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Composition Book with Personal Account of Lynching, NE - Nebraska City,Otoe County

Currency:USD Category:Books Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Composition Book with Personal Account of Lynching, NE - Nebraska City,Otoe County
IMPORTANT NOTE ON BUYERS PREMIUMS:

Lot 100 to 343 have a premium of 15%.

The rest of the sale is 19.5% as noted in the listing.

Lot Pick Up: Holabird-Kagin Americana,
3555 Airway Drive Ste #309,
Reno NV 89511,
Sunday - December 9, 10am-4pm




This 7.5” x 9.5” red, hardbound composition book contains short stories, fables, adaptations of Greek myths, and short memoirs, including the account of a lynching. This composition book belonged to one Alice C. Sroat, who later married a McCoy. According to a small pamphlet in the book, Alice McCoy died on 15 October 1941 and was buried 18 October at Mountain View Cemetery in Pasadena, California. The front cover of the book bears a sticker inscribed “Alice Sroat/ 12th Scientific” and the first page is inscribed “Alice C. Sroat/ P. H. S.” Tucked inside is a 4.25” x 6.5” photo card of Alice, “Age 7 years” with a flamboyant feathered hat. The lower border is inscribed “McElhiney Artist Nebraska City,/ NEB.” The story of the lynching is vivid, but corroborating records are difficult to locate. According to Alice`s account, "a very bad man who had killed his little daughter in hopes of getting some money which had been left her by her grandfather" was broken out of the court house by a vigilante mob and then hanged. While the brutal lynching of Will Brown in Omaha is well documented in archives and other records, the lynching presented here is little-known.



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