Mob Hung A Negress

Title

Mob Hung A Negress

Source Type

Newspaper

Publisher

The Daily Silver State

Publication Place

Winnemucca, Nevada

Publication Date

07/28/1903

Transcript

THE LAST WAS
IN LOUISIANA
Daily Lynching Story Comes
from the Southern States
This Time
MOB HUNG A NEGRESS
She Was Suspected cf Poisonlo* a White
Oirl far Tbirtv Dollars, but Crime Was
Not Proven
NEW ORLEANS, July 27—News
bus ijist reached Shreveport that Jen
nie Steer, who gave poison in a glass
of lemonade to beautiful sixteen-year
old Elizabeth Dolan, causing a fright
ful death, was lvnched by an infur
iated mob about sundown Sunday
night. The lynching occurred on the
Beard plantation, near the spot where
the woman’s crime was committed.
Jennie Steer was stubborn to the
last, denying her crime. But the proof
agi ’nst her was direct and conclusive,
and precluded the possibility of her
irr< cence.
'he negress fled from the Dolan
h< i rehold as soon as she discovered
that her crime was known. She was
pi.■•rued by a posse, who found her
crouching in a bay loft. She refis*-!
to come ort and had to be dragged
ft >m the place.
She was taken to the Dolan borne
stead and fully identified, as .be
woman who had placed the poison in
th » lemonade.
The mob then look her to a nearby
tree, D'aced a roue around her u H-k,
nrd again asked her to confess, r>he
mused. While the bod" was dangl
ing in the air s<-'oral bullets we
fired into it by enrased citizens.
Tbe poisoning cf Miss Do’.an creat
ed intense excitement in the neigh
Ictliocd. The victim was a beaut’fi’l
joung girl, who was not know.i to
have an enemv in the world. She
died in horrible .agony, a fact which
accentuated the rage of the mob.
The funeral of Mss Dolan occur
red this morning, and it was attended
b\ people for miles around. Th?
Re-. Dr. Alford conducted the funeiai
so vices.
There is a growing suspicion that
thn negress wa3 connected with the
nil ider of Mii. F>ank Matthews,
whose horrible deaih startled the peo
ple cf this section several months
ago. She was a negress of foribdding
aspect, but a good servant, and Mrs
Matthews kept her against the pro
tests of her son and daughter. Od
the morning of the murder she was
the first one to notify the inmates
o£ the house of the commission cf
the crime.
However, suspicion was not direct
ed toward her. as it was believed at
the time that Mrs. Matthews had been
assaulted, and the crime was placed
at the door of a man. Porter Mat
thews, sen of Mrs. Matthews, said to
day that subsequent developments
caused both him aud sister to believe
that his mother was murdered oy a
woman, and that robbery was the mo
tive for the crime.
Thirty dollars, the sum that Mrs
Matthews had in the house at i^at
time, was missing after the murder,
and the condition cf Mrs. Matthews
body indicated that she had been
struck by a woman, as the gashe?
were not as deep as a man would
( have made. Neither Mrs. Matthews
nor her daughter was assaulted.
The arrest of Jennie Steer for delib
erately poisoning a young girl leads
the Matthews to the belief that if
she did not commit the Shreveport
crime, she knew something about it.
It is a source of some regret that the
woman was not interrogated on this
matter before her death. The chance?
aie, however, that she would have re
fused to talk.
Everything is quiet in the vicinity
of Bavou La Chutte today. There is
no apparent sympathy for the ne
gress, Jennie Steer, among the law
abiding blacks of that section. As
far as is known, this was the first
negresr ever lynched in this state.

Sources for

Jennie Steer