The Monroe journal. [volume] (Monroe, N.C.) 189?-1965, 1910-08-09
CUT NEPHEW TO DEATH.
FATAL FIGHT BY CITIZENS OF
NEW SALEi1 TOWNSHIP.

in his Section, Stays Young
Clifford Thomas and Is Himself
Badly hurt--Fight Occurred in
Arson on the Way Home from
Funeral---AIl Parties Arrested.
Bad Blood Beforehand Brings
on the Row.
Last Saturday afternoon, Mr.. VIII
son Curran, who lives on the College
road, three miles this side Of Olive
Branch, stabbed to death Clifford
Thomas, the twenty-one-ye son
of his neighbor and brother-in-law
Mr.. Henry Thomas. That is about
all that is known with certainty.
Friends Of both sides have their YER
sion Of the affair and these vary very
widely. The beginning Of bad blood
dates back several weeks. The
Thomases claim Curran had made
improper proposals to daughter Of
Mr.. Henry Thomas, while the other
side say he merely let her ride on a
cultivator which he was using and
which his own and other children
had been riding. The tragedy oc-
Cured in the road while the parties
were returning from Arson county,
where they had been to attend the
funeral Of Mr.. Hosea Ross, who died
on Friday. The Curran side say
that he had been hit several times
and knocked down by Thomas by
knucks, and stabbed him to prevent
being beaten to death. The Wades.
boro Messenger and Intelligencer, in
its edition yesterday, tells what it
has been able to learn about the af-
fair as follows:
Saturday afternoon huntsville
township, near the Union county
line, was the scene Of a bloody trag-
edy in which one man, Clifford
Thomas, lost his life, and two other
men received injuries of a more or
less serious nature. The parties to
the difficulty were Wilson Curran
and his son, Walter; Brady Rushing
and the dead man. All of them live
in Union county, not far from The
Arson county line. The dead man
was first cousin of Messrs. F. E.
and c. W. Thomas of Wadesboro,
his father, Henry Thomas, being a
brother of their father, Mr.. J. W.
Thomas Of Diamond Hill. Curran,
who is an uncle by marriage of the
man he slew, is a son of Mr.. S. P.
Curran Of Arson.
"The exact particulars Of the trag-
edy have been difficult to obtain, but
it seems that Curran and his son,
Walter, and Clifford Thomas and
Brady Rushing attended the burial
of Mr.. Hosea Ross at Fountain Hill
Saturday. On their way back to
their homes in Union county, Rush
ing and Thomas got into a fight.
Curran and his son we're ahead of
Thomas and Rushing and it is said
the elder Curran, looking back and
seeing the fight, left his buggy and
ran back and struck Thomas. Thorn
as then hit Curran and knocked him
down and jumped on him. Curran,
by this time, had gotten out his
knife and was carving Thomas from
beneath while his son, Walter, who
had also joined the combatants, was
using his knife on his back. Final
ly the elder Curran stabbed Thomas
to the heart and the young man ex-
pired almost instantly. Thomas, it
is said, was horribly cut about the
body, face and head. The part Rush
ing took in the affair at this time
could not be learned this morning.
1t is said, however, that both he and
the elder Curran are injured, but not
seriously.
1.-THE two Currans and Rushing
were arrested late yesterday after
noon and are having a preliminary
hearing today before Esq. j. D. Hy-
att at Diamond Hill"