B.F. Marsh (Greeley, Colorado)
1888, 29 December
The lynching of Wilbur D. French, Greeley, Colorado
Cabinet card
Cowan's Auctions, IncAmerican History: Premier Auction, 26 June 2018, Lot: 447
Cabinet card with B.F. Marsh, Greeley, CO imprint on mount recto, capturing a man hanging from a tree, surrounded by several onlookers. A rare photograph documenting the only known lynching that occurred in Greeley, CO history on December 29, 1888.
The photograph shows town bully, Wilbur D. French, who had been previously arrested for cattle rustling and was suspected of murdering his wife a year before this image was taken. French was arrested in late December 1888 for the suspected murder of mill merchant Harry Woodbury, with whom he had been arguing over the price of 600 pounds of flour before purportedly shooting him. The locals were concerned that because no one witnessed the murder, French would not be charged for the crime, and they took it upon themselves to break into the County Jail, apprehend French, and drag him to a nearby tree to be hanged during the early morning hours of December 29, 1888.
LL/83475
