Wednesday, June 4, 2014

News From Across the Old North State, 1920

"N.C. State News: A Digest of Everything Worth Knowing About Old North State Folks and Things" from the June 19, 1920, issue of the Elizabeth City Independent

Typhus fever has broken out in Cleveland County about eight miles from Kings Mountain. Dr. J. Sidney Hood has asked the State Board of Health for help in trying to keep the disease from spreading. The Board has sent Dr. D.C. Absher who has had experience in fighting this disease in India. So far as is known, this is the first time typhus fever has ever appeared in North Carolina. This disease is transmitted by lice and is fed by filth. Epidemics often occur in Europe, but only once before in New York in 1915 has America had this awful malady.
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On last Friday night the Odd Fellows of Raleigh gave a reception to Charles H. Benie who celebrates his 86th birthday in August and who was elected Grand Patriarch at the meeting of the Grand Encampment in Gastonia in May.
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A quarrel over 50 cents in a dice game resulted in the killing of Charles Columbus by Charles Brown in Asheville on the night of June 12th. Brown took an axe and literally split Columbus’s head open. Brown made his escape and at last accounts was still at large.
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Democratic National Committeeman A.W. McLean is in the Emergency Hospital in Washington, D.C. recovering from the effects of an operation of his tonsils. He is doing nicely and expects to be back on the job in a new days.
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Two are dead and one fatally injured as a result of a Southern Train colliding with an automobile at Spencer. The dead are: H.M. Grubbs, a well known farmer and Miss Pearl Smithy of North Wilkesboro. Miss Kate Grubbs, the 21-year-old daughter of Mr. H.M. Grubbs, lies fatally injured.
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William Heller, a shoe dealer of Raleigh, has been indicted by the Grand Jury in the Federal Court for profiteering on the sale of shoes. One indictment charges that he sold on October 28th a pair of shoes to Mrs. Louis Connor for $16.50 which cost him $7.05 and to A.E. Beddingfield a pair of men’s shoes for $13.50 which cost him $7.05.
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The meeting of the North Carolina Federation of Business and Professional Women which met in Greensboro on last Friday and Saturday endorsed the following: That the Legislature at its coming session in July ratify the constitutional Amendment giving suffrage to women; Better and cleaner moving picture shows and a state-wide censorship of all moving picture shows; Championing a dormitory for women at the State University and ask the Legislature to make an appropriation to that end; and the establishment of a woman’s bureau to aid wage earners among the sex to obtain better employment and better working conditions. Miss Elsie Riddick of Raleigh was elected President of the Federation.
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One of the sensational murders in the history of High Point was committed in that town on the night of June 8th. J.E. Fletcher, who owned and operated a meat market in the Negro section of the town, was shot and almost instantly killed on his way from his business to his residence. Two Negroes, Eugene Alford and Roy Alford are being held by the authorities following the verdict of the Coroner’s Jury.
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George H. Bryan, a farmer residing on the Grantham-Parker place, 4 miles from New Bern, Saturday at noon shot and killed himself with a single barrel shot gun. The act was caused by financial reversals and a recent court decision in which he lost heavily. Mr. Bryan was standing before a mirror in his room when he pulled the trigger. He was 41 years of age and leaves a wife and several small children.
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Hon. Claud Kitchin, former floor leader of the Democrats in the Lower House of Congress is leaving Washington, D.C., for Scotland Neck, where he and Mrs. Kitchen will remain for several days. From there they are going to Lake Cayuga in New York. Mr. Kitchin says he does not expect the President to call an extra session of Congress and that he wants to get away from politicians, newspapers and all sorts of pests and rest in a secluded place.
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Five men, Walter Murray, alias “Missouri Shorty”; John O’Brien, alias “Hostile Johnny”; John Murray, alias “Michigan Shorty”; John  Devins, alias “California Bill”; and J.T. Lathrop have been indicted in the Federal Court  in Raleigh for the theft of about $36,000 from the United States Post Office in Oxford. This theft was committed on the night of March 9th. The men were captured and are being held in Brooklyn, N.Y.
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State Supt. E.C. Brooks, in a letter to Miss Mary B. Palmer, Secretary of the North Carolina Library commission, endorsed in strong terms the program of the American Library Association. Dr. Brooks says he wishes to see the time when in every county in the State there will be several traveling libraries and that the people of the State would become more interested in good reading. The American Library Association is seeking to arouse interest in reading and is now trying to raise a fund of $2 million with which to place books within easy reach of all people.
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The social circles of New Bern received a shock this week when it was announced by a local paper that the millionaire widow of James B. Blades, who was killed in an automobile wreck near Black Mountain some months ago, had married in Wilmington Frank McCrary, who is an evangelistic choir leader. The two met a few months ago during a revival in New Bern. It was love at first sight for both. They were married by the bride’s pastor, Rev. W.A. Ayers.


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