Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-04-16
STOLE BY WHOLESALE
Altogether old man chasise HAWKINS


and his two sons got about $500 worth
Of goods from merchants of Sharon
and maybe more than that. II Is
reasonably certain that the amount
was no less than five hundred dollars.
The Hawkins family lived on the }.
T. Summerford place, about two miles
northwest of Sharon. They were Or
dinary poor people, so far as their
neighbors were concerned. and al
though they were under more or less
suspicion as petty thieves, nobody had
any idea that they had ever operated
In q wholesale way.
Some of the wary merchants OF Sha-
ron watched them closely when they
went into the stores. which was not
often--not in daytime-but that was
about all. Their final detection and
arrest was purely a matter OF acci-
dent.
Horace Whitesides missed some corn
from the mill. 1t had rained the day
before, the ground was still wet. and
the track Of buggy that no one re-
membered to have seen at the mill the
day before. was easy to follow. This
track was followed to the Hawkins
house about three miles away and the
circumstances were sufficient to justify
an application to Magistrate, Smith for
a warrant.
AS the result of the search of, the
Hawkins home under the warrant,
there was disclosed a miscellaneous
assortment of goods Of such an amaz-
ing quantity as to strike the searchers
of the improbability that the stuff
could have been honestly acquired.
The assortment included articles that
the Hawktns's would hardly have
bought anyway, and there was too
much Of it-whole bolts of cloth. nu-
merous new suits OF clothes, hats,
shoes and the like-a little OF every
thing in fact to be found in a general
store or in an assortment OF general
stores.
Charlie Hawkins, and Avery and
Joe. his two sons. were arrested and
committed to jail were they have since
prisoners would tell anythinge They
claimed they had bought the goods at
different times with their own good
money. mostly from negroes; but they
could not give the names of the ne
groes or explain why they wanted
such an extensive assortment OF stun
for which they appeared to have no
earthly use.
When Mr.. Sam b.. Pratt OF Sharon,
visited the prisoners In jail last Sat
urday morning he was able to get
considerable amount Of information.
The prisoners would not volunteer
anything: but when Mr. Pratt pinned
them down to certain goods that he
had identified as having come from
his store and from nowhere else, the
boys came across. They confessed
having stolen the articles actually
identified. and also they admitted that
they had entered Mr.. Pratt's store on
skeleton keys which they said had
been made by their brother law.
Felix Childers.
One OF the Hawkins boys. accom-
panied by Deputy Sheriff Quinn. went
out to the house with Mr.. Pratt last
Saturday morning and identified about
fifty dollars worth OF goods that be-
longed to Mr.. Pratt in addition to
about two hundred dollars worth Mr..
Pratt had already recovered. Also he
pointed out four sacks Of fertilizer
that had been stolen from r. H. G.
Caldwell: but he would not identify
goods which had not already been
identified by the owners.
About Sharon 1t is said that the
Hawkins's had skeleton keys to prac-
tically every store in town except,
possibly. Hills. IT is alleged that keys
were made by Felix Childers: but
Childers had skipped, and he has not
yet been arrested.
Messrs. Shannon G. Plexico recover
4 goods that had been stolen from
I'm to the amount Of about $500 and
r. d. Hope recovered perhaps $50
worth. Mr.. J. n. Russell Of BlairsvilIe,
got back a saddle that had been stolen
from him some months ago, and there
were other commodities about, includ-
ing a pile OF cotton seed that are sup
posed to have been stolen, but which
the owners have not yet been able to
identify.