The February 1, 1893 murder of Henry Smith in Paris, Texas was the first blatantly public, actively promoted lynching of a southern black by a large crowd of southern whites. Smith, an insane ex-slave, allegedly killed Myrtle Vance, the three-year-old daughter of a brutal Texas policeman after the policeman had assaulted him. Although the child had not been sexually molested, a local clergyman, Bishop Haygood, fueled the growing hysteria with lurid tales of how the child had been "taken by her heels and torn asunder in the mad wantonness of gorilla ferocity." The suspect was captured in Arkansas. He confessed on the train back to Paris, Texas.
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I am not related to this family, just passing on this information which comes from a website called "American Lynching." The link for the site is listed below.
Joyce

http://www.americanlynching.com/main.html