Charles R. Beck, Who Died at Age 17 Fighting in France in 1918, Buried at Mitchell's Grove Church, March 1921

Soldier Who Died in France Buried Sunday

Accompanied by a military escort and with the casket covered with a United States flag, the body of Charles R. Beck, High Point boy, who was killed in action in France on October 12, 1918, arrived in High Point Saturday night on train No. 32. funeral services were held at Mitchell’s Grove church Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock. Members of the Andrew Jackson post of the American Legion acted as pallbearers. Charles Beck was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Beck of this city. At the outbreak of the war he enlisted in Company M of High Point and went to Camp Sevier for training. He was later transferred to Company I, 118th infantry, and was with that organization on the front when he “went west.” He was only 17 years of age at the time of his death.

From the front page of The Review, High Point, N.C., March 31, 1921

John Wiliams Guilty of Murder, Sentenced to Jail, April 9, 1921

Williams Found Guilty and Will be Imprisoned. . . Georgia Farmer Convicted of Death of Negroes on Is Farm While in Condition of Peonage

Covington, Ga., April 9—John S. Williams, accused of the murder of 11 of his negro farm hands to halt a federal investigation of peonage, was found guilty of murder by a jury in Newton county superior court here today and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Judge John B. Hutcheson had the defendant stand up and after repeating to him the verdict, added “And the verdict of the jury is the sentence of the court.”

The defendant, who had been cheerful before the jury came in, received the verdict outwardly calm, and when his wife and daughters began to sob almost audibly he seemed to be making a desperate effort to hide emotion.

Motion for a new trial was immediately filed and hearing on the motin set for April 30, at Decatur, Ga., before Judge John B. Hutcheson who presided at the trial.

The verdict of murder with recommendation for mercy, which under Georgia law automatically carries a life sentence, was read exactly 18 hours after the case went ot the jury, and was calmly received by Williams. A moment later, as his wife and children began to sob almost inaudibly he seemed to be struggling to restrain his own emotions. Just after court adjourned the man’s two daughters became hysterical and were led from the room by friends.

Williams appeared more affected by his family’s suffering, than he had been by the verdict. He was on trial charged specifically with the murder of one of the negroes found drowned in Newton County. Clyde Manning, negro farm boss for Williams and jointly indicted with him, testified that on Williams’ order he and another negro, afterwards killed, had done the killings.

Williams had maintained a cheerful attitude during the trial and had stoutly maintained his innocence, although having admitted he might be technically guilty of peonage, as he said he had paid fines with negroes and let them work out the debt.

Sentence was formally passed within a few moments after the verdict was announced. Judge Hutcheson re-stated the verdict as read by T.R. Starr, a farmer and foreman of the jury, and added: “And the verdict is the sentence of the court.”

The verdict was not in exact form, but in open court both sides agreed that it was legal by supreme court decisions and that no exception would be taken.

The motion for a new trial was made on the grounds that the verdict was “contrary to the evidence; contrary to the law and without evidence to support it.”

The jury was composed of seven farmers, the others being merchants, clerks and a barker. Most of the jurors were young men, six of them serving on a jury for the first time.

The case went to trial last Tuesday, one day being taken up with arguments for postponement and selection of the jury. The state took little more than a day to present its evidence while the defense relied solely on the unsworn statement of Williams.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, Saturday evening, April 9, 1921

Final Arguments as Williams, Manning Trial Goes to Jury, April 8, 1921

Williams Case Expected to Go to Jury Friday. . . Final Pleas of Counsel Heard During Morning Sitting of the Courtney

Covington, Ga., April 8—John S. Williams, Jasper County planter, was willing to sacrifice the “convict lives” of 11 negroes on his farm to his own security and price of position, the jury trying him for murder of one of them was told here today by former Congressman Howard.

Only those negroes who had been bailed out of jail, and whom he said Williams held on the farm by force to work out their debts, were subject to this “dreadful contagion of death,” he said in making the closing argument for the state.

Green F. Johnson followed with the final plea for acquittal and it appeared that the judge’s charge would be completed and the case in the hands of the jury before night.

Howard contended that, even if the jury didn’t believe the statement of Clyde Manning, negro farm boss, that he helped Williams kill the men, the fact that they were killed and that Williams alone had the motive remained. Mr. Johnson assailed Manning as a confessed liar and an admitted murder who, on his own statement, knocked a nigger in the head as he “would an ox.”

Manning’s ignorance had allowed him to believe he “was as guilty as Williams” of peonage and that furnished him a motive for the killings, he declared.

Manning had termed the Department of Justice agents, whose peonage investigation preceded the killings, “United States protectors” and Johnson’s reference to this caused a laugh in the packed court room—the first occasion necessitating even a formal rap for order during the day.

Williams got his sons away from the farms before the killings started, Howard argued, and Johnson replied in his speech that Williams’ sons were not on trial and also argued the jury to remember Williams himself was being tried for only one of the alleged murders.

The trial has been shortened by the presentation of only one witness for the defense, Williams taking the stand in his own behalf yesterday as the only attempt by his attorneys to refute the testimony of the state’s star witness, Clyde Manning, negro boss on the Williams’ Farm, that the 11 negroes were killed at the defendant\s orders. Asserting his “absolute innocence” of the murder charge, Williams, who was not sworn and therefore, under the Georgia law, not subjected to crossed examination, declared in his statement to the jury he held Manning as the man having a “probable motive” for the killings. Defense counsel later sought to support this statement by telling the jury that Manning, ignorant of the penalty for peonage, had become alarmed at the Federal investigation.

Closing argument for the prosecution will be made today by W.M. Howard, former congressman from Georgia, while Green F. Johnson of Monticello, Ga., chief counsel for the defense, will make final plea for acquittal. Privilege of opening and closing argument was given the defense by reason of its having introduced the defendant as its only witness.

Barring a mistrial, there are three possible verdicts, according to opening argument of both sides, acquittal or conviction of murder, with a chance of the latter being accompanied by a recommendation for mercy which would automatically change the death penalty to life imprisonment.

Should Williams be acquitted of the present charge, he would not be free, Solicitor General Brand announced he wold be held for trial on two other murder items returned against him in this county in connection with the death of three negroes.

The courtroom was packed to capacity again today, spectators standing shoulder to shoulder in the aisles and in the space between the spectators’ seats and the railing of the bar. High school students were given the morning off from school to hear the closing arguments.

Mr. Howard, closing for the state, named the 11 farm hands killed and pointed out all came from jails in Atlanta or Macon, except one who was bailed out of jail in Monticello, and all worked for Williams or his sons.

The Williams farm and those adjoining operated by his sons were referred to as the plague spot by Mr. Howard. The others on the place seemed immune, he added, “and seemed able to live and move on the Williams plantation without getting this dreadful contagion or disease of death.”

The 11 negroes taken from jails to work on the farms met death within the 12 days from February 24 to March 8, he said, and added he would look for a cause for this “scourge of death” as physicians look for the cause of a pestilence.

Mr. Howard then turned to the subject of peonage and briefly outlined its origin in Mexico and traced it to the South. Federal laws were made against it, he said, and told of investigations by Department of Justice agents on the Williams place February 18.

Mr. Howard did not make the direct charge that peonage was the cause of the “scourge of death,” seeming to leave the jury to draw its own conclusions.

Mr. Howard turned to the defense’s claim that Clyde Manning, believing he was as guilty as Williams was,” of the peonage charges, might have killed the men. The speaker denounced such an idea as unfeasible and, his voice rising to a high pitch for the first time launched into a discussion of motive.

If the jury did not want to believe Manning’s story accusing Williams and left it out, the attorney continued, the fact that the killings took place remained and the reasons for them remained.

Against his own price and position in life, the defendant was pictured as caring nothing for “these convict lives” as long as there are rivers and ravines to hid their bodies.

As between Williams and Manning having a reason for the killings, Mr. Howard asked:

“Did Clyde have any sons to protect? Did he own any property? Did he make any contracts with these stockade negroes?”

Speaking as those he were the defendant, the attorney declared:

“In the midst of these foul, outrageous murders, I content myself with saying I know nothing about the three in Newton county. As to the others in Jasper county, I will explain them at the proper time.”

“The man who knows about the Yellow River murders knows about the pasture murders, and, if I he can explain one, he can explain all,” Howard declared.

A recess of 10 minutes followed the close of the address, which the crowd, filling every available inch of standing room, heard in deep silence.

Mr. Johnson started the final argument as soon as the recess was up, outlining in a quiet tone what he proposed to do in his address.

Mr. Johnson praised the address of Howard, and added “As for my friend, Mr. Brand, the distinguished solicitor general, just between you and me, gentlemen of the jury, confidentially, I can’t escape the conviction that Mr. Brand has not got a square deal.”

“Just beginning his term of office and having worked up his first big case, he was about to reap the reward of his labors and had visions possibly of honors from it—of the governorship even—when this Atlanta crowd got busy and sent these distinguished men to take his place.”

Referring to Howard having conducted the examination of witnesses and having made the closing speech, he declared the former congressman did not apear, as did the solicitor general or the assistant attorney general, to be doing their duty as sworn officers of the state, but as the paid attorney of “private prosecutors.”

The “men who guaranteed the fund to pay Howard had the right to do so,” he said, and added they had the right to do so,” he said, and added they had the right to hire another lawyer to uphold “this splendid character—Clyde Manning.”

“I would suggest, however, they might well clean up their own house first.”

Referring to the Atlanta race riot of 1906, he said no one hired lawyers to punish the slayers “of more than 100 unfortunate negroes.”

Mr. Johnson then made a plea that Williams, for whom he had sought a postponement of trial, had not been given sufficient time to prepare his defense. He asked the jury to remember this when it retired “especially when you run up against suspicious facts and circumstances unexplained.”

Johnson referred to the testimony of Manning as that of a “confessed liar and an admitted murderer,” who, on his admission, “knocked a nigger in the head as he would an ox.”

Scientists and travelers now, he said, that in Africa there are peaceable tribes and fierce tribes, even cannibals, among the negroes.

“I am willing to venture that way back there Clyde Manning’s ancestors were cannibals,” Johnson declared.

Manning’s motive for the killings, he said, was due to his ignorance and the fact that, in “his disturbed and cunning brain, this man (pointing to the Federal agent) had sown the seeds of fear.”

Manning, the attorney said, had been told “he was as guilty as Williams” and did not have education enough to know better.

Reference to Manning’s having terms the Department of Justice agents “United States protectors” caused the first act on the part of spectators during the day that necessitated a rap for order. It was a spontaneous laugh that subsides at once.

If the 11 negroes had been killed over a period of 12 days, as Manning said, some of them would have gotten wind of the earlier killings and would have “fled like rats from a sinking ship. And remember, too, not one of Manning’s family was touched. Remember that.”

From The Charlotte News, Friday evening, April 8, 1921

Frank Huffman, Laura Joe Buggs Shot Saturday Night, March 30, 1921

Frank Huffman Shot By His Pals

Frank Huffman, a resident of the South Mountains, is nursing wounds on the jaw and back of the head as a result of pistol wounds inflicted Saturday night by several negroes, with whom he had been associating for a few days, it was learned today. Huffman claims that he was bereft $88 in good money. His wound were dressed by Dr. Menzies.

Liquor was mixed up in the affair and robbery is alleged to have been the motive for the shooting, Huffman was in town yesterday and will report again Friday for the preliminary hearing. Whether he and the negroes were selling liquor has not been learned. Albert Bost is being held in the city jail as one of the guilty men.

Laura Joe Buggs Shot by Fred Wallace

Laura Joe Buggs, a negress, is acting quietly as a result of a gunshot wound in the right leg inflicted, it is alleged, by Fred Wallace Saturday night at his home in South Hickory. A whole load of shot, packing and all went through the leg.

From the Hickory Daily Record, Wednesday evening, March 30, 1921

Fred, Ab Brinkley On Trial for Death of Homer Barringer, March 30, 1921

Barringer Case to be Heard Tuesday

Fred and Ab Brinkley, held in Catawba County jail without bail in connection with the death of Homer Barringer last week, will be given a preliminary hearing next Tuesday before County Judge Jesse Sigmon at Newton. Solicitor J.H. Hayes of Wilkesboro is expected to be in Newton for the preliminary and the state is confident of having enough evidence to bind over the superior court.

Carroll Little is the state’s principal witness. He told Sheriff Mauser that he was asleep in the automobile alongside the road while the two Brinkleys and Barringer were in the woods playing poker. He did not know anything of the fight. The rock with which it alleged Barringer was his over the head is in the sheriff’s office.

It seems that Barringer had about $400 in his pockets Saturday afternoon and that the Brinkleys knew of the fact. They are alleged to have invited him out to the “old place,” the result being that he received a mortal blow on the head.

Barringer, it will be recalled, was taken to Catawba to be treated and while the two Brinkley boys got out to see Dr. Long, the injured man drove to Newton. Here his wound was dressed.

Neither of the principals will disclose anything in connection with the affair and the officers are working on the theory that probably other young men are implicated. Messrs. W.A. Self and Wilson Warlick appear for the Brinkley boys and Mr. A.A. Whitener will assist the solicitor.

From the Hickory Daily Record, Wednesday evening, March 30, 1921

John S. Williams Says He's "Innocent as a Man Can Be," Defense Rests, April 7, 1921

All Evidence In Williams’ Trial In Hands of Jury . . . I Am as Innocent as a Man Can Be, Stated Williams, His Only Witnesses

Covington, Ga., April 7—Evidence in the trial of John S. Williams, charged with murder of one of 11 negroes who met deth after Federal investigation into allege peonage conditions started on his farm, was concluded today.

The only witness for the defense was Williams himself, who told the jury, “I am as innocent as a man can be.”

The last two state’s witnesses who testified today corroborated statements of Clyde Manning, negro farm boss. Manning told the jury yesterday Williams directed the killing of the men, three of whom were drowned in Newton County.

The state announced it expected to use three hours and the defense approximately five.

The order of arguments was announced as follows:

C.C. King, Covington, for defense; Graham Wright, assistant state attorney general, prosecution; W.H. Key, Monticello, Ga., defense; Solicitor General A.M. Brand, prosecution; W.M. Howard, Augusta, Ga., prosecution; Green F. Johnson, Monticello, defense.

Mr. King started speaking soon after the afternoon session began, arguing on the law regarding omission of corroboration or the testimony of an accomplice.

He regarded the defense expected to rely also on the “alibi” which he said Williams had established ‘as far as possible’ by describing how he was home the night the crimes are charged against him.

King sought to show the jury that Manning “probably had sufficient motive in his own mind to make way with these negroes.”

Manning, he said, knew nothing about the penalty for peonage and, when Federal agents told him he was “just as guilty as Williams was” and had “lied and ought to be hanged,” the negro “no doubt thought he had committed a hanging crime and proceeded to get these negroes out of the way.”

There really had been no peonage on the farm and Williams knew this and had no possible motive for the killngs.

“If you were to take Clyde Manning’s testimony out, that’s practically all you would have,” he said.

In conclusion, he made charges that state’s witnesses had been “coached” and reminded the jury that Williams was on trial for the alleged murder of Peterson alone.

Williams told the jury he had told Federal agents he might be technically guilty of peonage if their statements to the Federal laws were correct and said Clyde Manning, negro farm boss, had told him the agents said Manning “was as guilty as Williams was.”

Williams confined his remarks to the cases of Lindsey Peterson, Harry Price and Willie Preston, three negroes drowned in Newton County. He is specifically on trial for the death of Peterson.

Court recessed for luncheon when Williams left the stand and the arguments were assigned to start at the afternoon session, each side to have three speakers.

Having introduced no testimony, merely letting Williams tell his story to the jury without being sworn, the defense won the privilege of opening and closing the arguments. The fact that Williams was not sworn prevented his being cross examined.

Rena Manning, wife of Clyde Manning, testifed in corroboration of her husband’s statement that, on the night Peterson, Willie Preston and Harry Price were last seen alive, Williams carried them and Manning and Charlie Chisholm off in his car.

Sheriff B.L. Johnson of Newton County testified that Manning identified the bodies of Peterson, Preston and Price, found in Newton County rivers and told where the other bodies could be found.

Williams took the stand as the first witness to make a statement in his own behalf.

“I have never had any kind of criminal charge against me or my boys before this,” were among the first words of Williams to the jury.

Williams said his four grown sons were among the first in the county to answer the country’s call to war.

“Like most farmers, I have bonded out negroes and worked them,” he continued.

Williams said he paid these men wages. He then told of he Federal investigation that started last February. He asked the Department of Justice agents to tell him exactly what peonage was and said, on being told that working bonded negroes was, that he told the Federal agents he might have been technically guilty and that “most Georgia farmers were, if their definition was correct.”

“You lying scoundrel, you ought to have your neck broken,” Williams said one of the agents said to Manning after comparing the version Williams had given about the recapture of Gus Chapman, a negro who had run off and that Manning had captured. Chapman had been brought back after attacking Manning’s wife, the defense had explained. Williams said Manning denied to the agents that he knew of the capture of Chapman.

“The surroundings are much better than we expected,” agents told him, he said, and added, “you may be technically guilty of peonage.

The agents commented that the farm hands were “well fed and well dressed,” Williams said.

“Mr. Johnny you ain’t treated me right. You made me out a liar right before those agents,” Wiliams said Manning told him afterwards.

“They told me I was just as guilty of peonage as you were,” he also quoted the negro as saying.

The last night Preston, Price and Peterson were seen, he said, they came to him and said they wanted to visit their homes but would return. They asked for and got five dollars each, he added, and he offered to take them to the train. Charlie Chisholm and Clyde Manning got 50 cents apiece form him, Williams declared, and went off.

“That was the last I ever saw of these boys,” he said, referring to Peterson, Price and Preston.

Williams said he asked Manning next day and the latter replied: “They went off last night.”

Williams was talking in a calm, clear voice and occasionally made a slow gesture as he addressed the jury.

He told of hearing later that the negroes’ bodies had been found and of his later arrest.

“Whoever put the bodies in the river did it for a purpose,” he said. “If I had done this crime, gentlemen, I would have had plenty of time to get where they could not put their hands on me,” he asserted.

Williams asserted that he was “falsely accused,” and added “what they done to him (Manning) to make him accuse me, I don’t know.

“I did not know what he was going to say until we heard him on the stand,” he said.

Williams then went into details of Manning’s long employment on the farm.

Williams said Clyde Manning’s mother asked him to take Clyde Manning and others of her children, take care of them, as he said the mother could not control them. He told of paying doctor bills and of trying “to make them do right.”

“As far as this case is concerned, I am absolutely innocent,” continued Williams.

“That’s about all I can say,” he concluded and left the stand.

Williams, in his statement, had confined himself solely to the deaths of the three negroes found drowned in Newton County.

The defense rested.

Rena Manning, wife of Clyde Manning, the first witness today, testified briefly in support of her husband’s statement that when the negroes Lindsey Peterson, Willie Preston and Harry Price were last seen alive, Williams was taking them off in a car. Manning and Charlie Chisholm, another negro, went with them, she added.

“Who told you to tell this?” Green F. Johnson, counsel for Williams, asked repeatedly as he went over the woman’s statement on cross-examination.

Sheriff B.L. Johnson of Newton County testified next, telling of the recovery of the bodies of Peterson, Preston and Price from Newton County rivers.

Sheriff Johnson also told of Manning’s identifying bodies already fond and of telling where the remainder were. The sheriff denied any threats or promises induced Manning’s statement. Frequent arguments of technicalities necessitating retirement of the jury prolonged the sheriff’s stay on the witness stand.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, Thursday, April 7, 1921

Make Gum Trees Profitable, End Upheaval to Help the Poor, Plant Profitable Corn This Year, Editorials From The Commonwealth, March 30, 1921

It is estimated that there is around 150,000,000 meet of gum timber within a radius of 10 miles of this town. It does look as if a resource of this kind could be used to the advantage and upbuilding of this place. If other interests can buy this raw material and ship a great distance, manufacture, and then ship back to this section, why cannot we manufacture the same products here and ship the finished article to them?

-=-

Another appeal has gone out to American people for contribution to aid the suffering and starving of Ireland. These appeals have been made continuously for the past several years in behalf of nations in all parts of the world. It is just and right that we, the richest nation on earth, should give of our bounty, but does it not seem that it is about time that revolutions, wars and threats of wars should end and the world get down to work again and produce food to take care of the starving in their own midst? The world is indeed yet in upheaval and the end does not seem to be in sight.

-=-

Plant Corn

Every one is interested in the future of farming and anxious to solve the condition that farmers are now facing, for it affects every line of business to a greater or less degree.

Advice has been given to cut down cotton and tobacco acreage at least one half, and to plant food and feed stuffs but all the acreage will not be needed for that. We do now that we can raise corn, and raise it at a profit, but the complaint is often made that there is no sale for it. To a certain extent that is true. There is small demand for corn on the ear, but if any farmer with an excess of corn on hand will shell that corn,put it up in bags of two bushels each, or in fact in any size bags, he will find a ready market right here at home for every bushel he wants to dispose of. This is not theory but a fact. We have just talked with R.J. Madry, Wholesale Grocer of Scotland Neck, who tells us he has bought from local farmers, that he prefers to buy from home people, and that he will buy every bushel offered to him.

Again, thousands of bushels of hominy are shipped into this town every year from the west. There is a grist mill right here in Scotland Neck which could grind every bushel of hominy needed for consumption in this community, if the corn were available, so there is no reason why corn should not be a profitable crop this year and find a ready market right here at home.

From the editorial page of The Commonwealth, Scotland Neck, N.C., Wednesday, March 30, 1921

Wonder of Street Lights, Other News From Hobgood, N.C., March 30, 1921

News From Hobgood

For long years Hobgood has been in darkness, but this condition of affairs is passing. With the coming of each night a new light shines. Friday night the first street light was turned on, Saturday night there were two, now there are six. The people of Hobgood hope to have the whole town lighted by Friday night. Both the Baptist and Methodist churches are to be wired as well as the new school building.

Mr. Jenkins, the County Welfare officer, visited the Hobgood school Monday to interview the parents who have been keeping their children from 8 to 15 years old out of school. (The state had recently passed a law that required children between 8 and 15 years to attend school. The welfare officer was a truant officer, and had nothing to do with welfare as we would understand it today.)

Miss Callie Craft spent the week end with her relatives near Ayden.

Miss Bess Edwards, Miss Elizabeth Hyman and brother, Mr. Edward Hyman, spent Easter in Wilson.

Miss Stafford spent Easter at her home in Kernersville where she attended the early morning Moravian Easter service.

Miss Lillian Bailey spent Easter with her mother in Hobgood.

Mr. Jeff Peak spent the w4eek end with his family in Ahoskie.

Miss Beulah Moore spent Easter in Hobgood.

Mrs. Fran Armstrong is spending a few days in Rocky Mount, N.C., attending the Baptist W.M.U. Convention.

Mr. Heartburger took a number of the Hobgood people to spend the day at the river Sunday. In the party was Miss Eva Kitchin White, Miss Louise Bell, Mrs. W.P. White, Virginia White and Daisy Bell.

The Norfleet School has consolidated with the Hobgood School. There are now five schools in the new community school. The enrollment is 212.

Tuesday afternoon Mr. Levira Leggett gave an instructive talk to the Civic Government Class of the seventh grade and the High school on taxes.

From the front page of The Commonwealth, Scotland Neck, N.C., Wednesday, March 30, 1921

Cotton Profiteering and Worthless Investments, March 30, 1921

Cotton Profiteering

Our farmers are getting around 12 cents for cotton these days. Or so the prices are quoted in the market reports, but as a matter of fact they are getting a good deal less than that in remote country places. We happen to know of one shipment of low grade cotton at $36 a bale.

And why? Because nobody want it at any price, the buyers say. The carry-over is excessive, the mills on this side are overstocked, and the demand overseas has ceased. Such are the current reasons handed out to our cotton farmers since the slump in cotton prices late last August.

Now the fact is, export demands for raw cotton were hardly less in 1920 than in 1919. The shipments abroad for the year ending last December were barely 400,000 bales less than the year before. See the Jan. 27 report of the Federal Department of Commerce.

There is economic chaos abroad, but it is dead certain that our exporters are shipping no raw cotton except for gold or on gilt-edge security.

And while they were shipping a little less they were getting a good deal more for it—an average of 36 cents a pound in 1920 against 33 cents in 1919!

There you are. Exporters getting 36 cents a pound from foreign consumers and paying domestic producers 12 cents or less!

If cotton and tobacco farmers cannot or will not bunch up in business-like ways to protect the prices they fairly ought to have, they are wooden-headed beyond words.

But will they?

The farmers in one Carolina county have recently surrendered more than a half million dollars to blue-sky artists selling worthless oil stock, fertilizer factory stock and the like; or so a local banker reported last week.

If they would only invest a half million dollars in public education, cooperative enterprise, and common sense, the county would lead the state in a jiffy in progress and prosperity.

From the front page of the University of North Carolina News Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., March 30, 1921

Living Conditions Improved in Gaston County Mill Towns, Says Beulah Martin, March 30, 1921

Miss Beulah Martin of the rural social science department at the State University, recently visited Gastonia and Gaston County to make a study of the standards of living in the mill communities in this section. Her findings are an interesting revelation.

Four years ago the only visible welfare work done in the mill villages was in the maintenance of a public nurse for the entire community and a small library in one of the villages. Today there are numbers of community houses, dormitories, recreation houses and grounds, nurseries for children whose mothers work in the mills, and numbers of community nurses and social workers in the manufacturing districts. In many places dormitories have been built with modern conveniences for the unmarried employes of the mills. Better churches have been built and modern school buildings erected. Boy Scout troops have been organized and there are among the women and girls parent-teachers’ and little mothers’ clubs.

The greatest welfare agency is the community house where the people gather for recreation and social purposes, for reading and other forms of instruction, and where the children are cared for in a systematic and sanitary way.

Other bright aspects of mill life in Gaston County pointed out are the facts that at one mill 40 per cent of the operatives own their own homes and that at another 49 per cent of the stock in the mill is owned by employes of the mill.

This is the liberal and forward-looking policy that mill owners and corporations are following in Gaston County.

From the Gastonia Daily Gazette as reprinted in the University of North Carolina News Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., March 30, 1921

Homeless Had Different Meaning 100 Years Ago, March 30, 1921

Homelessness

It has been said that a man will fight for his home, but it is hard to induce a man to fight willingly for his landlord or his boarding house.

And Billy Sunday has said, A man living in a rented house and singing Home, Sweet Home is merely kidding himself and serenading his landlord.

A noted sociologist has said, If every family had a home, with lawn and flowers and trees in front and a garden in the rear, crime wold disappear in two generations.

Dark, crowded, unsatisfactory housing conditions are among the most prolific sources and causes of disease, insanity, immorality and crime, both in town and country areas. Homelessness constitutes a most serious menace to society.

--K.V. Haymaker

From the front page of the University of North Carolina News Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., March 30, 1921

Lt. W.D. Coney, Trans-Continental Aviator, Cannot Live Long, March 30, 1921

Lieutenant Coney Cannot Live Long

Natchez, Miss., March 30—Lieut. W. D. Coney, trans-continental aviator, who fell near Crowville, La., on a return flight from Florida to California last Friday, is sinking rapidly today, according to the attending physician. Little hope for his life is expressed.

At 2 p.m. today physicians attending Lieutenant Coney said he could not live longer than 12 hours.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, March 30, 1921

Edmund Bigham Guilty of Killing Mother, Sister, Brother, Brother-in-Law, Sister's Two Children, March 29, 1921

Edmund Bigham Is Found Guilty. . . Will Appeal; Declares Innocence in Statement to Court After Verdict

Florence, S.C., March 29—Attorneys for Edmund Bingham will appeal to a higher court in an effort to save their client from execution at Columbus on April 8. After Judge Memminger had sentenced Bigham late yesterday for the murder of five members of the Bigham family and motion for a new trial was overruled, notice of appeal was given by Attorney A.L. King of defense counsel, who asserted that one of the jurors who had voted to convict Bigham had expressed himself previous to the trial as in favor of seeing the prisoner burned.

The trial of Bigham was begun on March 24. State witnesses testified that the prisoner had threatened to kill members of his family and that he indicated where the body of his brother, Smiley Bigham, might be found. The defense endeavored to show that Smiley Bigham, during a period of insanity, had committed the murders and then killed himself. Smiley Bigham’s body was found some distance from the Bigham home with a pistol clutched in the right hand. The other bodies were found in and about the Bigham home. They included Edmund Bigham’s mother, sister and his sister’s two adopted children. Family financial affairs figured largely in the motive advanced by the state.

Bigham turned pale when the verdict was read and his face lost the smile that it had worn during the trial, but, when asked what he had to say before being sentenced, he leaned forward from the dock and, in a clear and unshaken voice, replied:

“Nothing except that I am innocent. I know nothing of how that crime was committed. That is the truth, so help me God!”

“I wish my mother could come down and tell how that thing happened. I wish that little boy had lived when I asked Dr. W.H. Poston to save his life. He would have told the same things my wife and I told.

“Judge, I hope you will give me time so some of these people who testified here against me may have a chance to come forward and tell the truth and not come too late, like Judas making his offering of the 30 pieces of silver.

“I do hope to have something more, and I hope you will take no exception to it. As far as you are concerned, I have had a fair trial, but if people had had time to think things over, consider and take it up with their God, they would have testified differently.”

When asked to explain the finding of his pistol in his dead brother’s hand, Bigham said:

“I left that pistol in my bureau drawer and it has been testified that the door was found broken open. That is the only way Smiley could have got it. If I am guilty, I hope I may be petrified in front of this courthouse. I am innocent as a new-born babe.”

After Bigham had concluded his statement, Judge Memminger, before passing sentence, reviewed the case and referring to Bigham’s statement of innocence, said:

“I have never known a prisoner convicted of a similar crime to make acknowledgment of his guilt. In all that you have said in your favor, there is no excuse in the law.”

Mrs. May Bigham, wife of the defendant, and her children had been led from the courtroom by friends before the jury, of which H.P. Hazelden was foreman, returned its verdict. When she was told the result a few minutes later, she collapsed and had to be given medical treatment.

From The Charlotte News, Tuesday, March 29, 1921

Marian Davis Forms New Home Demonstration Club at Dixie, March 29,1921

Miss Davis Forms New Club at Dixie

Miss Marian Davis, home demonstration agent for Mecklenburg County, organized a new home demonstration club at Dixie Tuesday. The club will constitute itself into a sewing class for several weeks and will later in the season function as a canning club. Miss Louise Brown is president and Miss Marie Faires is secretary of the club.

The other members of the body are Misses Van Bailes, Annie Brown, Bessie Brown, Willie Bigham, Janette Freeman, Lettie Torrence, Virginia Wilson, Dorothny Montgomery, Edith Mae Stowe, Lola Berryhill, Rosa Spratt, Mildred Neel, Esther McGinn, Mildred Lineberger, Lucy Mitchell, Louise Cathey, Sadie Lineberger, Lucile Allison, Lillian Freeman, and Willie May Williamson.

From The Charlotte News, March 29, 1921

Old Blind Woman Makes Her Way to County Home for Poor, March 29, 1921

Blind Woman Back at Home. . . Passengers on Street Car Found Her Enroute to County Refuge

Passengers aboard an early morning street car, coming into the business section from Dilworth, found an aged woman, virtually blind, who said she was on her way to the county home.

She had boarded the car at the southern end of the city and proposed to transfer at Independence Square to A Belmont car. She expected to wlak from the end of the Belmont line to the county home, about nine miles distant.

A man and woman, sympathizing with the woman in her plight, offered assistance and took her to the police station. There Detective D.B. Bradley obtained her transfer by automobile to the count home.

Her name was given to the police as Mrs. Broom. She was an occupant of the county home for some years, but a few months back returned to her people, she said. They were described as being poor and unable to provide for her. She carried a small bundle of clothing, and was obliged to feel her way about, being blind in one eye and partially blind in the other.

She was asked by her assistants if they treated her well at the county home.

“Oh, yes,” she replied. “They were so good to me out there and I shall certainly be glad to get back. They didn’t want me to leave home, but I know they are poor and can’t well take care of me, so I’m going back to the poor house.”

From The Charlotte News, March 29, 1921

Sam Parks, Faithful, Efficient Hospital Orderly Dies Suddenly, March 29, 1921

Negro Orderly at Hospital Is Dead

Sam Parks, negro orderly at the Presbyterian Hospital for the past 15 years, died suddenly at the hospital Monday night. He was on his usual rounds of work when stricken with heart failure. He was 65 years old.

Sam, according to reports, had always been faithful and efficient in his work. Before he came to the Presbyterian Hospital hew as orderly for a number of years at the Good Samaritan Hospital. He was well liked by all the doctors and nurses who knew hom, and many of them will attend his funeral.

From The Charlotte News, March 29, 1921

Helen Millard First Woman to Serve as Ag Agent in Gaston County, March 29, 1921

Woman to Serve as a Farm Agenta

The first woman to be appointed to the position of assistant farm demonstration agent in North Carolina is Miss Helen Millard of Great Barington, Mass., assistant to Lee B. Gowan, Gaston County. She is a native of Georgia, but has been living in Massachusetts and is a graduate of the Massachusetts Agricultural College.

Miss Millard’s salary is to be paid by the Kiwanis Club of Gastonia, which has a special program, a movement to improve the opportunities of boys and girls of Gaston County by means of the proper instruction in farm work and in kindred activities.

From The Charlotte News, March 29, 1921

Thomas Canning Company To Be in Operation by Mid June, Says J.E. Thomas, March 28, 1921

Work on Plant Will Start Soon. . . Thomas Declares Other Canneries Are to be Built Later

J.E. Thomas, president of the Thomas Canning Company, chartered under the laws of North Carolina and capitalized at $50,000 largely raised by qick sales of stock among a small group of farmers and Charlotte business men, says the brick and lumber for erection of the plant will be on the ground this week. The plant will be in operation by the middle of June, Mr. Thomas says. Two-thirds of the stock is already raised and the rest will be raised shortly.

“The plant we are going to put into operation soon,” said Mr. Thomas, “is only one of the number we hope to put up later. It is just the beginning of what ought to be done here. There is no reason why North Carolina should send out of her borders $9,000,000 a year for foodstuff put up in cans when she can grow as good products as Virginia, Maryland, or California. If you go into stores and look upon the shelves, you will see food products in cans brought from these states. We have no ill-feeling at our neighboring states for doing this, but what we ought to do is to prevent their goods coming in here in such large quantities by growing our own products of the same kind.

“We have wonderful soil and climate here. Our seasons are long and our lands fertile and easily cultivated and I see no reason why North Carolina shouldn’t grow her own foodstuff, especially since it looks like cotton is going to be an unprofitable crop hereafter.

“There are about 4,000 bales of cotton in our fields yet, I should judge, because it has been unprofitable to pick it. Why not plant some of this acreage in fruits or vegetables, that can be sold to a canning factory, the product for which is always in demand?

“In our plans at the canning plant we contemplate offering a market for 350 acres of fruits and vegetables, mostly corn, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, beets and berries. We are contracting with farmers to grow whatever acres they can grow, furnishing them with seed at wholesale cost price. We will have a capacity for 2,000 cans a day. We expect to turn out 500 bottles of catsup a day.”

Machinery for the plant has already been purchased and will be ready for installation as soon as the erection of the plant itself gets far enough along.

From The Charlotte News, Monday evening, March 28, 1921

Trinity Hazing Case Postponed, March 28, 1921

Trinity Hazing Trial Put Off to April 29

Durham, March 28—The Trinity College hazing episode, in which E.C. Brooks Jr., son of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, as seriously stabbed several weeks ago, will not be aired in court until Friday, April 29. The cases growing out of the hazing affair were set for trial today, but it was announced in recorder’s court when they called that young Brooks is still in the hospital.

When the cases were reached, Jack McClure, freshman, and alleged intended victim of the hazing party charged with having seriously stabbed Brooks was a knife, was the only defendant in court. His attorney was absent, O.G. Sawyer, S.D. McWhorter, J.C. Harvey and Brooks, jointly charged with hazing, were not represented in court. Sawyer, it is said, has left Trinity and is attending a Virginia college.

John H. Small Jr., son of former Representative Small, who engaged McClure in the affray after the alleged hazing took place, is another defendant.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, Monday evening, March 28, 1921

Lester Johnson Shoots Henry Morgan in Gambling Dispute, March 27, 1921

Negro Shoots Pal in Gambling Game

J. Henry Morgan, negro, was shot and seriously wounded by Lester Johnson, another negro, as the outcome of a reported gambling game near the Seaboard roundhouse Saturday evening about 7 o’clock. Johnson ran after firing one bullet and had not been located by policemen Saturday night late.

Morgan was taken to the Good Samaritan hospital where an operation was performed in a search for the bullet. The ball entered the chest. It was not known if the lungs had been penetrated.

From The Charlotte News, Sunday morning, March 27, 1921

600 Hogs Found Within City Limits, In Violation of Sanitation Laws, Says Dr. McPhaul, March 27, 1921

Hogs Are Banned In Limits of City

Over 600 hogs have been found within the city limits of Charlotte by sanitary inspectors who went out under the direction of Dr. W.A. McPhaul, city health officer, to enforce the ordinance prohibiting the keeping of hogs within the corporate limits. Over 80 hots were found by one inspector Friday, Dr. McPhaul said.

The hogs have been ordered removed from the city by the health officer and the ordinance, which has been on the books for some time, will be rigidly enforced. The presence of hogs within the city limits is dangerous to the health of the citizens, the health officer explained.

From The Charlotte News, Sunday morning, March 27, 1921

Humane Society Says Flogging of Prisoners at Convict Camps Contributed to Murders of Negroes in Jasper County, April 6, 1921

Flogging Responsible

Atlanta, Ga., April 6—Resolutions declaring that flogging of prisoners in convict camps is “responsible in a contributory sense for the condition of murder alleged to have been found in Jasper county” were adopted by the Atlanta Humane Society at its monthly meeting here last night.

The resolutions called upon Governor Dorsey to incorporate in his next message to the legislature a recommendation that a law be enacted abolishing whipping of prisoners in any state institution.

From The Charlotte News, Wednesday evening, April 6, 1921

Case Against John Williams, Accused of Murdering Negroes to Cover Up Federal Investigation of Peonage at His Plantation, April 6, 1921

Description of Stockade Given in Williams Trial. . . Department of Justice Agents First Witnesses; Are Followed by Manning

Covington, Ga., April 6—Lindsay Peterson and Willie Preston, two of the 11 negroes on the Jasper County farm of John S. Williams, who died mysteriously after Federal agents investigated alleged peonage conditions there, were chained together to a sack of rocks and thrown alive into the Yellow River in Newton County, the jury trying Williams on a charge of murder of Peterson was told here today.

The testimony was given by Manning, negro boss on Williams’ farm, who said Williams aided in getting the bound negroes out of the automobile in which they were taken to the river one night about a week after Federal agents visited the farm.

Manning and Charlie Chisholm, one of the negroes who died later, threw the men into the river, Manning said, on orders of Williams.

“They was stubborn and begging, too, and me and Charlie rolled ‘em over the banisters of the bridge,” said Manning.

The negro, who was jointly indicted with Williams, told of the alleged occurrence in a very low voice and showed no emotion. Later he nodded as the attorneys argued a point of law.

The “stockade” on the Williams farm was described by Federal agents as a little red house where negroes bailed out of jails were held at night to prevent their escape from peonage.

The prosecution won two points today after a hard fight by the defense. Judge John B. Hutchison ruled the state might introduce testimony as to the alleged peonage and also might to into the death of Harry Price, another of the 11 negroes it is alleged Williams had killed. The state tried to connect up all the 11 alleged murders and felt it had set a precedent for the other cases by the ruling on Price’s death.

Leroy, Marvin and Huland Williams, sons of the defendant, for whom Governor Dorsey had asked murder indictments in connection with some of the deaths of negroes, were not in court again today. Williams said he expected the three would come in, but declared he did not know where they were today.

Williams, who sat facing the witness chair, watching Manning closely as the negro told his story and the courtroom, crowded to capacity, was silently attentive as the negro continued.

‘Mr. John told us to take them out of the car,” Manning said, referring to the defendant, “and he lifted out the sack of rocks.”

The sack was chained to the negroes, Manning said, being attached to a chain round their necks. They were brought to the river thus chained, he added.

“Their hands were tied together with wires,” Manning continued. “We got in the car and carried ‘Foot’ Price to South River,” Manning said, in answer to what was done after Peterson and Preston were drowned.

“All right, boys, get out,” Manning quoted Williams as saying.

“Harry Price, he got out,” continued Manning, “and says \Don’t throw me over. I’ll get over,’ and he says, ‘Lord have mercy,’ and went over.”

Price fell into about the middle of the river from the bridge, Manning said, with a sack of rocks chained ot his neck.

“I held the weight off his neck while he got out of the car,” Manning said.

Manning said the three negroes were lured away from the farm on the pretense that they were to be taken to a train and allowed to go home.

Before they left, Manning said, Williams, referring to the peonage investigation, told him:

“It won’t do for these boys to go up yonder and swear against me. It would ruin me. They got to be done away with. If you don’t want to do it, it just means your neck or theirs.”

Manning also said that he had kept negroes fastened up at night in the stockade.

George W. Brown and A.J. Whisnant, the first two witnesses for the state, told the jury that, when they went to the Williams place February 19, last, they found a red house about 30 or 40 feet long and 25 feet wide with wooden shutters that could be barred on the outside and doors that holes cut in them for locks and chains. Inside one of the two rooms to the house, Brown said, were bunks along the walls while in the other was a bed and cot. There were evidences that cooking had been done in the house, Brown said. The court overruled a motion of defense to rule out all testimony as to peonage.

The two department of justice agents were investigating complaints of peonage and reports of aid to Williams in keeping the negroes by Clyde Manning, negro farm boss, who told the grand jury he and another negro killed 11 negroes for Williams to block the peonage investigation.

“John S. Williams told me he might have violated the peonage law but that he did it unintentionally,” Brown said, describing his visit last February.

Leroy Williams, one of the sons of the defendant, was carrying a pistol the day the federal investigators went to the farm, they said. Efforts by the state to show Leroy Williams had killed a negro were ruled out, but Judge John B. Hutcheson held he would allow the state to introduce such evidence as would “outline a motive” on John S. Williams’ part.

Clyde Manning followed the federal agents on the stand and to answer the court he would not have to answer any questions that might incriminate him. The court offered to advise him whenever he asked and E. Marvin Underwood, retained by citizens to represent the negro, also was present.

On direct examination of Manning, the state took up much time in bringing from him the names of all Williams’ children and names of all negroes on the farms of Williams and his sons.

Describing the death of Lindsey Peterson, Manning declared Peterson and Willie Preston were brought into Newton County chained together to a hundred pounds of rock and tossed into Yellow River from Allen’s bridge.

Williams drove the automobile that carried the party and helped get the bound negroes out of the car. The witness said Charlie Chisholm and Manning were the ed (words missing) by Williams to throw the negroes into the river. They were bound together by trace chains around their necks and wires around their hands, he added.

“They were stubborn and begging too,” Manning said in a cool voice, “and me and Charlie rolled them over the banister into the river.”

The state tried to show through Manning that Harry Price, also a negro farm hand, was drowned the same night in another river. The defense objected and the jury was excluded while the point was argued.

The defense’s objection was overruled and court recessed until 1:30 p.m.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, Wednesday evening, April 6, 1921. In previous articles John Williams’ son’s name was spelled LeRoy. I don’t know which is correct.

Jury Selected, Trial of John Williams Begins, April 5, 1921

Begin Williams’ Trial Today for Alleged Murder. . . Defense Motion for Postponement Denied; Drawing of Jury Completed

Covington, Ga., April 5—The jury to try John S. Williams on a charge of murder of one of the 11 of his negro farm hands, alleged to have been slain to hid peonage, was completed here late today. It is composed of seven farmers, two merchants, a clerk, a barber and a druggist, as follows:

T.L. Hill, farmer; G.W. Gober, farmer; Robert Stanton, farmer; W.A. Pate, merchant; Charles A. Cason, farmer; W.C. Moore, farmer; T.R. Starr, farmer; Byron Thacker, grocery clerk; F.G. Crowley, merchant; J.T. Dennard, farmer; J.E. Rawlins, barber; Reginald Robinson, druggist.

After selection of the jury court was suspended until tomorrow morning.

-=-

Covington, Ga., April 5—Motion for postponement of the trial of John S. Williams, Jasper County farmer, for murder on the ground of insufficient time to prepare his defense, today was overruled by Judge John B. Hutcheson in Newton County superior court.

Green Johnson, leading counsel for Williams, demanded the names of the groups of citizens hwo had employed W.M. Howard of Atlanta to aid the state and E. Marvin Underwood of Atlanta to represent Manning and a brief recess was taken in order that the state might obtain the names.

It was held that a jury should not be selected until the “volunteer prosecutors” were known because of the possibility of a juror being a relative of any of them.

Howard, on reconvening of court, said Governor Dorsey told him that the Rev. C.B. Wilmer and the Rev. M. Ashby Jones, pastors, had authorized him to employ Howard, the state having no funds to pay for such extra counsel.

Underwood said W. Woods White, on behalf of a group of “citizens at large,” had employed him. He was asked if any of the citizens were members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and replied “not so far as I know.” He was unable to reach White on the telephone during the recess and did not get the full list of contributors to the fund but named some of them.

Selection of a jury began with both sides accepting T.L. Hill, a farmer, the second man who was examined. G.W. Gober, also a farmer, was the only other juror selected out of the first panel of 12.

Two other jurors had been accepted before noon adjournment, Robert Stanton, farmer, and W.A. Pate, merchant of Oxford, Ga.

Williams was charged in the confession of his negro farm boss, Clyde Manning, with having caused the murder of 11 of his negro farm hands to prevent evidence against him for alleged peonage. An augmented force of 16 deputies had been mobilized to preserve order in the court and arrangements made for a capacity crowd.

More than a score of witnesses were understood to have been summoned by the state, by whom it expects to support Manning’s story of the killings. Selection of a jury from the 100 veniremen summoned by Judge John B. Hutcheson, presiding, was expected to occupy most of the first day’s session. Assisting Solicitor General A.M. Brand in the prosecution are W.M. Howard, former representative from the eighth congressional district of Georgia, and Graham Wri9ght, assistant state’s attorney general. Williams will be defended by Green F. Johnson, a prominent attorney of Monticello, Ga.

The trial brought hundreds of persons in from surrounding counties.

Indications were that both sides would make a hard fight from start to finish. The fact that Williams is charged with having brought three negroes into Newton County and had them drowned and that he does not go to trial in his home county was expected to make it easier to select a jury.

Clyde Manning, who, for 14 years, worked on the Williams’ plantation and who, according to state officials, confessed that he took part in the killings on orders from Williams, was expected to be the chief reliance of the prosecution, and it was planned that, on completion of Williams’ trial, Manning should face a jury.

The prosecution summoned a score of other witnesses in an effort to fasten the guilt upon Williams. Counsel for the defense declined to say how many witnesses they would use and did not call on Sheriff Johnson to subpoena any.

Williams was brought here from Atlanta early today but Manning was not brought with him.

On convening the court, Judge John B. Hutcheson announced to the crowd of spectators that “the slightest manifestation of approval or disapproval would be severely dealt with by the court and, if necessary, the court room would be cleared of all persons who are not necessary to the trial.”

Swearing in of the panels from which the jury is to be selected then was begun.

When the case was formally called, Green Johnson, chief counsel for Williams, announced the defense was not ready, claiming he had not had time to prepare evidence and proceeded to explain his position to the court.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, April 5, 1921

Newton Grand Jury Indicts John Williams, Clyde Manning; Trial to Begin April 11, 1921

Probe Resumed by State Authorities

Atlanta, Ga., March 29—As a result of a conference today between Governor Dorsey and state and Federal officials to consider developments in Jasper County, where the bodies of 11 negroes have been found on the farm of John S. Williams, a telegram was sent to Judge J.B. Park, of the Ocmulgee judicial circuit, calling on him to convene a special session of the Jasper County superior court on April 11 to investigate the alleged murders.

-=-

Atlanta, Ga., March 29—Investigation of conditions in Newton and Jasper counties, Georgia, was continued today with state authorities inquiring further into the killing of 11 negroes on the John S. Williams plantation and Federal agents continuing their efforts to gather evidence to justify indictments on peonage charges.

Reports current in Newton county Sunday and yesterday that negroes were threatening the whte residents as a result of the killings were expected to be taken up by the grand jury at Covington, where much excitement was caused before investigation showed there was no basis for alarm. County officials were said to believe that the reports were spread with a view to inciting race trouble.

The Newton County grand jury already has indicted Williams and a negro farm hand, Clyde Manning, on the strength of the latter’s confession that three negroes were brought into Newton County and drowned, and the Jasper County grand jury is expected to be called together Friday or Saturday to seek indictments in connection with the deaths of eight other negroes.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, March 29, 1921

Eight Victims on Williams' Farm Named, March 28, 1921

To Push Investigation of Alleged Peonage Practices

Monticello, Ga., March 28—State authorities were planning today to push their investigation of alleged peonage practices in Jasper and Newton counties following the recovery of two more bodies of negroes from the Alcovy River here, making a total of 11 bodies found since the authorities began an investigation of peonage and murder charges against John Williams, a Jasper County farmer. The last two bodies found yesterday were chained together and weighted down with rocks and iron precisely as were the first three previously recovered from the river.

Following a coroner’s verdict yesterday in an inquest over eight of the bodies, declaring the slain negroes met death at the hands of Clyde Manning, a negro employed by Williams, and naming Williams as an accessory, Judge Park of the Ocmulgee circuit court, was awaiting orders from the governor today to call a special term of the Jasper County superior court and bring the two men before a grand jury.

Manning, who led the authorities to where the bodies were recovered, declared in a confession that the 11 negroes, five of whose bodies were found buried on the Williams plantation Saturday and three previously in the Alcovy River, were slain, five at his own hand with an axe, in order to prevent them from testifying in peonage charges against Williams.

The coroner’s jury conducted the inquest by numbers. The first inquest was over John Williams, same name as the plantation owner, whose grave was dug by himself. The jury was informed that the negro was sent to a pasture in a ravine not far from a creek to dig a post hole. After digging the hole, Manning’s confession shows that he struck Williams over the head with an axe, pushed the body into the hole and covered it up.

Johnny Green was number two. He was sent to the same pasture to bring cows back to the stable. Manning says he killed Green in the same way, but had to dig the grave.

Willie Givens was referred to as number three. He was killed on his way to a country store, in the same ravine, but Charlie Chisholm was given as the negro who killed Givens.

The jury traveled four miles across the county to the Campbell plantation, also operated by John Williams. Fletcher Smith, body number four, was found there. Smith was sent to dig a well and, when he had dug deep enough to receive his body, Manning’s confession, as repeated to the jury, showed that he killed him with an axe and then covered up the whole.

Verdict in the case of number one, John Williams, was that Williams met death at the hands of Manning, the plantation owner, Williams, being implicated by the jury’s verdict.

The same verdict was returned in the case of number two—Johnny Green.

In the case of number three, Willie Givens, the jury held that Chisholm did the killing.

In numbers 4 and 5, Fletcher Smith, “Big” John Manning again was held responsible.

In the cases of numbers 7 and 8, “Little Bit” and John Brown, the jury held that the negroes Manning and Chisholm and John Williams, the plantation owner, were responsible.

The verdict for number six—Charley Chisholm, read “We the jury find that Charley Chisholm met his death at the hands of Clyde Manning and John S. Williams.”

Williams came from near Forsyth in Monroe County 27 years ago. Reports that followed him here indicate that his home and other buildings on his plantation in Monroe County were destroyed at that time.

Around March 1, two Department of Justice agents, A.J. Wisner and E.S. Chastain, came to Jasper County to investigate alleged peonage practices on the Williams plantation. They called on Williams, among others, but it is said that Williams gave a satisfactory explanation of his operations.

At that time, Williams is said to have had only 12 negroes. The special agent went to the farm of Hulon Williams, a son of John Williams, where they are said to have seen three or four negroes at work and LeRoy Williams, a son, is said to have been guarding the negroes with a gun.

The Williams are said to have resented the visits of the government agents and, after the agents left the premises, Williams is said to have become apprehensive of the results. The three sons of Williams were at that time said to have been sent away from the plantation. These sons are Hulon, LeRoy and Marvin. They were gone for three weeks.

It was after they left, it is alleged, that the bodies were disposed of. The sons have not been arrested. Warrants for their arrest were returned to the governor as county officials said that there was no information connecting them with the case.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, March 28, 1921

More Victims Discovered on John Williams' Plantation, March 28, 1921

Georgia Posses Recover Bodies of Eight Victims. . . Special Session of Grand Jury Expected to Investigate Alleged Peonage

Atlanta, Ga., March 28—John S. Williams, wealthy Jasper county farmer, on whose plantion the bodies of eight negroes were uncovered the past two days, and his negro farm boss, Clyde Manning, whose confession led to the discovery of the bodies, are expected to go to trial on charges of murder when the July session of the Newton county superior court convenes at Covington.

Both Williams and Manning are in the county jail here on indictments for murder by the Newton county grand jury in connection with the finding about 10 days ago of the bodies of three negroes in the river which separates Newton and Jasper counties.

Solicitor A.M. Brand, of the Stone Mountain circuit court, announced today he was ready to try the men at the present session of court, but it was considered likely Judge Hutcheson would grant a postponement at the request of counsel for the defendants, thus carrying the trial over to July.

In the meantime, Federal officers are pushing their investigation of peonage in Jasper county, while the Jasper county authorities are planning a special session of the grand jury this week to investigate the disclosures made at the Williams’ farm.

The last two of the bodies fund on the Williams farm were taken from the Alcovy River yesterday after about five hours’ dredging work by the posses. The bodies were bound together with chains and wire and were unrecognizable. Six other bodies had been found Saturday, five of them buried in shallow graves and another taken from the river. These, with the three bodies recovered from Yellow River about 10 days ago, account for 11 victims, the number given in the confession of the negro Manning.

Williams and Manning both are held in the county jail at Atlanta on Warrants charging murder. Williams has stoutly denied any participation in the killings on his farm.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, March 28, 1921

Five Bodies Unearthed on Williams Farm, March 27, 1921

Five Bodies of Slain Negroes Unearthed on Williams Farm

Atlanta, Ga., March 26—Near-slavery, brutality and charges of murder mingled here tonight in gruesome revelations on the plantation of John Williams, wealthy Jasper county resident, where five bodies of slain negroes were found by a posse of 25 officials of Jasper and Newton counties this afternoon. Clyde Manning, negro farm hand, led the posse without hesitation to the exact spot where the five were found buried. Almost at the same time, sheriff’s deputies dragging the Yellow River near Covington, brought to the surface the body of negro.

This brings the total of bodies found in the “murder farm” to nine. Theree were previously found, chained and weighted, in the river. It was the confession of manning that started the probe. He declared following his arrest on suspicion of having caused the deaths of three men, that 11 negroes have been slain. Some of these, he said, were buried on the Williams farm. Others, he declared, were taken to the Yellow River and tossed in with weights chained to them.

Manning was taken from the Atlanta jail early today by a party of Newton county officers and, after directing the officers to the graves of the dead negroes, was brought back to Atlanta and again placed in jail. Williams is already here, having been brought in from Jasper county because eof fears that influential friends would be able to effect his release. His three sons probably will be arrested tonight. Warrants have been issued implicating them in the murders.

While Manning charged in his alleged confession that only 11 negroes were slain, officers are investigating clues which ihndicate that many more than this number have been killed.

The Williams plantation consists of about 2,600 acres. Part of it is in Newton county, part in Jasper county, and some more in Butte county. It is indicated that some of the killings, as charged by Manning, took place in Jasper county and some in Newton county, thereby complicating legal procedure. The sons all own farms adjoining that of their father.

Within a few minutes after arrival of the posse of searchers at the Williams farm today, Manning started out on his grim mission of searching for the bodies. The men entered vehicles and were driven for two hours to a secluded spot, where Manning unerringly pointed out the spots where the men were buried. Within a few minutes the first one was found and soon all five, just as Manning’s confession said, had been disinterred.

The murders all took place within the last 60 days, Manning’s confession said. The first man was slain, he declared, because Williams feared he would “squeal” on conditions declared to approach slavery on the plantation. The man who killed this negro then was slain to hush him up and then began an endless chain. Manning declared he feared he would be next because he had knocked several of the men in the head with an axe and had helped drown others.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, Sunday morning, March 27, 1921

Williams Kills 11 Negroes Fearing They Would Reveal Conditions of Peonage, March 26, 1921

Williams Killed 11 Negroes. . . White Farmer Feared They Would Tell of Existing Conditions of Peonage

Atlanta, Ga., March 25—Investigation was continued today by the Newton county grand jury into conditions about Covington, Ga., where a number of negroes are alleged to have been murdered after having been held in peonage. John Williams, a Jasper county farmer, was indicted by the Netwon county grand jury yesterday on a murder charge in connection with the death of three negroes whose bodies recently were found in the river there.

According to Deputy Sheriff Johnson of Newton county, Clyde Manning, one of the two negroes he brought to Atlanta yesterday for safekeeping, confessed that 11 negroes in all had been killed on the Williams plantation. The negroes are being held as material witnesses.

The dead negroes, who had been held in peonage on the Williams plantation, had threatened to inform the authorities of their conditions, according to Deputy Johnson’s version of the confession which he attributed to Manning. Many other negroes were forced to work on the plantation, the alleged confession said.

The bodies of three negroes were found recently weighted down with rocks in Yellow River, Newton County, near where Jasper County adjoins Newton, and Manning’s alleged confession stated that six negroes in all had been weighted down and thrown into the river and five others killed in other ways and their bodies burned. Newton county authorities took the stand that the negroes found in the river had been killed drowning, their deaths having been caused in Newton county.

United States District Attorney Alexander said he had learned of alleged peonage conditions in Jasper, but that it is in the southern district of the Federal district court of Georgia. He recently indicted the sheriff o Jasper county and the latter’s nephew on charges of peonage, the indictments being returned on the ground that they had come into the northern district and taken back to Jasper county negroes, who, it was alleged, had escaped from peonage there. Their trials are set for April 4.

From The Charlotte News, Saturday, March 26, 1921. Peonage is debt slavery, which is illegal.

Search On For Balloonist Missing From Naval Air Station, March 26, 1921

Hope Abandoned for Balloonist’s Safety

Pensacola, Fla., March 25—Naval authorities today expressed the belief that the only hope for the safety of Chief Quartermaster G.K. Wilkenson—missing from the naval air station here since he took the air in a free balloon Tuesday night, is that some vessel in the Gulf of Mexico may have rescued him.

The search for the missing balloon which began yesterday after the arrival of a carrier pigeon with the message stating that the balloon was off St. Andrews Bay, Florida, drifting to see, and only about 100 feet above water, was continued today by a dozen seaplanes, a dirigible, four eagle boats, and a sub-chaser. Other craft along the coast also were putting to sea in the hope that some trace of the bag or its occupants might be discovered.

Commander Robert W. Cabaniss, one of the oldest flyers in the naval service, took personal charge of the search today and ordered the coast and inland territory thoroughly combed.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, Saturday, March 26, 1921

Lt. Coney Seriously Injured in Crash Landing, March 26, 1921

Coney Probably Fatally Injured on Return Trip. . . Forced to Land by Engine Trouble, Plane Struck a Tree in Louisiana

Monroe, La., March 25—Lieut. W.D. Coney of the army air service received probably fatal injuries today when his airplane struck a tree while he was attempting to make a landing near Crowville, La., on his return trans-continental flight from Jacksonville, Fla., to San Diego, Calif.

The landing was attempted after engine trouble had developed and the plane feel about 75 feet. Lieutenant Coney was flying over a swamp wilderness in northeast Louisiana, when the engine got into difficulties. His back is believed to have been broken.

The injured aviator is being moved to Natchez, Miss., for hospital treatment. He is being taken over swamp roads for a distance of 11 miles to Winnsboro, where he will be placed aboard a train.

The officer crashed with his plane and was unconscious when found. He regained consciousness sometime later however, but was unable to say anything except that he had had engine trouble and was seeking a landing place when he smashed into the tree.

A village doctor, who was called to attend the officer, said that besides a broken back, Lieutenant Coney apparently had received internal injuries. Owing to his critical condition, the trip to Winnsboro was a slow one.

Crowville is a small town on Deer Creek in Franklin parish in the northeast section of Louisiana. The country is swampy, roads are built of logs on dikes, making travel and communication extremely difficult. At this season of the year travel is the worst.

Crowville is several miles from a narrow gauge railroad. The nearest town of any size is Winnsboro.

Residents of Crowville saw Lieutenant Coney’s DeHaviland plane circling about 7:30 o’clock this morning, the pilot apparently seeking a suitable place to land. Finally the plane was seen to swoop down and crash into the top of a tall tree on the Mose Lanier farm.

John Bush, a farm laborer, was the first to reach the scene and managed to extricate the then unconscious flyer from the wreckage. Lieutenant Coney then was taken to the little cabin where Mose Lanier lives with Bush, his helper.

Lieutenant Coney’s home is in Brunswick, Ga.

From the front page of The Charlotte News, Saturday, March 26, 1921

News Collected Along Vass, Route 1, March 25, 1921

Vass Route One

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Cliff King, a daughter, Friday, March 19, 1921.

Mr. J. Addison McDonald of Charleston, S.C., spent a few days with his aunt, Mrs. J.A. McLeod of this route.

Mrs. J.A. Blue and Mrs. W.M. McLeod have been visiting relatives in Durham this week.

Miss Regina Blue, who is supplying as bookkeeper in the General store at Pinehurst, was home for the week end.

Rev. C.K. Taffee, who was called home several weeks ago on account of the critical illness of his brother, has returned and preached an excellent sermon at Eureka Sunday.

The Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Presbyterian Church held its regular monthly meeting last Friday with Mrs. N.C. Blue. An interesting programme was rendered after which delicious refreshments were served. The Society voted to meet next with Mrs. Mary Blue.

The faculty, and a few interested persons of the Farm Life School, are giving a play entitled “Patty Makes Things Hum” on Friday night, March 25, 1921, in the school auditorium. The play will begin promptly at 8 o’clock. The public is cordially invited to attend this play as it is one of great charm and splendidly done. The proceeds will go for some much needed equipment in the school auditorium. Come!

Mr. and Mrs. A.A. McCaskill and Miss Annis McCaskill made a business trip to Fayetteville one day last week.

Professor John D. McLeod of the Jackson Springs school spent the week end at home.

Miss Janie Dalrymple, of the Farm Life School, who has been quite sick for a week, is now much improved.

From the front page of The Pilot, Vass, N.C., Friday, March 25, 1921

Misses Nettie and Freda Gschwind Honor Their House Guest, March 25, 1921

Misses Gschwind Entertainment

Misses Nettie and Freda Gschwind entertained a number of their friends last Saturday evening in honor of their house guest, Miss Mary Campbell of Sanford. The evening was pleasantly spent in playing games of various kinds after which a collation was served.

Those present were: Misses Mary Campbell, Johnsie Thomas, Mattie Thomas, Jewell Edwards, Nettie Gschwind, Sallie Thompson, Agnes Smith, Ilo Evans, Lula Evans, Lois Sanford, Freda Gschwind, Glennie Keith, Mildred Matthews, and Annie McGill. Messrs. Ray Thomas, Richard Griffin, Samuel Evans, Will Evans, Gordon Thomas, Clyde Cox, Johnnie Laubscher, Blythe Sanford, Arthur Thompson, Claude Matthews, and Royce Byrd.

From the front page of The Pilot, Vass, N.C., Friday, March 25, 1921. Collation is a light meal allowed on days of fasting, such as during Lent.

News from Jackson Springs, March 25, 1921

Jackson Springs

Forest fires are common this time of year and reminds us that fire burns over land where we would not think it would. One day last week a fire burned over the small acreage of woods owned by Mrs. Dugald Black of Pinehurst. The woodland is surrounded by fields. The fat pine would hauled from this cleared land was a loss and made quite a fire. The man who set it on fire should have to pay the damage.

Mrs. Julia Cameron spent the week end with home folks at Vass.

Mrs. J.A. Currie and son, Fred, of Old Hundred, spent the week end with relatives here.

On account of the increase in teachers salary and taxes not being increased enough to justify the salary increase, a large number of schools will have to close earlier than usual. Our school will continue to run te eight months; the high school students would be handicapped in their work. High school graduates are on the increase here every year and all are doing well. Of the six boys and girls that graduated here last year, five went to college and one is teaching in this county. We are hoping that the young people will keep up their good record, that our teachers are putting before them.

Mrs. Agnes Graham is visiting relatives near Cameron.

Miss Ruth Markham of Laurel Hill spent Sunday with her people here.

Miss Thelma Jewell’s History class of the 10th grade of the local high school picnicked on Friday evening at McKenzie’s Spring.

Prof. Shay, service specialist of the State Department of Agriculture, was here with County agent on Tuesday evening for the Community club meeting. An interesting programme on hogs was carried out. Mr. Shay made a very interesting lecture on hogs, etc.

Several from this section went over to Rockingham Friday to see the Ellerbe basket ball team defeat the Rockingham boys 18 to 13 and leave no dispute over the Richmond county High School championship. Ellerbe was defeated some time ago by the Sandhill Farm Life boys.

Mr. J.R. Clark and family spent Sunday with relatives near Cameron.

The old baseball ground has been ploughed and will produce vegetables, etc., this summer and not ball players. It was cut in lots last summer and sold at auction.

The farmers are beginning to haul fertilizer, but the amount they have ordered does nt compare with that used last year. Much land will be idle. Many people in cities are suffering now. Farmers should plant more than enough for home consumption.

From the front page of The Pilot, Vass, N.C., Friday, March 25, 1921

Women Always Leaders in Civic Affairs, Should Be Elected to Office, Says Editor, March 25, 1921

In Civic affairs, the women are always leaders, and the male population a good follower. It is true in Ahoskie, as in other towns and cities where women have been given no voice in municipal affairs, that civic improvements have suffered for lack of authority. Which leads us to the inevitable conclusion that a woman on the town board of commissioners might not be a bad idea, for the “used-to-be” anti-suffrage municipality.

From the editorial page of the Hertford County Herald, Ahoskie, N.C., March 25, 1921

H.V. Parker Announces He's Too Sick To Manage His Mercantile Business, March 25, 1921

Notice to Friends and Customers

Owing to failing health, and the necessity of having to be away from home at the State Sanatorium there to take treatment, I shall be unable to attend to any business and being unable to secure person or persons to handle my business as I would do, if personally present, I shall be unable to carry on my mercantile business as I have done in the past. I shall be forced to materially reduce my stock, and, not being able to attend to it personally, I will be unable to carry on the business in as large volume as heretofore. My place of business will be open at intervals, and will be in charge of either Mr. L.H. Hoffman or Mr. I.A. Wiggins.

My books will be in the hands of those two gentlemen, and any one wanting to settle or adjust their accounts may do so by seeing them and either will receive money due or issue proper credit for same.

I wish to thank all of my former customers and friends for their past patronage and good will and sincerely hope to be able to soon return and continue my business as heretofore. --H.V. Parker From the Hertford County Herald, Ahoskie, N.C., March 25, 1921

Coleraine, Hickory Chapel, Winton, Ahoskie News, March 25, 1921

COLERAINE NEWS

Mr. and Mrs. D.R. Britton motored to Raleigh last Tuesday, returning last Thursday.

Mr. K.T. Raynor went to Windsor last Tuesday.

Rev. and Mrs. Dailey of Mars Hill spent last Wednesday in town as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Mack Harrell.

Mr. N.G. Phelps went to Ahoskie last Thursday.

Mesdames Sharpe and Jernigan and Misses Sharpe of Harrellsville were in own last Thursday.

Dr. L.A. Nowell went to Ahoskie last Thursday.

Mrs. R.B. Lineberry spent last Thursday and Friday visiting at Mill Neck and Harrellsville.

Mr. R.B. Lineberry and H.E. Wilson were visitors in Harrellsville last Thursday.

Messrs. C.B. Morris and J.E. Perry went to Windsor last Friday.

Misses Lizzie Brinkley and Mary Lineberry spent last week end in the city of Norfolk.

Mr. Grady Askew, Mrs. J.O. Askew, and daughter, of Harrellsville, were visitors in town last Friday.

The sewing club met at the home of Mrs. M.T. Wilson last Friday evening. Dainty refreshments were served.

Miss Amanda Leary visited her sister, Mrs. Dave Evans, at Harrellsville last Friday.

The “Coleraine Coons” took their minstrel to Mars Hill last Saturday where they presented it to a full house, several of the young people from here witnessing it.

Rev. Mr. Lineberry filled his regular appointments here last Saturday and Sunday, giving us fine sermons.

Mr. and Mrs. Coy Smithwick of Merry Hill spent last Sunday in town.

Mr. John A. Shaw and wife of Winton were visitors in town last Sunday.

Mr. William Myers and wife of the town of Ahoskie visited at the home of Mr. J.H. Myers last Sunday.

Mrs. Clarence Beasley spent last Monday in town.

Miss Theo Lineberry of Pittsboro is visiting at the home of her brother, R.B. Lineberry.

HICKORY CHAPEL NEWS

Mr. C.G. Slaughter made a flying trip to Whaleyville last week.

Mr. Luther Farmers spent last Saturday night with Mr. Floyd Doughtie.

Mr. and Mrs. Carol Lowe have recently moved to Ahoskie.

Several of our young folks attended the lecture given by Miss Green at Ahoskie last Thursday night.

Mrs. Jenkins from Portsmouth, Va., is spending some time with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Parker.

Mr. and Mrs. Lawson Wiggins spent last Sunday with her parents, Mr. And Mrs. Henry Dilday near Montgomery Hill.

Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd C. Dilday and Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Dilday motored over to Menola Sunday afternoon to see Mrs. Mary Brown.

Mrs. H.T. Dilday has been on the sick list for several days. We hope she may soon recover.

WINTON NEWS

Dr. and Mrs. W.B. Pollard were in Norfolk last week end to see Dr. Pollard’s mother, Mrs. B.G. Pollard.

Misses Lillian Shaw and Louise Vann were in Suffolk shopping Tuesday.

Mrs. R.E. Storey, daughter, Marguerite, and Mr. D.P. Storey were in Woodland last Sunday to see their parents.

Mr. J.T. Rhodes spent several days last week in Washington.

Mr. A.S. Mitchell left Monday for Greensboro where he will be for several days.

Mr. M.R. Herring and Miss Ruth Vann were in Suffolk Wednesday doing their spring shopping.

Mr. C.W. Carter and son, Charlie, went to Norfolk Monday to attend the burial of Mr. Carter’s brother, Mr. W.H. Atkinson.

Mrs. A.P. Hines and little son, Frank, left last Friday for Wallace, where they will visit Mrs. Hines’ parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Ward.

Mr. W.M. Eley went to Washington last Saturday to see his wife, who has just undergone an operation in the Washington hospital. Mrs. Eley is improving rapidly.

Mr. Robert Vann of Suffolk was at home last week end.

Miss Bertie Northcott, a member of the faculty at Menola, spent last week end here with her brother and sister, Misses Lizzie Jones and Annie Mae Pearce spent last Sunay in Woodland, the guests of Mrs. J.P. Griffin.

Rev. A.P. Mustian filled his regular appointments at the Baptist church last Sunday morning and evening.

Mrs. I.V. Turner from Washington and formerly of Winton, who has been visiting her sister, Mrs. B.B. Pearce, returned home Wednesday.

Messrs. Robert Britton and Davis Day from Murfreesboro were in town Sunday afternoon.

Mr. Clyde Northcott of the Chowan and Roanoke Telephone Co., Colerain, was in town Monday afternoon.

Attorney W.D. Boone was in Windsor Tuesday on legal business.

In a rough and tumble game of basketball at Gatesville on Tuesday, the Gatesville high school team defeated the boys of the Winton school by the score of 12 to 15. This was the second game between these two teams, Winton easily defeating Gatesville in the first by the score of 20 to 7. A third game is under consideration.

The pupils of the music department of the school, under the direction of Mrs. J.G. Newsome, are giving a series of public recitals which are being greatly enjoyed.

LOCAL NEWS OF AHOSKIE

Mr. J.O. Jenkins of Aulander was in town Sunday.

Attorney R.C. Bridger spent some time in Ahoskie Tuesday.

Mr. H.S. Basnight was in Suffolk Wednesday on business.

Mr. J.L. Snipes of Menola was a visitor in Ahoskie tuesday.

Miss E. Bazemore4 was a visitor in Lewiston the past week end.

Rev. R.B. Lineberry of Colerain was a visitor in Ahoskie Monday.

Mrs. R.C. Mason of Harrellsville visited friends in Ahoskie Tuesday.

Sheriff Bismark Scull of Harrellsville spent Wednesday in Ahoske.

Mr. C.A. Northcott of Colerain spent Monday in Ahoskie on business.

Commissioner J.M. Eley of Menola was a visitor to Ahoskie on Tuesday.

Mr. Claude Greene spent Monday and Tuesday in Richmond, Va., on business.

County Demonstrator Herbert L. Miller of Winston was in Ahoskie on Tuesday.

Mr. L.T. Sumner spent a short while in Harrellsville and Winton on Tuesday.

Mr. S.C. Vann of Murfreesboro was a business visitor to Ahoskie on last Friday.

Mr. and Mrs. Hunter Taylor of Harrellsville spent Sunday afternoon here with relatives.

Mr. C.W. Spruill, prominent politician of Bertie County, was in Ahoskie last Sunday.

Messrs. Malcolm Burke and Stanley Vinson spent Wednesday in Suffolk on business.

Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Rives left last week for their former home in the town of Enfield.

Messrs. D.C. Barnes and Fred Parker of Murfreesboro were in Ahoskie last Friday afternoon.

President Preston S. Vann of Chowan College spent a short while Sunday afternoon in Ahoskie.

Miss Sarah Applebaum of Baltimore is visiting her brother, Mr. S.M. Applebaum, at this city.

Attorney Jno. E. Vann and Commissioner E.H. Eure of Winton were visitors in Ahoskie Tuesday.

Mr. Johnson, manager of the Coca-Cola bottling works at Kelford, was a visitor in Ahoskie Monday.

Messrs. A.J. Holland and E.T. Batten of Holland, Va., were the guests of friends in Ahoskie last Sunday.

Mr. and Mrs. Hersey Sewell of the town of Winsor spent Monday night in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Leary.

Mrs. F.S. Jernigan, Miss Janie Sharpe, and Mr. Hunter Sharpe of Harrellsville were visitors in Ahoskie Monday.

Mrs. Fred Vinson has returned to her home here after spending several days with relatives and friends in Norfolk.

Mrs. A.C. Williams of Harrellsville is the guest of her daughters, Mrs. A.W. Greene and Mrs. Hallie Baker this week.

Mr. W.H. Miller returned Tuesday from Drivers, Va., where he has been visiting his daughter, Mrs. W.J. Doughtie.

Miss Agnes Baker of Gastonia was in Ahoskie Wednesday. She also became a member of our Honor Roll while in town.

Mrs. A. Lee Copeland and little boy left Monday for Dendron, Va., where they will visit Mrs. Copeland’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Hart.

Mrs. Starkie Hart of Ayden arrived in Ahoskie to spend a week or 10 days with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Alexander.

Mr. John O. Askew Jr. of Harrellsville was in Ahoskie a short while on Monday morning, en route to Norfolk to attend the Automobile show.

nd Mrs. Edd Gatling and Miss Pearl Myers were visitors in Ahoskie for a few hours Monday, on their way to Norfolk and Suffolk, respectively.

Mr. Willie Derring, who has been visiting in the home of Mrs. S.H. Leary for the past 10 days, left here Monday for Dentron, Va., to visit relatives.

From the Hertford County Herald, Ahoskie, N.C., March 25, 1921

F.S. Starrette Dies at Daughter's Home, March 25, 1921

F.S. Starrette Died Last Week. . . Well Known Citizen and Veteran Printer Succumbs to An Attack of Erysiphelas

F.S. Starrette died last Friday afternoon at the home of his daughter, Mrs. D.F. Moore, after a few days’ illness. He became ill on the Sunday previous at Camp Transylvania, where he was employed as caretaker, and was brought to his daughter’s home on Monday. He had contracted erysiphelas, which developed rapidly. Before the end came, his wife arrived from Statesville, and also two of his daughters. All his children were either at his bedside or came in time at attend his funeral.

Funeral services were held at the Moore home on Saturday afternoon, and interment followed at Oak Grove cemetery. The services were conducted by Rev. A.S. Raper, pastor of the deceased, assisted by Rev. C.E. Puett. Among the beautiful floral tributes was a wreath of pink carnations from the T.E.L. Class of the Baptist church and one of white carnations from the men’s Bible class of the Methodist church, of which class Mr. Starrette had long been a member.

The pall bearers were: W.M. Henry, Welch Galloway, W.T. Boose, C.O. Robinson, Oliver Orr and Wade Justice.

Mr. Starrette was born December 19, 1850, on the old battle ground in Guilford County. After is early school education he attended Old Trinity College, and on leaving college taught for a while in Anson County. He became a member of the Methodist Church early in life and was at one time a local preacher. For a large part of his life, however, he worked at the printing art, which he first took up in the office of the Charlotte Observer. In connection with his work as a printer, he did a considerable amount of editing, and at one time was publisher of the Mooresville Recorder and the Hendersonville Hustler.

His work carried him at times to other states and to many parts of North Carolina. A number of years ago he came here and worked with J.J. Miner, publisher of the Sylvan Valley News. So carried away was he with the climate and beauty of this section that after leaving he could never be satisfied to stay away, and about seven years ago he came back and has since remained here. During these last seven years he worked as type setter, proof reader and occasional contributor to the columns of The News, while carrying on the work of a truck gardener at different places.

He was a regular attendant on services at the Methodist Church and Sunday School and took a deep interest in religious matters. While never taking any active part in politics, his views on such things were characteristically firm and fixed, and his creed as a Democrat was unshakable.

Mr. Starrette was married to Miss Alexander of Concord in 1879. Of this union there are five surviving children: Mrs. Carvin of Mooresville, Mrs. F.P. Rockette of Gastonia, Mrs. D.F. Moore of Brevard, Mrs. L.B. Coon of Taylorsville, and Frank A. Starrette of Statesville.

From the front page of The Brevard News, Friday, March 25, 1921

Presbyterians Building Young Folks Hut Behind Brevard Church, March 25, 1921

Church to Build Young Folks Hut. . . Presbyterians Plan House on Lawn for S.S. Classes and Social Gatherings

A Young People’s Hut, rustic in design, attractive on the exterior and comfortable and roomy within, is now being planned by the building committee of the Presbyterian church.

The need of better quarters for the Sunday School has been under discussion for a long time, and plans were almost matured to construct a set of rooms as an upstairs annex to the church. The hut idea, however, was no sooner conceived and advanced than it met with universal favor, and the plans being submitted to an architect and a price approximated, the construction is regarded as feasible and likely to be soon under way.

The hut will be built, according to present plans, at the rear of the church on the summit of the hill which commands a view of mountains stretching away to the eastern horizon and which overlooks a broad sweep of valley land including a large part of the town. On the valley side will be a porch. The hut itself will be of one large room, capable of being separated by curtains into four apartments for class room purposes. In one end there will be a large fireplace, wide enough to accommodate three-foot logs, before which the young people can gather on winter evenings for social enjoyment. A stove also will be provided for such cooking as appertains to church social functions. Other conveniences are planned to make the hut as attractive as possible for young people’s activities.

The construction is expected to begin at an early date, in order for the hut to be completed before the opening of the tourist season.

From the front page of The Brevard News, Friday, March 25, 1921

Unhappy With Service, Citizens Take Over Brevard Telephone Company, March 25, 1921

New Telephone Co. Takes Charge April. . . Will Operate Under the Old Name Until Up-to-date System Is Fully Established. . . Hardware Material Bought, Expected In a Few Weeks

The Citizens Telephone Company will take charge of the property of the Brevard Telephone Company and the operation of its lines on the first day of April—Friday of next week.

The new company will operate under the name of the old until the new system is fully installed.

All material, such as cables, phones, and switchboard, has been purchased by the new company from the Western Electric Company, and a rush order has been put in. Some of the material will have to be specially made. It has been promised in from four to six weeks.

The new system will be installed to Southern Bell specifications and will be up-to-date in every respect, says J.S. Bromfield, president and general Manager of the company.

Mr. Duncan, chief engineer of the Southern Bell company, was here for three days last week, making a survey of the town and preparing blue prints.

At the last meeting of the Board of Aldermen an application for franchise was considered and a franchise ordinance passed its first reading.

From the front page of The Brevard News, Friday, April 25, 1921

Lt. Col. Clarence O. Sherrill, Newton Native, on Pres. Harding's Staff, March 24, 1921

North Carolinian on Harding Staff

Washington, March 22—North Carolina comes again to the fore today in Washington by the announcement of the detail of Lieutenant Colonel Clarence O. Sherrill, corps of engineers, a native of Newton, N.C., son of the late Col. Miles O. Sherrill, for many years state librarian of North Carolina, as a military aide to President Harding and in charge of public buildings and grounds of the District of Columbia, a position of great importance. He succeeds Major Clarence S. Riley, also of the corps of engineers, and as part of his duties will act as superintendent of the state war and navy buildings.

Colonel Sherrill was an active participant in the world war and made an enviable record.

Lieutenant Colonel Sherrill is about 45 years of age. He was a student at Trinity College for two years and then went to West Point, being an honor graduate of the United States Military Academy, class of 1901, an honor graduate of the army school of the line, class of 1906, and a graduate of the army war college, class of 1907. His wife was formerly Miss Geraldine Taylor of Leavenworth, Kansas, and they have two children, a son, Clarence Caldwell, aged 9, and a daughter Minnie, aged 5.

Commanded Engineer Regiment

He was in command of the 302d engineer regiment, which was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm by General Petain, for meritorious service under fire, to the French army. During the latter part of the Argonne offensive he was made chief of staff of the 17th (New York) division until after the armistice, when he was appointed a member of the commission under the third army to take over the governmental activities of the Germans in the occupied territory and to draw up the plans of the Coblenz bridgehead. In addition to varied engineering duties and command of troops in the Philippines and on the Panama Canal, Lieutenant Colonel Sherrill has had important river and harbor assignments at Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans, La. At the latter place he was in charge of the lower Mississippi levees during the great floods of 1912-1913.

He was on duty in this city as an aid to President Roosevelt and at Washington barracks during the years 1903-1904, following which he was aide de camp to General J. Franklin Bell for two years.

An Authority on Several Lines

Since his return from France following the armistice he has been on duty in the office of the chief of engineers, War Department, directing the construction of seacoast fortifications throughout the United States.

Lieutenant Colonel Sherrill has written several books on military subjects, which are rated as standard among military authorities. He is a member of the interdepartmental board of coordination of Alaskan affairs, interdepartmental board of coordination of the surveying and mapping under the government; of the government section of the national research council, and of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

From The Raleigh News and Observer, as reprinted in The Hickory Daily Record, March 24, 1921. The photo is from the Library of Congress collection, https://www.loc.gov/resource/npcc.03779/

Mrs. Charles Manis Killed When Logging Car Breaks Loose, Crashes Into Home, March 24, 1921

Woman Killed By Logging Car

Asheville, N.C., March 24—Mrs. Charles Manis was instantly killed, Mrs. M. Shelton fatally injured and Mrs. John Maghan and her eight-year-old daughter slightly injured Tuesday morning when a logging car of the Suncrest Lumber Company crashed into their home near Sunburst, N.C.

The car is said to have broken loose about 14 miles from sunburst and ran backwards through a trestle, demolishing the home of the victims which was located about 30 yards from the track. The injured were rushed to Waynesville.

According to reports from Sunburst, the car was being loaded when it broke loose. It was of steel construction and left the track on a curve and plunged into the house. The house was a long wooden frame building and was occupied by several families. A stove was overturned and the house caught fire, causing the victims to be severely burned. A statement as to the cause of the accident has not been issued by the company.

From The Hickory Daily Record, March 24, 1921