Lynching of Old Bill Terry

On Saturday morning, November 22, 1856, a negro named William Terry, committed an outrage on Mrs. Morrison, of Manchester, whose husband at the time was absent. Terry was promptly arrested and lodged in jail at West Union. When Mr. Morrison returned and learned the facts as to the conduct of the black fiend, the better citizens of the town decided that summary punishment ought to be inflicted on the offender, and on Tuesday the 25th. arrangements were completed to go to West Union to secure Terry to mete out to him deserved punishment. Citizens to the number of over one hundred on horseback accompanied several persons in a wagon to the county seat where court was in session trying Milligan for the murder of the Senter family. They broke down the jail door and secured Terry and returned to Manchester by 3 o'clock in the afternoon. After giving the offender a little time to arrange his worldly affairs, he was taken over to Manchester Island, which is under the jurisdiction of the State of Kentucky, and hanged him to a limb of a large sycamore that stood at the west end near the water's edge next the Ohio shore. His body was cut down and buried at the foot of the tree from which he was hanged, but it is said the remains were exhumed by medical students that night.

from the History of Adams County, by Nelson Wiley Evans, and Emmons B. Stivers