CARBON COUNTY UTAH THE WAY THINGS WERE ANOTHER STORY FROM: MY HOMETOWN by Jim Kennick. Utah Town Remembers 1925 Lynching” PRICE, Utah (AP) Craddock Matthew Gilmour was 15 years old when a mob lynched a black coal miner accused of killing a marshal. Hundreds of people witnessed the lynching that was in retaliation for the murder of J. Milton Burns, a marshal in the mining town of Castle Gate. Two children said they saw a black man running from the scene of the crime. The killing outraged many residents of predominantly white Price, particularly members of the Ku Klux Klan who were then active in the area. Three days after the murder, Marshall was caught by mine company officials at a cabin and taken to the Price jail. But he never made it to a cell. Gilmour remembers stopping at a store with his father and seeing a man with a rope who said, Were going to hang him. While the lawmen were inside the jail building, a crowd reportedly took over the car in which Marshall was sitting and drove out of town. By the time deputies arrived, Marshalls body was hanging from a tall cottonwood tree. About 1,000 people gathered at a tree between Price and nearby Wellington to watch Marshall die. The deputies cut the rope and as Marshall groaned the crowd reportedly yelled, String him up again. The officers were overpowered and Marshall was rehanged. Later, Marshalls body was put on display at the funeral parlor. Photos of the hanging were sold for 25 cents. Eleven men were arrested for the lynching. But when it came time to present evidence before a grand jury, none of the 125 people called to testify would identify the participants. Because of the lack of evidence, murder charges against the men were dismissed.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 03:12:25 +0000
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