John H. Biggus
MSA SC 3520-13791
Lynched in Frederick, Maryland on November 23, 1887
Biography:
John H. Biggus, an African American man from Frederick, Maryland, was accused of assaulting a Mrs. Yeakle, a local white woman, on Friday, November 18, 1887. Yeakle identified Biggus as her attacker and he was immediately arrested. According to contemporary accounts, Biggus' originally stated that he could not have been the attacker because he had been attending a meeting at the local Salvation Army.1 While Biggus was held in custody over the weekend, tensions flared between both the white and black communities in Frederick, and throughout the county
On Monday, November 21, a small crowd approached the jail, but then dispersed when authorities were alerted. The next evening, on Tuesday evening, November 22, a mob of about 200 mostly masked men approached the jail cell and demanded that Sheriff Luther C. Derr hand over Biggus to them. The crowd blocked traffic preventing any intervention, and after being denied access to the jail by the sheriff, six men armed with an axe broke in through the basement door. They then entered through a second door before reaching Biggus's cell, breaking the lock, and removing him.2
A rope was placed around Biggus’s neck, and he was dragged to the farm of Mr. George H. Rider, who lived in a community called Jefferson Heights, about a quarter mile from the jail.3 Sheriff Derr, after he rang
a siren bell for assistance, was approached by armed men and knew he could
do little to stop the determined crowd from accomplishing their goal.
The mob, still blocking the streets from outsiders, led Biggus to a large
locust tree on Rider's lot. Responding to his captor’s attempt to force a confession, Biggus said that he watched Mrs. Yeakle get accosted by Joe Hall,
a local African-American man who was first questioned by the police on
November 18. The crowd was not convinced by Biggus's story, and threw the rope over
a branch on the locust tree about eight feet off the ground.4
The mob again coerced Biggus to confess, and it was reported that he explained
that he was scared to admit that he saw the attack for fear that he would be
accused of being an accessory to the crime. Proceeding with the lynching, Biggus was pulled up by the rope, but somehow able to untie his hands and
attempt to grab the noose from his throat. He was overtaken by the mob and hung, and was also shot multiple times.5
The crowd dispersed, and Biggus’s body was removed early the next morning. The African American
community sought justice for Biggus,, and rumors surfaced that there would be an attempt to lynch former police officer Marshall F. Harding, who
was acquitted for the murder of Joshua Herbert, an African American man
the previous May. The black community in Frederick never did threaten
Officer Harding.6
Newspaper articles over the next few
days condemned the lynching, the first in Frederick's history, and argued that
the legal system and proper execution of due process, would have satisfied the outraged citizens of Frederick.7 It was later confirmed that
the rope and axe used by the mob were supplied by the United Fire Engine
Company.8 Interviews with witnesses who were near the jail confirmed
that most of the men were masked, and that the night was too dark to identify
those who were not masked.
Footnotes
1. "John H. Bigus Hanged." The Sun, 23 November 1887.
2. "The Lynching Case." The Daily News, 25 November 1887.
3. "Lynched!!" The Daily News, 23 November 1887.
4. "John H. Bigus Hanged."
5. "Confession of Biggus." The Daily News, 26 November 1887.
6. "The Lynching Case."
7. "The Lynching of Biggus." The Daily News, 25 November 1887.
8. "The Lynching Case." And "Lynched!!"
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