Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-08-09


or six feet high"
Accident or Murder.
Herbert S. Ellerbe, 80 years old, and
youngest brother of the late Governor
Elerbe, was either killed and his body
put on the railroad track, or killed &C
cidentally, by the southbound vesti-
buled train, in Marion county last
Thursday night. The body was torn
all to pieces, and different bones and
pieces of flesh were found along the
track for many miles. None of the
clothing was found except the coat,
which contained S. bill, and the
trousers, which were found on the en-
CINE when the train reached Charles
ton. In support of the theory that
there was foul play, no sign of blood in
any quantity has been found along the
railroad track, and it is claimed that if
the body had been alive at the time 1t
was struck by the train, there must
have been a great detfusion of blood.
The young man stood high in Marion
county, aud there are many who be-
lieve that his death was not accidental.
They Say He Played Possum.
Greenvile News: Strange as it may
seem it is nevertheless true that there
are many people in Greenville county,
men supposed to be possessed of ordi-
nary intelligence, who still believe that
James B. Williams, who died in Jail
here last winter while under a death
sentence for the murder of Charlie
Potts, is still alive. 1t is the strong
belief of men in various parts of the
county that Williams feigned death
and that after being taken from the
Jail lie got up and walked away and is
now in the far west. A story is told
in Pickens county, the former home OF
Williams, that he was seen by Negro
there after he was reported dead and
the Negro talked with him. All who
saw him here at the Jail after he was
out for dead thought he
looked like very dead man. Sheriff
Gilreath saw him after he was laid out
at Mackey's undertaking establish
ment.
Killed in Columbia.
Correspondence News and Courier,
B. D. Martin, young
white man, was run over and killed
early this morning on the Southern
railway track by freight train on
that road. 1t appears that Martin
lives in the city and works at Cayce's,
which is about three miles from the
city. This morning he started to 60
to his work, and when he had gone
some distance down the track he was
run over by the freight train. The
crew on the freight train knew abso-
lutely nothing about the accident,
when or how it happened, and no one
saw the accident. Martin was cut up
very badly and, of course, was instant
ly killed. No explanation is given as
to how the terrible accident occurred.
Coroner Green held an inquest, and
the jury of inquest brought in yer:
dict that the deceased came to his
death by being run over by train 80
on the Southern track.
What the Investigating Committee Will Do.
News and Courier: 1t is likely that
action will be started in a few days.
The bonds, which were never signed,
and the contract of Mr.. j. B. Watson
have been turned over to the attorney
general to look at, and he will likely
take action in a few days for the re-
covery of the convict contracts. The
board of directors has not yet instruct
ed that proceedings be started, as
everything seems to he waiting on the
report of the special investigating
committee, which has been finished
and forwarded. The state will hold
Mr.. J. B. Watson responsible for the
convict contracts, and sue him for the
full amount due the state. Mr.. Wat
son will, no doubt, claim that he holds
receipts for two years convict hire,
but the state will put up in reply that
Colonel Neal had no authority to re-
ceipt for convict hire, that his duties
and functions are purely statutory,
and that it is not statutory power for
him to receipt for convict or other hire,
and that any receipt he might have
given is what the lawyers call ultra
vires, in other words that he had no
authority to give a receipt for money,
and that it ought to have been known
to the man taking the receipt, the
state holds, was of no use. The pa
pers in the case will be considered by
Governor McSweeny on his return TO
the city, which will be in day or two.
For Purposes of Notoriety.
Lillian Clayton Jewett, the Boston
girl who recently created a sensation
among the Negroes of that city, by de-
claring that she would come to Charles
ton and take back north with her the
family of the late Frazier B. Baker,
who was lynched at Lake City, 5. g.,
in 1898, with a view to beginning an
agitation against mob law, has carried
out her design says, a Charleston des-
patch of Saturday. Miss Jewett ar
rived here Friday morning, accom-
panied by her mother, and a young
man named r. G. Larsen, who is a
Boston journalist. She had frequent
conferences with the Baker woman
and her friends, and as result she
left here for Boston this afternoon, ac'
companied by the entire Baker family,
the mother and five children. Miss
Jewett said her plans for the future
were not yet formulated, but she pro-
posed to hold mass-meetings through
out the north, to arouse popular senti-
ment apainst lynchinp and mob law