The Lynching of Zachariah Walker

Coatesville Hospital

According to figures compiled by the Tuskegee Institute, there were 4,743 lynchings in the United States between 1882 and 1968. Of these, only eight took place in the Keystone State. One of these eight unfortunate victims of vigilante justice was Zachariah Walker, who met his demise at the hands of an angry mob in Coatesville on August 13, 1911.

In the early years of the 20th century, Coatesville was a home to twelve thousand inhabitants, many of whom were employed by one of the two big steel mills in the city, thereby giving Coatesville its nickname, the "Pittsburgh of the East". On a hot August night in 1911, the Worth Brothers' Steel Company was being guarded by the watchful eye of a former policeman named Edgar Rice, who left his post after hearing three gunshots nearby. He raced to the scene of the commotion and found a young black man, Zack Walker, in the act of robbing a group of immigrant ironworkers.

Rice attempted to subdue Walker, but the robber-- who later confessed to being drunk on gin at the time-- flung Rice to the ground, beat him senseless, and then emptied his remaining three shots into the body of the night watchman at point-blank range, killing him instantly. A posse was immediately formed and Walker was chased through the woods. He managed to elude the posse by hiding in a cherry tree on the farm of John Newlin.

On Sunday afternoon, August 13, the mob discovered Rice's slayer in the tree. Walker, who was armed with two revolvers, threatened to shoot if they made any attempt to take him into custody. There were several skilled hunters in the posse, and they took no heed of Zack Walker's warning; they began firing their rifles into the cheery tree. Walker, believing that his time was running short, decided to take his own life. He put one of his revolvers to his head and pulled the trigger. The bullet that entered his skull miraculously failed to strike his brain or a major artery, and Walker fell from the tree onto the ground, where he was immediately ambushed by the angry locals.

The mob, however, did not have any intention of lynching Walker. According to the Lancaster Intelligencer, the mob made a makeshift stretcher with the barrels of their shotguns and carried him to a waiting automobile, which then raced to the Coatesville Hospital.

At the hospital, the killer was met by Chief of Police Umsted and District Attorney Robert S. Gawthrop. After his wounds were treated he made a full confession. "I'd been drinking gin and I was feeling pretty good. I got out there near the Worth mills, among the hunkies, and to let on that I was a bold man and might hold 'em up, I fired three shots from my gun. Of course they yelled, and Rice, who had heard the shots, came rushing up and grabbed me... I had too much gin and didn't calculate to go along. So I held back and asked Rice what he wanted me for. 'For carrying concelaed weapons,' he says. 'Then I won't go,' I says, trying to pull away. He drew his club and reached for his revolver, and it must have been then that I shot him."

The evidence, however, contradicted Walker's account of what happened. There were also two eyewitnesses, both of whom were black, who swore that Walker had been the killer. When this news got out, talk of lynching fell upon willing ears. Edgar Rice was a well-known and beloved citizen, invariably described as a good, solid Christian. "Big, kind-hearted Edgar Rice! How often we worked together for the cause of Christ," declared Dr. C.E. McClellan at Rice's funeral. "He was one of those angels who walk about the streets with shaggy hands with clothes of homespun. This family and this community lost a faithful husband, father and citizen when Edgar Rice died. He sacrificed his life in the performance of his duty."

At the hospital, policeman Stanley Howe was assigned to guard Zack Walker. Although details of what happened exactly are muddy and often conflicting, one thing that witnesses can agree on is that, at some point during the night, a masked man mounted the hospital steps and shouted to a large crowd:

"Men of Coatesville! Will you let a drunkin n----r do up such a white man as Rice?"

Those words instantly transformed the crowd into a blood-thirsty mob, hellbent on revenge. They stormed the hospital and found little resistance from the four nurses and the superintendent on duty, Miss Lillian May Townshend. Officer Howe apparently made no effort to protect Walker, and he was bound with rope and carried away on the very cot upon which he had been sleeping.



The Gruesome End of Zachariah Walker


The mob carried Walker through the streets of Coatesville and down an unpaved road to the farm of John Newlin. They immediately began tearing out fence posts and gathering up kindling. Meanwhile, Walker struggled desperately on his cot and pleaded for his life. He insisted that he had killed Rice in self-defense, and as the bonfire was being lit he was heard to exclaim, "Don't give me a crooked deal because I am not white!"

The mob, their faces concealed with masks and handkerchiefs, paid no attention to Walker's cries. They did their work quiety and efficiently, and when the kindling was stacked they hurled the cot onto the pile. A dozen matches were lit simultaneously and thrown onto the pyre, and in the blink of an eye Zack Walker was engulfed in flames. The fire burned the ropes and Walker, in a desperate effort to save his own life, made a dash for freedom. He managed to reach a fence and was about to climb over it when he felt rough hands tugging him back to the inferno. As the flames swallowed him his ghastly cries were muffled by the mob's laughter, and when it was all over there was nothing left of Zack Walker but cinders and a charred chunk of torso, which was placed in a soapbox bearing a note written in crayon: "Return to relatives". The box was tossed into a ditch near the hospital entrance. A few unburned pieces of the hospital cot also survived; these were immediately snatched from the embers by souvenir hunters.



The Aftermath


It was shortly after midnight when Sheriff Golder and Chief of Police Entrekin of West Chester arrived at the scene with District Attorney Gawthrop. They immediately began tracking down the members of the mob, determined to hold them accountable for their actions. They detained and interviewed dozens of witnesses, and were horrified to learn that the mob was comprised of civic leaders, teenage girls and even young children.

"I turned my head away as soon as I had taken one glance at the burning man," recalled William Gilber, a railroad engineer for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. "And I was surprised to see many women and girls standing in the crowd far up near the front. They did not seem horror-stricken by the sight and were among the last to leave. Some of them looked like sixteen or seventeen-year-old children."

One teenager, an 18-year-old girl named Verna Eaby, was identified as one of the members of the lynching party. She was summoned to police headquarters but refused to cooperate with authorities. Three others were immediately arrested for their part in the lynching: George Corsarge, Louis Kayser, and Ernest White. Several other arrests would follow but, ultimately, it would be another member of the mob, Joseph Schwartz, who would eventually confess to dragging Zack Walker from the hospital.

The night watchman's widow, Annie Rice, was also questioned by police. Although she hadn't been part of the lynching, she made no secret about her feelings. She even went so far as to state that she wished she had been the one who lit the match that set the pyre ablaze.

"I knew nothing of the lynching until I heard a crowd pass my house," said the widow. "It sounded like a great roar and then I knew that trouble was brewing. I didn't recognize anyone, but they held me in the house and would not permit me to join them. I begged to be allowed to go along, but they said, 'No, Mrs. Rice, you stay here.' I heard the noise as the crowd took him from the hospital. I was willing to set him on fire. I would have done anything to have got near him, but they would not let me."

A City on the Verge of a Race Riot


The arrest of the vigilantes only served to heighten tensions in the community, and fear of race riots swept through Coatesville. One local newspaper reported that 3,500 black residents of Coatesville and surrounding areas had held a secret meeting in order to hatch a plan to avenge the death of Zack Walker by stealing the corpse of Edgar Rice and setting it on fire.

These rumors led to Governor John K. Tener ordering the arrest of "every man, woman and child who had a hand in the lynching of the negro". Troopers of the State Constabulary arrived on express trains from as far away as Pottsville and Harrisburg, while sixteen other troopers raced into town on horseback, "their sturdy ponies lathered white with foam", desperate to prevent an all-out war between the white and black residents of Coatesville. Authorities immediately closed down every saloon and tavern in the city and imposed a strict curfew. For all intents and purposes, Coatesville was under martial law.

Major John C. Groome, head of the State Police, reported back to the governor that local authorities were unwilling to cooperate in the investigation. "They have been a serious hindrance to us in our work," Groome stated in his report. This led Governor Tener to order the arrest of every Coatesville policeman on August 18, amid allegations that they had advance knowledge of the lynching and refused to stop it. Even the local fire department was viewed with suspicion; seventeen members of the Brandywine Fire Company were subpoenaed by the district attorney.

Stanley Howe, the officer who was supposed to have been guarding Walker, was taken into custody, but claimed that he had been overpowered by the mob. Although the truth about Howe's role in the lynching may never be known, one cannot ignore the fact that, at one time, he and Edgar Rice had served together on the Coatesville Police Force.

Norman Price, a member of the fire company who had been called before a grand jury, was the witness who implicated Joseph Schwartz. Price also implicated Richard Tucker, George Stoll, Joseph Schofield and Stanley Howe.

At the ensuing trial in October of 1911, Price testified that Schwartz had been the one who gave the lynching command on the steps of the Coatesville Hospital. "When Walker was being pulled up the lane I helped drag him," stated Price. "While I was standing at the fire I saw a man come by me with a load of wood. I recognized him as Joseph Schofield. Just then a machine came along. The crowd thought the police were coming, and they started to scatter."

Price also testified that, at the hospital, he heard Howe declare that Walker ought to hang. Howe, along with Chief of Police Umsted, were eventually charged with manslaughter.
According to courtroom testimony and police reports, the mob that lynched Zack Walker was made up of approximately two thousand residents-- roughly one-sixth of the city's entire population. And yet, in spite of the dozens of arrests, every single person implicated in the lynching of Zack Walker-- even those who had confessed to taking part in the crime-- would be acquitted.

While there is no doubt that a black man named Zack Walker murdered a white man named Edgar Rice in cold blood, there is also no doubt that Walker's killers were protected and shielded by local law enforcement in Coatesville, and allowed to walk free by Chester County's judges. And there is no doubt that racial prejudice led to this staggering miscarriage of justice. Deputy Attorney General J.E.B. Cunningham stated in February of the following year: "The race prejudice is so strong in Chester County that I am confident that, if the recall were in force, these judges would be taken off the bench by the electors because of their activities... There seems to be a mutual feeling in all classes of society in Chester County, from the highest to the lowest, that no white man will suffer for the burning of the negro."



Lancaster Intelligencer, Aug. 14, 1911.
Reading Times, Aug. 14, 1911.
Chambersburg Valley Spirit, Aug. 16, 1911.
Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 18, 1911.
Pittsburgh Courier, Aug. 19, 1911.
Williamsport Sun-Gazette, September 29, 1911.
Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 4, 1911.
Carlisle Sentinel, Dec. 29, 1911.
Meadville Evening Republican, Feb. 2, 1912.