Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1899-08-03
A FIENDISH CRIME.
A Negro Assaults Little Annie kerfoot Near
MondeIl's Staton-The Brute Captured.

of the country was committed about
noon last Thursday near Mondell' 8
Station, Norfolk & Western Railway,
a few miles north of Shepherdstown,
in Washington county, Md. The VIC
tim was Annie Kerfoot, the twelve
year-old daughter Of Thomas F. Ker-
foot, who is a lock-tender for the C..
& O. canal near Mercersville. The
child is a niece of Mrs. VIM. Arthur,
of shepherdstown. The fend in hu-
man shape who was guilty of the aw-
full deed is Samuel Johnson, a negro
81 years old, native of st. Mary s
county, Nd.
About II o'clock the little girl was
sent to the store at Mondell's to buy
some groceries. When half mile or
more from home she was met by the
negro, who asked her the way to the
nearest farmhouse. She directed him
and walked on. The girl stated after
ward that the negro seemed polite and
that she was not afraid Of him. He
did not make an advance toward her
at the time. After the negro left, the
girl continued on her way. She
climbed over fence and was walking
across field on the Poffenberger farm,
having taken short cut to the store,
when the negro assaulted her. While
passing along the edge of the wood
he sprang out from behind clump of
bushes, where he had been concealed
and lying in wait for his victim, and
grasped her about the neck with both
hands. After parting with her in the
road he had hurried through the
woods to the point of concealment.
All the brute in the negro seemed
to assert itself after he had the child
in his clutches. He choked her al
most to insensibility, and she not be-
ing able to offer resistance he had her
at his mercy. He threw her down
and then proceeded to outrage and
subject her to the most revolving and
brutal treatment.
With a thought to brighten her as
sailant the child screamed, and he
raised his fist to strike her and drew
a knife and threatened to kill her if
she made further cutlery or told on
him. She also had the presence OF
mind to say that her father was COM
ing. The negro said he was not
afraid of him, but he desistsd and let
her go. Weakened by the struggle
and from fright, at the command Of
her brute assailant she walked ahead
of him, he threatening to kill her if she
ran. Alta convenient point the negro
left and the child FASTENED to the resi-
dence of Frank Poffenberger, where
she told about the outrage. She also
went to the store at Mondell and there
told her story,
The little girl went home as soon
as she could and told her father. Her
story was also told at the store at Mon
dell's and soon the news was circula-
ted over the county. Intense excite
ment was created. Telephone mes
sages were sent in every direction and
in very short time scores of men
were searching for the negro. Every
suspicious looking colored man was
made to give an account of himself.
The negro, who was stranger in this
part Of the country, at once LETT the
scene of his crime and went toward
Williamsport. About dark the same
evening, Lewis Bryon, Carroll For
ster, David Munroe and others from
Williamsport went down along the ca
nal and while searching in the lock
woods they discovered a negro creep
ing through the underbrush and placed
him under arrest. The negro was
made to accompany them to the town.
He denied knowledge Of the crime,
but was committed to Jail. He was
taken to Hagerstown on trolley car,
which wa. met outside of the town by
Judge Stake and others, who put the
prisoner IN a cab and clipped him TO
the Jail, where he was quickly locked
up.
There were many people in Hagers-
town awaiting the arrival of the pris-
oner, but he was in the jail before they
knew he had arrived. AS news of the
atrocious crime spread the Indignation
grew, and there was an all-prevailing
sentiment that lynching in some form
should be the fate of the black brute.
Friday the little girl, accompanied by
her father and an older sister, went to
Hagerstown, where she fully identified
Johnson as her assailant. She was so
positive that there is no probability
she was mistaken. The excitement