Judge Knowles Recalled an Unpunished Lynching

A 1904 article in The Anaconda Standard recalled that a Chinese man was lynched by a mob at Henderson Gulch in 1868. Judge William W. Knowles said he had tried to secure indictments when he was on the territorial supreme bench, but was unsuccessful. This case shows that even when an official tries to bring justice for a Chinese victim, the white community bands together to protect the perpetrators from meaningful punishment. Because the surviving evidence is retrospective and sparse, the case requires additional evidence.