John D. Lynch was a victim of the first lynching in Wellington. He was accused of shooting a man named Maxfield following a drinking brawl. During the night after the inquest, he was taken by a group of horsemen from where he was being held and hung from a tree on Slate Creek. This is a statement in part by an eyewitness, D. N. Caldwell, years later: "It was known by the captain of the visitors, J. W. McReynolds, that Lynch belonged to a gang of horse thieves over in the east part of the state and was asked what had become of a certain horse stolen from near Girard, but refused to tell anything, and he was then told that if he had any business to fix up or any word to leave, he had better get busy, as he would be hung that night. He wanted to make a will and sent a man to get me to write it for him. I said, to begin with, that at the time of the occurrence I was a 'tenderfoot' and to prove it I refused to write the will but got Reuben Riggs, then county attorney, to write it. The will was written April 28, 1872 but dated April 27th by mistake because the 28th was Sunday. Reuben Riggs was appointed executor and Dr. E. P. Richey and A. A. Jordan were the witnesses to the will, which was filed for probate on May 15, 1972. Lynch bequeathed all his property to his sister, Harriet E. Lynch of Roxbury, Delaware County, New York. After the execution of the will the balance of the day was spent in 'social conversation' by Lynch and his newly found acquaintances until about 9 o'clock in the evening, when a large number of men on horseback, one leading a big sorrel horse without saddle or rider, rode quietly up in front of the building where Lynch was, and without a word being spoken he was placed on the big sorrel, a quilt was thrown over his coatless shoulders and all rode solemnly away to the south. To the question, what happened to Lynch, I simply state that the next morning in company with a few others I went down to Slate creek and from the limb of a walnut tree that stood some two or three hundred feet northwest of the bridge I saw the body of Lynch swinging from side to side in the gentle morning breezes, and the quilt thrown over the shoulders just as it was when he started to the fatal spot. The body was cut down and brought to town and Van Smith, justice of the peace and acting coroner impaneled a jury and held an inquest. The witnesses were few and the jury returned a verdict that Lynch came to his death by hanging by persons unknown to the jury. The body was buried on the west side of the old cemetery and the grave today is unmarked and almost unknown, only a few know living who could find the grave."