Simeon Garnett

Simeon Garnett was a Black man of Oxford, Ohio, held in the Old Town Hall Jail in Butler County in September 1877. Newspaper accounts of the time report that a mob broke into the jail and shot him, and that he survived that first attack. The mob returned, shot him at close range and dragged him outside, where he died on September 3. Accounts from 1877 do not record whether jail staff resisted the mob or handed him over. A marker unveiled in Oxford in 2021 recognizes his death, and descendants attended the ceremony.

Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched

Reported by: historical marker text; Cincinnati dispatch printed in The Weekly Clarion (reporters); Cincinnati dispatch published in the Lake Charles Echo (reporters); The Weekly Clarion (reporters).

Sources (8)

• The Dallas Daily Herald, September 4, 1877, page 1 The Dallas Daily Herald, September 4, 1877
• The Daily Dispatch, September 4, 1877, page 3 The Daily Dispatch, September 4, 1877
• The Weekly Clarion, September 5, 1877, page 3 The Weekly Clarion, September 5, 1877
• Richland Beacon, September 8, 1877, page 2 Richland Beacon, September 8, 1877
• The Weekly Clarion, September 12, 1877, page 2 The Weekly Clarion, September 12, 1877
• The Iola Register, September 15, 1877, page 1 The Iola Register, September 15, 1877
• The Lake Charles Echo, September 20, 1877, page 3 The Lake Charles Echo, September 20, 1877
• New historic marker notes Butler County lynching, racist mob violence WCPO 9 Cincinnati, June 22, 2021