Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1883 — THE LAST OF NELLING! [ARTICLE]

THE LAST OF NELLING!

He is Hanged within sight < of the scene of his Crime. Upon one of our inside pages will be found a short account of the lynching of Jacob , Nelling, the murderer of Ada Atkinson. Later and fuller details of the affair enable us to supplement that account with some additional details.

NelUug was taken from Lafayette to Fowler last f Friday by order of Judge Ward of this circuit, in order that he might ba brought before the’ circuit ctrafF this week. The lynching was done by an organized band of masked men, from about Oxford, all farmers, and fifty-nine in number. They called themselves regulators and had been organized for several weeks. They met Sunday evening, at about 8 o’clock, at a house two miles south-east of They elected a oaptain and* two lieutenants, assigned each man to a special duty, decided to execute Nelling within sight of the place where his crime was committed, and at 10 o’clock started for Fowler. They traveled rapidly and on reaching Fowler, quietly surrounded the jail and sheriff’s residence. The sheriff was called, and hiving refused to deliver the keys of the jail to the mob, its doors were soon broken down by the use of crow-bars and sledgehammers. Nelling met them at his sell door, ready dressed, and behaved with the most astonishing coolness to the lasi -yzi The following account of the closing scenes of the lynching we condence from the Indianapolis Journal, of Tuesday. The tree selected for the execution was a large walnut, one limb of which reached out across the road.- The tree stood within 400 years of the Atkinson residence. “It growed for just this very thing,” the hangman said this morning, after suryeying it with evident satisfaction..

‘ADJUSTING THE NOOSE. The vehicle in -which Nelling was seated was driven under the huge limb which stretched Out across the road., The hangman’s rope was produced and Nelling was told that, he had but a few more minutes to live. “Have you anything to say?” was asked. “Nothing move than I have already said,” he answered. “Do you want to pray?” was then asked him. “No,” was the answer. He was then ordered to sand upon the buggy seat while his hands and feet were tied. As the hangman’s noose was thrown around his neck Nelling said: “Be sure and get the rope under my whiskers, so that jt will not hurt.” “B —n you, we want to hurt you”, interrupted a man in the crowd. “Be slow now, boys; there’s no use for you to get excited. You will get through soon enough,” Nelling said with asonishing coolness.

•‘Can’t you lift me oyer on tlie next seat, so that I won’t drag over it when the buggy pulls out,” and as he was granted this request, hei added, “.Now don’t wait any longer than possible.” The buggy was then driven from under him, swung' out M Mi<£ air, one of the lynchers called out: “If the ladies of Lafayette have any bouquets to present, they may now have an opportunity.” He was swung off at 1:45 o’clock, and thirty-two minutes afterwards the mob quietly withdrew. The hangman was a man who had known Nelling for twenty years. The body remained hanging until about 11 o’clock, when it was cut down by Coroner Hitze and taken to the town hall in Oxford, where it was viewed by hundreds of people. The rope was buried deeply in the flesh of the neck, but the expression of the face indicated that he had died easily. “I believe he was the coolest man among ns”, the hangman said to the Journal representative, “and he died game.” All doubts regauling the cause of Nelling’s murder of Ada Atkinson is removed by a confession which was elicited from him a short time ago bv Coroner Hitze. “Nelling, didn’t you go to the house with the intention of having

fun with Ada” ? the coroner asked him. “Well, I guess I answered Nelling. “And was not that what caused you to commit the murder?” “Maybe it was; but it seems to me like a dream. I can’t realize it,” was the answer. < There is little attempt made to conceal the identity of the mem.

bers of the mob. Their action is indorsed by nearly all the best citizens in this section of the county, where the murder was committed, but what was deemed the necessity for it is deprecated. It is very improbable that any attempt will be made to prosecute the members of the mob.