Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-09-09
THE CENTRAL POINT OUTRAGE.
the Pigeon ROost Road-Our Re
porter at the Scene of the Out

missioner visited the grocery and resi-
dence of Mr.. r. Durant, on the Pigeon
Roost road, half mile from the corpor-
alton line. for the purpose Of investigat-
ing the robbery, burglary and outrages
committed on Monday morning by an
armed force of negroes Mr.. Durant
has brick store and dwelling The
bedrooms and kitchen are in rear OF the
store.
The place had been robbed and fired
several times, and Mr.. Durant erected
the present building with a view to
making it fire and burglar proof. Mr..
Dutant has been a Republican, and has
almost invariably voted that ticket, and
had right to expect that his premises
would be free from the attacks of negro
burglars. At 2 o'clock on Monday
morning crowd of desperadoes, num-
boring from eight to fifteen, according
to various estimates, surrounded the
store for the purpose of robbery. They
had pickets around the building and
also on the Pigeon Roost road, both east
and west Of it. With pick and
Ratchet they took out the bricks in
front beneath the window, and made
hole large enough for man to enter.
He went in and opened the door for the
rest of the robbers, the key being in the
lock on the inside.
MR.. RoBT. DURANT's STATEMENT.
81 went to bed at 10 o'clock, leaving
my wife and Mrs Kate Wright sitting
in the bedroom in rear of the store, my
bedroom being adjoining, with a door
leading into that room and another door
leading from it into the store. About 2
o'clock in the morning heard Mrs.
Wright cry out for assistance and
wake my wife up. / got up and
entered into the bedroom occupied
by Mrs. Wright. She was sitting up in
bed holding her head in her hands and
blood was flowing profusely from a
wound in her head. The lamp was on
the mantel piece. TOOK it up aud
walked to the door leading into the store,
which door was sjar. Iopened the door
and asked, who is there? A voice re-
piled, Cd d-m you, / am here, and
pistol was fred. The ball shattered
the lamp chimney, while another shot,
fred in rapid succession, went wide OF
the mark. / retreated and attempted
to close the door. Suddenly, and as /
did so, several shots were fred and g
black looking negro ran towards me and
struck at me with pistol shut the door
in his face and retreated through Mrs.
Wright's bed room to my own, got out
into the lot and escaped. While this
was going on my wife was outside strug-
Cling with the negroes. On the alarm
being given a negro in the store said,
Run, boys, runl and heard a sliding
of feet, as if the party we're barefooted.
The negroes carried off about one hun
bred dollars worth Of goods.
MRS. DURANT's STATEMENT.
! was walked up by my husband, and
heard Mrs. Wright in the next room ex-
claim, Oh, God Oh, my God' Got
up and went into the room, and
several shots were fred from the
store. l ran out in rear and passed
through the alley to the road; met two
negroes on the bridge about twenty yards
from the store, and begged them to go
and save my husband. One Of them,
tall, copper. colored negro, seized me by
the throat, the other got hold of my feet
and threw me down. / was struck and
dragged by the hair of the head across
the road, and the negroes attempted to
outrage me, but l struggled and fought
and they failed to accomplish their pur
pose. My night dress was torn Oh, ana
was beaten and kicked, but | got away
from them and crawled on my bands and
knees to a neighbor's house cod gave the
alarm, when the negroes fled. There
were about fifteen of them, including |
several boys. l think / left mark on
the face of one of my assailants on the
bridge.
Lou FARRIs' STATEMENT.