Died in jail or a lockup
F. W. Stewart
F. W. Stewart, a Black man, was held in the county jail at Lacon, Illinois, in November 1898. According to a Chicago-area newspaper report, about 100 men who had come from Toluca broke into the jail in the early hours of November 7 after a short parley with the sheriff, broke in the jail doors, and took him from his cell. The men carried him about a mile from town and hanged him from a tree. The Chicago-area report says the work was done quickly and quietly, and a second paper describes it the same way.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched
Reported by: Chicago-area newspaper report (Lacon dispatch, Nov. 8, 1898) (reporters).