The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-06-20
N 'C0RM|CK NEGRO
LYNCHED BY MOB
QUARLES CAPTURED
SUNDAY NEAR MT. VERNON
CHURCH AND HUNG AFTER
CONFESSING TO CRIMINAL
ASSAULT ON WHITE WOMAN.

Mccormick, June 19.-The posse
which yesterday morning began the
hunt for Herbert Quaries, a negro,
charged with criminally assaulting a
white woman, one mile west of Plum
Branch, caught the negro at o'clock
this afternoon and put him to death.
There were probably two thousand
men in the search. The negro was
found hiding under some brush,
about fifteen miles from the place
where he committed the crime and
about one mile from where he was
raised. When those finding him
wre in about ten feet Of him. he
jumped up out of the brush, holding
his hands up in an effort to keep
from being shot: Hundreds Of shots
were fired in the air as an alarm by
those near the spot. The news
spread rapidly and the posse soon
gathered on the scene. Men from
Greenwood, Saluda, Edgefeld, Aiken
Abbeville, Newberry and Lincoln
county, Georgia Joined in the hunt.
He begged not to be burned and
was made to climb tree, where he
was chained. When some limbs OBJ
structed the view of his face he
obligingly broke away the foliage so
that the marksmen could take better
aim. It is said about 5000 shots were
fired into his body.
Every effort was made by officers
to evade the infuriated mob and rush
the negro away for safe keeping; but
the members of the party had held
themselves at high tension too long
to allow their victim to escape, and
their determination and numbers
were too strong for the officers.
The victim of the brutal assault
lives in sparsely settled community
between the town of Plum Branch
and the Savannah river, about 800
yards from her mail box, and it is
stated that she went to the mail box
Saturday morning about 8 o'clock
and the negro, Herbert Quarles, who
also lives nearby and who was at the
time working in a field nearby, left
his plow standing in the field and
waited for her at the mail box.
When she came up he choked her al
most to insensibility and dragged
her to nearby wood, where he is
said to have accomplished the crime.
The victim is - a married woman,
about 80 years of age. Her husband
was not at home at the time and she
was choked, strangled or frightened
into Inconsistencies by the brute,
who, it is alleged, after committing
the crime, went to his own home,
obtained his best clothes and imme-
diately left with them under his arm,
wearing the overals in whirh he had
been working.
He was said to be an ex-service
man, about 80 years of age, six feet
tall, weighing about 100 or ITO
pounds and bore anything but a
good reputation. He is said to have
been accused of similar crime upon
negro girl in the Callison section
of Mccormick county about ten
years ago but escaped punishment
on account of lack of evidence. He
is also said to be the first negro sent
to the chaingang in this county. He
was convicted of stealing several
hundred dollars and served his time
out.
AS soon as the alarm was given
Saturday morning a posse was quick
ly organized and went to the scene,
but it was found impossible to get
along through the woodland on his
trail, and Sheriff Cannon Blease of
Newberry was wired for blood
hounds, which arrived about 2 o.
clock Saturday afternoon and imme-
diately took up the trail for several
miles.
People in the community reported
having seen the negro pass going in
the direction of Edgefeld. At one
time it was thought the negro was