Editing Limon, Colorado (section)

===Porter lynching===
Limon was the site of a [[lynching]] on November 16, 1900. Preston Porter Jr, a sixteen-year-old African-American male, had confessed under duress to the murder of eleven-year-old Louise Frost who was Caucasian. Porter was apparently being held some 90 miles away in Denver, but was sent back to Limon by request of unspecified people and against the wishes of Sheriff Freeman. When the train carrying Porter stopped in Limon, sixteen men selected from a mob of 300 "marked by calmness and determination" took Porter from Freeman's custody despite the sheriff's protestations "in the name of law." Originally it was announced that Porter would be hanged but many in the crowd including R. W. Frost, the girl's father, objected "that such a death would be too easy." The method was left to Frost who decided upon burning at the stake. Frost also refused to allow mutilation of Porter's body before burning. While waiting for his execution, Porter sat next to a bonfire reading the Gospel of Luke from the Bible. Porter was chained to an iron railroad rail set in the ground on the exact spot where the murder had taken place and burned to death, the match to start the fire being set by the girl's father. Lynchings of this type were apparently rare, as reporters on the scene wrote: "The general sentiment expressed approves the execution of the negro, but deprecates the method adopted."<ref>{{Cite web |date=1900-11-17 |title=BOY BURNED AT THE STAKE IN COLORADO; Terrible Vengeance on Negro Murderer by a Mob. REPORTERS ON THE SCENE Taken There to Send the News -- Wires Tapped for Them. Victim Killed Little Louise Frost on the Same Spot -- Her Father Applied the Torch -- Mob Very Orderly. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1900/11/17/archives/boy-burned-at-the-stake-in-colorado-terrible-vengeance-on-negro.html |access-date=2024-04-28 |website=The New York Times |language=en-US}}</ref>