If Bystanders Had Pulled George Moore Off Alex Jordan, Death Would Have Been Averted, Nov. 12, 1926

The On Lookers Were Guilty of Jordan Murder. . . And so Jury Freed Hapless Youth Who Actually Dealt Blow That Killed

There were no indictments lodges against prominent citizens of Winfall who made no interference when George Moore attacked his father-in-law on the streets of that village on the morning of October 2 and who stood supinely by, making no interference when Raymond Jordan, 17-year-old son of Alex Jordan, came upon the scene with a stick of timber and beat George Moore to death.

A jury of the Superior Court of Perquimans County heard the case against young Ramond Jordan, but they didn’t have the heart to convict him. He was only a simple, big-hearted, impetuous youth who thought his father needed help and who rushed upon his father’s adversary with a deadly club, dealing him blow after blow upon his head from which he died 40 hours later.

The jury seemed to think that the bystanders who witnessed the whole affair from start to finish and who took no hand to part the belligerents were guilty of the murder. But there were no indictments against the bystanders.

Maybe the jury sympathized with the bystanders too. Winfall is a sleepy, struggling, weather-beaten little town that has had no excitement within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. Winfall folk are generally sober, easy-going, neighborly and law-abiding. Other towns are always getting on the front pages of the newspaper with ? [word obscured], scandals, accidents, etc. But not so with Winfall. Winfall has pursued the even tenor of its way thru all the years with hardly anything more exciting than a run-away horse, a shot-gun wedding or a sugar stew for the benefit of the church.

And so when George Moore had an altercation with his father-in-law, dragged him out of a store and sat upon him on the sidewalk, Winfall folk didn’t take a hand because they were witnessing what promised to be an exciting incident. They were hardly prepared for what followed.

The jury was helped considerably in arriving at a verdict of not guilty in the case of Raymond Jordan by the testimony of his sister, the dead man’s wife. Mrs. George Moore testified at the trial that her husband had on previous occasion threatened the life of her father and that her brother had been alarmed by these threats.

The Moore family lived at Chapanoke. Moore was employed as a railroad engineer in Baltimore, stood high with his neighbors, and seemed devoted to his family. He had returned home on October 1 to visit his family and finding his wife and two small children gone to the home of his father-in-law, Alex Jordan of Winfall, got in his car and went for them.

His father-in-law said he was drinking a counselled Mrs. Moore against going with him. The upshot of it was that his family failed to return with him, he had row with Mr. Jordan, and returning the next morning for his family, he accosted his father-in-law, and in a few moments was fatally wounded by young Raymond Jordan.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Nov. 12, 1926

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Will Nixon, John Colson Jr. in Superior Court, Nov. 12, 1926

Six months on the roads was sentence imposed on Will Nixon, Winfall man who ran over his neighbor John Caddy, 52, and killed him in Hertford October 25. Nixon didn’t stop. He was arrested when bloodstains were found on his car. He submitted the case when tried in Superior Court, and the friendliness of the families helped in securing a light sentence.

John Colson Jr., known as a notorious violator of the prohibition law, found guilty of selling liquor, appealed from a sentence of 12 months on roads.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Nov. 12, 1926

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Grand Jury Investigating Culpeppers' Attempt to Bribe City Manager, Nov. 12, 1926

Graft Charges Investigated by Grand Jury. . . Pasquotank Grand Jury Quizzing City Manager Regarding City Gravel Case

The airing of the testimony of City Manger M. W. Ferebee, with respect to charges brought in August when L. B. Culpepper and George C. Culpepper were alleged to have attempted to bribe the City Manager, and sundry dealers of material in order to secure the sale of certain gravel for [part of sentence missing] was the most important consideration before the Grand Jury this week.

The actin of the grand jury was probably instituted because such a stir was created when the charges were brought to light in this newspaper, and public sentiment demanded a thorough investigation be made by the Grand Jury.

The probable result of the investigation will be a reprimand from the court in the even there is sufficient cause to warrant further action. There was actually no money passed, so far as has been determined, the alleged attempt having been stepped on by the City Manager who alleged that the Culpeppers had offered to split certain commissions with him if he would recommend their material.

A statute on the books of North Carolina dealing with such cases may never be invoked, but the publicity attending the charges may have had a wholesome effect in curbing other tendencies to secure illegal profits at a time when the city is spending hundreds of thousands for improvements.

Robert R. Taylor is foreman of the Grand Jury.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Nov. 12, 1926

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When's Right Age for Woman to Have Children? Nov. 12, 1926

The Bank Clerk and the Soda Jerker. . . The Best Time to Have a Baby

“I hear Emmy Lou is going to have a baby,” said the Soda Jerker to the Bank Clerk.

“That’s interesting,” said the Bank Clerk. “Let me see; she hasn’t been married a year, has she?”

“I should say not,” said the Soda Jerker. “She ought to be finishing in high school this year, and she up and ran away and got married last winter before she was even a senior. And now she’s expecting a baby and she just a kid. It’s a damn shame, I call it.”

“Nothing of the kind,” said the Bank Clerk. “It’s the finest thing in the world for her; the best thing for any woman.”

“But Emmy Lou’s just a kid herself,” exclaimed the Soda Jerker; “and a wild, harum-scarum, rattle-brained kid at that. She never had a serious thought in her life and aint no more fit to be a mother than I am. I think a girl ought to be old enough to know what she’s doing and be ready to sober up and settle down before she beings to have babies.”

“You’re all wrong,” said the Bank Clerk. “if they don’t have babies, some of them would never sober up and settle down.

“Nothing sobers a woman and settles her like motherhood. Most women never have a serious thought about life or feel any responsibility of any kind until they go down into the Valley of the Shadow of Death and bring a baby into their lives. It is the first sacrifice the average woman makes and no character is ennobled or well formed until it has made some great sacrifice.

“Emmy Lou has indeed been one of the wildest and most irresponsible young females you and I ever encountered, but you’ll see a great change in Emmy Lou when she trundles that baby of hers down the street in the spring. The devilish sparkle in her eyes will be gone and there will not be so much color in her cheeks; but her eyes will be bright just the same, and soft and lustrous with love. You will behold a new radiance in the face of Emmy Lou, the radiance of motherhood. We used to call her pretty; you will call her beautiful after her transfiguration. Childbearing works a transfiguration in all of them.”

“You can always out-talk me,” said the Soda Jerker, “But I stick to it that a woman ought to be 25 or 30 years old before she’s a mother. We have so darn many rattle-brained kids because we have too many immature and rattle-brained mothers. If women waited until they were old enough to know what they’re doing before thy have children, we would have better mothers and better children.”

“You are altogether unsophisticated,” said the Bank Clerk sadly. “If women waited until they knew how to manage children before they had children, then I’m afraid we would have a natin of childless homes. I’ve never seen a man or woman yet who was either old enough or wise enough to know just what to do in bringing up a kid.”

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Nov. 12, 1926

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Parsons-Hussey and Horsey-Wright Weddings, Nov. 12, 1926

Married This Week

MRS. FAY L. HUSSEY

Before her marriage to Dr. Hussey last week, she was Miss Marguerite Parsons. She is the attractive daughter of Mrs. J. B. Ferebee of this city, and a charming brunette. Dr. Hussey himself is a brunette too. The couple will make their home in the delightful old Colonial Avenue home of the Husseys on Colonial Avenue, West.

-=-

MRS. WILLIAM W. HORSEY

Miss Mary Elizabeth Wright, daughter of Mrs. C. F. Wright of Burgess Street, this city, who became the bride of Mr. William Wallace Horsey, Wednesday in Norfolk. Miss Wright is a sister of G. F. Wright, proprietor of the Standard Pharmacy. Mr. Horsey is connected with the State Highway Commission forces in charge of the Chowan River Bridge.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Nov. 12, 1926

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Ellis Island Closed Nov. 12, 1954, After Processing 12 Million Immigrants

November 12th, 1954: Having processed about 12 million immigrants seeking entry to the US since it opened in 1892, Ellis Island shuts down operations. In the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the processing center will fall into disrepair but the main building will be restored and will reopen in 1990 to host a museum of immigration.

If your family was among the 12 million immigrants who came through the doors of Ellis Island, you might enjoy the story and images from the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Ilsand Foundation, at www.statueofliberty.org/ellis-island/.

Hooded Men Attack Catholic Priest, Leave School Children to Find Their Way Home in the Dark, Nov. 11, 1926

Negroes and Catholics United by Outrage

For a long time Roman Catholic prelates have been seeking an approach to the Negroes of America. These people, as is well known, love the ceremonial elements of religion, and it would not be illogical to hope for numerous conversions to the Roman Catholic religion from among them. What the Catholic Church itself has been unable to accomplish, save in rare instances, may be brought about by certain self-professed “Friends of Protestantism.”

Dr. Will W. Alexander, a white minister of the South who is the director of the interracial commission of Atlanta, Ga., tells in a recent interview of a happening in Virginia which will be written up in the Negro press all over America.

“There is a Catholic priest in Norfolk named Father Warren,” says Mr. Alexander, “who has built up a very successful elementary school for Negro children. His work has the approval of many of the leading people in Norfolk regardless of creed. He is a kindly disposed, hard-working man. A good many Negro children come into the school from outlying districts where there are poor Negro schools. One such child came in from a farm several miles from Norfolk. A friendship sprang up between his family and the people of the school, which resulted in Father Warren taking his school band down to this farm for a picnic. When he arrived late in the afternoon, he was warned that the Ku Klux would probably interfere with him in some way. In order that the children might not be involved in any excitement, he did not go on to the farm but remained in the road quite a distance away, with two white friends, who had accompanied him.

Hooded Men Attack

“After dark a large number of cars appeared and masked and hooded men got out. Father Warren was put in a car and at the point of pistols was forced to accompany them many miles away. After brow-beating him and intimidating him in every way they could, except by actual physical violence, they dropped him b the roadside in the middle of the night. The children were left unprotected and had to find their way back to the city as best they could. Many people in the tidewater districts were greatly incensed at the outrage, and the Klan has lost prestige. The city government in Norfolk passed an ordinance against any making in the streets.

“It has been a trick of the Klan since it was founded always to follow such outbreaks as this by some pious performance such as giving an evangelist a purse, or presenting a flag to somebody in the neighborhood. Either a religious or political performance, done in such an attractive way a to divert the attention of the community frm out outrage that had been committed. They ran true to form in this case.

“On Sunday, September 26th, 5,000 klansmen, according to newspaper reports, appeared at William and Mary College. From early morning until 2 o’clock they milled around that old place, led by imperial wizard Evans, who, at 2 o’clock, made a grand and eloquent speech praising the klan, with no reference to the fact that this crime had been committed within less than 100 miles by hooded men, who nobody doubts were klansmen.

They presented William and Mary a flag pole and flag in the name of this organization. To the amazement of everybody, this was received very cordially by the president, who also made a glorious speech, not referring to the crime that had been committed nearby, rather putting his personal and official endorsement on the klan.

From the front page of the Star of Zion, Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, Nov. 11, 1926

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