Rev. W.H. Hall, Former Minister, Bound Over on Embezzlement Charges, July 26, 1926

Preacher in Court on Money Charge. . . Rev. W. H. Hall Bound Over to Superior Court on Embezzlement County. . . Bond of $300

While Superior Court was in session upstairs Monday morning, Rev. W.H. Wall of Shelby faced Recorder Jon P. Mull’s county court downstairs on an embezzlement charge.

The hearing before the recorder was only a preliminary, and following legal procedure the case was sent up to the Superior Court, the bond required of the former minister being $300.

Whether or not the case will come up during this term remains to be seen.

The nature of the charges, according to Recorder Mull, had to do with premium money of insurance policies during a period the former minister was in the employ of M. P. Coley Insurance Agency.

From the front page of The Cleveland Star, July 26, 1926

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Before Superior Court This Week, July 26, 1926

Asks $10,000 for Missing Fingers. . . Blaine Champion Sues Henrietta Mills for Losing Two Fingers. . . Interesting Docket

The criminal docket of Superior Court here this week is expected to be rather light, but numerous interesting cases ae expected to come up on the civil calendar.

One suit that will attract considerable interest when it comes up, likely next week, will be that of Blaine Champion vs. the Henrietta Mills. Some months ago Champion, who it is said was employed by the defendant mill, had two fingers torn off in a spinning frame. The result is that Chapion is suing the mill for $10,000 damages. The missing fingers, it is said, were on the right hand.

Since the time of the mishap, Champion, who is 24 years of age, has moved to Shelby, wherefore the case comes up here. Imposing legal talent will represent both parties in the suit, it is understood.

Other interesting civil cases include suits against the county’s two leading towns, Shelby and Kings Mountain. R.L. Mode is suing the town of Shelby for permitting employees to destroy shade trees, while a plaintiff by the name of Phifer is suing the town of Kings Mountain for dumping sewage on his property. A lively tilt of legal brains is expected in the several suits and for once the civil docket promises to be more interesting to the public generally than the criminal docket.

From the front page of The Cleveland Star, July 26, 1926

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Judge Webb Discusses County Home, Curfews, Liquor Laws, Sale of Cigarettes to Youth, July 26, 1926

New County Home Mentioned by Judge Webb in Charge. . . Says Most Counties Excel Cleveland in Homes for Aged and Infirm. . . Gets on Autos and Cigarettes

A new county home for the aged and inform would not be amiss in Cleveland County according to the jury charge of Judge James L. Webb Monday morning in Superior Court here. While the Shelby jurist did not urge the building of a new county home, he talked alng that line to the grand jury, giving them the topic to think of while in their regular rounds of inspection.

“The present county home is operating as systematically as is possible under present conditions and the county commissioners are making an excellent record with what they have,” stated Judge Webb. “But in covering the state from Murphy to Manteo, one notices that only two or three counties in all of North Carolina do not have better county hoes than Cleveland. The present county home is well located and the site there might be sold at a good price and a fine building erected on another site. I am not urging this move, but it seems to me that it is a matter that this progressive county should consider soon. The present building is only a one-story structure and while every improvement and convenience known is in use there now, it wouldn’t hurt to have a new building. Such may come in the years ahead. Just how long remains up to the officials of the county, but it is about time someone was thinking about it, the jurist concluded.

Quite a bit of favorable comment was heard about the court room at the suggestion.

Continuing in his charge to the jury, Judge Webb touched upon many enlightening and interesting topics concerning law enforcement, delivering, as is his custom, a strong survey of grand jury duties and matters they should investigate. With his long experience on the bench, Judge Webb is familiar with points that need discussion and his charges prove very helpful to the jury and also to the standpoint of court spectators.

Interesting topics touched upon in the charge included automobiles, liquor laws, proper care of children, sale of cigarettes and numerous other things. He informed the jury that the law regarding the sale of cigarettes to minors, those under 17, had “been on the books for near a quarter of a century and indictments on the charge have been few. “A man who sells cigarettes to boys under 17 and thereby stunts their physical, moral and mental advancement is just as guilty according to the law as the man who sells a pint of liquor,” the judge stated in urging that they prefer charges in cases deemed necessary by them.

Would Bring Back Curfew

“If it were in my power I believe I would bring the night curfew back to the land,” Judge Webb philosophized in speaking of the crime that originates through careless neglect of children, “and when the bell was heard at 9 o’clock at night, every boy and girl under 16 years of age should be at their homes with their parents. That would erase much of our law-breaking.

. . . .

Attorney C.E. Cowan of Morganton, law partner of Solicitor R. L. Huffman, is acting as solicitor in the absence of Mr. Huffman. Mr. Cowan attended the Lincoln court in the same capacity and apparently handles the court as well as the state’s representative. Mr. W.J. Moss of Grover is foreman of the grand jury, while Mr. Guss Jolley of Boiling Spring sis the officer in charge.

Following the charge to the jury and opening formalities, the court got down to its regular grind on the criminal docket shortly after noon. . . . .

Charlie Bungardner of Kings Mountain is formally charged with an assault with deadly weapon with intent to kill and also for murder. It will be remembered the Bumgardner’s wife died after being shot at her home in Kings Mountain, the shooting, according to Bumgardner, being accidental. Barristers say that the charge is filed as formality and that there is little likelihood of murder prosecution against young Bumgadner.

Jessie May Francis, sensational center of many court terms here, will face the court on three charges appealed from Recorder John Mull’s court, she having eliminated herself bodily at the last term before her cases were called.

The majority of the cases on the criminal docket are continued from former terms or have come up from recorder’s court in the nature of appeals. Charges of the usual run make up most of the docket, including receiving and possessing, carrying concealed weapons, F. & A., breaking and entering, prostitution, false pretense, receiving stolen property, transporting [liquor], bigamy, seduction, carnal knowledge of female under 16, manufacturing liquor, driving while intoxicated and numerous other minor criminal counts.

From the front page of The Cleveland Star, July 26, 1926

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Gastonia Gazette Writer Favored Conviction of "Razor Girl," July 26, 1926

Another Comment on “Razor Girl” Verdict

Gastonia Gazette

Charlotte’s famous murder case is over. Nellie Freeman, admitted slayer of her youthful husband with a razor, has been turned loose after a hectic trial. She is now free to do as she pleases, in a free land.

No longer haunted by a fear of the chair, of the grim, gray walls of the state penitentiary, she stepped forth into the bright July sun Wednesday afternoon after the foreman of the jury announced in solemn tones that Mrs. Nellie freeman was adjudged not guilty.

Nellie Freeman severed the jugular vein of her husband, Alton Freeman, two months ago, when she threw her arms about his shoulders with the fateful razor in her hands.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” she said simply after the boy had writhed to the floor with his life blood flowing away. And after she had been freed, she said, “I hope the Freemans won’t think too hard of me.”

Smiling and demure this slip of a girl was unleashed of all shackles of the law when the verdict was read. After taking a human life in cold blood, after repeated statements that she meant to kill her husband because he was “unkind to me,” she lovingly approached him like Judas of old, and slew him.

Today she is free. She is free to marry again, to live as she pleases, to kill another man whose various moods incur her displeasure. If someone on the streets does something that she does not like, she has the right, according to her former crime and acquittal, to walk up and kill him.

Her misfortunes and tricks of fate, played u in full by sob stuff all over the country, well-meaning people prayed for deliverance. “She’s so young and pretty,” they said. “Of course she didn’t know what she was doing at the time,” say others. “She’s mentally deficient,” said the psychiatrists who examined her.

Attorneys McCall and Carpenter declared that the verdict was a mockery to justice. We agree with them. It was more than that. It was a travesty of justice. Every ne is supposed to be allotted the punishment according as his misdeeds have earned it. But in this trial maudlin sentiment and feeling overshadowed the face that a human life had been taken.

Upon what ground could an intelligent jury say that Nellie Freeman was not guilty of murder? Did she not kill him and admit it? That she was mistreated by her husband is another tale. It could have been told months ago to the police. Nellie could have left him as many other a woman has done.

And this is the upholding of the law. Is it any wonder that murders are becoming more common every day, when the murderer knows that he has every advantage and chance to escape the hands of the law to safety and security.

From page 3 of The Cleveland Star, July 26, 1926

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T.W. Ebeltoft Says Living the Simple Life Got Him to 78, July 23, 1926

Shelby’s Sage Has Birthday. . . Town’s Outstanding Character Says If He Had Been a Well Man, He Would Have Been Dead

“If I had come to Shelby a well man, I probably would be dead; but I came as a sick man, and I am still living.” Such is the philosophy of Mr. T.W. Ebeltoft, who celebrated his 78th birthday Thursday.

Which means in effect that he has had to take care of himself, and he has done it so well that today he is as vigorous intellectually as the average man 20 to 25 years his junior.

He gives credit for his vigor and intellectual integrity to the simple life. Charles Wagner, the Frenchman who wrote “The Simple Life,” and came over here and visited the White House during the Roosevelt regime, had noting on Mr. Ebeltoft. This Shelby scholar never goes to the movies, never gets in an automobile, refuses the innovation of the electric light (reading by oil lamps exclusively) and for years has not been beyond the boundaries of the town.

Of the movies he says: “I have never learned to look at them, hence I don’t like them. Besides I have some visualizing power, and so I get the same pleasure from reading a good book.”

Of the automobile he says: “A trip in an automobile leaves me an unpleasant reaction.”

Of worry he says: “I learned long ago that it is folly to worry, and I never indulge in it. I try to fulfill the Biblical injunction—take no anxious thought for the morrow. When I close my doors the day’s business is as dead for me as Hector.”

Of diet he says: “I attribute much of my good health to correct eating. I eat very simply. Today for example, I have not been hungry and I have eaten virtually nothing I have learned to control my appetite.”

He is a Sam Johnson, landed here in Shelby, and his book store might be a coffee house of old, where those interested in the intellectual life foregather. You can get a discussion, and a learned one, on most any subject at most any time in the Ebeltoft shop.

Of the bookseller, people say: Will Roberts—“this is the only place I come into, am insulted, yet come again.”

Carl Webb: This is a literary cafeteria. I select my mental food, put on a tray, and pay at the desk.”

Dr. Mitchell: “There is only one Ebeltoft; let us give thanks.”

Dr. Royster: “I come in here and get in an argument; I am going to stay away.”

The Star hopes Mr. Ebeltoft’s life will be enriched by many more birthdays.

Editor's Note: T.W. Ebeltoft's 78 and he's still running his bookstore. There was no Social Security or retirement plans in 1926.

From the front page of The Cleveland Star, July 23, 1926

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High School Grad Earns Class C Teaching Certificate, July 23, 1926

Good Record Made by Lattimore Girl. . . Miss Lilla Crawley Makes 505 Points in Examination

Lattimore, July 22—Notwithstanding the fact that a high school teacher’s certificate, Class C, is based on two years in college, Miss Lilla Crawley, who graduated at the Lattimore high school this spring, took the state examination and made 505 points when only 450 points were necessary.

This is a great credit not only to Miss Crawley, but also to her school, the record attained only one before in Cleveland County.

From the front page of The Cleveland Star, July 23, 1926

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Three Patients with Fractures Skulls Improved Enough to be Sent Home, July 23, 1926

Accident Patients Return to Homes. . . Charles Eskridge Recovering Nicely Following Fall from Car, Others Improve

The three patients who were admitted to the Shelby hospital some time back with fractured skulls have all returned to their homes and are recovering nicely, according to reports from the hospital.

Charles Eskridge Jr., State college student, who fell from a “skeeter” car and fractured his skull on the rear side of the head, was removed to his home Thursday morning and according to information the fracture is mending in fine fashion.

Master Glenn Short returned to his home in South Shelby last week and is doing well. The youngster received a fractured skull several weeks back when he fell from a high porch.

Palmer Maxton, whose skull was fractured when he was struck over the head with a shovel in the hands of a fellow worker, left the hospital for his home Monday.

Editor’s Note: A skeeter car was a car, usually a Model T, that had been stripped down by its owner and was called a skeeter because it “buzzed around.” It was in fashion among some young men in 1926.Eskridge was a student at what is now known as N.C. State University in Raleigh.

From the front page of The Cleveland Star, July 23, 1926

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