The Chariton Leader, Chariton, Iowa Thursday, March 14, 1907 'HE FLED IN HOT HASTE' 'A Lucas County Mob Mercifully Lynched a Pioneer Desperado.' ------------------ Capt. N.B. Gardner and Judge J.C. Mitchell were in the Bates House, Sunday afternoon, talking over the pioneer days, when the latter spoke of the old log jail, the first penal establishment Lucas County ever had. This reminded Capt. Gardner of some early experiences in dealing with a desperado -- a fellow by the name of J.P. CHAPMAN, who was always up to some form of deviltry but they could neither suppress him nor get him in the penitentiary. He always managed to give bonds and clear himself. This state of affairs kept the people in constant apprehension. Finally CHAPMAN made another raid on law and order and after considerable maneuvering, Sheriff Gaylord Lyman landed him in the log jail. CHAPMAN said he could give bail and had them send for WILLIAM MCDERMOTT, the first settler in the county, who, it seems, CHAPMAN overawed with fear. MCDERMOTT came to town and persisted in going on CHAPMAN's bond, but was finally talked out of it. That night the county officials an! d other good citizens conspired to rid Lucas County of CHAPMAN for all time, so they all congregated about the jail breathing dire threats against the culprit within, battering on the door and ordering a rope brought. This ruse worked like a charm. The prisoner trembled in his prison house like an aspen. In course of time the commotion abated and almost everybody took to the dog fennel, then lawyer Thorpe stole up to the window and whispered: "CHAPMAN, they've come to kill you. I'll help you if I can. I'll try and break the door open so that you can get away, but it seems impossible with the crowd around." CHAPMAN suggested that Thorpe set a house on fire somewhere to draw the crowd, but it was not necessary to resort to that. He went into Jack Bentley's Blacksmith Shop, got a bar of iron and in a moment the door swung in. Then the men with the bar of iron also took to the dog fennel. CHAPMAN cautiously peeped out of the door through the gloaming and after a deliberate survey of the surroundings tiptoed his way to the alley and then put on speed toward the south. Simultaneously the mob arose and gave pursuit, yelling and firing into the air but keeping a safe distance so that they would not catch the fleeing culprit. CHAPMAN's feet beat a tattoo on the highway and could be heard long after his shadow had been obliterated by the darkness." "I expect he's going yet," interposed the judge. "No, I think not," resumed the captain. "One day after a hard skirmish with a band of Confederates, during the late unpleasantness, I stood looking over the field of conflict when a tattered object appeared on the hroizon and approached the camp with a hand extended in true southern hospitality, so glad to see us that his face beamed like a headlight. It was CHAPMAN. He had risked being shot as a spy coming through the lines to welcome us to the Confederacy, but he never set foot in Lucas County again after the night the mob gave him the merry chase from the door of the old log jail." A few of the older citizens will perhaps remember this circumstance of the man who formerly owned the farm adjoining Chariton on the south, now Spring Lake and Fairview additions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert September 23, 2004 [email protected]