Casepin
Back to cases

Case file

Lynching of Robert S. Maynard

SOLVED1852Jacksonville, Oregon (then Rogue River area, Oregon Territory)3 SOURCESUPDATED JUL 2026
Illustrative

Robert S. Maynard was a 21-year-old man reportedly from Pike County, Illinois, who was active in the gold-mining camps of the Rogue River area of what is now Southern Oregon in 1852. He used the aliases "Jackson Maynard" and "John Brown," and multiple contemporaneous sources refer to him solely as "Brown." He was described by observers as a gambler.

Gold had been discovered in the area late in 1851, and the settlement of Jacksonville was founded in 1852, the same year as the killing. At the time, the region was still commonly known as Rogue River, and no courts of law had yet been established there.

According to the record, Maynard shot a man named J. C. Platt — also referred to in some accounts as John D. Platt or Samuel Potts — with a borrowed gun. The shooting occurred after Platt called Maynard a liar. Platt reportedly "made no attempt to assault" Maynard before being shot.

In the absence of any established judicial system, miners in the camp organized to hold Maynard and then hanged him. The California newspaper The Daily Alta California characterized the killing as a "lynching." Before his death, Maynard reportedly asked onlookers to mark his grave and say "there lies a man who would not be insulted."

Contemporary and later accounts differed in their characterization of the event. Press in New York at the time described the extrajudicial killing as "mob law" but also called it "necessary" given the absence of courts. The 1884 History of Southern Oregon described the hanging as an expression of "a law higher, stronger, more effective than written codes [...] administered by the people's court." A different perspective came from miner Herman F. Reinhart, who recalled some years later that "excited miners [...] worked up a prejudice against the gambler," noting that gamblers such as Maynard had become "very obnoxious to the miners, who had lost money" to them, and that as a result "miners were for lynching" Maynard immediately. Reinhart also recorded that the miners appointed "fifty men (Vigilantes)" to prevent Maynard's escape prior to the hanging. Fifty years later, in 1903, The Sunday Oregonian described the episode as reflecting the "swift and unerring justice of the miners."

This event is documented as the first recorded hanging and the first recorded lynching in Southern Oregon, occurring in a period and location where no organized courts had yet been appointed.

Key facts

Victims
J. C. Platt
Date
1852
Location
Jacksonville, Oregon (then Rogue River area, Oregon Territory)
Case status
solved

Case timeline

  1. 1851

    Gold discovered in the Rogue River area of what would become Southern Oregon.

  2. 1852

    Jacksonville, Oregon founded amid the gold rush.

  3. 1852-05

    Robert S. Maynard shoots and kills J. C. Platt in the Rogue River mining area following a verbal insult; miners subsequently hang Maynard without trial, in what is recorded as the first lynching in Southern Oregon.

  4. 1852-05-24

    Sacramento Daily Union publishes report "From Shasta" referencing the killing.

  5. 1852-06-01

    The Oregon Statesman publishes "Murder and Execution on Rogue River" account of the killing and hanging.

  6. 1884

    History of Southern Oregon published, describing the 1852 lynching as an act of extrajudicial 'people's court' justice.

  7. 1903-06-21

    The Sunday Oregonian publishes retrospective article "First Hanging in Southern Oregon" by W. J. Plymale, describing the event fifty years on.

  8. 1962

    Posthumous publication of Herman Francis Reinhart's recollections, The Golden Frontier, describing miners' motivations for the lynching.

Best coverage

No approved coverage links are attached yet.

People

  • Robert S. Maynard

    CONVICTED

    Extrajudicially executed (lynched) by miners in May 1852 after killing J. C. Platt; no formal court existed at the time, so this reflects the historical record of an unofficial 'mob law' execution rather than a court conviction.

  • J. C. Platt

    VICTIM

    Shot and killed by Robert S. Maynard in May 1852 in the Rogue River mining area after calling Maynard a liar; also referred to in some sources as John D. Platt or Samuel Potts.

Roles reflect public records and court outcomes at the time of writing — supporting citations are on file under Sources.

Places

Jacksonville, Oregon (then Rogue River area, Oregon Territory)

42.3095, -122.9526

View on the map

Common questions

What happened to the victim?
In May 1852, Robert S. Maynard, a 21-year-old gambler from Illinois, shot and killed J. C. Platt in the Rogue River mining area of what would become Jacksonville, Oregon, after a verbal insult; miners then extrajudicially hanged Maynard in what is recorded as the first lynching in Southern Oregon.
Where did the crime happen?
Jacksonville, Oregon (then Rogue River area, Oregon Territory).
Who was convicted?
Robert S. Maynard (Extrajudicially executed (lynched) by miners in May 1852 after killing J. C. Platt; no formal court existed at the time, so this reflects the historical record of an unofficial 'mob law' execution rather than a court conviction.).
What is the current status of the case?
Status: solved.
More cases in United States

Sources

  1. ENCYCLOPEDICLynching of Robert S. MaynardWikipedia · 2026-07-07
  2. OFFICIAL / AGENCYContemporaneous coverage — lccn.loc.govlccn.loc.gov · 2026-07-07
  3. PRESSContemporaneous coverage — search.worldcat.orgsearch.worldcat.org · 2026-07-07

Record history

First published
JUL 07, 2026