Raynors HCA 2017-02
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/23/2017
A rare 1884 set of 9 Trade cards showing scenes from the riot of Cincinnati caused by the murder case of William Berner & Joe Palmer for the murder of store keeper William Kirk,the riot started after the jury found the pair guilty of manslaughter in a clear case of murder. Color printed, 4-1/2’ x 3,”, removed from album, VG. The set includes, Receiving the Dead and Wounded at the Back entrance of hospital; Barricade at Court & Walnut; Guarding the City Buildings; Mob Burning the Court House; Mob in Front of Music Hall; Trying to Gain Entrance to the Murderer's Cells; Crowds at Loveland Seeking Berner to Lynch Him; A Squad of Police Capturing 2 Guns in Possession of the Mob; Guarding the Jail. Nice and vibrant. Some have minor mounting remnants on verso. The cards are 3" x 4.5". The courthouse that was built in 1853 was burned down in the famous riots of March 30-April 1, 1884 at the hands of a mob of 10,000 . After three days of rioting and the arrival of hundreds of National Guard troops 50 people lay dead and 200 were injured. A History of the Court House: On March 9, 1884, the Enquirer had "undertook a campaign to clean things up" in Cincinnati. This was in reference to the violence and the frequency of homicides in the city. Two weeks later, a man by the name of William Berner was being tried at the courthouse, charge with killing his employer, William Kirk and robbing him of $285.00. "when the jury returned a verdict of mere manslaughter, a fresh cry went up. The paper called it an outrageous assault upon society. A mass meeting was called at Music Hall Friday March 28. The story goes on, but the end result was the crowd marched to the courthouse, broke into the jail looking for William Berner. They didn't know he had been put on a train, under guard, for Columbus, had escaped the train in Loveland (although recaptured the next day). In any case, the mob at the courthouse turned into a riot, the sheriff didn't want to make a bad situation worse and ordered his men not to use their guns. They were able to drive the crowds back. The next evening though, a new mob formed "greater than the night before." "Many had firearms…The courthouse burned to the ground, taking with it 75 years of valuable documents and land records, and y the time federal troops had arrived and quelled the riot, 45 militiamen, police, and rioters lay dead and 125 more were wounded. Judge Wilke states "After each fire, a notice was published in the newspaper for the benefit of any persons wishing to have their documents, such as marriage records and wills, restored and re-entered as public records. The records prior to 1884 have been reconstructed, but they are all not intact.
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