The small town of Mott was in general alarm on this day in 1916. One of their number had just made a confession to the murder of a local farmer, and it was being circulated that a number of men, both lynchers and bailers, were headed to Mott in droves with the purpose of either killing or freeing their prisoner.

The whole affair started the week before, when authorities found the body of farmer Louis H. Larson. Police found the man’s skull crushed in, and his hands and feet bound together. Upon investigation they found that local immigrant Frank Luchow had been the last man seen with Larson. Luchow, a Polish immigrant and active IWW member, went by Frank Lang in these parts. His activities with the radical Industrial Workers of the World were infamous in Chicago. Police found and arrested Lang in Dickinson in connection with the murder. They placed the suspect in the Mott jail, but reports of his confinement spread across the area and caused quite a stir. Area farmers and homesteaders hoped to mob the jail and take Lang for themselves in order to administer their own form of frontier justice; several local IWW members made a proclamation to the rest of the country’s members to free Lang from the small cell. Citizens of Mott could only arm themselves and wait, hoping that justice would have a chance of its own. Dozens of Mott men surrounded the prison, and others were placed at various lookout spots throughout the town. The entire city waited in vigilance. Finally, late in the night, a band of IWW members entered the city. The union members carried knives and approached the prison. A great scuffle ensued, and two of the “wobblers” were seriously wounded. The rest of the group disbanded, and the Mott citizens applauded themselves. Their prisoner remained in his cell throughout the night, and gave a complete confession in the morning. He was taken to Dickinson to await prosecution. It was learned that a group of a hundred farmers had met in Regent to form a lynching mob that evening, but that the heavy rains proved too much for the men, and they had retired to their homes.

Written by Jayme Job

Source:
Fargo Forum and Daily Republican (Evening ed.). August 7, 1916: p. 1.

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