By the Associated Press
Lumberton, April 25—Facing nine charges, ranging from first degree burglary to simple assault, as a result of alleged whipping of Mrs. H.F. Purvis and Mrs. Mary Watson, B.M. Lawson, chief of police of Fairmont; John Hedgepeth, and Jule Brogden, both of Proctorville, are scheduled to be tried in recorder’s court here tomorrow.
The warrants were issued by W.B. Ivey, recorder here, following an account of the alleged flogging given by Mrs. Purvis last Thursday. The woman declared she and Mrs. Watson were removed from the former’s home at Proctorville on the night of April 14th by 18 masked and white robed men, carried to a negro church near the town and whipped severely on the naked flesh with a leather strap.
Mrs. Purvis told authorities she was told by the men that they were members of the Ku Klux Klan, and that if she revealed the punishment administered her she would be punished again. The men are said by Mrs. Watson to have whipped her because of alleged improper treatment she accorded her husband while he was ill. She denied the allegations.
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The Lumberton Robesonian has the following to say of the case:
Charged with being members of a band of 18 masked and white robed men who on Saturday night, April 14, took Mrs. H.P. Purvis and Mrs. Mary Watson from the former’s home at Proctorville, carried them to the Proctorville negro church, about a quarter of a mile away, and gave them a severe beating on their naked flesh with a leather strap, B.M. Lawson, chief of police at Fairmont, John Hedgepeth and Jule Brogden of Proctorville, will be tried in recorder’s court on Lumberton Thursday of this week at 10 a.m.
These men were arrested Thursday night on warrants issued by Recorder W.B. Ivey, after Mrs. Purvis told her story Thursday, the warrants naming 15 charges, ranging from first-degree burglary to simple assault. The arrests were made by Rural Policeman D.C. Ratley, and A.R. Pittman, who brought their prisoners to Lumberton and kept them under guard that night. Many witnesses were summoned from Fairmont and Proctorville for trial at 10 a.m. Friday, but the prosecution was not ready with its witnesses and the trial was postponed. Lawson, Hedgepeth and Brogden were released by Recorder W.B. Ivey upon agreement of the attorneys, under a joint bond of $10,000, signed by C.W. Graham of Proctorville, D.R. Lawson of Orrum, and D.A. Jones of Fairmont R.F.D., the bond to be forfeited if either of the defendants fails to appear for trial.
According to the story told by these women, they were bent over a log, their skirts raised and lashes applied on the bare flesh. They were threatened with pistols when they started to scream and under fear of death they say they were forced to endure the lash in silence.
A spot light was turned on them while the lash was applied, the women say, and the one who applied th strap occasionally would ask a tall member of the band, whom he addressed as “judge”, if that was enough; and only when “judge” was satisfied did the flogger stay his hand.
Black and blue and bruised and angry flesh a week after the event bears mute and humiliating testimony to the brutal treatment these defenseless women received on their terrible night, when, according to their story, for an hour and a half, from 10 to 11:30 o’clock, they were subjected to torture at the hands of these men, who said they were members of the Ku Klux Klan and three of whom Mrs. Purvis is positive she recognized. Two of these three men, Hedgepeth and Brogden, Mrs. Purvis says, also were recognized by her 16-year-old son, Conrad.
Mrs. Purvis says she was told she had to go to her husband, who has been working at Rocky Mount for some time, within 10 days, and that if they told what had been done to them, they would be punished, that the members were members of the klan, that there were 10,000 of them and that she could not go so far but what they could get her.
In the house at the time of the visit of the hooded band were Mrs. Purvis, her three children, Conrad, 16, and two other boys aged 13 and 10; Mrs. Mary Watson, wife of S.C. Watson, policeman at Proctorville with her two daughters, Miss Norine, 18, and Nathalee, 12; and Miss Line Ratley, who has lived in the Purvis home for many years.
About 10 o’clock Mrs. Purvis saw through the glass of the door some white-robed men on her front porch. She called to her son, intending to tell him to bring her pistol, when immediately several men similarly disguised opened the back door, which was not locked, with such violence as to slam it against the wall, and ran up the hallway to her, pointing pistols at her and forcing her to open the front door, when others entered. Every man seemed to have a pistol. Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Purvis were taken out and placed in a car and the young girls, Norine and Nathaleen, were hustled outside, given a shove and told to go home. Nathalee says one of her arms was made sore by the rough handling she received when one of the men, with a pistol in one hand a club in the other, caught hold of it.
After being flogged, the women were allowed to walk back home, the men accompanying them about half way, to the tobacco warehouse, when they granted Mrs. Purvis’ request not to go with them any farther as she was ashamed to be seen going through town with them.
Mrs. Watson says she was so frightened that she could not say a word. Mrs. Purvis says she was not frightened until they started out of the house with her, and she thinks that the way she talked to them and shamed them for coming here disguised probably was the cause of the punishment she received.
She said Lawson, whom she had known all her life, seemed to be the leader, that he gave directions about what to do, and that the others said nothing or talked in whispers. Jule Brogden, she said, led the way through the front door and John Hedgepeth led the way through the back door.
Mrs. Purvis says she told the men they would reap this before they died and Lawson, she said, then made his threat about what would happen if it were told. She was reminded that she had said she was not afraid of the klan, and she replied that she was not, that if they’d take off their masks they were like other men.
Mrs. Watson was told, she says, that she had not done her duty by her husband when he was sick, but she said there was no truth in that, that she had given him every attention; and this statement was corroborated by her daughters.
Mrs. Purvis, Mrs. Watson and Miss Norine say there is no truth in any of the charges made by the men against any of them, and they say that three of them returned the Tuesday night following to apologize to Miss Norine, in regard to whom, they said, they had made a mistake.
After telling their story to Solicitor T.A. McNeill these women were afraid to go home and are boarding in Lumberton for the present. Mrs. Watson says she has no means of paying for herself and her two daughters, and Solicitor McNeill has assumed the obligation of seeing that their board is paid. It is understood that several citizens have assured Mr. McNeill that they will stand by him in this obligation.
From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, April 25, 1923
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