The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-06-23
Died FOR HIS DUTY
SHERIFF HOOD IS SACRIFICED
CARRYING OUT LAW
WAS A Brave OFFICER

Together With His Deputies Dead
Sheriff Stood for the Majesty of
His State and Tried to Guard His
Prisoner From Eiolence-Deputies
Acted Bravely and Are Wounded.
The passage of time only adds to
the awfulness Of the tragedy at
Winnsboro Monday. when Sheriff A.
| D. Hood was shot down while taking
a negro up the court house steps to
place him on trial on charge OF as
sault.
That the negro lost his life is a
mere incident, for standing out in all
it's horror is the toll enacted by men
who gave vent to their passions and
took the law into their own hands.
staining the portals of the Fairfield
| Teml'e of Justice with the blood of
their own sheriff and deputies, and
all because these men did their sworn
duty and upheld the law.
All that is mortal of Sheriff A. D.
Hood lies in Winnsboro, while two
juries-the coroner's jury and thc
grand jury of Fairfield coanty-are
probing into the tragedy with the de-
termination to bring those response
BILE before the bar of justice.
While this was taking place, Clyde
Isenhower, the alleged leader of the
mob, lay on a bed in a hospital in
Chester lowering on the brink Of
eternity, his body racked with the
terrific suffering caused from more
than half a dozen pistol bullets which
penetrated him, until death claimed
him.
In an adjoining room Of this same
hospital is Deputy Sh riff Earle Stew
enson, his left arm riddled with two
pistol bullets received from the mob
while doing his duty. In Columbia
hospital is J. R. Boulware, another
one of the brave deputies who stood
gallantly by their lnatchless leader on
the court house steps and gave an eX-
ample Of devotion to duty which is
ringing throughout South Carolina.
Deputy Boulware received a bullet in
his abdomen, serious wound.
Locked up in jail in Winnsboro,
which is directly across the street
from the court house, the scene Of the
tragedy, are ernest Isenhower, Jesse
Morrison, and Jim Rawls, charged
with being members of the mob and
participating in the shooting. Ernest
Isenhower is brother of Clyde 1sen-
hover, who is said to have been the
leader Of the mob, and the man who
fired the first shot. Jesse Morrison
is a brcther-in-law Clyde Isenhower
himself would have faced charge OF
murder had he recovered.
The attacking party is said to have
been composed of only five, and the
consensus of opinion IS that the
whole affair was planned in advance.
The suddenness with which the at
tack was made and the quickness
with which it was all over, together
with the evidences left by bullets
which hit the court house, strengthen
the belief in the conspiracy.
This matter is receiving attention
at the hands of the Fairfield grand
4 jury, which began an investigation
as soon as Judge Wilson made his
!. vigorous charge to them, in which
he denounced the affair as an AS
sassination."
Sheriff Hood had started up the
steps with the negro prisoner be-
tween him and Policeman. Haynes,
with his deputies in the rear, and the
crowds following behind, when the
first pistol shot was fired. Clyde
Isenhower is said to have been stand
ing within less than a dozen feet of
the sheriff, and it is said that his
shot was the first to be fired, the bull
let entering the stomach of the negro
and killing him.
The sheriff received several bullet,
it is stated, in his body before he
could pull his gun which he emptied
at the aggressor. The deputies join
ed in returning the fire of the assail-
ants and it all happened before any
one could realize what was going on.
:. Standing out from the awfulness
of the tragedy is the mstchless brav-
cry and the dauntless devotion to
duty of Sheriff Hood, who gave up
his life in defence of the wretched
negro rather than surrender him to
ne vengeance of the mob. Although
mortally wounded, shot through and
through, and with blood pouring
from the many perforations, Sheriff
Hood dragged the dying negro up the
steps of the court house and pushed
him into the dock before he fell to
the floor.
The negro doed within few min
boro. He tas l.rge number OF
brothers; one tf them, Ernest, who
is in jail charged with taking part in
the attack, has been teaching school
i in Clarendon county for two years.
Another brother is rural police
man, another a. town policeman in
Winnshoro and still another pastor
of a string of Baptist churches in
this county.
/ Clyde Isenhower was put in the
baggage car of the northbound train
in the c.fternoon and taken to a hos
pital in Chester. He was accom-
panied by his wife. His aged mother
was in tears when the train pulled
out. By his side on another cot was
Earle Stevenson, one of the deputies
who had helped defend the prisoner,
bleeding from the bullet wounds in
his left arm. Jesse Morrison, the
brother-in-law, is said to be from
Great Falls, in Chester county.
The people of Winnsboro are
strong in their condemnation of the
affair, and are demanding vigorous
prosecution OF the guilty parties.
They say that it has put stain on
their town, long known as place
where law and order prevailed and
proud of their untarniShed record in
the past. They declare that the mob
was composed of less than half a
dozen, none of whom were Winns-
boro people. They do not hesitate to
say that the whole thing as planned.
q conspiracy which they can find has
only been paralleied by the Rillsyille,
Va. tragedy.
The shooting took place at ter.
O'Clock and by noon the townspeopie
were possessed Of their accustomed
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