Asheville daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1890-1900, 1893-09-21
MILITIA FIRE ON A MOB
TEN CITIZENS KILLED AND
MANY WOUNDED
One Attempt to Lynch IA Negro
RePuIsed by Mayor and Guard
Later the I.ynChtmE was Ac
COInpIlShed


ROANOKE, Va, Sept. Yesterday
morning Mrs. Henry S. Bishop, aged
about fifty wears and respectable white
woman from Cloverdale, eight miles
from this city, was enticcd by negro
named Thomas Smith from the market
into an empty saloon basement and
beaten into insensibility and robbed of
her pocket book, containing less than
two dollars.
The woman managed to revive and, a
few moments later, crawlcd up to the
street. where she told her story. The
negro was detected from the description
given by Mrs. Bishop, boarding an out
going train. A colorcd man jumped on
the car and grabbing the criminal, the
two fell to the ground. Detective Capt
W. w. Baldin seized the man and hold
ing the crowd at bay with his revolver
started on horseback with the frightened
negro behind him. He rode to the sa-
loon where the wounded woman was re
moved and she positively Unidentified him.
He was then taken to Jail.
A crowd gathered around the Jail and
at five clock the Roanoke Light Infan-
try marched to the jail by order Of Mayor
Trout. About dark the crowd was in
creased BY a hundred men from the
vicinity of the woman's home, headed by
Mrs. Bishops son. At eight o'clock por-
tions of the mob battered at a side door
of the Jail, where the militia and NJ ayor
Trout had retired.
The shooting was then begun by the
mob, and the mayor was shot i'll the
foot. The militia were then ordered to
return the fire, and Il vollcv from about
twenty-five rifles was poured into
the mob. Ten men were killed by this
fire, and as many more wounded, some
of them fatally. During the excitement
the negro was taken from the Jail by an
officer and sccrcted.
The dead and wounded were removed
to drug store and to the Offices Of near
by physicians. The militia were then
dispersed and left the scene as quietly as
possible.
The following is a lis Of dead and in
ured as for as known at present
Dead: S. \. Wick, hotel proprietor;
w Ill oncSlS, nTClildu on lIlS y. u w N
r.; Charles W hitmeyer, conductoron on the
n. & w. X. r.; J. b. Tyler, OF Blue Ridge;
George White, shot through leg and blcd
to death; w. Jones, engineer on the n. &
w. X. r.; John Mills, distiller, Black
Creek; George Settles of Ninton; Emmett
!. Small of Northwest, Roam Ike; George
| L. White, fireman on the n. & W. rail-
road.
Injured: Otto Falls, shot through body
and will die; Will Eddie, shot through the
groin; George {. Monroe, shot IN the
| head; Frank Mills, shot in the arm; Tom
Ne'son, leg shot off; Leroy White, shot in
the back; J.. II. McGhec, shot in the leg;
- Shepard shot i'll the leg; L. l. Small,
shot in the pbdomcn; Charles Powell
shot through the body. Additional
wounded-.I II. Campbell, Edgar Whal
ing, {. w. Figgatt, {. p. North O. b
Taylor, Hall David RuEGlcs n, 5. Sparks
| T. L. Nelms.
Several speeches were made after thS
militia retired, and Judge Woods of The
hustings court assured the mob that
the negro Smith had been removed from
| the Jail, and accOmp panied two OF th'
crowd through the Jail to prove The
| truth OF the statement.