OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 424 Today's Topics: #1 HAMILTON COUNTY - PART 28 [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] ----------------------------- X-Message: #1 Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 22:53:14, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: HAMILTON COUNTY - PART 28 HISTORICAL COLLECTION OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 HAMILTON COUNTY - part 28 THE COURT-HOUSE RIOT OF 1884. With the possible exception of the first bank riot that occurred in 1820 upon the suspension of the Miami Exporting company, and on the occasion of the second suspension of the 10th of January, 1842, of the same organization, Cincinnati has never witnessed such violations of law, defiance of authorities, and so much bloodshed as attended the great Hamilton County Court-House riot on the night of March 28, 1884, and continued several days, there being open conflict between the militia and police on one side, and an excitable, yet determined, lawless mob upon the other. The circumstances that led to this most unfortunate affair was the trial for murder of Wm. Berner, who killed his employer, Wm. Kirk. It was one of the most outrageous assaults upon society, and a dastardly, cold-blooded crime that unsteadied the nerves of the populace, causing excitement to run high, and incensed all law-abiding citizens when the case came to trial by the methods pursued by criminal lawyers, who sought to perjure witnesses, bribe juries, and resorted to open-handed means to have their client acquitted against all principle of law or justice. The newspapers published the proceedings of the trial in detail. The court-house was, during the examination, crowded to its capacity. The methods resorted to by the lawyers was the subject of general conversation, and culminated in there being called at the great Music Hall, on the evening of March 28, 1844, of a mass-meeting of citizens. At this meeting speeches were made by Dr. Andrew C. Kemper, Judge A.G.W. Carter (since deceased), and General Andrew Hickenlooper, who each denounced in strong terms the methods pursued in acquiring a verdict. It was here asserted that the verdict was acquired by the cunning and adroitness of lawyers known for their legal talent. Five hundred and four people had been called to form a jury of twelve. It was a self-confessed murder, a murder committed deliberately for the sake of robbing a man of $285, the proceeds from the sale of a horse; and had been planned weeks beforehand and then coolly consummated. The criminal lawyers were denounced as equally culpable of violation of law and order as the murderer. The jury had only returned a verdict of manslaughter after hearing Berner's self-confession, and it was openly alleged in the speeches at the mass-meeting that the criminal lawyers were instrumental in securing, by bribery and other nefarious methods, such a verdict. Resolutions were adopted condemning the verdict. Excitement ran high; but while the speeches were being made by three of the most honored and respected citizens, there was a death, stillness. Every word uttered was weighted. Every sentiment expressed seemed to find endorsement from every person in that crowd of at least six thousand souls. Immediately after the meeting, as the masses were surging out upon Elm street some one in the crowd shouted, "Fall in! Let's to the jail!" and a great mob from the meeting proceeded directly to the county jail in the court-house on the Sycamore street side, above Court street. On the way the mob was increased by hundreds of others. Upon reaching the jail it was surrounded by a howling, angry crowd. A piece of joist was procured, and with it the basement doors, at the foot of the stone steps, were battered down. Bricks and stones were hurled by men in the street above at the windows. Clubs, huge pieces of timber, crow-bars, and other weapons were quickly procured and passed down to the men who were at work upon the heavy outside entrance doors of the jail, and it at last yielded the work being done speedily. The crowd then poured into the jail office, and there found other obstructions in the matter of stone walls and heavy iron grated doors. Morton L. Hawkins, the county sheriff, and his few deputies faced the mob upon their entrance between the outer and inside doors. They were powerless to stem the fierce human tide, and besides the sheriff had given orders to his officers not to use their weapons on the mob, believing that such proceeding would only make bad worse. The mob completely filled the interior of the jail, yelling and searching for the murderer they had come to hang. They filled the corridors, and a force of men succeeded in so forcing the iron grated door that it at last gave way, and the mob ran up the winding stone stairway to the cell rooms, peering into each cell and demanding of other prisoners the whereabouts of the murderer whom they sought. While this was going on within a squad of fifteen policemen arrived on the scene and began clearing the jail, meeting with but little success, as they were set upon by the mob and hurled to one side as though they were not there. At 9:55 p.m. the fire-bells sounded the riot alarm. This brought people to the scene from all sections of the city, and they turned in with the mob, the greater majority being in sympathy. It called the police from their posts of duty and the various stations; and through good management they were formed above and below the jail in two sections and headed by the patrol wagons, advanced upon the crowds assembled on Sycamore street, in proximity to the jail. The crowd outside was estimated to be between nine and ten thousand. The patrol and police advancing in two solid columns caused a stampede, the rioters escaping through side streets. Ringleaders and some of those who had been active inside the jail were taken in the patrol wagons to the station houses. The patrols were permitted to leave amid much jeering and denunciatory language, and after their passage the gap was closed up and another onslaught made upon the jail; the rioters in the meantime having armed themselves with axes, stones and bricks. Two or three attacks were made upon the jail, and about midnight a hand-to-hand conflict between the police and the rioting mob occurred inside. The police had succeeded in gaining an entrance to the jail through the court-house, going in on Main street. By the same means the militia had been admitted, and were stationed on the platform at the head of the cell-room stairs. Inside the mob had reached the gages separating the prisoners' cells from the office. These were broken down with sledge-hammers, and the mob had entered. They were in hand-to-hand conflict with the police, and overpowered them, making a grand rush up the stone stairway. Just then the militia stationed on the platform fired into the crowd. Two of the militia and four officers were shot. None of the mob were injured, but the latter retreated, giving the alarm to those on the outside. Fires were then started in the jail-yard and around the court-house. A barrel of petroleum was rolled into a cellarway where burning firebrands had been cast. The mob again assaulted the jail, gaining admittance in reinforced numbers, and armed with every conceivable kind of weapon except firearms. The militia again fired upon them, using blank cartridges, although this was not known to the mob, and, aided by a largely reinforced police force, again drove the mob to the street. From the Court Street armory the militia were reinforced, gaining admittance to the jail through the court-house, the mob not up to this time making any attempt to effect an entrance to the jail by way of the court-house. Upon their being repulsed, however, a great crowd rushed over toward Main street and down town. Simultaneous attacks were made upon the entrances of several gun stores, and the places completely gutted of firearms, powder, cartridges and other ammunition. In the meantime others of the mob had fired the jail and the court-house, in a score of places, coal oil and powder being liberally used, and neighboring stores and groceries being sacked for the purpose. Affairs were assuming a serious and critical aspect. The light of the fires illuminated the whole city, causing hundreds of other citizens, upon the hilltops and in the suburbs, to hasten to the scene. Immediately after the sentence had been pronounced that afternoon the murderer Berner had been hurried to Columbus, going in a buggy to Linwood, where the train was taken. He was in custody of Dominick Devots, a watchman or deputy sheriff, and through the latter's negligence the prisoner managed to escape from him while the train was at Loveland. All these things the rioters of course were ignorant of. They had been told by Sheriff Hawkins that the prisoner was not in jail upon the first attack, but this was looked upon as a subterfuge to cause them to cease their violence. The fires around the jail and court-house had been put out, and towards early morning the mob, almost worn out with their labors, thinned out, but hundreds remained about the scene throughout the night, and as the hours approached the working hour their numbers were increased. All day long Saturday the militia and police were on duty and the court-house and jail were surrounded by tired-out but determined men, and thousands of others drawn there by the excitement of the occasion. There were no attempts at attack made during the day, but Saturday night for several blocks above and below to the east and the west of the jail and court-house the streets were choked by rioters who had greatly increased their strength, and another attack on the jail was made. This proved to be the most serious attack of all, and the most disastrous. Admission was gained to the court-house. The militia in the streets were held in a hollow square formed under the masterful leadership of some of their number. Once inside the court-house, the work of demolition began. The whole magnificent stone building seemed to become ignited at once. The whole place was gutted and the valuable records of three-quarters of a century's accumulation were destroyed. The building burned to the ground. The governor of the State had called out the militia of the State, and they were arriving by every train. Their appearance upon the scene seemed to more aggravate and incense the mob, and being fired upon a bloody riot began in the streets, men being mowed down like grass under the keen sweep of a scythe. Captain John J. Desmond, of the militia, was shot and killed inside the burning court-house, while leading an attack on the mob. Many prominent citizens received wounds from stray shots of the militia. Windows, doors and even walls of houses in the vicinity of the riot to this day bear evidence of that time of terror and bloodshed. United States Secretary of War Lincoln ordered to the scene the United States troops, and their appearance seemed to have the desired effect, as the rioters gradually dispersed. The result was, however, that 45 persons were killed and 125 wounded. Berner, the cause of all this terrible loss and destruction to life and property, was recaptured late on Saturday afternoon in an out-of-the-way house in the woods on a hillside near Loveland. When captured by Cincinnati detectives, aided by the marshal of Loveland, he was coolly enjoying a game of cards, and was unaware of the riot and the attack upon the jail. He was taken to Columbus and lodged in the State penitentiary under the sentence that had been passed upon him on the 26th day of March of confinement for twenty years. -continued in part 29 -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #424 *******************************************