by hanging, this was the first recorded hanging and first recorded lynching in Southern Oregon,[2] where no courts had yet been appointed.[3]

Background

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Maynard used the aliases Jackson Maynard and "John Brown,"[4][5] and multiple sources use solely Brown.[6][7] He was described as a gambler,[8][9] and as a man from Pike County, Illinois.[10][11] Gold having been discovered late in 1851,[12] Jacksonville was only founded the same year of the killing, and the area was known at the time as Rogue River.[13][7]

Murder

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Maynard shot J.C. Platt[14] (also known as John D. Platt[7] and as Samuel Potts[6][15]) with a borrowed gun[16] because Platt called him a liar;[17][14] the shot man "made no attempt to assault."[18]

Lynching

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Maynard was executed by hanging[8][14] by miners in what The Daily Alta California characterized as a "lynching."[7] Maynard asked the onlookers that they point to his grave and "say there lies a man who would not be insulted".[19]

As there were no organized courts of law at the time,[20] the killing was called "mob law" and "necessary" by press in New York;[21] likewise, the 1884 History of Southern Oregon described the extrajudicial killing as "a law higher, stronger, more effective than written codes [...] administered by the people's court."[22]

Conversely, Herman F. Reinhart attested a few years later that «excited miners [...] worked up a prejudice against the gambler», as gamblers had become «very obnoxious to the miners, who had lost money» with them, Maynard being one of those, and as a consequence the «miners were for lynching» Maynard right away. The miners appointed «fifty men (Vigilantes)» to keep Maynard from escaping until the hanging.[23]

Fifty years after the hanging, The Sunday Oregonian characterized the lynching as "swift and unerring justice of the miners."[24]

References

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  1. ^ (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "He was twenty-one years of age."
  2. ^ (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "this was the first execution in Southern Oregon"
  3. ^ (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "there were no legally authorized courts"
  4. ^ (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "a man who was called Brown by his comrades, but whose right name was Jackson Maynard"
  5. ^ (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "Robert Maynard, who went by the name of Brown"
  6. ^ a b "XLIII — Jacksonville". History of Southern Oregon. A. G. Walling. 1884. p. 360. LCCN a14001444. Retrieved 26 February 2024. Potts was shot dead, without provocation, by a gambler named Brown
  7. ^ a b c d "Lynching on Rogue River". The Daily Alta California. No. 166, Vol III. San Francisco: E. Gilbert & Co. 15 June 1852. Retrieved 26 February 2024. Brown, of Illinois, who killed John D. Platt [...] has been hung [...] trial at the hands of a committee appointed by the miners
  8. ^ a b David Newsom (9 August 1852). "From Oregon". Sangamo Journal / Illinois State Journal. Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections. p. 2. Retrieved 26 February 2024. a gambler shot a man [...] and at the expiration of a week the man pulled hemp!
  9. ^ (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "Jackson Maynard, a gambler"
  10. ^ Sacramento Daily Union 1852, p. 37: "John Brown, of Illinois"
  11. ^ (Reinhart 1962, p. 2): "John Brown from Pike County, Illinois"
  12. ^ (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "the mines on Rich Gulch within the limits of Jacksonville were discovered [...] late in the fall of 1851."
  13. ^ (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "Jacksonville, a small mining village on Rogue River"
  14. ^ a b c "Oregon". Illinois Daily Journal. No. 360, Vol IV. S. & A. Francis. 31 July 1852. p. 2. OCLC 8821623. Robt. S. Maynard, from Illinois, shot a man by the name of J. C. Platt, at Jacksonville, because he had been insulted by him [...] executed in three days after
  15. ^ (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "killed Samuel Potts"
  16. ^ (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "Brown said he was insulted, and that he would shoot Platt. He borrowed a revolver"
  17. ^ (Sacramento Daily Union 1852, p. 2): "Upon being called a liar he shot his antagonist"
  18. ^ (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "Potts made no attempt to assault Maynard"
  19. ^ (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "He said [...] buried in that grave (pointing to a grave nearby, which had been dug), and that the traveler would point to it and say there lies a man who would not be insulted"
  20. ^ (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "at this time there were no county organizations, no courts"
  21. ^ "The Territory of Oregon". The Ovid Bee. No. 24, Vol 15. Ovid, New York: David Fairchild and Son. 22 September 1852. p. 1. LCCN sn83031494. OCLC 9887516. Retrieved 26 February 2024. May 29 [...] This may be called "mob law," but it is a government that seems to be necessary in these new settlements, where courts are not organized [...] A white man was [..] hung, for the diabolical murder of a white man
  22. ^ (History of Southern Oregon 1884, p. 360): "there was a law higher, stronger, more effective than written codes--the stern necessity of mutual protection--and a strong element had the courage and will to enforce it. Justice was administered by the people's court"
  23. ^ (Reinhart 1962, pp. 37–39): "Brown was called of that class, then very obnoxious to the miners, who had lost money with them, and were mad at them for beating them out of their money [...] The miners were for lynching Brown right off [...] A guard of fifty men (Vigilantes)"
  24. ^ (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "they had a wholesome dread of the swift and unerring justice of the miners"

Bibliography

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