Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-03-27

1
away and dragged under the branches
of huge oak tree. Here Il rope was
thrown over an outsiretching limb
and a moose adjusted 10 the mans
neck. He was then given Il few
minutes in which to explain his terri
BILE conduct. In the shadow Of death
and without a tremor in his voice, the
doomed man told his story. He said
that he and Nancy were engaged to
be married that they had quarreled
because she had wished TO attend a
dance in neighboring county against
his will that they had made it up q
short time afterward that he meant
nothing by the threat. In the evening
they walked toward the wood when
near bluff on the roadside a masked
mnn leaped from the bushes and as
saulted Nancy, hacking her with an
ak. In endeavoring 10 defend her he
was himself struck several times, and
then hurled from the bluff. He was
rendered unconscious by the blows
and the fall, and must have lain for
some time. In a half unconscious
state he had wandered to the farm
house where he was found. Of course
no one believed his story, and willing
hands seized the rope, and Molloy
was hung until life was extinct. This
was the first lynching that ever oc'
Cured in Nelson.
Years passed away. Noah Mathe.
ney went to the west, and was never
heard from. Walter Hays, the heart
broken father, moved to the "Yellow
Banks" now Owensboro, KY, where
be died, and the remainder of his
family was scattered far and wide.
One stormy night in the spring of
1880, a horseman galloped up to the
minister's door and bade him hurry to
the office of Dr.. Harrison man had
been thrown from his horse, and lay
dying there, and had requested the
presence of a preacher. What hap
pened afterward is taken almost ver-
batim from the old clergyman's diary {:
~ found the man stretched upon a
mattress on the floor Of the Doctors
office. The physician was bending
over him, and upon my entrance in.
formed him that the minister had
arrived. I knelt by the mans side
and took his clammy hand in mine.
His face was bruised and mangled in a
dreadful manner. There was nothing
about him that I recognized. He was
an entire stranger to me. MY man,
1 said, what can 1 do for you?' 4 am
dying he said, and I want to make
confession to you. Do you think that
will help me any in the other world p
I made him an appropriate answer and
urged him to talk. He then narrated
what is put down here, speaking rap
idly for one in his condition:
"Years ago there was a murder
an awful murder-committed out yon-
der on the cliffs by Rowan's mill. The
victim was Nancy Hays. She had had
two lovers-Amos Molloy and Noah
Matheney. She loved Molloy, but did
not even like Matheney. He knew it,
for she had told him so few days be-
fore her death, when he had asked
her to marry him. He was jealous of
Molloy and longed for revenge. His
time came much sooner than he ex-
pected. Molloy and Nancy quarrell-
ed at the mill one morning. That
evening they went walking together.
Matheney masked himself and follow
ed them. They were good distance
ahead of him, and darkness was fast
coming on. secreting himself in some
bushes by the roadside, he waited for
them to return. When they did so,
Matheney assaulted Nancy with an
ak, hacking her to death. Molloy,
taken by surprise, could do nothing,
and he was hurled from the Cliff
"Here the dying man paused and
gasped for breath. The storm without
still ragged; the rain beat violently
against the windowpanes; the wind
would roar around the house in fitful
gusts and die away among the distant
hills, with a moan that was almost
human, and more than one shudder
convulsed my frame as I listened to
the dying mans dread recital. Final
ly, he continued:
"'It was easy for Matheney to steal
back in time to take an active part in
the search for the murderer. Molloy
was at once suspected, and through
Matheney's maneuvering he was ar
rested and hanged. After this Math-
eney went to the west; and after
years of torturing remorse, something
compelled him to return to his native
town. Minister, do you believe the
dead are ever allowed to return to this
world? No! Well, I do
Another pause, and then-'In re-
turning to this town Matheney's road
led him by the place where the MUIR
der had been committed. He willing
ly would have avoided it, but he could
not. The same incentive that caused
him to return here also compelled him
to pass that fatal spot. Tonight when
the storm was at its height he was on
that spot. Oh, how it did rain. How
the thunder crashed, and how the
wind roared! 1t would have been
dark, too, but for the incessant fash
ing of lightning! Matheney's heart