FootNote
The new kid on the block, FootNote is known for digitizing historical
documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
kid is quickly being recognized as an alternative to Ancestry.
While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
William Henry Nichols
(colored). Nichols resided at No. 147 East Twenty-eighth
Street. Mrs. Staat, his mother, was visiting him. On
Wednesday, July 15th, at 3 o'clock, the house was attacked
by a mob with showers of bricks and stones. In one of the
rooms was a woman with a child but three days old. The
rioters broke open the door with axes and rushed in. Nichols
and his mother fled to the basement; in a few moments the
babe referred to was dashed by the rioters from the upper
window to the yard, and instantly killed. The mob cut the
water pipes above, and the basement was being deluged; ten
persons, mostly women and children, were there, and they
fled to the yard; in attempting to climb the fence, Mrs.
Staat fell back from exhaustion; the rioters were instantly
upon her; her son sprang to her rescue, exclaiming, "Save my
mother, if you kill me." Two ruffians instantly seized him,
each taking hold of an arm, while a third, armed with a
crowbar, calling upon them to hold his arms apart,
deliberately struck him a savage blow on the head, felling
him like a bullock. He died in the N. Y. Hospital two days
after.
James Costello (colored).
James Costello, No. 97 West Thirty-third Street, killed on
Tuesday morning, July 14th. Costello was a shoemaker, an
active man in his business, industrious and sober. He went
out early in the morning upon an errand, was accosted, and
finally was pursued by a powerful man. He ran down the
street; endeavored to make his escape; was nearly overtaken
by his pursuer; in self defense he turned and shot the
rioter with a revolver. The shot proved to be mortal; he
died two days after. Costello was immediately set upon by
the mob. They first mangled his body, then hanged it. They
then cut down his body and dragged it through the gutters,
smashing it with stones, and finally burnt it. The mob then
attempted to kill Mrs. Costello and her children, but she
escaped by climbing fences and taking refuge in a police
station house.
Abraham Franklin (colored).
This young man, who was murdered by the mob on the corner of
Twenty-seventh Street and Seventh Avenue, was a quiet,
inoffensive man, of unexceptionable character. He was a
cripple, but supported himself and his mother, being
employed as a coachman. A short time previous to the
assault, he called upon his mother to see if anything could
be done by him for her safety. The old lady said she
considered herself perfectly safe; but if her time to die
had come, she was ready to die. Her son then knelt down by
her side, and implored the protection of Heaven in behalf of
his mother. The old lady said that it seemed to her that
good angels were present in the room. Scarcely had the
supplicant risen from his knees, when the mob broke down the
door, seized him, beat him over the head and face with fists
and clubs, and then hanged him in the presence of his
parent. While they were thus engaged, the military came and
drove them away, cutting down the body of Franklin, who
raised his arm once slightly and gave a few signs of life.
The military then moved on to quell other riots, when the
mob returned and again suspended the now probably lifeless
body of Franklin, cutting out pieces of flesh, and otherwise
shockingly mutilating it.
Augustus Stuart (colored). Died
at Hospital, Blackwell's Island, July 22, from the effects
of a blow received at the hands of the mob, on Wednesday
evening of the Riot Week. He had been badly beaten
previously by a band of rioters, and was frightened and
insane from the effects of the blows which he had received.
He was running toward the arsenal (State), Seventh Avenue
and Thirty-seventh Street, for safety, when he was overtaken
by the mob, from whom he received his death blow.
Peter Heuston, sixty-three
years of age, a Mohawk Indian, dark complexion, but straight
hair, and for several years a resident of New York, proved a
victim to the riots. Heuston served with the New York
Volunteers in the Mexican war. He was brutally attacked and
shockingly beaten, on the 13th of July, by a gang of
ruffians, who thought him to be of the African race because
of his dark complexion. He died within four days, at
Bellevue Hospital, from his injuries.
Jeremiah Robinson (colored).
He was killed in Madison near Catharine Street. His widow
stated that her husband, in order to escape, dressed himself
in some of her clothes, and, in company with herself and one
other woman, left their residence and went toward one of the
Brooklyn ferries. Robinson wore a hood, which failed to hide
his beard. Some boys, seeing his beard, lifted up the skirts
of his dress, which exposed his heavy boots. Immediately the
mob set upon him, and the atrocities they perpetrated are so
revolting that they are unfit for publication. They finally
killed him and threw his body into the river. His wife and
her companion ran up Madison Street, and escaped across the
Grand Street Ferry to Brooklyn.
William Jones (colored). A crowd
of rioters in Clarkson Street, in pursuit of a negro, who in
self defence had fired on some rowdies, met an inoffensive
colored man returning from a bakery with a loaf of bread
under his arm. They instantly set upon and beat him and,
after nearly killing him, hung him to a lamppost. His body
was left suspended for several hours. A fire was made
underneath him, and he was literally roasted as he hung, the
mob revelling in their demoniac act. Recognition of the
remains, on their being recovered, was impossible; and two
women, mourned for upwards of two weeks, in the case of this
man, for the loss of their husbands. At the end of that
time, the husband of one of the mourners, to her great joy,
returned like one recovered from the grave. The principal
evidence which the widow, Mary Jones, had to identify the
murdered man as her husband, was the fact of his having a
loaf of bread under his arm, he having left the house to get
a loaf of bread a few minutes before the attack.
Joseph Reed (colored). This was a
lad of seven years of age, residing at No. 147 East
Twenty-eighth Street, with an aged grandmother and widowed
mother. On Wednesday morning of the fearful week, a crowd of
ruffians gathered in the neighborhood, determined on a week
of plunder and death. They attacked the house, stole
everything they could carry with them, and, after
threatening the inmates, set fire to it. The colored people
who had the sole occupancy of the building, fled in
confusion into the midst of the gathering crowd. And then
the child was separated from his guardians. His youth and
evident illness, even from the devils around him, it would
be thought, should have insured his safety. But no sooner
did they see his unprotected, defenceless condition, than a
gang of fiendish men seized him, beat him with sticks, and
bruised him with heavy cobblestones. But one, tenfold more
the servant of Satan than the rest, rushed at the child, and
with the stock of a pistol struck him on the temple and
felled him to the ground. A noble young fireman, by the name
of John F. Govern, of No. 39 Hose Company, instantly came to
the rescue, and, single handed, held the crowd at bay.
Taking the wounded and unconscious boy in his arms, he
carried him to a place of safety. The terrible beating and
the great fright the poor lad had undergone was too much for
his feeble frame; he died on the following Tuesday.
Joseph Jackson (colored), aged
nineteen years, living in West Fifty-third Street, near
Sixth Avenue, was in the industrious pursuit of his humble
occupation of gathering provender for a herd of cattle, and
when near the foot of Thirty-fourth Street, East River, July
15, was set upon by the mob, killed, and his body thrown
into the river.
Samuel Johnson (colored). On
Tuesday night Johnson was attacked near Fulton Ferry by a
gang who mercilessly beat and left him for dead. A
proposition was made to throw him into the river, but for
some reason the murderers took fright and fled. He was taken
by some citizens to his home, and died the next day.
Williams (colored). He was
attacked on the corner of Le Roy and Washington Streets, on
Tuesday morning, July 14th, knocked down, a number of men
jumped upon, kicked, and stamped upon him until insensible.
One of the murderers knelt on the body and drove a knife
into it; the blade being too small, he threw it away and
resorted to his fists. Another seized a huge stone, weighing
near twenty pounds, and deliberately crushed it again and
again on to the victim. A force of police, under Captain
Dickson, arrived and rescued the man, who was conveyed to
the New York Hospital. He was only able to articulate
"Williams" in response to a question as to his name, and
remained insensible thereafter, dying in a few days.
Ann Derrickson. This was a
white woman, the wife of a colored man, and lived at No. 11
York Street. On Wednesday, July 15th, the rioters seized a
son of deceased, a lad of about twelve years, saturated his
clothes and hair with camphene, and then procuring a rope,
fastened one end to a lamp post, the other around his neck,
and were about to set him on fire, and hang him; they were
interfered with by some citizens and by the police of the
First Ward, and their diabolical attempt at murder
frustrated. While Mrs. Derrickson was attempting to save the
life of her son she was horribly bruised and beaten, with a
cart rung. The victim, after lingering three or four weeks,
died from the effects of her injuries.
Great Riots of New York 1712 to 1873,
Including a Full and Complete Account of the
Four Days' Draft Riot of 1863
