Bertie County NcArchives History .....Adkins, Nepoleon B Murder October 1890 ************************************************ 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: Gerald Thomas gerald_thomas00@comcast.net May 15, 2024, 3:09 pm THE MURDERS OF NEPOLEON B. ADKINS AND HIS ELDERLY MOTHER by Gerald W. Thomas (2024) Nepoleon B. Adkins, most commonly known as "Neb," was reared and resided his complete life in St. Johns township, Hertford County near Aulander, Bertie County.#1 By the mid-1880s, Neb and his wife, Rachel Henrietta Mitchell, had raised two daughters. Apparently, Rachel died between 1880 and 1885. By 1885 Neb and his eighty-five-year-old mother, Susannah, were living peacefully on his farm. (Susannah had resided with Neb for more than three decades following the apparent death of Neb’s father (unidentified) prior to 1850). Neb was a leading citizen in the Aulander-St. Johns area and considered "one of the first men" of his community.#2 On Saturday night, October 4, 1890, Neb and his mother, along with an unidentified occupant of the home, had retired for the day by nine o’clock when two men entered the home intending to commit a burglary. One (or maybe both) of the intruders attacked Neb and his mother, bashing them in their heads with an ax. The assaults were so savage that both Neb and his mother "had their brains knocked out." The intruders then reportedly robbed the house and set fire to the structure, surely in an attempt to destroy evidence of their crimes. The two assailants fled from the scene. The unidentified occupant escaped from the house and alerted near neighbors who doused the flames "in time to save the house and dead bodies from being burned."#3 The brutal murders of Neb and his mother immediately "created immense excitement" among the citizens of the area. Hertford County coroner, J. J. Purvis, convened a jury and held an inquest into murders. By Friday, October 10, law enforcement authorities had publicized a vague description of the alleged primary perpetrator: "The negro murderer is of dark complexion with a large scar on one side of his face and another on his forehead; weighs about 170 pounds and stoops somewhat in his walk." Within a week two persons came forth to the authorities and "positively identified" the suspect as Kinch Freeman, an ex-convict of the state penitentiary in Raleigh.#4 Information developed during Purvis’s inquest led law enforcement officials to identify Mike Jones as a suspect. It is not documented when law officers arrested Jones but, he may have been one of the two persons who identified Freeman. The law enforcement officials were advised that the perpetrators only stole $10 from the Adkins’ house – a detail that likely only a participant in the crime (i.e., Jones) would have known.#5 Authorities immediately launched a manhunt for Freeman whose likely whereabouts were unknown. "Considerable excitement" naturally spread across North Carolina over the Adkins murders. At the request of law enforcement officials, Gov. Daniel G. Fowle authorized a reward (amount not specified) "for the [capture of the] criminal."#6 Two months passed and no persons reported seeing, or knowing of, Kinch Freeman’s whereabouts. Apparently, he had fled to Norfolk, Virginia where during the night of Tuesday, December 16, 1890, three detectives arrested him. Norfolk Chief of Police Charles E. Pettis and detective J. O. Pitt shortly transported Freeman to Winton where Sheriff James S. Mitchell lodged him in the Hertford County jail. About two o’clock in the morning, December 24, 1890, three men appeared at the jail with a supposed prisoner they wanted the jailer to confine. One report noted that one hundred masked men surrounded the jail. The jailer "opened the jail" and approximately thirty masked men rushed and controlled him, took the keys to the jail and went directly to the cell where Kinch Freeman was detained. The men hanged Freeman by the neck from one of the jail’s rafters – his feet were still shackled.#7 Mike Jones, Kinch Freeman’s accomplice in the Adkins murders, was slated to be tried in April 1891. However, authorities did not hold the trial in Hertford County but moved the proceedings to Plymouth, Washington County. Officers transported Jones from the Winton jail to Plymouth on Monday, April 20 and his trial commenced the next day in Washington County Superior Court. Before noon on Wednesday, all evidence had been presented and the jury began deliberating. About four o’clock in the afternoon, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The evidence had been insufficient to convict Jones of the "awful crime of murder."#8 NOTES #1 Nepoleon B. Adkins was variously known as "Nepolie," "Neb," "Nep," and "N.B." Also, his surname was recorded in records as "Atkins." For this paper, the author has used the most common name by which he was known – "Neb Adkins." #2 No record exists documenting the marriage of Neb Adkins to Rachel Henrietta (maiden name unidentified) but circumstantial information indicates that they were likely married ca. 1858. Neb and Rachel’s daughters were: Corina Adkins, born ca. 1859 and married Andrew F. Hancock on March 7, 1883 in Hertford County; and Bessie Mary Adkins, born ca. 1860 and married John M. Forehand on April 20, 1880, in Hertford County. The Daily State Chronicle (Raleigh), October 7, 1890. #3 The Daily State Chronicle, October 7, 1890; The Headlight (Goldsboro), October 8, 1890; and The Standard (Concord), October 9, 1890. Other newspapers across North Carolina carried articles on the Adkins murders. The author found no record(s) identifying the person who escaped from the Adkins’s house. #4 The Daily State Chronicle, October 7, 1890; The Weekly Star (Wilmington), October 10, 1890; The Murfreesboro Index, November 14, 1890. #5 Author’s conclusion based on information in The Roanoke News (Weldon), October 16, 1890. #6 The Roanoke News, October 16, 1890; The Roanoke Beacon (Plymouth), October 24, 1890. #7 The Headlight, December 24, 1890; The Richmond Dispatch, December 25, 1890; and The Roanoke Beacon, January 2, 1891. #8 The Roanoke Beacon, April 24, 1891. Additional Comments: I had researched and drafted a paper on the killing of Nepoleon Adkins and his mother in October 1890. The Adkinses lived near Aulander but in St. Johns township, Hertford County. Since the events occurred so close to Aulander (and a number of the related newspaper accounts indicated that the Adkinses lived in Aulander), I thought it might be of interest to Bertie Co. people . File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/bertie/history/other/adkinsne291gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 6.8 Kb