Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-08-15

| ing has occurred to disturb the cur
rent until yesterday, when news reach
ed the city that Floyd Oxendine, (
| cOlOred man and peaceful inhabitan
of Eureka. in Scuffietown, had beer
shot to death by some villain OF
villains unknown, but generally sup
posed to be ..otephen, the last of the
| Lowrey, and the only one of the ont
laws still alive. '---.
The particulars, as we gather them
| are AS follows:
Early Monday morning Oxendine
left his store at Eureka for a visit to &
field belonging to him not more thar
| onefOurth of Il mile distant About
o'clock. the time at which he expected
to return, n gun was heard q short dis
lance from the house, and in the tirec-
ton of the field, and James Qxendine
Floyd S father, fearing somethingwrong,
| as he knew .hat his son did not carry q
gun with him, started to the field. lie
had gone only about half the distance
from the house, along the road leading
to Harpers Ferry, when he discovered
the bleeding body of his son lying by
the side of the road. He was quite
dead, having been shot, evidently with
| a double -barreled shot gun, in the head
and through the heart. His death
| must have been instantaneous. Jim
Floyd then proceeded to Eureka and
made known the distressing event. A
number of persons proceeded to the
scene of the murder. Each had his
own theory and endeavored to sub
stantiate it by the attendant eircum-
stances. The murderer's track was
found crossing the road and the field,
and some asserted that it was exactly
such rs Stephen Lowrcy makes when
walking, while others insisted that it
was too long for Lowrey. The general
belief, however, is that Lowrey is the
man that committed the crime.
Oxendine was likely young fellow
about "a years of age and unmarried,
although it is said that he was to have
shortly espoused Madame RbOdy, the
relict of Henry Berry Lowry, deceased.
1t is asserted that Stephen was opposed
to this match and had even gone so far
as take q most solemn oath that mo
dam Oxendine shant never sleep in
Henry Berry's bed"
But Floyd Oxendine had other vim
dictive enemies besides Steve Lowrey.
Some time since he accompanied
Wilson, the slayer of Andrew Strong
(having also been confederate with
Wilson i'll the matter of killing Strong)
to Marion county, South Carolina,
where they attempted to arrest one
John Locklear. This so much exaspe-
rated the friends of this latter that it
is asserted that jim Dial, John Lock
lear and Sine. Locklear have been
lying ont for some months past with
the avowed intention of taking his
life.
Deceased was well behaved in his
manners, correct and honest i'll his
business dealings and was well thought
of in his neighborhood. He was pos
sessed of some little property and
owned store at Eureka. He was to
have been married, it is said, next
week, and the festive widow Lowrey
Eureka, UNNECESSARILY distressed at
the sad fate which had overtaken her
affianced husband
Further Particulars in Relation to
the Murder of Floyd ONcndlne.
The following brief particulars in
relation to the murder of Floyd Oxen
dine, at Eureka, in Scufietown,
Robson county, on last Monday morn
ing, are all that we have been able to
gather:
The murder occurred about o clock,
and the fact was first discovered bv a
little colored girl, a daughter to Pat
Lowrey, who resides at Eureka, near
the store of the murdered man. This
little girl, when she heard the two
shots fired, ran ont along the
road and soon camc to point
at which Oxendine was lying On
the grass at the side of the
road, dead, with two charges
of buckshot in his body. one having
passed through the neck and the other
tearing its way through the very heart
of the unfortunate man. As the little
girl first came in view of the spot she
saw 4 man whom she did not know,
dart from the bushes on the opposite
side Of the road, close to where the
body was lying, and remove from the
pockets Oxendine's watch, pocket
book and such other valuables as We're
about him at the time. He then fed
from the spot in the direction of File y |
Oxendine's field, only a short distance
from the spot. James OXendine, the
father of Floyd, very soon afterwards
appeared on the spot, and presently,
neighbors and friends, startled by the
news impaired by the terrified girl,
approached the scene of the murder.
The villains tracks were followed up
across the field and into the woods to
the near neighborhOod of the house of
one John Dial, a noted desperate and
one of the alleged mnrderers of Ex-
Sheriff King Author zed by these
facts, warrant was issued for Dial's
apprehension, but it was too late the
bird had already flown. A posse was
organized and were yesterday securing
the woods i'll the search for him but,
at the last accounts, there was no trace
found OF him, it being supposed that
he has already sought out and joined
Steve Lowrey, in the dense swamps of
ScuffietOwn.
1t is now generally conceded that
Dial, and not LOwrey, was the MUIR
derer of Oxendine, although there are
many who contend that the outlaw was
probably a 7)urticeps cria,1i,ais in the
affair, and that he has already afforded
an asylum to the murderer. Rhody
Lowrey, the widow of Henry Berry
Lowrey is, it is said, of this opinion,
and we submit that her opinion is
worth something in this instance.
It is said that Rhody is over
whelmed with grief at Oxendine's
| death. She expresses herself as hav-
ing passionately loved him, and is
vehement and demonstratiye in hel
sorrow. Floyd Oxendine was not
only young and come1y, but he was
well TODD in the world, was highly
thought of by all around him, both
white and co1ored, and could have
given Rhody good home and al
honest, respectable name. She is net
however, by any means communicating
even in her grief. A gentlemen who
came down on the train with her OF
Monday, when she first heard of the
murder, says that she seemed ACTUAL ly
Supplied by the blow; that she could
not realize it; that it was too hard, too
cruel, and that, although she did not
while .nnder his observation, shed
single tear (as perhaps very properl.
became the Queen of Scuffietown) ye
there was no installing the agon.
which she suffered.