Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
2021.025.001 |
Title |
Artist's rendering of the Seminole and Woodruff lynching |
Accession number |
2021.025 |
Object Name |
Folio |
Scope & Content |
Single magazine page featuring a reproduction of an artists' rendering of the lynching of Joseph F. Seminole and Sam Woodruff from the bridge on Jackson Street at 17th Street in Golden, Colorado. The woodcut illustration is titled "Hanging of Seminole and Woodruff, at Golden, by the Mob Christmas week, 1879." In the woodcut, the Jefferson County Courthouse is seen in the background in the center, and the First Presbyterian Church is seen on the right. The illustration is signed at the bottom left by the artist: "A.P. Proctor, Denver." The caption below the illustration reads: "On September 10, 1879, robbers Joseph F. Seminole and Sam Woodruff hired farmer R. B. Hayward of rural Jefferson County to transport them in his wagon to Denver, but en route the desperados choked Hayward to death and stole the wagon. Eventually captured, Seminole and Woodruff were returned to the Golden jail. There in the earliest hours of December 27, a hundred masked and armed avengers on horseback silently converged upon the jail. They overpowered Undersheriff Joseph Boyd and guard Edgar Cox, and by cold moonlight escorted the prisoners 300 yards to the Golden & South Platte Railroad trestle, where the nooses were looped about their necks. The vigilantes removed their hats and bowed their heads in reverent prayer before pushing the prisoners from the bridge. Coroner Joseph W. Anderson's jury ruled that the hangings were felonious, but by parties unknown. The Denver Tribune reported that the lynchings saved the county some $5,000, adding: 'It was the best thing possible, and we are all glad of it.'" |
People |
Boyd, Joseph T. Woodruff, Samuel Seminole, Joseph F. |
Search Terms |
Jefferson County Courthouse First Presbyterian Church Golden City & South Platte Railway & Telegraph Company |