For almost 200 years there had been a doctor resident in Bow. I was the twenty-ninth.
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THE MEDICAL GENTLEMEN OF BOW
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William Arundel Radford - Deputy Sheriff
William Arundel Radford was the ninth child of Rev John Arundel Radford and his wife Thomasine. He was born in 1839: his birth was registered in St Pancras, Middlesex. Brought up in Lapford, Devon, from age nine he was educated at the Royal Asylum of St Anne's in Streatham in London. In 1861, he was lodging with his sister Elizabeth in Repton, near Derby - the home of their mother's family. He was then working as a clerk in the local brewery.
In about 1870, he turned up in California. He was a quartz miner in Liberty, Klamath. Quartz was mined so that gold could be extracted from it.
In about 1878 in Yreka, he married Mary A Denny (née Ivers) born in Iowa in 1853, a widow with a son and a daughter. He was then working as a book keeper. Their first daughter Edith was born a year later, with Maud and Edna following in 1882 and 1886. By 1883 he was a constable in Yreka. According to the voters' register he had become a US citizen in 1880 and was 5' 11", dark complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. In 1885 he was the manager of the Franco-American Hotel and ten years later he was appointed as Deputy Sheriff.
Lynching
On the night of August 25 1895, he was sitting in his courthouse office when a gang of masked men woke him and demanded the keys to the jail. Deputy Radford told the mob that he would blow the brains out of anyone who came through the door. They knew that Radford meant what he said. The mob left a squad of men to keep Radford at bay and went to the jail. These men were part of a gang of 250 vigilantes who were enraged that their community suddenly found four murderers in their county jail. Angry at the fact that their taxes were being used to feed and house the murderers while the wheels of justice slowly turned, they had decided to take matters into their own hands.
After forcing the jailer to hand over a set of keys they dragged the four prisoners - one of whom Radford had arrested - from their cells. At one o'clock the following morning all four were hanged from a piece of railway track they had put between two trees outside the jail. None of the lynch mob were ever prosecuted.
William Radford's untimely death
On 25 September 1897 the Yreka and Fort Jones stage coach was held up nine miles outside Yreka. No one was harmed but a box of cash was stolen. The highwayman was operating alone. Wells Fargo employees were told to look out for a distinctive $20 United States Gold Certificate that was included in the haul. When it was found, their detectives tracked it back to a William Harrall, 35, who had used the note in nearby Redding. His description tallied with that of the robber. Three weeks later they traced Harrall to his house in Delta. They telegraphed the Sheriff back in Yreka who sent William Radford by train with an arrest warrant. Whilst one officer watched the back of the house, Radford and a colleague approached the front door. The Deputy Sheriff knocked on the door which was opened by Harrall's wife. Harrall himself stepped forward and when Radford held out his right hand, Harrall grabbed it, pulled Radford towards him and shot him dead with a 36 calibre revolver in his left hand. The other officer shot and killed Harrall, but was himself shot in the leg.
The body of the son of the Rector of Lapford was taken back to his grieving widow and daughters by train.
His eldest daughter, Edith was aged about 18 at the time of his death. She too became famous in her own way.
William Arundel Radford
contemporary newspaper sketch
