Grant County, Kentucky

In 1841 one of the most horrible attempted murders, and also one of the most severe examples of lynching, occurred in this county, of which history makes mention. John Utterback, a stock drover in the employ of some Bourbon county trader, was passing from Covington to his home in Bourbon when the horrible deed transpired, of which he was the victim. He had been secretly followed from the city by two desperadoes named Smith Maythes and Lyman Crouch, and was overtaken by them about three miles south of Williamstown on the Cynthiana road.

Utterback was riding horseback and they were in a buggy. They drove up by his side and caught the bridle and demanded his money. Seeing he was attacked by two desperate looking men he attempted to force his horse by, when he was struck a heavy blow on the head either with the gun, which they had, or a heavy stick. This felled him from his horse, but he recovered in an instant, and then commenced a struggle for life and death.

One of the men attempted to shoot him, but the gun miss-fired. Utterback was a man of powerful physical strength and endurance, and the struggle continued for several minutes before they were able to overcome him. Finally one of them succeeded in striking him again over the head with the gun, this time knocking him senseless. This was many yards from where the struggle commenced.

One of them now drew a large knife and inflicted gash after gash across Utterback's throat from ear to ear, until their most fiendish and wicked minds convinced them he was thoroughly dead. They found no money or valuables on his body. He was not the man, it was supposed, they had thought he was. While the struggle was ensuing a Jew peddler happened to pass on horseback. As soon as he discovered the terrible fighting, and supposing his time was to come next, put spurs to his horse, never once halting or turning his head to learn the cause or nature of the struggle.

Tam O'Shanter, in his fearful flight from the witches, did not urge his faithful mare, 'Meg,' with more terrible anxiety and fear that did this son of Ishmael his panting steed. On he came, through Williamstown, and down the pike, holding to his wares as best he could with one hand and whipping with the other. From whence he came and whither he was bound he gave to the astonished people not the slightest indication. Maythes and Crouch seeing this man start upon his precipitous journey, and supposing he had gone to give information of what he had witnessed and fearing they would soon be overtaken, left their buggy and fled to the woods.

In about an hour afterward Utterback was discovered. He was not dead, but had crawled up by the side of a tree, and was endeavoring to write in a small note-book the particulars of his attempted murder. In a few hours the whole country was aroused and in pursuit of the dastardly villains. About four o'clock the next evening they were found and captured in Pendleton county and brought to Williamstown and lodged in jail. Utterback was taken home, where he recovered from his wounds, and, it is said, is still living. The would-be murderers became still more desperately infuriated when they were informed that Utterback was not dead; especially Maythes, who was the oldest and most wicked in crimes. He made many bitter threats while in jail-that he would burn the town and assassinate every man who aided in his capture.

These threats were soon communicated over the county, and it needed but a breath of this kind to kindle in a positive and angry determination the disposition of the people to lynch them. One evening, after the prisoners had been in jail about three months, a crowd of about four hundred persons, composed of men from Pendleton, Harrison, Bourbon, Scott and Grant counties, assembled about one mile south of town, and there formed into a regular column, four abreast, and marched into town. The jailor hearing of their coming buried the keys. They marched into the Court House yard without saying a word.

The people of the town attempted to dissuade them from their determined purpose, and eloquent speeches were made to them by Major James O'Hara, Edward Burthell and John W. McCann, pleading in the cause of justice, to allow her take her course in the courts, and that she would be sure to mete out to men guilty of such crime a just and rigid punishment. But these speeches were of no avail.

A calm, unwavering determination sat brooding upon the countenance of every man. They asked if there was any one else who wishes to speak to them, when Rev. Josiah Whittaker came forward and knelt in their midst and offered up a fervent prayer, in which a last appeal was made that the prisoners might be spared a fate not contemplated by law and justice. Still they were unmoved. When he had finished they deliberately marched to the jail door and broke it down, took out the prisoners and conveyed them to the place where their crime was committed.

Here a scaffold was erected and the prisoners were told they could have a short time to confess their crime, if they wished to, and to make peace with their God. They did confess the full particulars of the outrage, but their crime was too black and their hearts too keenly steeped in infamy to permit them to raise their voices and ask the forgiveness of a merciful Heaven. They stood mute, and ropes were placed around their necks, and they swung to the scaffold immediately over the place where their struggle with Utterback had ended.

When the last vital spark of life had fled from their bodies, they were cut down and buried in graves dug by the roadside. That night they were taken up by unknown persons and their heads severed from the bodies and carried away, the bodies being restored to the graves. Maythes was born and raised near Maysville, Ky. He had been a bold and desperate highway robber for many years. Crouch was young in his wicked calling and lived in Cincinnati, where he was respectably connected, having at one time been a member of the police force of that city.

In a few days after the lynching his wife and some friends came out and got his headless body and conveyed it home, where it was buried in a manner befitting his former relations as a man of respect.