The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-10-31
Important Documents Found by the
Secretary Of STATE.
Autopsy Over the Body Of Charles g.
Shooting-Successful Raid i'm Frank
lin County-An Incident OF the
Presidents Visit-ReceiDts OF the
, Dispensary.
Messenger Bureau.

months given Specldl care W ehc oSo'S
for documents not heretofore used by
historians or others and bearing upon
the history of North Carolina. He has
had tho luck to find. by means or a
searcher, a great many OF these and
thought until a day or so g that me
limit of discovery had been reached,
but he has had q fresh run OF sood
fortune. Yesterday he found the jour
nal of the proceedings Of the provincial
congress at HiIlsboro in 1775, this Ge-
ing an original copy by James Davis
of New Bern, printer to the House OF
Assembly. He also found the original
minutes Of the committee OF safety OF
Tryon county, and an original reserve
of the committee of safety OF another
county. On the front of this there was,
very handsomely done in ink, the IN
scription Liberty or Death. God save
the King There are also the min
utes of the committee Of safety in Aug
ust, 1774. A. particularly aluaD 2
ument is a pamphlet published by the
governor in 1881, embracing the Neck
lenburg Declaration Of Independence
with accompanying documents and the
proceedings of the Cumberland assocl-
alton. This is stamped state Libra
ry," and is a book which has been
looked for for perhaps twenty years
in vain. There are other documents
found important, but yet not Of so
high a class as these. The late Colonel
William l.. Saunders had some of these
documents and among them no doubt
the one about the declaration OF lnde-
pendence.
This morning the autopsy over the
body of Charles G. Smith, the young
Petersburg man who was shot By a
fakir here in the Union depot last Sat
urday, was before the coroner, ana
the county physician. the latter max
ing a postmortem, in order to find tne
bullet, and the direction of the wound.
The body of Smith was taken to Pet
ersburg last Sunday and was there en-
balmed. Two OF the brothers OF the
dead man. A. M. Smith. of Washing
ton, and Ed. Smith. of Petersburg,
came here with the body. as did alSJ
the undertaken who embalmed it. A
NJ. Smith said that the body had been
very carefully embalmed, and not bur
led, as he desired that an autopsy
should be made and the whole story
discovered. He denies most positively
that Charles Smith,, the dead man, IS
the man who was arrested on Friday 81
fair week on a charge of picking pocA-
cts, and who put up $500 cash for his
appearance which he forfeited. 1t Will
doe remembered that the mayor stated
that he and the police justice were GER
tain that the men were the same. A
friend of the dead man said the lat
ter had been on the road for some
years, although only rs years old and
that he was here in the early spring
Of 1903 with a carnival company, where
he had a tent with a big snake, known
as Jumbo" He also denies thai
he was the thief. Police Captain
Thompson says he is certain the men
are not the same. All sorts of queer
stories have been current about this
shooting, one being that Harry Clark
and Bob Littleston, the two men neld
on the charge of killing Smith, BON
had a grudge against him, and that
threats had been made certainly by Que
Of them to kill Smith, and that their
gun play in the station was not co
kill each other, but to kill Smith. Only
two of the shots seemed to have been
low, one striking Smith, and the 9th
er passing through the clothing OF a
Wake county man and touching his
body barely enough to draw blood anu
then going in the back Of n of the
seats. Two of the bullets struck at
least eight feet ABOVE the floor and enc
was found in the aides waiting room,
to get in which it must have passed
over a partition fifteen feet or mur5
in height. Littleston declares that
Clark did the killing, -,.u up to this
time a good deal of the testimony has
been that way. Clark, on his part,
says Littleston did it. Smith never
said anything about who shot him. AS
he was carried into the hospital where
he soon died, he was conscious. but
spoke only a few words, saying he was
badly hurt and in pail and calling the
name of his brother Ed, who was with
him.
The jury found that Smith came tc
his death by a pistol bullet, and a
the hands Of unknown persons. TIE
bullet was calibre SO, fired into Smiths
back, the pistol being only a few
inches therefrom, and was found il
the abdomen, bearing marks of tins
clothing. A student who went in {
carriage with Smith to the hospita
swore that Smith said: They sho
me-" calling no m A fakir namec
Melvin Wood, Of Petersburg, swore h,
was in the carriage also and that SmItt
said 1.-The Jew shot me-" this being
name for Clark. alias Morris, who i
held as one of the two men who shot
Insurance Commissioner Young say
that in all of his eyDerience in in yes
tigating incendiary fires he has for til
first time come across persons who ar
able to veal positively that they say
the fire-bug strike the match and Sc
fire II the building. Such evidence i
of course conclusive, but it is very sci
dom that it is nrocurable. The incen
diary is being searched for. Deput,
Commissioner Scott is now in the east
.ern part of the state investigating som
other fires which are said to be of in
diary origin.
Charters are granted in Mcdowell
Land and Trust Company, of Marion