1884--Charles Dickerson Accused of Theft and Lynched Charles Dickerson is the youngest known victim of lynching in Boone County; he was reportedly about 17 at the time of his death, though some records place him closer to 15 years old. In 1880, Charles was living in Crittenden with Alfred and Elizabeth Lewis and is listed as a “boarder” in their home. It’s likely he was the son of Patsy Hall and Jesse Dickerson (sometimes recorded as “Dixon.”)
Charles worked for and lived on the farm of Samuel Hind in southern Boone County. His living space was located in the slave dwelling.
On February 21, 1884, Charles reportedly stole $192 from the room occupied by the elderly father of his employer and left town. He was traced to Louisville, where he had enlisted in the Army, likely as a way to evade capture and start anew. Dickerson was returned to Boone County and placed in the county jail, where he remained for more than a month.
On April 1st, Charles and two other prisoners escaped confinement. Dickerson headed to his old room at the Hind farm to change out of his uniform, which he had been wearing when captured. For another month, Charles and the two unnamed conspirators from the jail roamed the county, breaking into properties and stealing.
Merchants in Walton, fearful of the escaped convicts’ crime spree, were taking turns guarding their stores. On the evening of April 26th, Dickerson’s group broke into a store owned by J.T. Conner and found themselves under fire. The two unnamed thieves escaped, but Dickerson was trapped, hiding behind some boxes in the front of the store. He was armed and returned fire, but he got the worst of the melee.
Charles Dickerson was captured again, this time with a wound to his cheek and a slug in his leg, above the knee. He was again locked in the Burlington jail, this time in shackles. The young prisoner spent the ensuing few days amusing himself by drawing a picture of a figure hanging from a tree on the wall of the jail, perhaps to mock his would-be lynch-party. Sadly, his artwork was prophetic.
Late on Saturday evening, May 3rd, a drunken mob of about a dozen men presented themselves at jailer Samuel Cowen’s door, demanding the keys to the jail. Cowen refused, and the mob procured a sledgehammer to gain entry. The teenager was taken from the jail and hanged from the same tree on Burlington Pike that had been the site of the lynching of Smith Williams, eight years prior. Charles Dickerson’s body was taken to the Potter’s Field and buried the following day, but it was soon discovered that the body was disinterred, presumably by medical students.
Charles Dickerson’s Army enlistment papers read “Died May 3, ’84. Lynched at Burlington, Boone Co., Ky. A recruit.”
1877--Parker Mayo Accused of Assault and Lynched Parker Mayo was born in Manakin-Sabot, Goochland County, Virginia, enslaved by a man named William Diedrick. Diedrick’s plantation, known as “Rochambeau” was comprised of over 600 acres. There was a grist mill, saw mill and blacksmith shop on site and Diedrick may have been operating a mercantile on the property at one point as well. In 1850, he held 11 enslaved people; by 1860 that number was reduced to six. Among those enslaved in 1860, was a seven-year old boy; it’s likely that this boy was Parker Mayo. The Mayo name is found among several African American families in Goochland County in census records of 1870.
The Diedrick home is still standing and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. It resembles Boone County’s own Dinsmore homestead.
Based on the ages of the enslaved people held by Diedrick in 1860, it’s possible that Parker’s parents were John and Mary Mayo, who lived nearby the Diedrick farm in 1870. Parker’s name does not appear in the household that year, but there are several other children. It’s possible Parker, who was a teen at the time, was working as a laborer elsewhere and did not get recorded on the census records.
Sometime around 1875, Mayo had made his way to Walton, where he was working sporadically on the construction of the Louisville Short Line railway. Another railroad worker, James Murray, who was white, lived in a shanty just north of the crossing of the Louisville Short Line and the Cincinnati Southern railroad tracks with his wife and several children. In late March, 1877, Murray and his wife took their youngest for treatment at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Covington, leaving their nine-year old daughter, Molly and two other children alone in the shack.
It was alleged that during the absence of James and his wife, Mayo entered their home and raped Molly. It was reported that sometime after the assault, he tried to entice her into the woods to kill her, but the girl refused to go with him. Mayo was next accused of going to the nearby cabin of Mr. Shefly, a tenant farmer on the property of George Gaines where he encountered the man’s wife, who claimed Mayo was armed and threatened her.
Groups of men were dispatched to hunt Mayo down. Mr. Shefly and an acquaintance were looking in the Florence area and decided to rest for the night upon a stack of hay. They claimed to have discovered Parker Mayo sleeping the very haystack they had chosen to rest upon. The Florence constable was summoned and Mayo was arrested. He was taken to Walton before the magistrates and witnesses were brought to testify; bail was set at $500.
On May 29th, 1877, Mayo was being transported in an open-topped wagon to the Boone County Jail in Burlington, in the custody of two officers. The wagon was accosted just outside of Walton, near James Murray’s shack, by a large group of unnamed men. The men took Parker Mayo out of the wagon and the officers fled. Parker Mayo’s body was discovered hanging from a tree just west of the Lexington Pike, two miles outside Walton; the body was buried within one hundred yards of the hanging tree.