CABINET CARD PHOTOGRAPH OF THE 1883 LYNCHING OF IKE BARBER

[Shotgun Steve]

Albumen photograph, with imprint of S.M.Goodall, Sumner, Iowa. The image pasted over another, earlier photograph, and titled in pencil "Ike Barber."

The Barber brothers, Ike and Bill, were notorious horse thieves and ne'er do wells. By 1882 the State of Illinois had offered a $6000 reward for their capture. In August of that year, the bodies of Charles McMahon, a wealthy farmer, and two of his hired hands were found murdered, and the Barber brothers were identified as the prime suspects. The specific crime which led to their ultimate downfall, however, was committed in Wadena in Fayette County, Iowa in September, 1882, where they shot and killed Marion Shepard, the town police officer.

After two weeks, they were finally run to ground and captured by a local posse near Tripoli, Iowa. After several months in the jail at Independence, the brothers were transferred to a lock-up in Waverly, Iowa to await trial. Before long, a large mob, led by a brother of one of their murder victims assembled outside the jail and talk of lynching ensued. The sheriff could do little to stop the crowd and the brothers were dragged from their cells. Denying their crimes, the brothers were taken outside the town limits, and hung. Ike's last words were reportedly "Go on with the hanging (Livermore (Iowa) County Gazette, June 22, 1883).

Provenance: The Mike Butler Collection of Western Photography.