Anson County NcArchives Obituaries.....Hough, Percy L. 1929
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Jack F. Hall deadchaser@vistatech.net September 1, 2009, 9:47 pm

Newspaper
Wadesboro Man Dies In Automobile Wreck

Percy L. Hough Fatally injured when His Car Collides With One Driven by Pat L. 
Sullivan, of Charlotte

Sullivan and His Wife Very Seriously Hurt

Five Negroes In Hough’s Car All Hurt

Head On Collision About Half Mile West of Pee Dee River Bridge

In possibly the worst automobile wreck in the history of Anson county,last 
Tuesday morning about 11 O’clock, Mr Percy L. Hough, well known citizen of 
Wadesboro, was injured so badly that he died a few minutes later,and Mr. And 
Mrs. Pat L. Sullivan,of Charlotte,were so badly injured that it is not yet 
known whether they will live or die. Five Negroes who were in Mr. Hough’s car 
were injured, but only two of them seriously. They are Bud Willoughby,Bob 
Willoughby, Joe Smith, Henry Lomax and J. K. Wall. The two Willoughby’s are 
the worst injured.

Mr Hough, who was driving his car, suffered severe cuts about the head and 
face,internal injuries about the chest, and his left arm and his right leg 
were both broken. He lived for several minutes after the wreck, and was 
conscious at least part of the time. When he was moved out of the car, he 
asked that he be lifted up. This was done and he was supported in a sitting 
position,but in a few moments he fell over and died.

Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan and all the Negroes were carried by passing motorists to 
the Hamlet hospital. Mrs. Sullivan suffered a fracture at the base of the 
skull, a broken jaw and severe cuts where her head went through the 
windshield. The lower side of her face was almost torn off. Mr. Sullivan was 
badly broken up about the chest where he was thrown against the steering wheel 
of his car when the impact came. Mr. Sullivan appears to be 55 to 60 years old 
and his wife is apparently about the same age.

Bud Willoughby suffered a broken arm and several cuts about the head and face.

Rob Willoughby was injured seriously about the chest.

Joe Smith was cut severely about the left eye and was badly bruised.

Henry Lomax suffered cuts and bruises.

J. K. Wall was very little injured and was able to leave the hospital Tuesday 
afternoon after being treated.

The accident happened about half a mile west of the Pee Dee river, on the 
curve just where the road to Pee Dee begins to bear away from No. 20 highway. 
Mr. Hough, with the Negroes, was on his way to his sawmill near Clarkton, in 
the eastern part of the state, in a Chevrolet coach. Mr Sullivan, in a Lincoln 
sedan, was driving west toward Wadesboro. The cars met, according to the looks 
of the pavement, almost in the middle of the road, and the right side of the 
front of each car suffered the main force of the impact, which was terrific. 
Apparently each car was, to some extent, on the other man’s side of the road. 
The Chevrolet was almost demolished, the engine being driven back, all glass 
broken, and the entire body broken up. The front of the Lincoln was driven in 
and the windshield broken.

Possibly the exact cause of the tragedy will never be known, but Sheriff J. 
Flake Martin and Mr. Ben Hough went to Hamlet Tuesday afternoon and talked to 
the Negroes who were able to talk. They said that Mr. Hough was on his side of 
the road driving at his ordinary speed, probably about 30 miles an hour. And 
they saw the Lincoln approaching at terrific speed and on their side of the 
road. I looked as if the big car would hit them, and at the last moment Mr. 
Hough pulled over to the left in an attempt to avoid the collision, which 
occurred nevertheless. What was in Mr. Hough’s mind can not be known, but it 
was at the point in the highway where a car going west and to Pee Dee would 
begin to pull over to the left, and he may have thought the Sullivan car was 
going to Pee Dee, and therefore pulled over to his left. Men who saw the 
speedometer of the Lincoln car after the wreck, say it was hung up at more 
than 75 miles an hour, and if it was going at that speed it may have been 
impossible to keep on the inside of the road.

Mr. K. Van Gulledge, of Gulledge Township, was the first person to arrive on 
the scene after the wreck. He says it was a terrible sight. Mr Hough was lying 
in the car with his head hanging out of the right hand door. All the Negroes 
had been thrown from the car, and several of them were lying unconscious. Mr 
Sullivan was sitting behind the wheel in his car in a natural position, 
although he probably was unconscious. Mr Gulledge was unable to do anything 
worth while to save their lives and he hurried down to filling stations at the 
bridge to phone for help. The phone was out of fix. By the time he got back to 
the scene, others had arrived and the injured were being taken out of the cars.

A passing motorist hurried to Lilesville and summoned Dr. Wyatt there and 
phoned to Wadesboro for ambulances, and in the meantime other motorists 
carried the injured to Hamlet. Dr. J. D. Maynard was among the first to 
arrive, he having started on trip to the eastern part of the state, but he had 
no instruments and was able to do little Mr. Sullivan formerly lived in 
Rockingham, where he was connected with one of the mills there, but for 
several years he had lived in Charlotte, being engaged in the dye stuffs 
business.

Sketch of Mr. Hough

Percival Lee Hough, whose sudden and tragic passing shocked the entire county, 
was a son of the late Hezekiah Hough and the late Mrs. Julia Martin Hough, and 
was57 years old. He was born in Lilesville Township, and had lived all his 
life in the county, much of the time in Wadesboro. He was the owner of a large 
farm in Lilesville township, and in recent years had done much lumbering, 
having saw mills in the vicinity of Clarkton, where, for some time, he had 
spent much time. He returned from Clarkton last Saturday with the Negroes, who 
were employed by him, and all had started back to Clarkton Tuesday morning.

He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Frankie Staton Hough. and by the following 
sons and daughters: Everette Hough, of Hot Springs, Va.; Preston Hough, of 
Clarkton; Ben Hough, of Wadesboro; Wat Hough, of Andrews,S.C.; Ben Hough, of 
Wadesboro; Misses Eula B.,Edna and Addie Hough, at home. Surviving also are 
one sister Mrs H. H. Cox, and two brothers, Messrs. W.R. Hough, of Lilesville, 
and Ed. Hough. 

He was a good citizen, dignified and conservative in his bearing, honorable in 
all his dealings, having the respect and esteem of all who knew him. He was a 
member of the Baptist church. He had a reputation as a careful automobile 
driver, and only last Monday, in a conversation on the corner, he said that he 
had only one life to live, and that he intended to drive carefully. He made it 
a rule never to go faster than 35 miles an hour and to keep on his side of the 
road.

The funeral was held Wednesday afternoon at the Hough residence here by Dr B. 
F. Bray and Rev. M. L. Dorton, of Badin, in the presence of a large gathering 
of friends and relatives, and interment was in Eastview cemetery, where the 
body was laid to rest beneath a mound of beautiful flowers.

This article was transcribed from a copy obtained from Mrs. Barbara Roesch of 
Highland. Ca. And Mr. Randy Tarlton of Wadesboro, NC. The event took place in 
1929.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/anson/obits/h/hough1918ob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/

File size: 7.7 Kb