The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-27
TIE PLACE WAS HAUNTED
HOW SIN 1T RETRIBUTlON OVER
STON COUNTY.
He Had Killed a Traitor, and Being
Troubled in Conscience. Showing
tfiS Wife Scene of Murder, and Was
f1imself Swallowed Up by An Awful
tGua9mife.
BY +. j. HOLT.


small boy. | spent the most of my
daytime with an old negro man,
whose principal work was driving an
OK cart, hauling on the plantation
where [ was living. He was one Of
rhe old time negroes, wonderfully in
dustrious. very kind to me and polite
and d~eferential to all the white folks
he kind of negro that the boys of
rOCay know nothing of for that class
Of negroes has disappeared, leaving
no successors.
/ rode hundreds of miles on the
otG mans cart. behind one of the
finest pair OF oxen l eevr saw, and
many wonderful tales he told me.
on n occasion. late in the even
inG, he began to whip and hurry his
team and said Il want to get by the
Douglass O.d Place before night; that
place is unite and [ am afraid to
go along by there after sunset
nat remark of the old man got
me very much interested and with a
little effort [ drew from him the fol-
lowing story.
Shortly after the Revolutionary
war there had come q man and his
vie into this settlement, who built 4
cabin and cleared q few acres of land
around II at tbs place. They lived
there for some years. Douglass, for
thai was the mans name. spent most
of ais time in the woods hunting and
on the creeks fishing. He was q
silent. grum sort Of a man. with very
little use for neighbors and was very
seldom seen by any Of the few peo-
pie who then lived in this part Of the
country, and never without his rifle or
dsh'ng outfit, and not even on a fish
ing trip did he leave his gun at nome.
On evening, the old negro old me,
thee came to the Douglass cabin q
man. q stranger travelling or foot
with a pack OF his shoulders. He ap-
peared to be a peddler and asked per-
mission to spend the night with the
Douglass family. which was granted.
That night he Informed Douglass
he was q trader and was on his
way to the head water Of Eeuse
river, where he hoped to dispose of
the goods in his pack and invest the
proceeds and other funds he had
with him. in otter and mink skins.
which he would load on q small boat
and boat down the river to New Bern.
he should sell out at q splen-
die profs.
soon the tired peddler was soundly
sleeping after his hard days tramp,
with his heavy load, his pack of goods
lying BY his side. Some time after
the peddler was asleep, Douglass load
ed MS ever-ready rifle. and with no
witness save his wife, deliberately
shot the Deddler in the head, killing
him instantly. He hen searched the
BODY and found cutie a sum OF
Then he examined the pack
age of goods which he happily found
70 pc exactly what he most desired
powder lead. fish-hoOks, gun flints,
and hunters knives.
There was in the low grounds of
the creek near by at the bottom Of q
high. steep hill, q noted quagnire or
COW mire." as h old negro called
it, a marsh OF bog of uu!ck-sand Gov
cred over with rottine leaves and q
thin layer Of black mud, all saturated
with water and SO soft that no ami
MAY heavier than a squirrel or rab-
bit could pass OVer it with safety.
q deer and COW had there found
their last resting place, never to be
seen or heard OF again.
Douglass. after getting the peddler's
money, carried the dead body through
the woods to this uuagmire and walk
on g fallen tree. which lay across
it, dropped the bod into the bog.
# had disappeared beneath the
ana he felt sure his crime
was covered for all time and that he
would never be brought to justice for
awful deed. HI then returned to
his cabin and at early dawn. took the
money which he had found in his vic
pockets, and went out into the
woods and buried it, no one knowing
had il but his wife and even she
not knowing where he had buried it.
The next evening he became uneasy,
and was fearful that the woods or at
the quagrnire, which he might have
left some trace through which might
lead to, the discovery of the awful
murder, and being SuperStitiOuS and
AFRAID to be alone SO 500 after his
awful crime. he took his wife with
MN and together they followed the
trail through the woods to the place
where he had deposited the dead
BODY. He walked in on the same