One summer's night in 1885, it is alleged that five Chinese men gained entrance to the Fraser General Store, while their fellow countrymen set-off fireworks up and down Main Street. It was a stormy night and the fireworks supposedly helped drive-off the evil spirits. The store's owner, David M. Fraser, a well-known and respected pioneer, slept in the back of his store. No one hear a shot, but the next morning his dead body was found by his packer, who had been sent to see it he was ill when he did not arrive for his usual breakfast at a boarding house nearby. It appeared that Fraser had been brutally attacked with axes, hatches (sic) and knives while sleeping, since there was blood on the pillow, on the bed, on the floor and a stream of blood trailed all the way to the front door, where the struggle ended with a gun shot through the mouth. Blood was also smeared on a rack of pick handles, as if Fraser had attempted to grab a weapon and defend himself. Interestingly, Fraser's safe and property went completely untouched.
Seven Chinese suspects were rounded up and thrown into jail. A group of citizens from Lewiston and the Camas Prairie, upon hearing of the murder, arrived in Pierce to investigate. They surrounded the town, and sent in a small posse to learn of the situation. A trial was arranged, but it was not an ordinary trial.
From lack of evidence and confessions, the court decided to try an old ruse. A man named Lon Sears, who had learned the Chinese language in the mining camps of Warren, Idaho, was disguised as a drunken Indian and thrown into jail with the suspects. Sears' ruse was apparently not successful, as the next day, a mock hanging was arranged at the Pierce Confession Tree, thinking it might be possible to frighten the guilty ones into confessing (photo of the tree at Pierce Historical Kiosk. This also failed, so the prisoners were returned to the jail. The court unable to determine guilt, released the two oldest men. The five remaining were turned over to a deputy sheriff, loaded into a hayrack wagon and started on the long journey to Murray, Idaho, for further trial.
Three miles south of Pierce, at a place called Hangman's Creek (near this present location), the entourage was met by a band of masked vigilantes. Without hesitation or interference from the guards, the vigilantes slung a pole between two black pine trees, put up five ropes and hung all five of the prisoners. The vigilantes were never found in the following years of searching. The bodies of the Chinese men were buried in the Chinese Cemetery (located at the corner of Moscrip Drive and Stover Drive in Pierce). According to custom, the bones of all Chinese in the cemetery were later dun (sic) up, washed and sent back
to China. David M. Fraser's remains are buried in the Pierce Cemetery (Cemetery Road in Pierce), and the Community of Fraser (between Weippe and Greer) was named in memory of him.
Text adapted from Layne Gellner Spencer's "And Five Were Hanged", c 1971.)
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