A Roanoke Times article dated Friday Morning, 12 February 1892 is titled “Judge Lynch! Little Alice Perry Has Been Avenged. Roanoke’s First Execution. Will Lavender Hanged to a Tree.” The article notes that Will Lavender, an African American man of 19 years of age, was born (1874) and raised in Blacksburg, Virginia. We are searching for information about Will and his family as well as their ties with historic New Town in Blacksburg. The information on this page will be disjointed until we learn more, so be patient. If you have information to add, please feel free to contact us, gathering.blacksburg.history@gmail.com.
Who Were Will’s Parents
In the 1870 Census of Kingsport, Sullivan County, Tennessee, John Lavender (brick mason) is listed as the head of the household. Rebecca (keeping house) and then three children, John, Frances and Lewis R. follow. Unfortunately, the 1870 census does not specify relationships of the people within households, but from several marriage licenses and death certificates of John’s children, we are confident that Rebecca was the mother. Will was not listed because he was born four years after this census.
1875 – Marriage of John and Blanch
John Lavender and Blanch Twigg [Trigg] married on the 18th day of November, 1875 in Montgomery County. J[erimiah] Cuffy married the couple at the Rome[?] Grocers, this was noted as the first marriage for both. John, a bricklayer, was about 30 years old and Blanch was 23. The marriage register notes that his parents were Lewis & Lucy Lavender and Blanch’s mother was Betsey Twigg.
In the 1880 census we discover the family living in the New Town neighborhood with his four children John (14), Nannie Bell (9), Fannie (7) and William (6). The census only reports relationships based on the dwelling’s head. Both Rebecca and son Lewis are not listed so we assume that either they have died or are not living in this new location. We know that Blanche was the step-mother because in the 1900 census it is noted that she had no natural born children. So, who was Will’s mother? We don’t know for sure at this time, but for now we assume Rebecca.
It is not know if Rachel, Blanche or John were born into slavery, but at this point of our search that is a logical assumption. According to the 1880 census Blanche Twigg/Trigg was born about 1852-54 and John (plasterer) about 1838-40.
Throughout the primary source document searches we noted discrepancies in ages, places of birth, and death of spouses. John was listed as born in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee or Virginia in different documents. Also, the ages vary until the early 1900’s.
US Colored Infantry – Civil War
We found a copy of the Civil War Pension Index listing John Lavender and Blanche Lavender, he served in the G Company, 14th US Colored Infantry from 1863 to 1865. His 28 page service record reveals that he enlisted for three years in Gallatin, Tennessee on 15 December 1863 and was appointed sergeant. He was 28 years born 1835 in this document (his birth year varies with each document). He was 5′ 4 1/2″ tall, of brown completion with black eyes and hair. He was born in Floyd Co, GA (Alabama in other documents) and occupation is mason. He was wounded in action at Decatur, AL on 29 October 1864.
On March 26, 1865 Sargent John Lavender of Company G, 14th Regiment of the U.S. Colored Infantry was mustered-out of service in Nashville, Tennessee.
On 25 Feb 1880 an application was filed indicating he was certified for invalid status, no state was listed. Then on 13 December 1913 an application was filed to designate Blanche as a widow in the state of Virginia.
Citation: “United States Civil War Service Records of Union Colored Troops, 1863-1865,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JZDQ-JVX : 12 December 2014), John Lavender, 1863; from “Civil War Soldiers – Union – Colored Troops,” database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing military unit 14th US Colored Infantry, NARA microfilm publication M1822, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., roll 9.
John D. Lavender’s Death – 1888
John D. Lavender, son of John, died of consumption on the 21st of June 1888, in Blacksburg. He was only 22 years old, listed as a farmer and race designated as white. Jno Lavender provided the information of record; Jno and B. Lavender were listed as parents.
Will Lavender’s Death – 1892
In the early morning of 12 February 1892 John’s 19 year-old son, Will Lavender, was lynched by a mob in Roanoke. This is the harrowing Roanoke Times account of Will’s death: the first image is the whole article; second and third images split the article so it is more easily read.
Ralph Berrier article, “Old Newspaper Stories Detail Roanoke Lynchings,” 27 May 2018 Roanoke Times, summarized the 1892 account: “Lavender was lynched in 1892 after a young girl had told people she had been pushed down to the ground by a black man wearing rubber boots. A couple of days later, the mob settled on Lavender as the boot-clad perpetrator and killed him.” Berrier explains the historical context of why the original article was so sensationalized, blaming the newspaper’s owner and publisher, Herbert Janvrin Browne.
Register of Death, Roanoke City -Last line reads: Will Lavender; Colored; Male; Date of Death, Feb 12, 1892; Place of Death, Roanoke; Cause of Death, Strangulation by Rope; Age, 19.
New York Times, 26 April 1959 article “Mob Toll Put at 4,733.
The year that Will was murdered – “The most for any year was 231 in 1892. The victims included 162 Negroes and 69 whites.”
The Lavender family lost both boys within 4 years of each other, one to a cruel disease and the other to a horrible murder. John Lavender moved to Beaver County, PA by the 1900 census and married Belle Robinson October 23, 1902. His two daughters, Fannie Lavender married Benjamin F. Bonner on August 11, 1896 in Beaver PA and Nannie Bell Lavender married Harvey Henry T. Booth in Beaver, PA on June 15, 1899. It is not known why John and his daughters moved to Pennsylvania. They probably moved a few years before they were married, John died on March 25, 1903 in Midland, Pa.
1900 Census – Blacksburg, Virginia
The 1900 census lists Blanch Lavinder as black, age 47, widowed, and living in New Town. She owned her own home and her occupation was wash woman. Mary Harvey, age 13 is listed as living with Blanch with no relation indicated. In the 1910 census Mary, is listed as Blanche’s adopted daughter. This census confirms that Blanche and Mary are living on Gilbert Street and both are laundress.
Blacksburg 1900 Town Map of New Town (Courtesy of the Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Center). Blanche’s property (yellow) was between Nathaniel Williams and Mayse [May]. New Town is outlines in green, though no official boundaries were used at the time. Note Ellie Trigg’s property, neighbor of Gilbert Vaughn.
More To Learn and Discover
A family tree for the family was created on Ancestry. If you are a relative of Will Lavender, please contact us. The Equal Justice Initiative in Roanoke, Virginia is paying tribute to Will Lavender and is searching for relatives.
Check back for more information about this family as we track down more documents and maps.
Other Sources
Brundage, William Fitzhugh (1993). Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880–1930. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252063459. – Total pages: 375
“Confronting Virginia’s Racial History”. News & Advance. Editorial Board. March 5, 2014. Archived from the original on July 6, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
Richmond Times-Dispatch (August 3, 1919). “Four Held In Lynching”. Richmond Times-Dispatch. Richmond, Virginia: Times Dispatch Pub. Co. pp. 1–54. ISSN 2333-7761. OCLC 9493729. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
Old newspaper stories detail Roanoke lynchings by Ralph Berrier May 27, 2018
First Presbyterian Church Roanoke, and the Lynch Mob, Blog by David S.
“Like an Evil Wind”: The Roanoke Riot of 1893 and the Lynching of Thomas Smith, Ann Field Alexander, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 100, No. 2 (Apr., 1992), pp. 173-206 (34 pages), Published By: Virginia Historical Society
Important Documents and Maps
Gathering Blacksburg History 