Henry Mason
Henry Mason, a Black man, was held in the jail at Campbell Court House in Campbell County, Virginia, in late November 1885. Newspaper accounts published in the following days say a mob took him from the jail in the early hours, with one paper dating it to the night of November 29 and another to early Monday, November 30, and hanged him from a tree, and that his body was then shot. The Staunton Spectator, reporting the inquest, said the jailer recognized two of the men and gave their names to the Commonwealth's Attorney. The papers differ on the place of confinement, naming Lynchburg in some accounts and Rustburg in another, and the accounts do not agree on whether jail officers resisted the mob, gave up the keys, or handed him over.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. Newspaper accounts say a mob took Henry Mason from the Campbell County jail in the early morning of November 30, 1885, and hanged him.
Reported by: Memphis Daily Appeal (reporters); Savannah Morning News (reporters); Virginia dispatch (reporters); Staunton Spectator (reporters); Richmond Dispatch (reporters).