Sidna Allen Pays Off Debt While in Prison, Jan. 25, 1921

Winston-Salem, Jan. 19—By making cedar chests in recreation hours at the penitentiary in Richmond, Va., Sidna Allen, serving a 30-year sentence for taking part with the Allen ?? (obscured) in shooting up the court at Hills?? ?? (words obscured) county, Va., eight yeaars ago has made sufficient money to pay off every debt owned by him.

A ?? manufacturing company in Winston-Salem offered to release him form a debt as a Christmas gift to his family, but the offer was declined, and the debt paid in full along with interest. Allen wrote that this was the last dollar he owed in the world, and that nothing could satisfy him so much as the knowledge that it had been paid.

(From the Williamston Enterprise, Jan. 25, 1921)