Died in jail or a lockup
One of 4 people whose names were not reported
One of six unnamed Black men held in the Barnwell Court House jail in West Virginia died on December 28, 1889. According to The Cambria Freeman, published January 3, 1890, at about 2 a.m. on that Saturday a mob of several hundred men overpowered the jailer, took the prisoners out of the jail and out of town, and shot them to death. The paper's account does not say whether the jailer resisted or handed over the keys. The men were held with Ripley Johnston and Mitchell Adams, who are named in the same account.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched