Lynching of black man in Sandusky in 1878 recalled

SANDUSKY — Has Sandusky whitewashed its history?A Feb. 19 article in the Toledo Blade, "Lynching mars Sandusky's abolitionist history," noted that while historical markers point to the city's role in the Underground Railroad, there's been little attention given to an 1878 lynching in downtown Sandusky of a black man, William Taylor. Taylor was accused of murder but never allowed even an initial court hearing, much less a trial.The tone of the Blade article comes close to suggesting a coverup."The city has the Path to Freedom sculpture, depicting escaped slaves reaching for salvation, but no marker exists for where Mr. Taylor was hanged from a lamppost," Blade staff writer Nolan Rosenkrans wrote.The article notes, however, that none of the people interviewed for it were familiar with the murder, including the vice president of the Erie County Historical Society, Randy Koch, or Sandusky's ex officio mayor, Dennis Murray Jr. The tragic incident appears to be have been largely forgotten."The insinuation in the Blade that we were somehow hiding this event is quite a stretch," said Brent Gardner, president of the Erie County Historical Society. "We learn things of historical significance all the time. That is the joy in doing research."Gardner also hadn't heard about the lynching until the Register contacted him.After reading the Blade's article and a long account of Taylor's murder printed in the Sandusky Daily Register, Gardner commented in an email, "What an ugly event! I guess having your day in court did not apply to William Taylor. I wonder what ever happened to the people who took the law in their own hands? Also did they find the guy that he accused of the murder? What happened to him? Lots of questions. This event sure deserves more research and we will put it into our priority list to see if we can complete the story."The account in the Sept. 5, 1878, issue of the Sandusky Daily Register states that the day before, a young woman named Alice O'Donnell had disappeared. She worked at the residence of A.K. West on Washington Street.A suspect, a black man named William Taylor, denied committing the crime but told police he had come across O'Donnell's body in a stable at the back of West's house.Taylor said he was afraid he'd be accused of the crime if he reported it. So instead, he took a horse and buggy, carried her body out of the city, and dumped it into some woods. He led officers to the spot, and her body was located. Her skull had been crushed, her throat had been cut, she was only partially clothed, and a later examination found she had been "outraged," the report said.Taylor was jailed, but a mob of hundreds of men formed soon, and Sheriff Merrill L. Starr, fearing for Taylor's safety, tried to have him removed to the Infirmary, and then moved to the jail in Norwalk.Representatives of the mob caught up with the sheriff and his prisoner at the Infirmary, and promised Taylor would be safe if he was returned to the jail in Sandusky, and Starr let himself be persuaded. But on Columbus Avenue, the mob grabbed the wagon and overturned it, tossing the occupants into the street. Taylor was seized, kicked and beaten, and dragged to the pagoda at Washington Park.Taylor told a police officer that he was innocent and a black man named John Scott committed the crime. The mob put a noose around Taylor's neck and, pulling on the rope, dragged him away to Columbus and Market street, where Taylor was hung from a lamppost. When the rope broke and the body fell, he was hung again.According to the Equal Justice Initiative, lynchings were a common form of terrorism for decades in the U.S., with large mobs of whites murdering blacks, particularly in the South."Determining the exact number of lynchings committed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is a difficult task because many lynchings were not recorded. Conservative estimates indicate that, between 1880 and 1940, white mobs in the South lynched nearly 4,000 African Americans," the organization's web page states.Gardner said he would be willing to consider a historical marker about the event.Jim Jackson, president of the Sandusky Unit of the NAACP, said a marker would be appropriate."All of these atrocities should have a marker," Jackson said.That would illustrate that Sandusky has moved ahead, he said."We know these things took place. We're not like that anymore. We will not let these kinds of things take place again. Sweeping it under the rug isn't moving on," Jackson said.Jackson said that several decades ago, blacks were required to sit in the balcony of the Sandusky State Theatre and were not allowed to use the high school swimming pool. A swimming hole at Battery Park was separated into black and white areas."They wanted to throw that little extra something in there to make you feel inferior," Jackson said.Jackson had not heard of the 1878 lynching, and neither had Randy Koch, vice president of the Erie County Historical Society.Koch said he'll research the incident for a future article for the Sandusky Register."No way, shape or form can anybody say a lynching is justified," Koch said. "Obviously, it's a terrible, lawless thing to do."Erie County has several historical markers, such as this one at Shoreline Park, that recall the area's role in the Underground Railroad,which helped slaves escape from the South.