Poorhouse Head Says He Switched Woman. . . Burleyson of Stanly County Says It was Tender Switch and Only Three Licks
Albemarle, Aug. 24—“I confess I struck her three licks with a tender switch which I broke from a peach tree,” J. C. Burleyson, keeper of the county home of Stanly Count, said when asked as to the report that he had beaten Mrs. Nannie McIntire, an inmate of the home, a few days ago.
“I whipped her because I thought it was the only means to which I could resort in order to protect those old people up there who are honest and honorable, and whom she had terrorized with threats that she would set fire to thehome and burn them up while they slept,” he went on to say.
The woman is ow in the county jail.she begs that she be taken back to the home, but Burleyson says he will resign before he will take her back, because he says he positively cannot manage her.
Mrs. McIntire is about 35 years old. She is the widow of Arthur McIntire of near Oakboro. Several months ago, according to a statement made by the keeper of the county home, she was sent there for public care.
At the time she was in a very bad state of health, having been a sufferer from a malignant form of venereal disease. She was then unable to take care of herself. Burleyson says that she received modern medical treatment at much cost, and that although her condition was slow to respond, she finally seemed cured. The keeper said she refused to clean up her room, wash the plate form which she ate, or do anything else, although she was strong and well, but weak mentally, he said. She made herself a general nuisance to the keeper and his family and the other inmates, Mr. Burleyson said. Finally he admitted he was forced to administer corporal punishment, he claims in order to protect the other inmates of the home.
He then let her go and she was arrested in Albemarle the next day and lodged in the county jail. She is able to work for her living, Burleyson said.
Burleyson does not deny that he possibly made a mistake when he whipped the woman, but declares in all seriousness that he had to do it in order to protect the other inmates. In this he is born out by the statements of a number of the old people. Ed Hathcock, to whose room Burleyson says the woman went on one or two occasions, stated today that in his opinion Mr. Burleyson ought to have whipped her sooner and much harder.
The occurrence has created a great deal of discussion in and around Albemarle, coming as it did so closely upon the heels of the Cranford trial. And, like it was in the Cranford case, there are those who would justify Mr. Burleyson in his act. Indeed there has been criticism against newspaper reporters for sending the report of the unfortunate affair to the daily newspapers.
At this time no action has been taken against Mr. Burleyson, but it is believed that he will be required to answer for the offense in court later. Many of Mr. Burleyson’s friends believe and freely state that Mrs. McIntire was not a proper subject for the county home, but it was an imposition upon him and the inmates to put her there with them.
From page 3 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 1926
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