Frank Phifer Chases Mandy Ross with Shotgun, She Burns His Home Down, June 10, 1926

Seeking Vengeance, Woman Fires Home of Negro Here. . . Mandy Ross Arrested at Home of Friend Here, Following Burning of Frank Phifer’s Home

Because he chased her with a shot gun on May 30th, Mandy Ross, colored, formerly a resident of this city and at present giving her address as Salisbury, last night set fire to the home of Frank Phifer in Crockertown, the colored settlement just east of Concord.

The house, which was the property of the Southern Loan and Trust Company, burned to the ground, and the adjacent house, property of Q.E. Smith and occupied by Carolina Moore, was damaged beyond repair. Both houses were covered by insurance.

With vengeance in her mind and package of kindling, oil, and matches in her hand, Mandy boarded a train in Salisbury late yesterday afternoon and came to Concord, ostensibly to visit a friend of hers on Georgia Avenue. Early this morning, about 2 o’clock to be exact, Mandy left the home of her friend and started her nocturnal expedition. Traveling in her stocking feet it was not long until she had reached her destination. There, to her dismay, she found that she had left here bundle of kindling and oil behind. Frantically searching through her clothes she finally found a single match and manipulating it with great care she managed to ignite a piece of wood sticking out from Phifer’s house. Then she turned on her heels and fled.

The fire spread rapidly and before Monday had reached town the alarm had been given. Bob Faggart, leaving Howard’s Filling Station on his way to the fire, met her on her way from it, still carrying her shoes, and asked her where it was. She told him that it was in Crockertown.

A number of large, unshod footprints all around Phifer’s house led local officers to the belief that someone had been guilty of arson. Upon talking with Faggart, who told them of the negro woman he had passed on his way to the fire, their case became cut and dried. They arrested Mandy, and upon searching the house of her friend, found the bundle of material she had brought with her from Salisbury for the purpose.

Confronted with this evidence of guilt, Mandy this morning in jail confessed to having fired the house in her desire to get revenge for the ill treatment on the part of Phifer.

From page 2 of The Concord Daily Tribune, June 9, 1926

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