Volume 11 , Issue 41

1884 Lynching in Monterey, VA

This story takes us back to the old days when laws were carried out with mobs of drunken men carried out justice with lynchings from an infamous hanging tree. It was not only in the West, but Monterey, Virginia had one of those lynching mobs back in January 3, 1884.

As the story goes, on Christmas Day, 1883, E. D. Atcheson and Sidney Ruckman got into argument while drinking and Atcheson subsequently cut Ruckman with a knife. Ruckman wasn't wounded badly and didn't pursue the matter with the authorities.

I did some research online and this is what I found in the book, A History of Highland County, Virginia by Oren Frederic Morton, page 230.

"The good record of the county in this respect was marred by a lynching in the month of January 3, 1884. A laboring man from Michigan, whose name was Porter (alias E. D. Atchison), came into the west of the county after his release from the Pocahontas jail. He was not a well-behaved person, and during a game of cards with a citizen of Back Creek, a quarrel arose, both men being intoxicated. Atchison struck the other person a blow with his knife, but inflicted only a slight wound in the breast. For this he was lodged in the Monterey jail.

"Exaggerated reports of the affair got abroad. A party of citizens broke into the jail, shot him in his cell, and then hanged him to a tree on the Vanderpool road, where the same crosses the brow of the conical hill south of the town. All but one of the lynching party were identifiable. One citizen was tried by a jury Rockbridge men but acquitted. The others who were assumed to be implicated in the unfortunate occurrence left the county and never returned."

It is rumored that Atcheson had a reputation as a "mean" man and as someone of less than stellar integrity. He had served most of the past year in a Pocahontas County, WV, jail for stealing a horse, and that had been the latest of his "deeds."

Back to the story ? Word of Atcheson's "assault" on Ruckman spread around the community, and Atcheson was immediately arrested and placed in the Monterey jail on or about January 3, 1884. Once in jail, Atcheson reportedly stated that he had at least "7 men to kill ? and 1 woman." The one woman allegedly was his estranged wife, Gladys (Howdyshell) Atcheson. The seven men could have possibly been the family or families who lived close by to Ruckman and part of the mob.

It is alleged that the members of the "mob" had met at Lightner's Store near Mill Gap in Highland County to put together their plans for getting Atcheson. It was further stated that Atcheson had previous run-ins with many members of the mob, including a rather nasty fight at the local saw mill only weeks earlier.

Once Atcheson started threatening from his jail cell that he had people to kill, the plan was put into place to get Atcheson first. It was thought that Atcheson was serious, given his previous actions, and it probably boiled down to a "Get him before he gets one of us" kind of situation.

Has anyone out there ever run into any version of this 1884 lynching in Monterey, Virginia? We would love to hear from you, if that is the case! Thanks for your help!
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