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Killing of Robert S. Maynard

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1852 lynching in Oregon, United States

Robert S. Maynard was a 21-year-old man from Illinois who was lynched in Jacksonville, Oregon, in May 1852 as a result of his murder of J. C. Platt. As Maynard was extrajudicially killed by hanging, this was the first recorded hanging and first recorded lynching in Southern Oregon, where no courts had yet been appointed.

Background

Maynard used the aliases Jackson Maynard and "John Brown," and multiple sources use solely Brown. He was described as a gambler, and as a man from Pike County, Illinois. Gold having been discovered late in 1851, Jacksonville was only founded the same year of the killing, and the area was known at the time as Rogue River.

Murder

Maynard shot J.C. Platt (also known as John D. Platt and as Samuel Potts) with a borrowed gun because Platt called him a liar; the shot man "made no attempt to assault."

Lynching

Maynard was executed by hanging by miners in what The Daily Alta California characterized as a "lynching." Maynard asked the onlookers that they point to his grave and "say there lies a man who would not be insulted".

As there were no organized courts of law at the time, the killing was called "mob law" and "necessary" by press in New York; likewise, the 1884 History of Southern Oregon described the extrajudicial killing as "a law higher, stronger, more effective than written codes administered by the people's court."

Conversely, Herman F. Reinhart attested a few years later that «excited miners worked up a prejudice against the gambler», as gamblers had become «very obnoxious to the miners, who had lost money» with them, Maynard being one of those, and as a consequence the «miners were for lynching» Maynard right away. The miners appointed «fifty men (Vigilantes)» to keep Maynard from escaping until the hanging.

Fifty years after the hanging, The Sunday Oregonian characterized the lynching as "swift and unerring justice of the miners."

References

  1. (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "He was twenty-one years of age."
  2. (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "this was the first execution in Southern Oregon"
  3. (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "there were no legally authorized courts"
  4. (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "a man who was called Brown by his comrades, but whose right name was Jackson Maynard"
  5. (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "Robert Maynard, who went by the name of Brown"
  6. ^ "XLIII — Jacksonville". History of Southern Oregon. A. G. Walling. 1884. p. 360. LCCN a14001444. Retrieved 26 February 2024. Potts was shot dead, without provocation, by a gambler named Brown
  7. ^ "Lynching on Rogue River". The Daily Alta California. No. 166, Vol III. San Francisco: E. Gilbert & Co. 15 June 1852. Retrieved 26 February 2024. Brown, of Illinois, who killed John D. Platt has been hung trial at the hands of a committee appointed by the miners
  8. ^ David Newsom (9 August 1852). "From Oregon". Sangamo Journal / Illinois State Journal. Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections. p. 2. Retrieved 26 February 2024. a gambler shot a man and at the expiration of a week the man pulled hemp!
  9. (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "Jackson Maynard, a gambler"
  10. Sacramento Daily Union 1852, p. 37: "John Brown, of Illinois"
  11. (Reinhart 1962, p. 2): "John Brown from Pike County, Illinois"
  12. (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "the mines on Rich Gulch within the limits of Jacksonville were discovered late in the fall of 1851."
  13. (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "Jacksonville, a small mining village on Rogue River"
  14. ^ "Oregon". Illinois Daily Journal. No. 360, Vol IV. S. & A. Francis. 31 July 1852. p. 2. OCLC 8821623. Robt. S. Maynard, from Illinois, shot a man by the name of J. C. Platt, at Jacksonville, because he had been insulted by him executed in three days after
  15. (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "killed Samuel Potts"
  16. (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "Brown said he was insulted, and that he would shoot Platt. He borrowed a revolver"
  17. (Sacramento Daily Union 1852, p. 2): "Upon being called a liar he shot his antagonist"
  18. (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "Potts made no attempt to assault Maynard"
  19. (The Oregon Statesman 1852, p. 2): "He said buried in that grave (pointing to a grave nearby, which had been dug), and that the traveler would point to it and say there lies a man who would not be insulted"
  20. (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "at this time there were no county organizations, no courts"
  21. "The Territory of Oregon". The Ovid Bee. No. 24, Vol 15. Ovid, New York: David Fairchild and Son. 22 September 1852. p. 1. LCCN sn83031494. OCLC 9887516. Retrieved 26 February 2024. May 29 This may be called "mob law," but it is a government that seems to be necessary in these new settlements, where courts are not organized A white man was hung, for the diabolical murder of a white man
  22. (History of Southern Oregon 1884, p. 360): "there was a law higher, stronger, more effective than written codes--the stern necessity of mutual protection--and a strong element had the courage and will to enforce it. Justice was administered by the people's court"
  23. (Reinhart 1962, pp. 37–39): "Brown was called of that class, then very obnoxious to the miners, who had lost money with them, and were mad at them for beating them out of their money The miners were for lynching Brown right off A guard of fifty men (Vigilantes)"
  24. (Plymale 1903, p. 15): "they had a wholesome dread of the swift and unerring justice of the miners"

Bibliography

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