I mentioned not long ago that lynchings in the Old West were even more common than most people probably realize. Most people, I think, are familiar only with the notorious ones, but, as I said previously, there were so many lynchings that they were almost commonplace and, therefore, not widely reported unless remarkable circumstances attended them. Another example in the Ozarks occurred at Baxter Springs, Kansas, in early 1867, when that town was just getting started. (Baxter Springs existed as a trading post before the Civil War and during the war as a military outpost, but the town did not actually come into being until after the war.)
For several months prior to January of 1867, or so said the Carthage (Mo.) Banner, a gang of horse thieves had been operating all along the Kansas-Missouri border as far north as Nebraska and as far south as Indian Territory. Not only were horses being stolen, but other property was also being taken and murders were occasionally being committed by the "prowling scoundrels." So extensive were the outlaws' activities that no man who owned a horse, according to the Banner, felt safe.
Sometime during the summer of 1866, two men had arrived in the Baxter Springs area from Indiana, and one of them had promptly hooked up with the gang of outlaws. He tried to talk his partner into joining, too, plying him with tales of easy money, and the second man acted interested in joining. He was, however, only gathering information to use against the gang, and sometime around the first of the year, 1867, he reported what he knew to law enforcement authorities, who set out to round up the desperadoes.
On Saturday morning, January 26, one man was taken into custody, and, according to the Banner, an attempt was made to try him in a civil court. However, the effort proved fruitless, as he quickly showed himself to be innocent. A vigilante committee then took charge of the proceedings and, on Saturday evening, arrested three more of the gang. After receiving what the Banner considered a "fair trial," they were found guilty and strung up by the vigilantes. Monday morning two more gang members were apprehended and given similar trials as the other three. When the verdicts were announced, one of the men started running and was shot dead, while the other one was hanged like the previous three.
The Banner reported that three of the men executed were brothers named Mizer. One of the brothers, before being launched into eternity, supposedly confessed to helping kill 15 men during a recent trip to Texas and back. He reportedly said that he and his gang had killed every man they met that they thought might have any money. The Banner concluded, "Surely such wretches should die, and the sooner the better."
One of the leaders of the gang, a man named Bill Smith, was not arrested at the time his five sidekicks met their fate. However, the Banner held out hope that he would soon be apprehended and would get his "deserts at the end of a short rope."
The Banner headlined its story reporting the vigilante proceedings thus: "FIVE HORSE THIEVES HUNG AND SHOT. THEY MAKE STARTLING DISCLOSURES. JUDGE LYNCH PRESIDING." The newspaper allowed that, although there were still a few desperadoes like Smith on the loose, the recent actions of the vigilantes might "serve as a gentle damper" on the gang's crime spree.
7 comments:
The Mizer brothers and this story are part of my family history. This story and much more of this story was told to my great grandmother in The sixties through a series of letters between her and another descendant of these Mizers. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Thanks
Thanks, MZ History. It's hard to find very much about the Mizers in newspapers and other contemporaneous sources.
The story that was written to my g-grandmother gave a different account. In his letter, Bill Mizer (Arkansas) wrote that this account was told to him by one of the vigilante who lived in the region until his death; a man by the name of Hayes. The letter kind of jumps around a bit but here is the gist..
“. . .This steadfast conviction of opinion has been without doubt the cause of the breakup of the original family (or families) at the end of the Civil War. They were forced to become outlaws or outcast and the latter seemed to be the better course to follow...
Now to the event leading up to the murder of Mike Mizer. These men, Mike, Lige (Elijah), George, Bill and Henry joined the Union army (Mike as a teamster) and saw action at Wilson Creek and later at Pea Ridge. Mike had left his wife and son at home with one team to make crop during his absence. After the battle (Pea Ridge) the foragers came leading in Mikes horses. He appealed to the Commandant who refused to give them back but offered to pay him Script which at that time was worthless and even dangerous to possess in that region. Mike then proceeded to untie his horses and started riding them home (about one mile). He got almost there when the posse overtook and shot him off his horse, beat his head in with the but end of their muskets and refused to allow grandma to bury him for 4 days. This act so enraged the other boys they deserted the Union army and swore to kill any man caught wearing blue uniform. They then started “bush-whackin” and followed the Feds clear to Vicksburg. I have it on authority of men of both armies these boys accounted for over 100 men in Union army during that march. They were of course known and marked men. You will now understand why they were forced to scatter....
..You wanted to know the name of the father who gave the boys the thousand dollars gold and told them to go West; His name John Austin Mizer. The boys were Lige (Elijah), George, Bill and Henry. Just where they went, no one would ever know. However, rumor had it that one went to California, one to Texas, another to Colorado. It was later rumored that one of them came back to Old Indian Territory. It could have been so but which one was never learned. However, Henry and the son of Mike (Eric) started West with riding and packhorses, got as far Baxter Springs ford on Spring River (at Baxter Springs __(can’t read; run?) they were stopped there by a band of vigilantes. The boy, Eric told them enough of their past history and why they were going West, the vigilantes decided they should be hanged. They proceeded to do just that. One of the incentives for this act was the frontier law (or custom) that whoever captured a criminal was entitled to whatever valuables the victim may possess. One thousand dollars and four good horses was enough to condemn any man under these circumstances unless backed by several guns. This account I have from one of the band of vigilante who lived in this region until his death. His name was Hayes...
..Now to add insult to injury, General Sigel made his headquarters in grandma’s house. Upon leaving they took everything of value and set fire to the house…”
I found someone on ancestry.com who posted a similar story that she received in an email from a Marilyn Halsey. She writes "The hangings took place near the Arkansas-Missouri line in Feb. 1867, almost two years after the end of the civil war. Our family belonged to the union, lived in a slave state and moved back and forth across the MO border. My family history oral, that is said the three Mizer brothers, William P, James and George plus their sister, Elizabeth Caroline's husband, John Edwards, were hung by a mob of rebels or bushwhackers because of the bad feelings during that time."
In any case, a very interesting story.
The story relayed from Marilyn Halsey is the story that has been passed down in my family and the version you give here regarding "horse thieves" and the one from "MZ History" about the horses recovered from Union foragers are the first I have heard of them and clearly they are at odds with the one I have. I am trying to discover the truth and would like to know if there is any connection between these two stories. At first assessment the names involved confuse me because there is no mention of a Mike Mizer in my genealogy. The three brothers as listed in our story are William P. Mizer, George Mizer and James Mizer and the brother-in-law, John Edwards, who was married to their sister Elizabeth Caroline (Mizer). The father of these Mizers was Elijah who died in 1865 and the mother Elizabeth "Betsy" (Tallent) Mizer. The family legend tells us that the four men were union soldiers and that in January of 1867 "bush whackers" or "rebels" intercepted George and took him to his brother William's house in Joplin Missouri where James and William along with brother-in-law John Edwards were all taken captive and marched away to be hanged or shot. There was another younger son, Henry Mizer (b. 1850) who hid under the porch and survived. There is no mention of anyone going to Texas, California, or Colorado. After the death of her husband, John Edwards, Elizabeth Caroline married James Wm. Jameson. Henry Mizer, Elizabeth's brother who survived the 1867 incident described above, married Mary Susan Jameson (the sister of James W. Jameson). These double-related families both ended up heading west to Oregon, Washington and Idaho, one group departing 1883 and another around 1890. I have pretty good accounting of all of these out west. There is in some accounts a cousin (2nd cousin?) by the name of John Austin Mizer, but he was born 1849 and would not have had grown children by 1867. I do not find any Mike and certainly no Eric. I have never heard of a father in the family giving gold to his sons and telling them to go west. There are many parts of the story that conflict with mine but the things that stand out to me are: my Henry Mizer was not lynched. He married had children, moved west and died an old man with many descendants. The family remained loyal to the Union and despised the Confederate "Democrats" they held responsible for the 1867 murders. Why no mention of Elizabeth's husband John Edwards? Any additional details and/or clarification greatly appreciated.
I don't really have any additional details. As I said in one of my previous comments, there appears to be very little about this episode in contemporaneous newspapers. The account in the Carthage (Mo) Banner is about the only one I've found. It appears in the February 2, 1867, edition of the Banner and is available online (at the State Historical Society of Missouri's website--newspaper database). This account was widely reprinted by other newspapers, but the Banner account is the only original account I've found. One note abut your family history saying George Mizer was intercepted and taken to Joplin, Missouri. Joplin did not come into existence until the early 1870s. So, he might have been taken to the area of Missouri where Joplin is now, but it wasn't there in 1867.
Thank you Larry for your response and information. I see now in our stories that the reference said "near Joplin" and so you are probably correct that it was the area and not named at the time. The story that was passed down in our family was attested to in a pension application ca. 1923 9recorded in national archives) which obviously occurred many years after the event described. The sister who swore to the story must have been eleven years old at the time it happened.
I see that other parts of the Mizer family were in the area with similar names of sons (George, James, Michael, Elijah, etc..) and as was sadly the case for many we see family on both sides of the war. One of the branches in the area had brothers with these same names dying around that time period but do say they died 1865 at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. This is not close enough to my line that I have researched or verified any of it. It does seem to be quite the coincidence that these two separate events occurred at about the same time. All very confusing!
Hopefully one day it will be cleared up but who knows?
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