Jacob Henson, Jr.
MSA SC 3520-13743
Lynched in Ellicott City, May 28, 1895
Biography:
Jacob Henson, a young African-American store clerk, is reported to have walked over to his employer's country
store during the closing hours of February 19, 1895 to enjoy
a few beers. Henson and his employer, Daniel F. Shea, reportedly enjoyed the beverages as they were locking up the store for the evening, when it is alleged that a fight broke out between the two men. Shea reportedly struck Henson in the chest
with his fists three times. Henson reportedly 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, upon which Henson fled. A neighbor, John Dorsey, alleged that he saw Henson fleeing. Shea was subsequently found dead inside the store, with lacerations to his head.
Authorities found Henson at his home in
Ellicott City, Howard County, and arrested him for the murder of Daniel Shea. Henson
explained that his actions were in self-defense, explaining that Mr. Shea struck him in the chest first.
Detectives found blood on both Henson's clothes and the hatchet used to
kill Shea. While in custody, Henson confessed these events
to Deputy Warden Robert H. Hollman, emphasizing that
it was an act of self-defense. Henson was held in the county jail on Ellicott
City's Main Street until a trial date was set.1
On March 28, Jacob Henson was in court for the murder
of Daniel Shea the previous month. Henson's representation,
an African American lawyer named W. Ashby Hawkins, argued that Henson was of
unsound mind, and he pleaded 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 he was in custody in Ellicott City, 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
the jury only needed 25 minutes to deliberate and returned a verdict of guilty to the first-degree
murder charge. The jury claimed that the attack was premeditated and organized
by Jacob Henson the night before. First-degree murder was a capital
offense and Henson was sentenced to death by hanging, which was scheduled to 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 questionable mind, and did not know the difference
between right and wrong.2 The next day, Mr. Hawkins argued his case,
and although praised by State's Attorney McGuire for his articulate appeal,
the amount of submitted evidence stacked up against Henson was too much to overturn the verdict. On April
2, Judge Jones found that Jacob Henson was guilty of the murder of Daniel F. Shea.
This was the first time that Justice Jones handed down a death sentence
in any case he had heard in his career.3
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 should be held accountable
for his actions.4 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 the point when tensions began to rise among
the community.
Jacob Henson could do nothing but wait until June 7 to arrive
and accept his sentence. On the night of May 27, citizens of Howard
County were afraid that the governor would be lenient on Henson and grant
his lawyer's wish of clemency and reduce the sentence, most probable to life in prison.
Just after midnight on May 28, 1895, 15 or 20 armed and masked men approached the Ellicott City jail
where Henson was held. Warden Lilly's son-in-law, Robert Hollman,
and an African American worker named Joe Geurus were on watch that night,
and at gunpoint, the two men could do nothing more to protect their inmate
from the angry mob. It took the men a short while to enter the jail
using an iron bar to break through the wooden door. Jacob Henson heard
nothing until the men used a sledgehammer to break the iron lock 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, and gagged him as they dragged Henson out of the jail.
The mob then led Jacob Henson to Merrick's Lane beyond the Patapsco Heights
area, a short walk up the hill 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. 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."5
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.6 Unable to find a plot, the undertaker then looked
into some of the African American cemeteries in the vicinity, but with no luck. 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 buried Henson in a cemetery located there. During
this time, the dogwood tree that Henson was lynched on had been cut down
and relic-hunters took pieces of it as souvenirs to commemorate the spectical.7
Governor Frank Brown, upon hearing what happened in Howard
County, condemned the mob that lynched 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 a hanging
would have been carried out either by the community or the state. The governor 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 with reason.
Justice Wallehborst summoned a jury of inquest to look into the matter,
and unfortunately, like a number of other lynching inquiries, 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.8
Footnotes
1. "The Shea Case at Ellicott City." The Baltimore Sun, March 28, 1895.
2. "Henson Convicted." The Baltimmore Sun, March 29, 1895.
3. "Sentenced for Crime." The Baltimore Sun, April 3, 1895.
4. "Henson Lynched." The Baltimore Sun, May 28, 1895. And "Henson's Mental State." The Baltimore Sun, May 28, 1895.
5. ibid. And "The Lynching of Jacob Henson, in Howard County." The Baltimore Sun, May 29, 1895. And "Henson Lynched." The Ellicott City Times, June 1, 1895.
6. "The Lynching of Jacob Henson, in Howard County"
7. "Hard to Find a Grave." The Baltimore Sun, May 30, 1895.
8. "The Lynching of Jacob Henson, in Howard County"
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