Mob Attempts to Lynch
Negro Accused of Crime. . . Enraged Citizens Storm Jail at Newton. . . Tom
Gwin, Believed to Be Guilty of Assaulting Young Catawba County Girl West of
Hickory Last Evening
One of the most diabolical crimes ever committed in North
Carolina occurred yesterday afternoon near the Burke and Catawba county line
when a 16-year-old daughter of Mr. John Hildebran, who lives in Catawba county,
was waylaid and criminally assaulted by a negro assumed to be Tom Gwin,
employed as a driver by the Burke county road commissioners. The young girl was
on her way home from the high school at Hickory and the assailant, who had
stopped his team off the main sand-clay road, dragged her into the woods
several yards from the main road and accomplished his purpose.
Following the girl’s return home, the alarm was given and
Chief Lentz and Sergeant Sigmon of Hickory and Deputy Sheriff of W.L. Eckard of
Icard arrested Gwin at the Burke county road camp at Valdese. He was carried to
the Newton jail and again spirited from that place by Sheriff Isenhower after a
mob of 40 enraged men had broken down the wooden doors in an effort to lynch
him. It was not stated where the negro was taken.
That Gwin had planned his foul crime is known by the fact
that he left the main road on which he was hauling and drove his team along the
road leading to Mr. Hildebrand’s house. The young lady attends the Hickory high
school and twice each day rides to and fro on her bicycle. Mr. M.D. Arney saw
the team standing on the side of the road shortly before the storm came up, and
it seems that the criminal had been there an hour.
He left his team, went into the woods and, as the girl came
by on her bicycle, he jumped in front of her and after stopping her, carried
her off into the woods. There he remained with her for an hour, she told Dr.
T.C. Blackburn, who was called last evening. The negro also threatened to kill
her, but he permitted her to escape and the alarm was given.
Feeling in the whole community was tense today. In Hickory
the affair was not generally known until this morning, the officers fearing
violence. There was much indignation today in Hickory.
In a telephone conversation today, Mr. Hildebran, father of
the young lady, said that she had described Tom Gwin perfectly. She had often
seen him and he was a familiar figure along the road, as he was employed as a
driver by the Burke road authorities. Gwin also knew that Miss Hildebrand
attended school in Hickory. He had no occasion for leaving the main road
yesterday, but he turned his team into the highway leading to Mr. Hildebrand’s
home and fed his animals while he himself went into the woods to stop the
school girl. Mr. Arney also noticed the team that Gwin had been driving near
the woods. While he has not been positively identified, it is felt by the
father and friends that Gwin is the brute.
Gwin is described as a mulatto and weighing about 200
pounds.
When Chief Lentz was notified, he and Sergeant Sigmon went
immediately in chase, and together with Deputy Sheriff Eckard of Burke county,
found the negro at the camp at Valdese. He was carried to the jail at Newton.
Dr. Blackburn said today that the victim was doing fairly
well. She was nervous and restless during the night but was able to sit up for
a while this morning. The victim was a pretty and attractive school girl and in
Hickory she had many friends among the boys and girls of high school. This was
her first year in the high school.
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How Newton Jailer
Prevented Trouble
Newton, April 30—This morning about 1 o’clock Jailer J.O. Gilbert
was awakened by some one entering the front door of the jail. When the jailer
got to the door he was met by between 50 and 60 men who demanded to know if a
negro by the name of Tom Gwin was in jail. He told them the negro was in jail.
They at once entered the jail and started up the stairs, where the negro was
confined in what is known as the big cell. The locks on two doors through which
the crowd had to enter before reaching the cell where the negro was confined,
were broken off.
Failing to open the big cell which has a combination lock,
the men then threatened to shoot the negro in the cell, but the jailer
prevailed upon the crowd not to do that, as there were several others in the
same cell and they might shoot the wrong man. The jailer told the men he was
expecting them and that the sheriff had taken the keys of the jail with him to
Conover. In the meantime the Sheriff was phoned to be on the lookout.
James Yount, an ex-policeman of Newton, who was on the
scene, phoned Town Electrician W.R. Abernethy to turn the lights on, the town
being in darkness at that time. This was at once done and the posse left. As
soon as the posse left the negro was removed to another town for safe keeping.
The jailer kept his nerve or the negro would undoubtedly
have been lynched. The men came in several automobiles and are thought to have
been from the scene of the crime.
The negro wanted was placed in jail on the charge of assault
upon a young white woman, about 16 years of age, in the western part of town.
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From the editorial
page of the Hickory Daily Record,
April 30, 1919
Let’s Be Law-Abiding
Catawba county people are justly indignant over the affair
that occurred in the suburbs of Hickory last yesterday, but it is better that
only one crime has been committed in this county. The action of Sheriff
Isenhower in spiriting the negro prisoner out of the Newton jail after a mob
had broken into the place deserves commendation.
The white men of Catawba county will sit as jurors in the
trial of the defendant. The law is plain, and if the negro is found guilty, he
will pay the extreme penalty.
In the meantime every man who tried to take part in a
lynching should be thankful that he was thwarted in his purpose. We cannot
afford to be jungaleers, even though we feel that no punishment is too mild for
the offense like that which occurred near here.
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