Thomas Peddy
Thomas Peddy, a Black man, was held in the Greenville jail in Texas in January 1885. According to a Fort Worth Daily Gazette correspondent, a crowd of masked, armed men came to the jail demanding him, and the jailer first refused before giving way. The Austin Weekly Statesman reported that armed men threatened to burn the jail, and that the jailer then gave way. Both accounts say the men took Peddy from the jail and hanged him from a tree about half a mile from town, and the dates given for the killing differ between the two papers.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A Fort Worth Daily Gazette correspondent and a Statesman telegram both say a mob took Thomas Peddy from the Greenville jail and hanged him from a tree half a mile from town, after the jailer gave way to the armed men.
Reported by: Fort Worth Daily Gazette special correspondent (reporters); Special telegram to The Statesman (reporters).