After quarreling with his wife, who refused to go back to his home after a six-week’s absence, Alfred Sawyer, 36, a hosiery mill employe of this city, shot himself with a revolver Monday night.
Sawyer was a native of Tyrrell County, had been married to his wife six years, and the couple had two small children. Mrs. Sawyer moved here eight years ago from East Lake. Until about six weeks ago, Sawyer lived in a house with his wife, their two small children, her two children born before her marriage to him, and her mother, Mrs. Mahala Pinner. He was inclined to drink, and his wife grew to be afraid of him. She left his home and rented a house on Beech street, taking care of her mother and four children, the oldest being a girl of 16. Mrs. Pinner kept house while Mrs. Sawyer and the young girl worked in the mill.
Sawyer frequently went to his wife’s house, asking her to return but she refused, although granting the children permission to visit him. Mrs. Sawyer declares that he would often take the week’s work of both himself and wife and spend it on a Saturday for corn liquor.
On Monday, he went to his wife’s house and asked her to return, on condition that she leave his two children and her mother, Mrs. Pinner, behind. Mrs. Sawyer refused, and he came back with a revolver threatening to kill his wife and her 16-year-old daughter. Unable to get them to return, he went home, undressed, lay down on a couch, (and) shot himself thru the head.
Burial was on Tuesday. Mr. Sawyer leaves his family, three brothers, Lewis and Ezekiel Sawyer of this city and Frank Sawyer of East Lake; two sisters, Mrs. Annie Liverman of this city and Mrs. Cassy Garnell of Norfolk.
From page 2 of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, July 17, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83025812/1925-07-17/ed-1/seq-2/
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