Beware, Lynchers

The Western Sun Vincennes Indiana March 5, 1886

An Albuquerque (New Mexico) editor who expected a gang of lynchers to come for him about the middle of the night, took himself to the cellar, leaving a pet grizzly bear in his place in bed. The lynchers didn’t bring any lights but made a plucky attempt to get the bear out and lynch it, but gave it up after three of them had lost an eye apiece, two had suffered the loss of thumbs chewed off, and the other six were more or less deprived of skin. Th editor now has a tremendous reputation as a fighter, and the bear didn’t mind the work one bit.

(Ed Note: Ok, so it's not exactly Lawrence County history, but your ancestors would have read it in the paper, and they would have laughed just like you did. .. so history does repeat itself. )