North Carolina News, From Building Plans to an Attempted Lynching, 1920

“A Digest of Everything Worth Knowing About Old North State Folks and Things” from the July 23, 1920, issue of the Elizabeth City Independent. With the old system of typesetting, a column like this one was set as each news item came in. There was no going back to redo the column. More important items frequently appeared later in the column. In this column you will see the arrest of Sam Cox and then three items later learn that he was released. And near the end of the column you will learn that an angry mob was being held off by men with machine guns at the county jail in Graham and then two items later learn that the jail had been stormed, one man killed, and the prisoners transferred to State Prison in Raleigh. If you read the original item closely you will also learn that the three men were being held for a crime committed by a single man, and the police didn’t know which, if any of the men being held, was guilty.

--As the result of a fall into a deep well, Richard Swarringen of near Albemarle died several days ago. His spinal column was broken by the fall.

--North Carolina has nearly 3 million acres of corn planted this year, and about the same acreage of cotton, which has been a heavy sufferer from adverse weather conditions.

--To provide a reservoir for an increased water supply for Henderson, the water company of that city has just purchased 27 acres of land near Henderson, the location having been approved by the State Board of Health.

--Caught between the steering wheel of his automobile and an overhanging branch under which he accidentally backed the car, Arthur Bracy of Lumberson met sudden and horrible death the other day.

--Preparations are being made for the erection of the new State Prison four miles west of Raleigh. A new State brick mill will be put up in the next few weeks, which will manufacture the bricks for the proposed penal institution.

--A son of Dinley Bragg, who lives near Boone in Watauga county, while chopping wood with a double-bladed axe, received a deep wound from which he bled to death before aid could be administered.

--Fire losses in North Carolina during the month of June total only $360,000, according to a recent report from the State Insurance Department, while the losses for the entire United States during the month amounted to $25 million.

--Thrown from a rapidly moving trolley car by a stroke of lightning, Hugh Owen, employee of the Tidewater Power Company of Wilmington, is in a local hospital with a fractured skull and a broken shoulder. No other passengers were injured.

--Two persons were seriously hurt, one church steeple and a residence were struck, more than 100 telephones throughout the city were put out of commission, and many electric fuse plugs were burned out in a severe electrical storm which visited Asheville recently.

--Chairman Page of the State Highway Commission took 600 teachers now attending State College on a hay ride thru the country around Raleigh several days ago. The trip was made at the suggestion of Col. Fred Olds of the North Carolina department of history.

--Attacking the 1919 tax revaluation act, John J. Parker, Republican candidate for Governor, spoke at Albemarle a few days ago. Parker made the allegation that the new tax legislation created a bureaucracy for the administration of the tax laws.

--A large and venomous snake entered the home of Rev. Venable near Mount Airy last Saturday, and twice bit the 14-month-old baby who was playing about on the floor while its parents were at work in a nearby garden. Small hopes are entertained for the child’s recovery.

--The 18^th annual convention of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association was in session this week at Grove Park Inn in Asheville Monday to Wednesday. A feature of the convention was the address of Sir Auchland Geddes, British ambassador to the United States.

--Frank Petter, an Italian of Greensboro, has been placed under arrest charged with the murder of Mrs. Martha Latham of High Point, who was found dead in her bed several nights ago, her body pierced seven times with a dagger. Petter has confessed to the crime, intimating in broken English that he was actuated by jealousy.

--On July 31 the students of the University of North Carolina summer school will vote on the ratification of the Susan B. Anthony woman suffrage amendment. Since the summer school includes some 800 women, there is little doubt as to how the experimental election will go.

--Ex-soldiers, sailors and marines are urged to send in their applications to the Army Recruiting Station at Greensboro for the Victory Medal which is being awarded to all veterans of the world war. The medal is of bronze, in a handsome design, and attached to it is a ribbon in which are combined all the colors of the rainbow. Applications for the Victory medal should be accompanied by the discharge certificate of the applicant.

--Claiming that he had received a letter over the signature of a reputable Atlanta physician stating that his wife and children had died of the flu, George C. Harper of Raleigh has started divorce proceedings for separation from his wife, whom he alleges eloped with an Atlanta man who wrote the above letter to throw Harper off the track. Harper has secured his three children.

--Claiming damage to his character because of a report of an alleged shortage in his funds, Sheriff R.B. Lane of Craven county has brought suit for $100,000 damages against the auditing firm of W.P. Hilton of Norfolk, Va., according to recent dispatches from New Bern. The sheriff contends that he does not own the county one penny, while the county commissioners state he does, and are demanding an immediate settlement.

--Many of the native laborers at the Mount Airy granite quarries are said to be afraid to go to work, having been intimidated by the threats of alien labor agitators, and of various malcontent union enthusiasts. This is the first labor trouble ever experienced at the local quarries, where higher wages are paid than in other Mount Airy industry. The sympathy of the entire community is stated to be with the State granite corporation in their efforts to avoid a general strike.

--Charged with passing a worthless check in Nashville, Tenn., D. Sam Cox, prominent business man of Raleigh and president of the American Business Co., has been placed under arrest at Raleigh. It is believed that Cox will sue the city of Raleigh for false arrest, since he claims that delay in the presentation of the check was responsible for it not being honored, and he further alleges that the capias under which he was taken into custody was not addressed to any officer in North Carolina.

--Seeking to secure $85,000 worth of nitrate which had been consigned to them from South America but which had been stolen from the docks at Newport News and sold to seven North Carolina fertilizer firms, the E.I. DuPont de Nemours company of Wilmington, Del., has brought suit in the United States District Court at Raleigh against these firms for the recovery of the above amount. The nitrate was bought in good faith of the North Carolina fertilizer companies.

--In condemnation proceedings to acquire 120,451 acres of land in Cumberland and Hoke counties for the site of Camp Bragg, 750 defendants were named in a suit heard before Judge Connor of the Federal court of Raleigh last week. The vast acreage of land was taken over by the government in 1918, when it was decided to locate a training camp in the sand hill country nine miles from Fayetteville. Probably no court proceeding in North Carolina ever had more defendants than were named in this action.

--D. Sam Cox, Raleigh business man arrested upon a charge of passing a worthless check in Nashville, Tenn., has been discharged from custody by the State Supreme Court, upon the ground that Cox’s arrest and imprisonment was wholly illegal.

--Charged with an attempted criminal assault upon a 13-year-old white girl, Jerry White, a white man about 30 years old is in jail in Lexington after having been arrested at Winston-Salem, where he fled after the alleged crime. The girl was picking black berries at the time of the alleged assault.

--President Poteat of Wake Forest College announces a gift of $100,000 to the institution by the General Education Board, which will be used toward the formation of an endowment fund to provide permanent increases in professors’ salaries. The gift is conditioned upon the raising of $200,000 by the college.

--While dipping cattle in Bethel township, Beaufort county, this week, Dr. E. Heiny, veterinary inspector of the United Stated Department of Agriculture for the eradication of the cattle tick in that county, and Lewis A. Ennis, government agent, were fired upon near one of the dipping vats and narrowly escaped being killed. It is not known who fired the shots.

--Though early morning rains kept many farmers away, more than 100,000 pounds of tobacco were offered for sale Tuesday at the opening of the Lumberton tobacco market, at prices ranging up to 50 cents a pound. The grades offered were not of the best, and those in touch with the situation there believe that the price will go higher when the better part of the crop comes in.

--The Democratic executive committee will open campaign headquarters in Raleigh about August 1, according to announcement made by Chairman Tom Warren, who spent a portion of the week here. Mr. Warren has been looking for suitable office space, but so far has not found offices. He expects to return here soon and complete arrangements for opening the headquarters for the campaign.

--Fearing mob violence, the authorities of Hickory removed to the county jail at Newton last Monday Loretz Wilfong, a negro held in connection with the death of Alonzo Whitener, a well-known citizen of Brookland, who died of injuries sustained by being run over by an automobile. Wilfong admitted seeing Whitener lying in the road but says he left the white man there. Whitener is said to have been drinking.

--In the three years and seven months of his administration, Governor Bickett has pardoned 584 criminals. This figure does not include the paroles issued by the governor. During his four years in office, Gov. W.W. Kitchin pardoned 380 prisoners, and during his term Gov. Locke Craig pardoned 434. Early in his administration, Governor Bickett announced that he would be a friend to the friendless in prison. He also adopted the stand that a prisoner did not need a lawyer in presenting his case for pardon.

--Troops with machine guns are guarding the county jail at Graham to prevent mob violence to three colored men lodged there upon suspicion that one of the trio is the negro who made a brutal attack upon Mrs. A.A. Riddle near the outskirts of town Sunday night while her husband was away. The indignation of the people was shown in the gathering of an angry crowd of 100 or more men, who threatened to storm the jail Monday. Mrs. Riddle has made no positive identification of any of the prisoners.

--Governor Bickett has called a meeting of the sub committees of finance and appropriations of the house and senate to meet here on August 3, one week before the convening of the special session for the purpose of preparing bills covering the tax reform program to be completed at the special session. This committee will work with the tax commission in getting these bills ready for the special session so that they may be introduced early in the session. Three bills will be prepared. They are: 1. The bill fixing the new tax rate much lower than the old one; 2. The bill to submit a constitutional amendment to lower the limitation of taxation from 66 2/3 cents; and 3. The bill for the income tax amendment.

--One man was killed and two others are known to have been wounded when machine gunners guarding the county jail in Graham, in which were confined three negroes held as suspects in connection with the recent assault upon Mrs. A.A. Riddle, when an angry mob attacked the jail, bent upon lynching the negroes. Jim Ray, who was killed, was not a member of the mob, nor were the two known wounded men. Whether others were hit be stray bullets cannot be ascertained. Following the first attack, and after the mob had apparently dispersed, the jail was again fired upon toward midnight Sunday from a nearby corn-field. No damage was done, and the fire was not returned by the troops guarding the jail. By Monday the situation had quieted down, and Tuesday the prisoners were taken to the State Prison in Raleigh.