Lynched Together: Laura and L.D. Nelson, May 25, 1911
Lynchings were horrific. In the aftermath of the American Civil War, many in the South were mad. Union forces had destroyed their small farms, white southern males had lost their right to vote, and the South was divided into five military zones. All states that had left the Union were forced to rewrite their constitutions that had to ensure all of the laws established by the Federal Government. Adding insult to injury, the 15th Amendment had granted universal male suffrage to all citizens no matter their race, color, or “previous condition of servitude.” This upended the southern society, albeit temporarily.
In many places in America, African Americans were viewed as the enemy. Some believed that they were the sole reason for the Civil War and all of its devastation. Others believed that they undermined the rights of laborers who were striking to gain better pay, better working conditions, and 40-hour work weeks. Newly arrived eastern European immigrants viewed African Americans as direct competition for factory and mill jobs. To the immigrant, African Americans were an obstacle in the quest to achieve the American Dream.
Oklahoma was a US Territory until it became a state in 1907. While a territory, Oklahoma had become a place where the federal government sent Native Americans. President Andrew Jackson, in defiance of the US Supreme Court, forced the Cherokee to relocate to Oklahoma in what is now called the Trail of Tears. Despite the relocation of many Native Americans to Oklahoma, in 1892, the territory’s population remained over 85% white and 10% colored. When the territory became a state, its new constitution established racial segregation through the notorious Jim Crow laws.
Paden, Oklahoma was an African-American town. Laura and her husband, Austin Nelson, had a farm about six miles north of town. According to the 1910 census, Laura and Austin had two children; L.D., age 13, and Carrie, age two. A nearby white farmer, Claude Littrell, reported that one of his steers had been stolen. Suspecting that the Nelsons stole the animal, Littrell obtained a search warrant from the Justice of the Peace. A posse of four men, one being the deputy sheriff, George Loney, set out to search the Nelson farm.
Like other places throughout the country, when white officers arrived with a search warrant, most African Americans could do little. It was always a white man’s word against that of a person of color. Even newspapers tilted the stories to imply that black people were always the trouble, even if it was a gross exaggeration. There are two accounts of what happened to Deputy Sheriff Loney the night they searched the Nelson farm.
Two newspapers, the Independent and the Ledger, reported the accounts of May 2, 1911. One reported that Laura Nelson told the men to get away from her gun, stating, “Look here, boss, that gun belongs to me!” She then took another gun hidden in her house, preparing to defend her home, when she and her son fought over the gun, causing it to go off. The bullet first grazed a man in the thigh before it entered Loney’s hip and abdomen. Deputy Sheriff Loney died minutes after he walked outside.
The second report stated that L.D., Laura and Austin’s son, took the hidden gun, loaded it, and had the intent to kill. As people began to shoot, a gunfight broke out. When Loney was shot, no one seemed to notice until he asked for some water. The Ledger reported that Laura Nelson stated to let the white man die. And he did within a few minutes. The Ledger went on to state that the murder of Loney was one of the “most cold blooded murders” that had ever happened in the county.
Austin Nelson was taken into custody right after the shooting and confessed to taking the steer. He stated in his confession that he had no food to feed his family. In his confession Nelson stated that he was the one that challenged the posse from taking his weapon off of the wall and that his wife struggled to take another gun out of her son’s hands, causing the gun to go off. Unable to pay his bond, Austin Nelson was charged with larceny and sentenced to three years in prison. He was transferred to the state prison on May 16th, which was 69 miles away from the Okemah County courthouse.
Meanwhile, Laura and her son were taken into custody. After the shooting, they had fled to an uncle’s house. The two went to the county jail without incident. The Ledger newspaper described L.D. Nelson as being around 16 years old, “rather yellow, ignorant and ragged.” Newspaper accounts and even the court records repeatedly recorded L.D.’s name incorrectly. On May 10th, Laura and her son, L.D., were charged with murder and held in the county prison without bail.
Three days after charges were filed against Laura, the jailer, Lawrence Payne, declared that Laura had tried to grab his gun and kill him. Payne reportedly struggled with the woman stating that he had to choke her loose. During the struggle, Payne stated that Ms. Nelson had tried to throw herself out a window and had “begged to be killed.” The Ledger had reported the incident in their May 25, 1911, issue, the same day that Laura and L.D. were to be arraigned.
A dozen to 40 men arrived at the county jail between 11:30 and midnight on the night of May 24th. Payne, the jailer, claimed that the men used force to bound, gag, and blindfold him, then took the keys at gunpoint. The mob went to the female cells to remove the reportedly “vicious” black woman of small stature. Then the mob went and got L.D. out of his cell. Prisoners reported no noise in the jail when the two were taken.
The Nelsons were taken to a bridge over the North Canadian River. Laura was gagged and raped. L.D. was weighted down with tow sacks. Both had nooses placed around their necks and then hanged from the bridge. Their bodies were found suspended by their necks from the middle span of the bridge, 20 feet above the ground. A newspaper reported that the lynching was “executed with silent precision,” making it appear as a “masterpiece of planning.”
L.D. was hung 20 feet away from his mother. Laura’s arms were not bound. As the wind gently blew, her body swayed about. L.D. had his hands tied with a saddle string and his pants were torn from his body. Hundreds of people came to view the bodies swaying in the breeze before they were cut down around 11 am on May 25th. Numerous photographs were taken of the lynched bodies and of the spectators. Several of the photos were turned into postcards and sold as souvenirs in local shops near the site of the lynching. No one in the Nelson family claimed the bodies of L.D. and his mother, Laura. This forced the county to bury the bodies in the Greenleaf Cemetery near Okemah, Oklahoma.