"Almost Lynching"
One of the essays by Mrs. Mable Glasgow Pope’s students in the 1930's is one that deals with hangings in Clay Co.
One of the main points of interest in the Museum, especially to teenagers, is the dummy of Wild and Wooly Willie, the
Horse Thief, hanging from the skylight beam in the foyer. We always explain that our old jail is one of the few left in the
country that were equipped with a gallows for executing convicted criminals, but that no one to our knowledge was ever
hanged here, but elsewhere in the neighborhood.
There has never been but one legal hanging and one illegal would-be hanging in Henrietta. The legal hanging took
place out at 'The Mound,’ a big cliff about one mile northwest of here. (Some sources say the bluff out by the rodeo
grounds. Anyone have anything definite on this?) The one illegal would-be hanging took place at the 1878 county jail
between the museum and the courthouse square. (The 1878 building has recently been bought and restored by by
Mr. and Mrs. Glen Gonzenbach.)
The jail, a two story stone building, was occupied by the jailer on the top floor and by the prisoners on the lower floor.
The man, Stegall, was being tried in the courts of Henrietta, but the people got rather wrought up over the matter and
decided to take matters into their own hands.
One man went to the sheriff’s office two doors down the street to talk to him about paying his taxes so the sheriff
wouldn’t interfere. He locked the door as he came in.
The mob then seized the prisoner and put a noose around his neck. Someone came to tell the sheriff, Cooper Wright,
but could not get in. However, he yelled and told Mr. Wright what was taking place, and Mr. Wright jumped out the
window and got to the scene in time to cut his prisoner down before he died.
The man was then convicted by the courts in Henrietta and sentenced to be hanged. However, as the case was
appealed to a higher court, it was taken to Gainesville where Stegall was sent to the penitentiary for ninety-nine years.
He was pardoned on good behavior a few years ago, though.
Another version of this story said Cooper Wright beat his captor with a chair leg, climbed out the window and retrieved
one of the many Winchesters he kept hidden around town and shot the prisoner down. His sympathy was not with
Stegall, but he was not about to let a mob have their way with one of his prisoners.