Bill
Bill, a Black man, was held in the Adams County jail at West Union, Ohio, in late 1856. According to a Maysville, Kentucky, newspaper account reprinted in other papers, a crowd first seized him in Manchester, then returned to West Union on a Tuesday morning, broke open the jail with hammers and axes, and took him to an island in the Ohio River. There, the crowd hanged him from a tree and buried him on the island. The account says the jailer was absent and that the sheriff rushed into the jail with a gun, but the gun was wrenched from him.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. The Maysville (Ky.) Eagle, as reprinted in the Worcester Daily Spy, says a crowd broke open the Adams County jail at West Union, Ohio, and hanged Bill from a tree on an island in the Ohio River.
Reported by: Maysville (Ky.) Eagle, as reprinted in the Worcester Daily Spy (reporters).