Robert Lee Hargrove, Roy Ford, Nathaniel Bond, and Weldon Ford were placed I jail here this week, charged with the robbery of P.T. Everett of Everetts. Grand larceny is charged against Hargrave and “Roy Ford, while Bond and Weldon Ford are under indictment for aiding and abetting and counseling the robbery.
According to the story given our reporter by Robert Lee Hargrave, a 17-year-old negro, he went to a hollow tree at the direction of James Henry Lincoln Johnson, a grandson of the man who was robbed, where Johnson told him he would find some money, and when he reached the place he found about $600 in paper money and about $150 in gold. The tree stands near the Everett home.
Hargrave says he then proposed to Roy Ford to go to Rocky Mount, that he would pay his fare, as he had $10. He said he didn’t tell Ford about the money, but when they were between Robersonville and Parmele, he showed it to him. When they reached Rocky Mount, they found Nathaniel Bond and Weldon Ford, both Everetts negroes now working at Rocky Mount. He gave Roy Ford enough money to buy the quartet tickets to Washington, D.C. He himself purchased tobacco for 20 cents and put up a $10 gold piece, thinking it was a quarter at the time. Upon receiving so much change, he acted with so much suspicion that a policeman was notified, during which time he was getting away and succeeded in switching most of the gold over to Weldon Ford.
All four of the negroes wee picked up by the Rocky Mount police and turned over to Martin County officers. Three hundred and fifty dollars was found on Hargrave and $55 on Weldon Ford.
The negroes are all from Everetts, but had been working in Rocky Mount.
P.T. Everett, an old colored man, who has been in the mercantile business in Everetts for 25 years, is regarded as one of the county’s most honorable citizens, and had saved what he though was around a thousand or eleven hundred dollars, which he kept n a safe in his home. He did not find out that his money had been stolen until an inquiry came from Rocky Mount.
Lincoln Johnson is now being held pending an investigation of the Hargrave boy.
All of the parties will be given a preliminary hearing as soon as certain witnesses can be gotten.
From the front page of The Enterprise, Williamston, Martin County, N.C., Friday, Dec. 18, 1925.
Last name spelled “Hargrove” on first reference and “Hargrave” on subsequent mentions. newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073995/1925-12-18/ed-1/seq-1/
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