Fifth graders from Franklin Elementary in Le Mars donated a woodcut print by a local artist of angry farmers coming to lynch a Plymouth County judge in 1933. The artist, Randy Becker, and his wife donated a second print, and the county purchased a third, all on display in the courtroom. [Click to enlarge]

Judge Charles Bradley returned to the Plymouth County courtroom Tuesday morning.

Instead of awaiting the hands of an angry lynch mob, Bradley now appeared before a bubbly crowd of fifth graders.

True, the judge who'd been carried out by the angry farmers nearly 75 years ago wasn't actually physically present. But his memory -- and the story of restless farmers facing foreclosure -- are now a permanent part of the courtroom, thanks to that group of ambitious students.

The fifth graders, two classrooms from Le Mars Community Schools, raised money to donate a woodcut print depicting the events of April 27, 1933 that began in the courtroom.

Two other groups chipped in, and a serious of three prints, all by Le Mars artist Randy Becker, were presented to Plymouth County Tuesday morning.

The connection

Studying local history, the fifth graders in Mary Boehmer and Benji Kasel's classrooms spent some time with the story of Judge Bradley. When one fifth grader, Jack Becker, brought home an article about the story, his parents noticed something familiar: the picture accompanying the story.

It was a woodcut print Jack's dad, Randy Becker, an artist, had created.

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After conferring with Jack's teacher, Boehmer, Randy visited the class and shared his art.

"When we asked where we could see them, the answer was 'No where in Plymouth County,'" Boehmer said. "The fifth grade students decided that's not right. We don't want to forget things of historical significance that happened in the county."

They planned a bake sale at their school.

"We raised $517.03," Jack said.

That was more than $150 above the goal they'd set.

Results tripled

Once word got out about the fifth graders' ambition, others got on board with the project.

Randy and his wife Kolleen Queener donated a second woodcut print, depicting disgruntled dairy farmers dumping gallons of milk into a ditch near James. They resorted to this, Randy explained, after not being able to get the prices they needed.

The County Board of Supervisors chipped in for the third print, which is a sequel of sorts to the Judge Bradley scene. National Guardsmen were called in to round up the instigators and put them in makeshift jails, Randy said.

He also donated the framing for each of the prints hanging in the courthouse.

The three prints are all part of an eight-part series, with each woodcut displaying stories of farm revolts in America dating from after the Revolutionary War to the 1930s.

Lynch mob

The story of Judge Bradley's lynch mob goes like this: with the Depression nipping at their heels, farmers' emotions were high. On this particular day, Judge Bradley had to decide on foreclosures of 15 Plymouth County Farm properties. Before he could, a mob of farmers -- some reportedly masked, bleeding, or even smelling of moonshine -- stormed the courtroom, grabbing Judge Bradley by the throat and legs, demanding that he drop the foreclosures. He refused. They pulled him out to a waiting vehicle and headed east of Le Mars to lynch him. Despite being blindfolded, de-pantsed and lifted off the ground in a half-inch noose, Bradley refused to change his position. The farmers eventually backed off.

Bradley returned to the Plymouth County courtroom and continued to act as judge after the event.

"It did not scare him into retirement," said County Auditor Kae Meyer.

Don't judge the judge

Current District Three judge Jeffrey Neary accepted the artwork from the fifth graders on behalf of the county -- first thanking them for not bringing any rope.

Taking a serious tone, Neary said it was good to revisit Judge Bradley's legacy.

"It was a very difficult time in history," Neary said. "But accounts indicate that he was a kind and caring individual, an unlikely candidate for this."

According to stories, Neary said, when the authorities showed up, Bradley declined to tell them the names of farmers who tried to lynch him.

"He faced the struggle of personal friendship to those people versus his commitment to the law," Neary said. "I think he had a great empathy for the farmers."

This was a "dark period of history," Becker agreed, and this wasn't necessarily a story of "good guys" and "bad guys."

"It wasn't the farmers being whiny -- they were at the point of losing their land and their livelihood," he said. "And the judge didn't back down. He had the courage to stand up to them."

Making history (into art)

Becker said he's always been interested in local history, and during the farm crisis of the 1980s he created this eight-print series of woodcuts looking into historic accounts of other farm crises. Each print is based on a piece of text he found relating to those crises.

The prints now hanging in the Plymouth County courtroom are three of a very limited number. In the series of eight, Becker printed only 20 prints of each.

Artists using the reduction woodblock print process can only create one group of prints. First, the artist carves into the block to create the "stamp" for the first color, then makes the desired number of prints with it. To add the second color, the artist carves away some of that same block to leave only the parts where they want to add that color on each of the prints. The process continues until the last color is carved for and printed, and the woodblock is reduced to only a few pieces of the original carving.

"The block is destroyed in the process," Becker explained.

The prints can never be recreated.