Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-06-17
GAsTONIA MILL TRAGEDY.

GAsTONIA MILL TRAGEDY.
There was a statement in The En-
oUIRER of Wednesday, about the hor-
rible cotton mill tragedy that occurred
at Gastonia on last Friday. The Gas
tonia Gazette of Thursday, tells the
full story of the affair as follows:
At changing time last Friday morn
ing w. G. Brown, assistant superin-
tendent of the Gastonia Cotton mill,
was shot to death in his Office by
Drayton Medlin. They had quarreled
the day before over the pay of Medlin's
daughter who worked under Brown.
By Browns account the girl was enti-
tied to 4S cents a day; Medlin de-
manded SO cents. The men had a
quarrel, and hot words passed.
Next morning at changing time
about $50 o'clock, Brown sat in his Of
fee in the tower taking down the time
of the hands who had come in to re-
port. He saw Medlin approaching
with a pistol-he could see him
through the window, $50 down." he
said, "and stop Medlin tell him not to
come up here" Henry Sheriff. went
down and tried to dissuade Medlin; but
in vain. With an oath he wentup the
steps nearly to the top. Brown with a
pistol in his lap turned toward Medlin
who stood on the stairway scarcely five
feet away. Medlin, having a crippled
hand, raised his pistol with both hands
Just above the floor and began firing,
exclaiming as he did so, ''you called
me a son of a b-!"
Brown arose and fired in return at
Medlin as be retreated down the steps.
Brown followed him, and it is said,
fired once through the open door, then
turning to an open window through
which he could see Medlin still retreat.
ing, he rested his pistol hand on box
about four feet high and was ready to
fire again when his strength failed him,
and he fell dead on the floor. A by
stander snatched the dead mans
weapon and fired once through the
window.
During this time Brown had fired
three shots and Medlin five. Bystand-
ers in the room say that Medlin's first
two shots were the ones that took ef-
feet in Browns body, one through the.
heart, the other in his side six or eight
inches lower down. Two subsequent
shots of Medlin missed the mark and
struck the wall just beyond Brown.
The fifth shot by Medlin was fired
from the outside at the open window
where Brown stood after coming down
stairs. This struck the tower wall
near the window frame, was DETECTED
through window pane into the mill
and spent its force against partition
inside. None of Browns shots took
effect. Medlin says that one of the
balls passed between the fingers of his
left hand, grazing the skin.
The mill was shut down. A pur-
suing party was formed at once. Dal-
las was 'phoned and an intercepting
party set out from that place. Within
an hour and half, Medlin was cap
tured in the Lower creek bottoms just
as the two parties came together.
Constable Madison Kendrick made the
arrest, holding up the fugitive with his
double -barrelled shotgun. Medlin was
seen to 'break" his pistol as if to take
an inventory of its contents. Finding
his ammunition all exhausted except a
single cartridge, he surrendered. In
formed that Brown was dead, the prs-
oner remarked that if he had known
that he would have been five miles
further away.
Friday afternoon preliminary trial
was held before Mayor Lewis and Es-
quire Anders. DR.. R. NJ. Reid testi-
fed that both of Browns wounds were
fatal-that through the heart was i'm
mediately fatal, the other in the side
alone would have caused death in a
few days perhaps. The state and
prosecution were represented by Cap
tain R. L. Durham ; the prisoner by
J. H. Milan, Esq. The evidence
against the prisoner was such that he
was remanded to Jail to await trial for
murder at the the next term of the
county court.
The dead man had the reputation of
being peaceable, aw-abiding citizen
his slayer has not. There was pro-
found sorrow at the old mill over
Browns tragic death, and work there
was not resumed until Monday morn
ing. The funeral at the Methodist
church, of which the deceased was
member, was conducted Saturday
morning by Rev. Mr.. Detwiler, and
the long funeral procession to the Gem
etery was composed of mourners of all
classes. The deceased was 80 years of
age and leaves wife and five small