Clay County AlArchives News.....Mrs. Bolan Assaulted  August 31, 1907
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Linda Ayres http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007674 February 13, 2023, 11:48 pm

Birmingham Post-Herald August 31, 1907
Ashland, August 30.—(Special.)—Wednesday night about 10 o’clock the quiet home 
of Mr. Mitchel at Bluff Springs in the southern part of this Clay County was 
aroused by the screams of Mrs. Ann Bolan. She was awakened by someone going to 
her bed and taking hold of her, and when an investigation was made by her and 
Mr. Mitchel with whom she lives, it was found that a negro man was getting out 
of the room through a window. Both she and Mr. Mitchel recognized the negro as 
Harrison Harper, a negro boy about 30 years old, whom J. C. Street had sent to 
his Bluff Springs farm from Opelika, Ala. Mr. Mitchel ran the negro some 
distance but could not catch him. After obtaining help he established a cordon 
of citizens around the farm and early Thursday morning he was captured in an old 
gin house where he had gone to sleep. A lynching was avoided by the coolness of 
Mr. Mitchell and a few other of the best citizens of the county. They put the 
negro in the upper story of a house and established a strong guard while they 
awaited the arrival of Sheriff J. B. Miller, whom they had phoned to come for 
the prisoner. Sheriff Miller arrived here at 10 o’clock and safely landed the 
negro in jail. Indignation ran high and no doubt had the ladies near relatives 
known of the affair before Sheriff Miller got the negro there would have been a 
lynching. The crowd that had assembled only needed a leader.

Additional Comments:
Harrison Harper was convicted of Assault and sent to prison. 

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/clay/newspapers/mrsbolan2007gnw.txt

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