In the spring of 1860, when Ottumwa was still a small and developing frontier town, a brutal double murder shocked the community and became the earliest well-documented homicide case in local history.
On March 28, 1860, two travelers—George Lawrence and a teenage girl, Laura J. Harvey—were making their way west through Iowa with money intended to purchase land. Traveling with them was a man Lawrence knew from Illinois, Benjamin A. MeComb. Near Ottumwa, that trust turned deadly. MeComb attacked Lawrence first, striking him in the head with a hammer. He then killed Harvey shortly after. The motive was widely believed to be robbery, as MeComb was aware the pair carried cash and supplies for their journey.
News of the killings spread quickly through the small town, which had a population of only around 1,600 people at the time. With no modern police force, limited jail security, and a slow-moving court system, fear and anger escalated fast. A mob soon formed, intent on taking justice into its own hands. This kind of reaction—often referred to as “lynch law”—was not unusual on the American frontier, where communities frequently acted outside the legal system when faced with violent crime.
Despite the tension, local authorities managed to intervene before the situation turned into a lynching. MeComb was taken into custody and held long enough to go through the legal process. He was later tried in Wapello County, convicted of the murders, and sentenced to death.
Sometime later in 1860, MeComb was executed by hanging. While the exact date of the execution has not been clearly preserved in surviving records, historians generally agree it occurred months after the March murders, following a typical timeline for legal proceedings at the time.
The case stands out not only for its violence, but for what it reveals about life in early Ottumwa. It highlights the fragile balance between law and vigilante justice in frontier communities—where public outrage could easily turn deadly, but where, in this instance, the legal system ultimately prevailed.
