Rumors to That Effect–(War) Department Has Been Asked For Information
This caption appeared in the Jamestown Evening Journal on March 2, 1900, even before family members had been notified. The paper had received a letter dated Jan. 20, 1900, from Pvt. Walter Gronberg, who was serving in the 46th Regiment at Manilla, in the Philippines. A few days before, a letter was received by the paper from John Johnson, also from the 46th, who told of the murder but didn’t include any names. Gronberg’s letter detailed that another soldier from their unit was always begging for cigarettes and getting nasty when he was refused. Pvt. Gronberg admitted to giving in, after which the begging was relentless, but Herman stood his ground and just two days before the murder he was awakened and accosted physically and verbally by Pvt. John Conner (later to be corrected on the spelling of Comber). On the morning of the murder, Comber again burst in and shot Herman in the head before ordering Gronberg and another soldier, named Colby, out of the building. (Presumably to search for cigarettes in private.)
Pvt. Gronberg reported in his letter that he and Colby were extremely shaken as to the witnessing of the murder of a close friend and the realization of such a close call themselves. They also knew they would be called in as eyewitnesses.
To the credit of the Jamestown Evening Journal, they did send a reporter to the Lawson home and spoke to a sister of Herman’s mother, Anna, prior to the short article of March 2, 1900. Her sister said that when Anna first heard the rumor she was extremely upset and missed work, but, as they hadn’t heard anything definite since, Anna was at work.
In the March 3rd article, the newspaper added the info that the sisters had heard more rumors that they hadn’t shared with Anna, but that the reporter had shared details that were much worse than they had feared. She disclosed that Anna had been a widow for 20 years and that Herman and his brother, Oscar, had left Jamestown with the soldiers without telling her about their enlistments. She had kept their supper waiting until 9 pm when she heard the news from neighbors. (Shame on those boys)
Two letters from J.P. Boline, also from Jamestown, included the special orders of the Court Martial of Pvt. John Comber. He was found guilty of manslaughter (WHAT???), dishonorably discharged (was that even questioned?), and sentenced to 5 years of hard labor in a Manilla prison. (Hopefully, very hard labor.)
A quick search of the roster of the 13th Separate Company NYNG contingent who left Jamestown does not include Herman, Oscar, Walter Gronberg, or John Johnson. They had apparently visited an Army Recruiter as they are all included in an article in the Buffalo Evening News of Jan.22, 1900, as enlistments from Jamestown.
I was unable to find John Comber’s enlistment; he possibly was recruited in Buffalo or elsewhere into Co. K of the 46th Regiment.
At least the story of Herman’s funeral seems to make things better, and his resting place is on the same lot as his father, John, and Anna in Lake View Cemetery. (Mama got the last word this time!) And in talking to Ken at Lake View, I discovered that Herman was really Harmon Lawson.
