Across the Fence: No way to treat a lady

The new moon was but a thin crescent of silver in the early midnight hour of March 15, 1885, when a mob of more than 30 torch-bearing, rifle-toting citizens left the Village of Spring Ranche, Neb., on a one and one-half mile jaunt to Taylor's sod ranch house.

The mob surrounded the large, squat soddy that housed: the widow, Elizabeth Taylor, her mother, Margaret Jones, twin brother, Tom, 5-year-old daughter, Maggie and hired hands, John Farrell, Texas Bill, A. Clark, Nelson Seely and Luther Wiggins.

It was 1 o'clock when the mob reached the soddy and in the escalated frenzy of mob rule, demand...