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Fairplay Paper Label Flask for Saloon Owner Lynched by Mob [154121]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Bottles & Insulators Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
Fairplay Paper Label Flask for Saloon Owner Lynched by Mob [154121]
SOLD
65.00USDto p**********k+ buyer's premium (16.25)
This item SOLD at 2022 Aug 27 @ 15:22UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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This pocket flask was a special find in the Bracken Collection. Label reads: Old Ky W(hiskey?) / From / J.J. Hoover / Fairplay, Colorado. Label is partial and very degraded (please see photos). Bottle is 7.25" Chips on bottom face, bubbles.

John J. Hoover owned the Cabinet Billiard Parlor in Fairplay in the 1870s, a saloon and billiards hall. Before being a saloon owner, Hoover had tried his luck as a miner in the California Gold Rush and in Colorado during the 1860s. In 1879, Fairplay's water supply was a system of manmade ditches that flowed throughout the town, with residents damming up sections if they temporarily needed more water. In April 1879, Thomas Bennett, an employee of The Fairplay House, a hotel near Hoover's saloon, dammed up the ditch. Water backed up to Hoover's saloon, and he angrily stormed over to the Fairplay House. Hoover was known to have a bad temper, and he confronted and shot Bennett with a .38 Colt. Bennet died later that night from the gunshot wound.

Hoover was arrested and awaited trial for nearly a year. During the trial, he claimed that his actions had been temporary insanity related to a mining accident he had experienced in Oro City, Colorado in 1871 when he had fallen down a 65 ft. mine shaft. He was allowed to change his plea from "Not guilty of murder" to "Guilty of manslaughter." Colorado Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Thomas M. Bowen sentenced Hoover to an eight-year imprisonment.

The townspeople were not happy with the plea and verdict. On April 28, 1880, while Hoover was in the county jail awaiting transport to the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City, 10-20 citizens stormed the jail in the middle of the night. They seized Hoover and took him to the second story of the building, wrapped a noose around his neck, and hung him to his death from the window. Hoover was later buried in the Fairplay Cemetery.

In 1953, renovations were being completed on the courthouse by Harry Ault and Jack Moran. When ripping up the floorboards of the old jail, they claimed to find the noose as well as a group of paper label whiskey bottles that match our bottle exactly. Local historian Everett Bair wrote a story for the newspaper and it was believed the bottles were taken in by the Blair family.

This is a fascinating whiskey flask that truly embodies the vigilante justice of the West. A treasure for any bottle or Colorado collector!

[Ref: "Doin' Time in Fairplay" by Linda Bjorklund for the South Park Friends of the Park County Library; Wikipedia]

Date: c.1879
Country (if not USA):
State: Colorado
City: Fairplay
Provenance: Gary Bracken Collection