OH-FOOTSTEPS-L Archives

From: "Maggie Stewart" <>
Subject: 1900 Akron Riot [part 1]
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 18:10:42 -0500

>From Doyle's History of Summit County:

The Riot Of 1900--The Darkest Night In Akron's History.

Wednesday, the 22d day of August, in the year 1900, was a day of rejoicing
in America. The wires under the Pacific had throbbed with a message of joy
for all Christendom. Pekin had fallen--the capital city of China. The
Imperial Court had departed in hasty flight to the interior. The American
troops were the heroes of the allied armies. They had attacked and repulsed
the Yellow Horde laying siege to the British Legation, where the American
minister and his family and other good citizens had taken refuge when the
Boxers arose. America rejoiced that her sons and daughters had successfully
escaped from the perils of the 4,000 shells that fell into that legation;
from the famine and sick-ness of the long siege, and especially from the
ferocity and torture and barbarism of the legions of Chinese savages. Akron
is a representative American community. Her people were just as glad as any
on account of the glory which had come upon the American .armies.
In the evening of that day a large part of the beauty and wealth and
culture of the city had met on the beautiful grounds of the Perkins
homestead where a lawn party was being held for the benefit of a splendid
charity. Sounds of mirth and music filled the air and countless lights and
colors made it a brilliant scene. It is a common sight in any center of
culture and fashion.
Out in Lakeside Park the beautiful summer night bad drawn a large company
of spectators to the Casino, and they were enjoying to the full the delights
of the theater.
But the night in Akron had not been given over to pleasure alone. What
strange contrasts human living presents sometimes! The darkest night Akron
had ever seen had fallen with the coming of dusk that night. The perfect
picture of' Hell, that was to be beheld before the coming of dawn again, was
then in the making. The Antithesis of joy and light and love and good-will
was gaining followers in other parts of the city and they were preparing for
the crowning of Hate, and Revenge, and Lust for Blood..
If little Christina Maas had not been playing by the roadside, near the
home of her parents on Perkins Hill, on Monday evening, August 21, 1900, in
all probability Akron would have been spared her deepest shame. Not that the
innocent child, in her sweet play, was the cause of what followed, but that
she was destined to form a link in the chain of circumstances, without which
completed action could not be had. She was the little, six-year-old daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Maas. As she played by the roadside in the early
evening with her girl friends, a negro drove by. He called to her. She did
not fear him. He persuaded the older children to leave and promised little
Christina a gift of candy. He asked her to get into his buggy and she
responded in her childish confidence and natural faith in mankind and all.
He assisted her as she climbed in. He whipped up the horse and drove down
the country road. The negro was Louis Peck. He was a stranger in Akron. He
had been here but a short time, having come from Patterson, New Jersey. His
reputation there was very bad and the authorities wanted him there for a
long list of crimes he had committed. Since coming to Akron he and his wife
had been working in a restaurant. He was about forty years of age and black,
and unprepossessing. After his arrest, he confessed freely all he did that
evening, after he drove into the country and until he left the little girl
crying and injured by the lonely roadside with night coming on.
He had hired the horse and buggy from a Main street liveryman. After
driving back into town he abandoned them and they were found soon after by
the police It was by means of the horse and buggy that the officers were
enabled to learn the identity of the perpetrator of this outrage. As soon
as the police department was informed of the crime every policeman on duty
was notified and instructed to be on the lookout for such a negro as Peck.
Every place in the city likely to harbor him was searched and the railway
tracks were watched with sharp sight, but Peck succeeded in escaping from
the city. He had lost no time in beginning his flight. Not a trace of him
could be secured. On Tuesday the officers patrolled the railway tracks,
rather expecting that Peek was still in the city, in hiding, and would try
to make his escape. A number of them were scattered along the tracks on
Tuesday night.
Shortly after midnight a freight train rolled into the Union depot from the
east. Officer Duffy was patrolling the tracks in that vicinity and, as the
train passed him, standing in the dark, a negro jumped from one of the cars
almost into his arms . Officer Duffy arrested the man. It was Peck. He was
taken at once in the patrol wagon to the city prison.
The prison-keeper was awakened and spent the rest of the night talking with
Peck about the crime. By adroit leading and skillful questioning Mr. Washer
succeeded at last in getting Peck to make a full confession. R. W.
Wanamaker, the prosecuting attorney, was summoned, a stenographer secured,
and Peck's statement was taken down verbatim.
At 9 o'clock he was arraigned before the mayor, W. E. Young, in the mayor's
court. He pleaded guilty to a charge of rape and was bound over by, the
mayor to the Common Pleas Court to await the action of the Grand Jury at the
coming September term. His bond was placed at $5,000, and he was committed
to the prison because of his inability to furnish bail in that amount.
Greatly exaggerated stories of his confession and of the criminal act were
circulated throughout the city. The appearance of the evening papers
(especially one, very imprudently printed in red ink) and the cries of the
newsboys selling them, stirred up a feeling of resentment. Excitement was
slowly kindling. Many heedless remarks were made by persons whose words
usually carry weight. An Akron professional gentleman was on his way home
at 5 o'clock that bright Wednesday afternoon. He stopped in a store and
listened to a recital of the outrage by the merchant. Said the professional
man in the hearing of a little company, "I'll be one of a hundred to go over
and take him out of the jail and hang him." Not a man in the company
protested. No one deemed the sentiment extravagant or the speech incendiary.
There was an echo in their own breasts. Every man felt a personal interest
in having so great a wrong redressed and in having it done at once. Many
such intemperate remarks were made that afternoon as the story spread.
As early in the day as noon, threats were made to the authorities that the
negro would he lynched. The executive departments of the city government
heard the mutterings of the coming storm all afternoon. The county officers
heard it also. None of them can be heard to say now that they were taken by
surprise. They were totally unprepared when the hour of trial came, but they
were not taken unawares. They had full warning more than ten hours before
the storm broke in all its fury. They paid this much attention to the
threats and warnings they had received--they ordered Sheriff Frank G. Kelly
to take the prisoner to Cleveland during Wednesday afternoon for safe
keeping. Another colored man named William (alias "Bug") Howard had been
locked up in the prison awaiting commitment to the county jail as he, too,
had been bound over to the Common Pleas Court on a charge of shooting a
white man in the leg. It was deemed best to take Howard along, as a. mob
might easily mistake the identity of the negro they sought, or .might be so
incensed at the whole black race, that they would not ,hesitate to hang
another than the one sought. These two black men were soon secure behind the
gray walls of the Cleveland prison The Akron authorities were congratulating
them-selves on so successful an issue of their wise plans. When a mob
appeared they would laugh at them and enjoy their discomfiture when told the
quarry had flown. They know more about mobs and mob nature now.
Crowds began to collect at the intersection of Main and Howard streets a
short time after 6 o'clock. Knots of men stood about the prison talking over
the affair. Some were already discussing the advisability of trying to make
an example of the prisoner. Considerable sentiment in favor of such action
had been aroused during the day in several of the big city factories. Some
of these men were present and made up their minds that, if an opportunity
offered, they would make good what they had said they would do.
As it began to grow dark and to become difficult to distinguish objects
across the street, the crowd, much augmented, closed in about the old brick
building which Akron people had known for many years as "The City Building."
They began to call for Peck and to hoot and jeer the police officers who
were within. The chief of police had become alarmed and had summoned every
available man for duty at headquarters.
Much parleying took place between city officials and the members of the
crowd. They tried to push into the building through the Main street doors,
but the officers prevented them. There was still much daylight remaining
when the first attack on the building was made. A shower of stones and
bricks broke the windows and bombarded the stout doors. Then a ladder was
brought out and quickly manned. This was used as a battering-ram on the
north doors, which lead into the Mayor's Court. The stones and bricks
continued to fly. The doors were rapidly giving way beneath the repeated
blows of the improvised ram. Then one of the front windows was raised and a
policeman emptied his revolver over the heads of the assailing party. This
was a foolish move. There was no ammunition in the city building beside what
was already in the chambers of the policemen's revolvers and part of a box
which was in possession of the prison-keeper. The scarcity of ammunition was
a cause of much alarm to the policemen in the building. They had sent
outside to secure more, but were unsuccessful.
Across the street were a large number of spectators watching the efforts of
the men in their attack upon the building. Among them were a few carriages
and buggies. In the one of the latter sat John M. Davidson, with his wife
and four-year-old daughter, Rhoda. They had been out looking at some work
Mr. Davidson had taken the contract for and were returning home by the way
of Main street. They had started to go up the Quarry street hill and were
told that the Fire Department was coming down. They turned back on to Main
Street and other buggies crowded around them so that they were forced to
remain.
Mrs. Davidson was looking at the policeman in the window. She saw him
shoot his revolver directly at them. She heard bullets fly about their
heads. Her little daughter said, "Oh, mamma," and her head fell forward on
her mother's knee with the blood flowing from a mortal wound in her head.
Glen Wade,. a boy of ten years, was also standing among the spectators on
the opposite side of Main street and he received one of the bullets from
this same policeman's reckless--yes, criminal shooting. He was instantly
killed. Hundreds of shots were fired afterward, and charges and charges of
dynamite exploded, and two large buildings were burned to the ground, yet
these two innocent children were the only persons who lost their lives by
reason of the riot. The injuries received by other parties that night were
mostly of a minor character.
The party within the walls was increased by this time so that it consisted
of Mayor Young, the four city commissioners, Chief of Police .Harrison and
seven or eight police-men.
A hurried conference was held and it was decided to allow the crowd to
appoint a committee to enter and inspect the jail to make sure that Peck was
not in it. The mob selected a committee of six, headed by a member of the
City Council, who was one of the loudest and most strenuous of all the
seekers for the blood of this negro.
When the doors were opened to admit the committee, the crowd poured, in
after them. It was impossible to stem that impetuous rush. They filled the
building and searched every nook and corner of it. The cells of the prison
were opened, but the mob found no negro within the building. Even Mr.
Washer's private apartments were invaded and the garments of himself and
wife torn from the closets where they hung, to see if any one was concealed
by them. Their cellar was ransacked, and every spot which could possibly
contain or shelter a man was searched. The disappointment of the mob was
plain. Some one shouted that Peck was in the county jail. The entire crowd
started for the jail. Deputy-Sheriff Simon Stone was on duty. Sheriff Kelly
was absent for some unexplained cause. His continued absence through all the
stirring events of that night and until the hour of danger had passed caused
much comment.
The deputy sheriff met the mob in front of the old brick jail, which stood
on the east side of Broadway, opposite the Court House, and which was torn
down on the completion of the new jail. Standing on the old stone steps at
the front entrance, he made them a short address, telling them that Peck had
been taken to Cleveland that afternoon and that he had never been brought to
the county jail. He offered to allow a committee chosen by themselves to
make a search. This was done and the same committee searched the jail
thoroughly and reported that no negro could be found. The crowd moved over
to the old Court House; battered in the wooden doors, and trooped into every
room in the building except the office of the treasurer.
Here the heavy iron doors resisted their efforts to make an entrance and
caused them to desist in their purpose.
They hastened back to the City Building and filled the space in front of
it. They were still shouting and calling for Peck, and occasionally a stone
or a brick would fly through the windows on both the Main street and Viaduct
sides of the building. When the mayor appeared at a window in the rooms of
the board of health and motioned for silence, the crowd listened to him with
comparatively good attention. He told them that Sheriff Kelley had taken
Peck to ,Cleveland that afternoon and that there was no use hunting longer
for him. Some one insisting that this was not so, the mayor offered to bet
$20 that Peck was not in Akron. He urged them to disperse and let the law
take its course in bringing Peck to a full punishment for his crime.
Of course, this did not satisfy them. It was a mistake to suppose that it
would. They were not there for oratory. They had come on a serious
business. They sought vengeance. Nothing but blood would satisfy them. It
was a maddened, blood-thirsty pack of wolves, and to advise, and to
temporize, and to try to compromise with such was entirely unreasonable and
a waste of effort. It was the temporizing policy of the authorities up to
this time which had helped bring the mob up to its present pitch. The attack
was renewed with increased vigor. It was no longer a crowd of men
confronting the officers; it was a furious mob. Many of them carried pistols
in their hands and a few shots were fired at the building. Occasionally a
policeman would come to the window and discharge five or six shots toward
the sidewalk.
Prison-keeper Washer had been spending the evening with Mrs. Washer and
friends at one of the summer resorts south of Akron. He had gone out of town
on the earnest solicitation of the chief of police, who explained to him
that, if a mob did form, it would make the story more credible if it could
be said that the prison-keeper was out of town with the prisoner. When the
fish supper was con-eluded, Mr. Washer tried to reach the city building by
telephone, but was unable to do so. He became apprehensive that all was not
right and started for Akron about 8 o'clock. He drove into the mob at Main
street about 9 o'clock and they dragged him and Mrs. Washer from the buggy.
They shoved two revolvers into Mr. Washer's face, boring the barrels into
his flesh, saying they wanted Peck and meant to have him. One man, in a
perfectly fiendish condition of mind, kept scratching Washer's face
shrieking, "It's blood we want, blood, blood, blood." He succeeded in
drawing some of Mr. Washer's. Mrs. Washer finally succeeded in reaching
their apartments at the rear of the building, with a large part of her
clothing torn from her body Mr. Washer tried to make a speech to the mob
The noise and tumult was so great he could not make himself heard, except to
a few immediately surrounding him. He saw a man with a brick in his hand
working his way up to the front. A, minute later and this brick struck the
speaker on the side of the head and he dropped senseless to the street. The
blow nearly fractured his skull and he suffered from the wound it made for
several years afterward.

Continued in Part 2

This thread:

• 1900 Akron Riot [part 1] by "Maggie Stewart" <>

  • 1900 Akron Riot [part 2] by "Maggie Stewart" <>