The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1908-10-15
WANTED TO LYNCH NEGRO
INSULTED YOUNG LADY TEACH
ER AND HAD NARROW ESCAPE.
johnson Arrested in Appalachee Mill
Village and Taken to
Columbia.

Greer officials and Sheriff Gilreath
prevented a lynching in Greenville
county yesterday. A posse, deter
mined to avenge the insult offered
young lady teacher at Greer by ne
gro man, was hot on the trail of the
brute and had he not been spirited
away to a place of safety, his body
would probably have been riddled
with bullets.
Miss Mcclure was insulted by the
negro, Arthur Johnson, in the graded
school building Saturday morning.
She did not make it known, however,
until that afternoon and by that time
Johnson had hidden. All afternoon
he was hunted by maddened crowd
and the search continued through
Sunday. Some of the citizens of the
town went to Asheville, North Caro-
lima, rumor having been circulated
to the effect that the negro had gone
there. This, however proved to be
unfounded.
Yesterday morning Mr.. j. C. Robi
son of the Appalachee mills office
saw johnson cutting wood back of
house in the mill village. He first
satisfied himself that it was the brute
that was wanted and then arrested
him. Taking him to the company
store, Mr.. Robson turned johnson
over to Officer T. Parker.
The negro was then carried into
Greer by a roundabout way and was
concealed in a private residence In
the town. Mayor Frank Burgess was
notified and he instructed Chief OF
Police Littlefield to bring the prison
er to Greenville. The prisoner was
then placed in a buggy and was start
ed towards this city.
A short time after the party start
ed to Greenville with Johnson it be-
came known in Greer that he had
been caught and the mob began to
hunt for information as to what had
been done with him. Mayor Bur-
giss, knowing that the crowd had
learned of the negro's arrest and
fearing that they might overtake the
buggy and get the prisoner, secured
two automobiles and started towards
Greenville in one himself and Chief
of Police Littlefield in the other. Mr..
Burgess first notified Sheriff Gilreath
that the mob was on the trail of the
negro and asked him to start to-
wards Greer to meet the party with
the prisoner.
Mayor Burgess overlook the party
with the negro near Chick Springs
and put the negro in the automobile.
Sheriff Gilreath started from Green
vile in the big three seated car of
Mr.. C. NJ. Wing and Mr.. Frank
Kneble, who was running it, was
given instructions to speed it. This
he did and the machine with the
prisoner was met three fourths Of
a mile below Taylors.
The negro was brought to the city
and lodged in the county jail. 1t
was after II o'clock when he was
brought to the city. At half past
twelve the sheriff took the brute to
the Charleston and Western Carolina
Railway depot and put him on the
train leaving at that hour for Colum-
bia. Jailer Noe and Officer Kitchen
had him in charge 1t did not become
generally known until yesterday af-
ternoon that Johnson had been taken
to Columbia for safe keeping.
The people of Greer were much
;; wrought up and there is little doubt
shot to death in few minutes had
he fallen into the hands of the mob.
The citizens were not boisterous;
they had little to say, but they were
determined to make an object lesson
of the negro brute.
Sheriff Gilreath and Mayor Burgess
and the other officials of Greer, by
their prompt action, prevented the
lynching. The plan of spiriting the
negro away was skillfully planned
and neatly executed.
Johnson, the negro who insulted
Miss Mcclure and who made an i'm
proper proposal to her, has always
borne a good reputation. He was
the janitor of the school building and
potter negro could not have been
found in the whole country. This
makes his action in making an i'm
proper proposal to the young lady
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