Arthur Montague Dies in Electric Chair Jan. 22, 1926

Montague Put to Death

Raleigh, Jan. 22 (AP)—The State of North Carolina today demanded and received the supreme penalty of Arthur Montague, Burke County negro, convicted for an attack on a deaf mute white child inmate of a state institution at Morganton last spring. Montague died in the electric chair here at 10:30 this morning.

It was necessary to turn on the electric current twice to extinguish life. The first shock, made for 2 minutes 20 seconds. The second time the current ran through the negro’s frame for 1 minute 15 seconds.

Convicted in Burke Superior Court, Montague appealed to the Supreme Court and was denied a new trial. Making a last appeal to the Governor for clemency this too was denied. A statement obtained from the negro a few days ago by the Pardon Commissioner H. Hoyle Sink was to the effect that he was under the influence of liquor, he believed to be “doped at the time of the crime.” He “guessed” he was guilty, he said, but didn’t know.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Friday, Jan. 22, 1926

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Violence in U.S. Due to Italians, Russians, Foreigners from Southern and Central Europe, Jan. 23, 1926

One “First” Too Many

Americans are wont to boast of the many things in which their country ranks first, but there is one “first” which should fill us with shame. We have reference to our crime record.

Among many other distinctions the United States must accept that of being pre-eminent among civilized nations for the extent of crime within its borders.

This is the conclusion arrived at by Harold Callender, writing in The New York Times Book Review, after reading “battling the Criminal,” by Richard W. Child. Mr. Callender does ot take this dour outlook, however, without some reasons, for we find, there are some very convincing figures given.

In England and Wales, with a total population of nearly 40 million there are fewer than 200 murders in a year of abnormal employment and extensive suffering, while a city of half a million in prosperous America recorded a greater number in a like period.

In his argument Mr. Child gives as one of the first causes of crime in the United States the extensive immigration of people of European countries to America. He gives figures to back up the statement.

Of 125 persons charged with murder or manslaughter in five cities, 26 were Italians, 19 Russians, and 35 were from Greece, Austria, Rumania, Bulgaria and other countries of Southern and Central Europe. Thirteen were negroes, and England, Ireland, the Scandinavian nations, Germany, France and one Oriental country supplied 12.

These figures may cover the case in the immigration centers but how about in the South, and particularly North Carolina? We can’t put the blame on the foreigners or the foreign born, for in this State we have practically no citizens except Americans. The same is true of the South as a whole.

Our native-born are keeping up with the foreigners, and the cure is not to be found solely in restricted immigration.

From the editorial page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Jan. 23, 1926

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George Jones Given 4 Months for Assault on School Superintendent, Jan. 23, 1926

Gets Four Months for Assaulting Teacher

Kinston, Jan. 22—George Jones, LaGrange youth who assaulted M.A. Honeycutt, superintendent of the school here, must serve four months. Jones’ conviction by the LaGrange recorder was confirmed by Superior Court here yesterday afternoon. Honeycutt was alleged to have been attacked with a deadly weapon, the nature of which was no brought out. He suffered a slight fracture of a cheek bone in the assault. A younger brother of the defendant was disciplined for infractions of the school regulations, and Jones, resenting the superintendent’s action, attacked the latter on the streets of LaGrange.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Jan. 23, 1926

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Charlotte Men Injured When Car Flips Jan. 21, 1926

Four Charlotte Men in Wreck Near City. . . Were En Route from Charlotte to Salisbury When Accident Occurred on Highway

Four men of Charlotte en route from that city to Salisbury had narrow escapes from serious injury last Thursday when the auto in which they were riding turned over a few miles south of this city. Friday’s Charlotte News had the following story of the accident:

Four Charlotte men Friday were nursing sore muscles and bruises after miraculously escaping more serious injury in an automobile wreck a few miles south of Concord late Thursday.

The men were: Dr. R.W. Petrie, physician; W.H. Martin of Queen City Printing Company; E.A. Hilker, attorney, and Yates Edgerton, real estate dealer.

The party was riding in Mr. Edgerton’s sedan, which was one of three cars of Monarch Club members who went to Salisbury Thursday evening to attend the organization banquet of the Salisbury Monarch Club.

The accident occurred, according to Mr. Edgerton, when a pedestrian on the Charlotte-Concord highway, stepped off the road to allow an automobile, which was running ahead of Mr. Edgerton’s car, to pass, then stepped back on the road directly in front of the Edgerton car.

Mr. Edgerton, in an effort to avoid striking the man, applied the brakes and attempted to swerve his car. It turned over and came to rest upside down.

The four men inside crawled out through the broken windows. Mr. martin received a slight cut over his right eye and a badly strained right shoulder. He was the most painfully hurt. Dr. Petrie came out with a bumped head and slight cut on his right hand. Mr. Hilker was bruised. Mr. Edgerton’s left cheek was slightly cut. Other members of the club carried Mr. Martin, and Dr. Petrie to Concord, where they were examined by physicians. Mr. Edgerton, with the aid of passersby, righted his car and drove it on to Salisbury and back to Charlotte. The name of the pedestrian was not learned. It was said that he “took to the tall timbers” by the road, when the car turned over behind him.

From page 2 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Jan. 23, 1926

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China Grove Mill Should Be Model for Other Communities, Jan. 23, 1926

The China Grove Mill

Salisbury Post

It did not take the China Grove Mill long to get successfully under way. As we recall the mill has been in operation only a year or two, yet the directors Tuesday voted to double the capacity of the plant.

The stockholders of this mill are mostly local people, many from the county contributing to the sum total of the capital. The success which has come to the ills ought to encourage others of like nature. It shows how a community may cooperate to the common good.

The success of the China Grove mill is running along with the Rowan, a manufacturing plant financed and built in like manner by local capital in the large, yet all under the eye of a well established and eminently successful textile manufacturer, Mr. A.C. Lineberger. In the Rowan mill the local management has developed a very successful leadership in Mr. Davis, while the China Grove mills find a similar leadership under Mr. Rutledge, a capable man of considerable experience under the Cannons, of Concord and Kannapolis.

Delighted with the splendid successes of these two mills, each of which is comparatively new, ought to encourage the people of the county to still further pool their investments in local industries that will not only make money for them, but build up pay rolls for the community and thus further enrich our good county industrially.

There are quite enough dollars in the county to build manufacturing plants which should prove equally as successful as these two here discussed. If we may be excused for saying it here, we have looked too much to some failures made and not enough to our local successes. Forget the failures and establish other successes.

From page 3 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Jan. 23, 1926

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Rev. Paris Preaching at Concord Methodist Churches Jan. 24, 1926

Rev. Dr. Z. Paris Here Sunday

Rev. Dr. Z. Paris, presiding elder of the Salisbury district, will be in Concord Sunday. He will preach at Kerr Street Methodist Church at 11 o’clock and at Central Church at 7 p.m. The second quarterly conference for the year for Central Church will be held at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Dr. Paris was pastor of Central Church for four years and has a great many friends here. He always has a warm welcome in Concord.

From page 2 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Jan. 23, 1926

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G.W. Blackwelder, 79, Confederate Veteran, Died Jan. 23, 1926

Prominent Man of Mt. Pleasant Dead. . . George Washington Blackwelder, Civil War Veteran, Passed Away This Moring at His Home

George Washington Blackwelder, 79 years of age, died at his home in Mt. Pleasant this morning at 1 o’clock after an illness of five days, death resulting from pneumonia.

The death of Mr. Blackwelder makes the second to occur in the rapidly thinning ranks of Confederate veterans, another member of his company in the war and a fellow-citizen of Mt. Pleasant, A.C. Barrier, passed away earlier in the week.

Funeral services will be held at 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon at Holy Trinity Church, Mt. Pleasant, and burial will be made in the cemetery at Mt. Pleasant.

Surviving Mr. Blackwelder are three daughters, all wives of Lutheran ministers. They are Mrs. J.H.C. Fisher of Mt. Pleasant, Mrs. R. L. Patterson of Freemont, Nebraska, and Mrs. Edward Fullenwider of Salisbury.

Mr. Blackwelder was born in Cabarrus Country on July 11, 1846. He was married to Mrs. Amy Lippard Cress on July 27, 1869.

Although he was confirmed in St. Johns Lutheran Church, he later moved his membership to Holy Trinity, Mt. Pleasant, where he was a faithful member until death.

During he war he enlisted in Company H, 8th North Carolina regiment. He was wounded in action on one occasion. During the years since the war, he has been a regular attendant of the reunions of Civil War veterans.

People of Mt. Pleasant, who deeply feel his death, remember the very beautiful prayer which he offered last Sunday in the congregation meeting at Holy Trinity Church. He was, those who knew him say, “a fine, orderly citizen; one who lived the Golden Rule.”

From page 2 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Jan. 23, 1926

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