Joseph Walton
Joseph Walton, a Black man, was held at the jail in Lawrenceville, Virginia, in Brunswick County. According to a special dispatch in The Times, a mob of about one hundred demanded the jail keys from Deputy Sheriff Chas. Mitchell, who refused, and the mob went to Walton's cell, took him out, and hanged him from Gholson's bridge over the Meherrin River. The account says he was supposedly shot in the forehead before he was hanged, and no one in the mob was identified. Later, Commonwealth's Attorney E. P. Buford said a mob took Walton from the county jail and hanged him from the county bridge, and that a grand jury had been summoned to investigate and identify some of the participants.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. The Times reported that a mob took Walton from his cell and hanged him from a bridge, and Commonwealth's Attorney E. P. Buford said a mob took him from the county jail and hanged him.
Reported by: The Times (reporters); Commonwealth's Attorney E. P. Buford.