The Tishomingo News, 4 July 1906

NEGRO RAVISHER BURNED AT STAKE

Six Hundred People Gather to Avenge Brutal Assault on a Helpless 
Child of Fifteen Years - The Officers of the Law Outwitted.

Chickasha, I. T., July 2 - Everything is quite at Womack today after 
the burning of the negro ravisher yesterday.

Judge Townsend will call a special grand jury to investigate and 
punish the leaders of the mob.

It is said that the department of justice has notified the federal 
officers here to probe the affair vigorously.

Mary Robertson, victim of the negro brute, will recover.

Chickasha, I. T., July 2 - Will Davis, alias Will Newbright colored, 
was burned at the stake near Womack, Sunday morning.  He assaulted 
Mary Robertson, aged 15 and when captured and identified by his 
victim, made a full confession.

The assault was made at a lonely spot in the country. The girl was on 
the way to the home of a neighbor when attacked by the negro, a man 
of about 30.

Upon reaching home the girl told of the outrage and a posse started 
in pursuit.  Two hundred men joined the hunt.  The negro was 
surrounded and captured in a cornfield about 9 o'clock at night.

The negro confessed the crime and was taken back to the scene.  The 
little girl was called from the house and identified him positively.  
He gave two names to one person, the name of Will Davis, of Marshall, 
Texas, and to another the name of Will Newbright, of San Antonio.  By 
the time he had been brought back fully 600 people had gathered.

Deputies from Chickasha and Purcell made formal demand for the 
prisoner, but were unable to get possession of him.  He was taken to 
a spot on Walnut Creek less than a quarter of a mile from the scene 
of the crime, and a rope tied around his neck was thrown over a 
branch of a tree on the bank of the creek about eighteen feet from 
the ground.  The negro was pulled up until he was strangled.  Before 
life was extinct he was lowered to a pile of brush and logs that had 
been saturated with oil and was then set on fire.  One or two groans 
were heard after the fire was lighted.

Some of the relatives of the girl came up after the fire had done its 
work and shot several time s into the pile.  No other shots were 
fired, and all the way through the mob was orderly.  Deputy Marshals 
buried the body near the spot.  During the hunt of the posse, and 
since not a negro has been seen on the streets of Chickasha.

Mr. and Mrs. Robertson are respectable people, but poor.  They own 
their own farm.  It is thought that no effort will be made on the 
part of the authorities to find out who die the lynching.  

J. T. Dickerson, United States Federal Judge for this district, has 
already served notice that a special jury will be impaneled to 
investigate the case and subpoenas will be issued for every man 
thought to have had a hand in the lynching.  No one of the members of 
the posse who went from here made any attempt at disguise or 
concealment.  If sufficient evidence can be had against them they 
will be held to await the action of the court.  So  far it has been 
impossible to find a man who was there and took part in it, or who 
remembers seeing anyone who he knew.  This is the first lynching to 
take place in this part of the territory since the old and almost 
forgotten days of horse thieving, wild Indians and cowboy.

A message has come from the little town of Womack to the federal 
authorities here that the negroes of that neighborhood, of which 
there are many, are arming the expect to take vengence on the whites, 
and ask for assistance in the way of arms and ammunition.

A crowd of some twenty-five or thirty men have been formed, by deputy 
marshals and have started for the scene of the trouble.  The negroes 
in that section are a bad lot with a mixture of Creek Indian blood 
and formerly gave the officers much trouble.  For the past two years 
they have been comparatively quiet.  More trouble is anticipated 
before the affair is ended and a clash may occur any moment.