Iowa
Old Press
Dubuque Daily Times
Dubuque, Dubuque co. Iowa
December 12, 1857
We learn that on Friday last, High Roberts, whose name is
familiar to all the settlers of Jones and Cedar Counties, as a
notorious burglar and horse thief, was caught near Little Oak
Grove, Cedar County, by the Vigilance Committee of that County,
and after being conveyed to the residence of Mr. Saum, who lives
some five or six miles southwest of Rome, Jones County, was hung
upon a beam in that gentleman’s barn. After the Committee
had performed the act and when it was supposed that the tender
cord of life was entirely severed and the spirit of the
unfortunate man had taken its exit beyond the veil of mortality,
this pious and respectable gang cut the body from its position
and bore it to a thicket hard by and suspended it to the limb of
a tree, there to rot and fall to the earth as piecemeal. After
these proceedings, the members of the Committee, who were by this
time in a frenzied state of drunkenness, dispersed to their
homes, so to revel in their inebriation, others who were not
entirely inhumanized by the effects of rum, to enjoy the pangs of
an outraged conscience - Anamosa Gazette
[transcribed by K.W., February 2015]
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Dubuque Daily Times
Dubuque, Dubuque co. Iowa
December 19, 1857
MORE LYNCHING
Hiram Roberts, a noted horse thief, was hung on the road between
Walnut and Red Oak Grove in Cedar County, on the 4th inst.
[transcribed by K.W., February 2015]