History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 57

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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The Music Hall Meeting .- Naturally the thought was of a public meeting, to demand reform in the treatment of criminals. The call for the meeting was issued and the meeting was held, regardless of the fact that the resentment of the people had taken the form of a murderous frenzy. Among the 8000 persons who crowded into Music Hall there were great numbers of the wisest and most prudent citizens of Cincinnati. They hoped to secure a calm but emphatic expression of public opinion in respect to the abuses of the courts. But they had evoked a spirit which they could neither exorcise nor control. No remarks by the speakers met with applause unless they could be applied to the objects of popular feeling. Ropes suit- able for a lynching party were openly displayed, and threats of mob violence were frequently heard. The speeches of the night were ill-advised in view of the manifest temper of the audience; ill-advised, that is, if the purpose of the meeting was to demand reform and not to encourage a lynching party. The resolutions, f which at any other time would have seemed vigorous enough, were assented to by the assemb- lage without enthusiasm, and the adjournment was no sooner ordered than a cry "to the jail," rang through the hall. Vast numbers of the crowd went to the jail merely because of curiosity. They manifestly looked for a conflict, but they did not expect to take part in it. A small number showed from the first a determination to hang Berner if he could be found. But while they were actuated by a single desire, they were without a leader, and no man capable of leading them was found during the three days of disorder and bloodshed which followed. Although there had been every reason to expect an attack on the jail sooner or later, the supposition was that. instead of the sudden dash on Friday night (March 28) the mob contemplated a deliberate attack on Saturday or Sunday night. The sheriff and his subordinates. were by no means as well prepared as they might have been. The fact that the building was impregnable except to a well-armed force, and could in a few minutes. be made strong enough to resist anything but artillery, was the principal dependence. after the populace began to show signs of temper. For in the first instance even the most determined among the people masked their designs under a langhing indifference. They crowded into the jail by the main doors, and met with little or no resistance until they had ranged through most of the corridors. The indecision of the officials created a feeling that the mob was to have things its own way. In the hour during which hundreds of men were running about from cell to cell, Berner would certainly have been caught and strangled if he had been left in the jail .. Fortunately for him, he had been secretly taken out by an officer who succeeded in getting his prisoner to a train for the penitentiary at Columbus.

* After a jury was impaneled the taking of testimony commenced March 12, 1884, and the trial ended March 24 in his conviction for " manslaughter," and he was sentenced on the 28th. So intense was the feeling against the jurors that when they emerged from the courthouse they were hooted at and hissed, and there were. cries to "hang them." Several of them were so frightened that they ran up the back streets in mortal terror.

+ The resolutions, which are lengthy, may be found in a bound file of the Enquirer, under date of March 29. 1884. in the Public Library. They are particularly severe on the jurors, and denounce them as men unfit to live: in the community.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

How easy the conquest would have been is shown by the fact that the mob reached the cell of Joseph Palmer,* Berner's partner in crime, and were baffled only by the coolness and presence of mind shown by the prisoner himself. When asked if he. was not Palmer, he came to the front of his cell and said: "No, can't you see that I am a white man?" The mob turned away satisfied, and, after some difficulty, were pushed out of the cell room. The gate was closed, leaving the unwelcome visitors in possession of the jail office, and, in fact, of the entire front which faces Sycamore street. How easily the jail could be defended was shown later, when a party of men forced their way into the gallows yard, and, with a heavy beam of wood, burst the door leading into the corridor of the jail. The police met these men with decision, and took them prisoners as rapidly as they entered the building, reminding each one, with a sound rap on the head, that he was a violator of law. An attempt to burn the building by setting fire to some small wooden houses showed how easily the jail could be defended in this particular.

Altogether, the experience of Friday night was sufficient to convince cool-headed men that, with some very simple precautions, a small force of policemen, well armed, could defend the jail against a mob of many hundreds of men. Inside of this structure, the militia were from first to last useless. They should have been used to defend the courthouse, which faced Main street, and at the rear overlooked the jail. The entire block was practically in a state of siege, and should have been defended at all points. So extraordinary was the defect in the plan of defence-in view of the fact that the sheriff, M. L. Hawkins, was a military man and had seen some service- as to persuade many persons that the burning of the courthouse on Saturday night was the work not of the mob, but of men in the employ of corrupt officials who desired to efface the records of their crimes. In any case, there is no excuse for the incompetence which left the building, second in importance in the State of Ohio, to the wild vagaries of a mob. The only excuse ever attempted was the statement that the forces in hand were insufficient. If they had been properly disposed there were enough men available from the first. Indeed, the Gatling gun, belonging to the police department, which was of little or no use during the riots, if it had been handled promptly, would have driven the mob out of Main street at a less cost of life than that which followed the desultory and indecisive firing of the militia.

Throughout the three days of disorder the defect in the conduct of the authorities was a lack of energy and decision. As it was, no effort was made to protect the fire- men, who might have saved the courthouse; the populace found it easy to throw firebrands into the building. Fired upon by the militia, they simply gathered up the dead and wounded and retired, to return in a few minutes with fresh brands and re- newed determination. When the flames had gained such headway that they could not be extinguished, the crowd made their way into the building, by battering down the front gates, and carried on the work of demolition without hindrance. Late on Saturday night, troops began to pour into the city, and the disorder was put down by mere weight of numbers. With the exception of two or three attempts to capture gun stores, and to rifle pawnshops in order to secure guns and pistols, the populace had shown no disposition to attack any buildings except those belonging to the county. The people had proved themselves capable of the most irrational and insane conduct that had ever been attributed to free citizens of the United States. No dis- order known to the history of the country had been so purposeless in its origin; so difficult to quell, considering the number of persons engaged in it, and so devoid of result in the outcome. The courthouse was a ruin. The jail had resisted every attack made upon it. Even an attempt to set it on fire with coal oil had only served to prove how impregnable it was to the assaults of an ill-armed mob. Not one of the prisoners against whose lives threats had been numerous was hurt. Berner, the

* Some months after the riot Palmer was tried, convicted of murder, and executed. After the terrible experiences of March no jury would have dared to find any other verdict.

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immediate occasion of the outbreak, after an eventful journey, in which he escaped from his guard and wandered about the country in mortal terror of being hanged, was caught and safely placed in the penitentiary at Columbus.

Forty-five persons had been killed and a large number were wounded. The only gain that anyone could put his hand upon, was the experience which will probably prevent the recurrence of such a disturbance, and will certainly prevent the mistakes that made the struggle more costly to life and property than it ought to have been. If Berner had been captured and hanged, the gain would have been nothing more than a gratification of popular resentment. In the years that have intervened since the riot, it has been shown by repeated instances that the effect of the murderous tumult was to increase the number of crimes in the city and in the States near to it. But the effect of the agitation has been to draw the lines of the law strictly. Cap- ital punishment has been more frequent. Respect for the law on the part of the law-abiding has been increased, and the determination to enforce it has been strengthened.

The most extraordinary illustration of the folly alluded to in the worn proverb about " locking the stable door after the horse is stolen," was given in the effort to punish T. C. Campbell,* the attorney who defended Berner. For a generation the bar had indulged all grades of morality among its members, and now one man was to be made a scapegoat for the sins in which all had shared to a greater or less ex- tent. It is, perhaps, fortunate for the self-respect of the profession in the future that this effort was not successful. The verdict for the defense in the trial of Campbell for bribery and subornation, may be considered equally fortunate. He became the victim of the general resentment, and the punishment of abiding unpopularity was fully equal to the offenses with which he was charged. When his house was burned, with a valuable library and other property, the wantonness and cowardice that marked the arson were such as to cause some reaction in public opinion in his favor. His cour- age in facing the populace, even when its expression of animosity were the most bit- ter, deserves the praise of all who respect bravery.

History of the Riots in Detail. - The riots of March, 1884, came suddenly. None were more astonished at the whirlwind they had evoked than the respectable citizens. who called the Music Hall meeting, and whose inflammatory speeches convinced the mob that it would have the sanction of the better classes of society.

According to some accounts it was the mob in Elm street, unable to get into the crowded hall, that started for the jail, while others maintain that it was from the audience in Music Hall that the rioters were recruited.+ They were led on by four negroes, and, with constantly augmented numbers, rolled down toward the jail. The news traveled before them, and Sheriff Hawkins sent in the riot alarm. The crowd was soon battering at the jail doors, and was not long in effecting an entrance. The number of the riot alarm was known only to a few, but the multitude seemed to divine by instinct what the unusual ringing of the bells meant, and rushed for the scene of conflict. In a few minutes the mob had possession of the jail, but there were no leaders, and it did not know how to break down the cell doors. A detachment of police arrived, and by persuasion and a moderate display of force, succeeded in getting the mob out of the jail before any of the cell doors had given way before their battering. More police arrived, and the patrol wagons came dash - ing through the crowd, which they vainly tried to disperse. No. 1 was able to pen- etrate the dense mass as far as the jail entrance, when several shots were fired, and the first blood was shed, a boy of seventeen sinking to the pavement with a bullet in his brain.

* Tunison's Cincinnati Riot, p. 15.

t This account of the riot is drawn materially from the excellent account written by Oscar Edgar, and pub- lished in Mr. Tunisou's pamphlet, pp. 81-93.

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The crowd quickly rallied, and, breaking into the offices and residence portion of the jail, wrecked doors and windows in their passage, but spared private prop- erty. It looked strange to see a piano with its woolen covering unhurt and not even pushed away, while broken glass crunched under the feet of the rioters. The crowd first got into the jail over a plank which was thrust from the pavement into a window, and then used as a bridge to span the wide area before the office. Soon the crowd was assaulting the well, which is a circular apartment containing an iron staircase leading to the cells and corridors above. From the well four passages lead, all guarded by iron doors. One opens into the jail office, one into a long cor- ridor leading to the bath-rooms and other offices; one to the kitchen, and another into the tunnel by which prisoners were conveyed between the jail and the court- house. Three iron doors are set in this tunnel, and while it was entirely open from the court-house end the crowd did not attempt to carry it. They filled the office and the corridor leading to the bath-rooms. From the office they attacked the barred gate with a heavy plank. In the south corridor sledge hammers were em- ployed by men who knew how to use them, and the great lock gave way before repeated blows of the hammer. The crowd in the office was a mixture of respect- able looking men, mostly young, and the worst elements of society. Most of those who swung the battering ram looked like thieves and murderers. Here and there in the crowd were men whose torn and dirty jackets were distended with the bowl- ders they were carrying concealed. Suddenly the gas went out. " Hold on! Stay where you are!" was the cry, and some passed out and quickly returned with lights. The darkness had little effect on the crowd. The gas was quickly relighted. "The door is giving away!" shouted another. The crowd poured through both doors and precipitated itself upon the ranks of deputy sheriffs and police, which were drawn up in front of the two entrances. Several policemen were hit with bowlders, one with an axe thrown at him. It was now midnight.

The Militia Arrives. - Then the jail rang with loud reports. This was the first intimation that the militia had been called upon. It was also the first report of firearms. Then followed more reports, and shortly the crowd surged out of the office and corridor, followed by a line of gleaming bayonets. What had transpired in the meantime is a subject of dispute. The militia, for whom Sheriff Hawkins had sent, entered the tunnel from the courthouse, and suddenly found themselves in darkness, for the gas had been turned out. They saw before them a knot of men whom they mistook for rioters. So they were, mainly, but they were captives under the charge of two policemen. The command came to fire, and Capt. Foellger cried: "For God's sake fire high!" Whether the mob fired first from the well into the tunnel is still the disputed matter. One militiaman assured a reporter that he and others in the front ranks had to jump aside to escape injury from those behind him who fired wildly. A reporter who had no sympathy with the mob accompanied the militia in the tunnel, and he heard no firing except from the militia. Corporal Cook, who received three wounds at this time, was powder-burned in the face, a result which could not have followed from the discharge of pistols fifty feet off. But Col. Hunt and most of the militia assert that they were fired upon first. Several were wounded at this time and one rioter was killed.

The jail was soon cleared of the rioters, and it is only due to the militia to say that during the remainder of that trying night most of them displayed consider- able coolness. In the first furry-coming directly from the quiet of the armory, where they had been enjoying their weekly drill-these young men, who had most of them never been under fire before, found themselves hemmed in in a subter- ranean passage in pitch darkness. Before them somewhere-they could hardly tell where in their confusion-a crowd of angry and bloodthirsty rioters. Who can wonder that some of the more excitable lost their heads? If they did fire first they may be well excused from it.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

The Mob Still in Force .- Foiled by the arrival of the military, a factor on which they had not counted, the mob raged without. It had undisputed control of the jail yard, and, leaderless as it was, it used that advantage with considerable judg- ment. "Smoke them out, smoke out the murderers, the militia!" was the cry, and fire was set to two small offices attached to the rear of the jail. Then it was per- ceived that the jail could not be burned in this way, and two fires were built in the yard. A frame office was destroyed, and combustibles were brought from far and near. Burning planks from the fires were thrown into the boiler-room and the coal cellar. These, fortunately, did not communicate with the jail, except through two narrow passages which opened upon the tunnel. The closed iron doors kept out the smoke, and the defenders were not aware of this last assault by fire until a reporter pass- ing through the tunnel informed them. Now the infuriated crowd assaulted the south side of the jail, and the brickbats and pistol balls rained so thickly on the building that they kept up a continuous rattle and crash.

It did not take long for the crowd to find that the garrison was not discommoded yet. The mob on the north side discovered an area adjoining the kitchen and sur- rounded by a wall. A hundred or so mounted the wall overlooking the kitchen and rained in missiles, with an occasional pistol shot. So long as they contented then- selves with smashing glass the defenders allowed them to work their own sweet will. The crowd was not playing, however, for in a few minutes a burning plank was sent sailing through the air. It struck sideway between the bars, carrying away the sash, and lay with one end projecting into the kitchen, sending forth volumes of stifling smoke. This had to be stopped, and a lieutenant of the First Regiment stationed himself at the door leading from the corridor into the kitchen, and, with a detail of men, tried to keep down the crowd. The cry rang down the corridor, "Get back there! get back! lookout! get away from there!" And then in a lower tone, "Steady -- fire!" And the loud report of the rifle told that some boy or young man had dropped down from the wall with a wound in his leg or foot as a reward for his attempt to fire a pistol or hurl a rock through the window. Yet as each one dropped another would scramble to his place. Fear had no place in that mob.

It was about this time that several men were sent up to the roof on an upper part of the jail to fire over the mob on both sides of Court street, so as to compel them to hug closely the walls inclosing the jail, and thus prevent the rioters doing mischief. About an hour and a half had elapsed since at midnight the jail doors had been broken, and only the timely arrival of the militia prevented it from falling into the hands of the mob. The rattle of brickbats and pistol shots had become mo- notonous, when the crowd tried another strategem. The jail office, which ninety min- utes before had been filled with a surging mass of angry men, was now guarded by ten soldiers with fixed bayonets.

Coal Oil Applied. - Occasionally a knot of men had gathered at the railing over- looking the area, but they had generally retreated when warned. About half-past one o'clock this area railing suddenly became black with men, and a liquid poured down the step, the smell of which proclaimed it petroleum. Immediately the men seized the carpet and rolled it back, and conveyed the furniture into the well. By this time the barrel had been dropped in and fire was dropping upon it. The militia as one man sprang to the door and delivered a shattering volley on the mob, then pushing their way up the steps fired again on the sullen crowd. It was in this volley that Joseph Sturm was killed. He was standing by the side of patrol wagon No. 3. The soldiery were unconscious of his presence. Several bullets entered his side and he fell dead.

Blood was hot on both sides. The prospect of a horrible death by coal oil was too much for the militia. The detail that had been guarding the office was now drawn up on the pavement and reinforced from the reserve in the jail. Orders were

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given to aim effectively and waste no more shots. The crowds had retreated to shel- ter behind the jail wall, from which numbers would suddenly emerge upon Sycamore street to fire on the troops. The young officer's voice would then ring out: "Get back! get back there! get back!" If this triple warning was unheeded, then the low command would come, "No. - , fire!" In a few minutes the crowds discovered that the militia were really firing bullets, and firing them in their direction. Then only the most adventurous would sally from the hiding-place, and one at a time. Finally about three o'clock in the morning the crowd, wearied of a warfare in which it lost so much and did so little, began to thin out. At the hour named the guard of militia, which had been twice changed, was reinforced. It was drawn up on the pavement, wheeled to the right and left, wheeled again down North and South Court streets, and ordered to fire volleys down these streets. The rioters tumbled over each other in the effort to get out of the way. Squads of police came behind them, marched through and patrolled the streets for hours, driving the mob slowly before them. The first night of horror was over.

There were but two incidents which did not occur in the vicinity of the jail. The armory of a post of the Grand Army of the Republic, at Court and Walnut streets, was broken into and a number of stands of arms taken. The rioters found a bass drum, with which they amused themselves, but they had no ammunition. Another party broke into B. Kittredge & Company's gun store, on Main street, between Fourth and Fifth, with the intention of getting arms and ammunition, but found none of the latter. In a short while they returned, gutted the store, and among other things seized upon a small brass cannon and three kegs of powder, but they found little or no fixed ammunition. The threat was made that they would blow up the jail, but the attempt was not made. The fire department responded at the sounding of the riot alarm, but the firemen were not allowed to use their hose. They were at the mercy of the mob, and an attempt to lay the hose would have resulted only in its being cut, and, if persevered in, the destruction of their engines. They lost $150 worth of hose as it was. After watching affairs for awhile they received orders to return to their houses, and left amid the cheers of the crowd.

Second Day of the Riot. - The second day was one of apprehension at Cincinnati and Columbus. Many persons believed the worst was over, but such as had witnessed the pertinacity of the mob feared the approach of nightfall. Sheriff Hawkins, whose coolness during the excitement of the preceding night had won him the respect and admiration of all beholders, made preparations for a worse night than the one before. Governor Hoadly offered him the aid of the State militia. He was unwilling to shed more blood, but after consideration of the condition of affairs he reluctantly consented to accept the offer made by the State. After consultation with Col. Hunt of the First Regiment, Chief of Police Reilly and Hon. Matthew Ryan, he disposed of his forces. He had only 150 men-to extend his lines so as to cover the courthouse was to lose both it and the jail. He was bound by his oath of office to protect the jail. To barricade all approaches to the latter was the best he could do, and he could not extend his breastworks more than half a square from the jail without leaving each squad of men out of support of the others in case of an attack. The jail was strengthened as well as could be, and Sheriff Hawkins prepared to resist the expected assault of his position until reinforcements should arrive.

The crowd had been dense all day, and it gathered numbers and confidence as darkness came. The barricades looked ugly, and the crowd gathered chiefly in front of the courthouse. The riot began with the throwing of bowlders and brick- bats at the courthouse, while some fired pistols and shot guns at the windows. Gaining confidence, a storming party was formed, and the iron doors in the court- house front were battered down in a few minutes. About the same time a gang of boys began breaking in the county treasurer's office, which was in the northwest

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 57

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592