Benjamin Lett
Benjamin Lett (14 November 1813–9 December 1858) was an
Although he did not participate in the
Fleeing to the United States, in January 1839, Lett unsuccessfully attempted to burn British ships anchored at
On 17 April 1840 came the act Lett is best known for; the bombing of the
On or about 5 June 1840 in Oswego, New York, Lett attempted to burn the British steamship Great Britain while she was leaving the harbour. Shortly before departure, a man identifying himself as "Bill Johnson" boarded the ship, placing a package containing three gunpowder-filled jars connected to a lit slow match at the door to the ladies' cabin. A few minutes after departing the Oswego wharf, the package exploded. However the damage was limited to a few broken windows in the ladies' cabin and the skylight above. Returning to dock, "Bill Johnson" and his accomplice, Benjamin Lett were shortly apprehended. While being transported on the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad to serve a seven-year prison sentence for the crime, the shackled Lett escaped from the railroad car he was in and leaped to freedom when the train was within a few miles of its destination of Auburn, New York. This brought an additional $350 bounty for his capture; $250 by Governor William H. Seward and $100 by the Sheriff.
Lett was also suspected of having been responsible for the bombing of Lock #37 (Allanburg) of the first
In 1858 Lett was hired by whiskey maker Jonathan Reed in Earlville, IL to destroy the town school in retaliation for the mob of citizens that had destroyed his stock claiming it was poisoning the citizens.[5] On 13 September 1858, the school exploded and during the resulting fire Lett and three others were arrested, with Lett being shot during his arrest.[6]
While en route to Lake Michigan for a trading expedition, Lett died mysteriously of strychnine poisoning in Milwaukee. His brother Thomas would later claim that Tory agents were behind his death. He was buried in the Lette Cemetery, Northville, Illinois.
References
- ^ Gates, LP (1988) After the rebellion: the later years of William Lyon Mackenzie, Dundurn Press Ltd., Ontario, Canada, p. 96
- ISBN 1-896941-33-8.
- ^ St-Denis, Guy (2005). Tecumseh's Bones. p. 14.
- ^ McGreevy, PV (2009) Stairway to empire: Lockport, the Erie Canal, and the shaping of America, SUNY Press, Albany, New York p. 181
- ^ "History of Earlville, IL".
- ^ Past & Present of La Salle County, Illinois. HF Kett & Co. 1877. pp. 338–340.