User:OAStudent/Lynching of Carl Etherington
 | This is the sandbox page where you will draft your initial Wikipedia contribution.
If you're starting a new article, you can develop it here until it's ready to go live. If you're working on improvements to an existing article, copy only one section at a time of the article to this sandbox to work on, and be sure to use an edit summary linking to the article you copied from. Do not copy over the entire article. You can find additional instructions here. Remember to save your work regularly using the "Publish page" button. (It just means 'save'; it will still be in the sandbox.) You can add bold formatting to your additions to differentiate them from existing content. |
Article Draft
[edit]Lead
[1] During prohibition in Licking County, Carl Etherington was part of an anti-saloon league that was hired to make sure saloons were following the Prohibition rules. [2]On July 8, his group was hired to check a saloon but when they showed up it was already violent and police were already trying to protect others.[3]Carl Etherington was protecting himself before he shot and killed William Howard. [2]This lead to him being arested and eventually lynched.
Background:
[1] In 1908 the Rose County Local Option Act was passed which stopped separate counties from making their own laws about the sales of alcoholic beverages. More specifically, in Licking County voters voted against alcohol sales but Newark supported these sales. Newark was the first to oppose the act which lead to riots. Newark was in an under the table deal with the mayor and police officers to sell alcohol by charging the bar owners $10 a week. [2] The election was conducted in January 1909 and Licking County cast their votes on choosing to go wet or dry. While 708 voted to go dry in Licking County, Newark tallied that by having 1557 voting to go wet.
Event:
[1][4]During this time there were anti-saloon leagues that wanted alcohol prohibited.By being a member of an anti-saloon league you were hired by different countries to check if the saloons were violating the Rose County Local Act. One of the members was a Granville deputy marshall named Carl Etherington.
[2]On the night of the lynching, Licking County hired Etherington's team to look into and raid nearby saloons that might have been breaking the law. Etherington came upon a heated altercation during one raid. The police tried to protect the agents by ordering them to leave the scene and arresting the other members for their actions. But, Carl was not one of the ones arrested but knew he needed to escape the scene. He was unable to successfully escape because when passing William Howard’s saloon he was attacked and beaten by Howard. [3] A large mob gathered where they beat Etherington until he shot and killed William Howard in defense. As an outcome of the event, Carl was arrested and was held in the Licking County prison. Police took Etherington away while trying to stop the mob from getting into the jail.
[1]Carl spent his last moments praying and writing to his parents before he tried to commit suicide. He did this by locking his head in his coat and setting fire to it but this attempt was unsuccessful.[2]At 8:15 the crowd responded to William Howard’s death by successfully breaking into the jail Carl was incarcerated in. They found Carl and beat and kicked him using a hammer and dragged him out of jail taking him to the south east corner of downtown's square. [2]At 10:35 pm they lynched him from a telephone pole by tying a rope around his neck. Even while getting beaten up and experiencing tremendous pain from the hammer they used to hit his head. According to reports, his last words were “Tell my mother that I died trying to do my duty”.
[3] After this event, the Ohio Anti-Saloon League argued that Newark’s Public Officials including Mayor Herbert Atherton were responsible and should have protected the city. [3] Additionally, the Ohio Anti-Saloon League argued for increased enforcement as a result of this event. They believed that this lynching could have been prevented if Mayor Atherton had enforced more protection officials.
Impact:
[1]This lynching brought negative press to Ohio because Carl Etherington was a white male that had been hired to do his job as a private detective for the saloons in Licking County. The Ohio governor at the time removed the mayor of Newark and the Ohio attorney general announced that anyone who supported the mob would be tried for the support of the murder. After this announcement, they found thirty-nine indictments and fifteen were charged with first degree murder. Most of the people who were charged with murder received pardons.
[5] Even today the respect and recognition that people have for him, not only as a lynching victim but as a respectable agent who died in the line of duty despite his arrest shows his significance. The plaque standing outside the door of the Licking County Jail as well as the awareness of this matter in recent context evidences his contribution towards revolutionization of Newark to become more law abiding. The Licking County Historic Jail also opened up a temporary tour for the public to look at the jail before the installation of the plaque and has made attempts to commemorate that day ever since. The Licking County governmental preservation society has honored July 8 as Carl Etherington day.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Claire, Rounkles M. (2020). The Shame of the Buckeye State: Journalistic Complacency on Episodic Lynching in Ohio from 1872 to 1932 (Thesis). Ohio University.
- ^ a b c d e f "Carl Etherington" (PDF). Licking County Library. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
- ^ a b c d Szymanski, Ann-Marie (1999). "Dry Compulsions: Prohibition and the Creation of State-Level Enforcement Agencies". Journal of Policy History. 11 (2) (published 2011-10-14): 115–146. doi:10.1017/S0898030600003171. ISSN 1528-4190.
- ^ ""The Temperance Movement in Licking County"". Licking County Records & Archives. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
- ^ McDonald, Sydney Murray and Craig (2017). "Lynching victim remembered through plaque at jail". The Advocate. Retrieved 2024-10-30.