Bertie County NcArchives History .....Harden, Charles T. Jr. Kille 1891
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Gerald Thomas gerald_thomas00@comcast.net March 28, 2017, 11:19 am

CHARLES THOMAS HARDEN, JR.
SHOT AND KILLED IN WINDSOR

Charles “Charlie” Thomas Harden, Jr. and Robert “Bob” Lee Askew, both of Bertie
County, were acquaintances who had developed animosities toward each other. Both
men were in their early twenties. Harden was the son of Charles Thomas Harden,
highly successful entrepreneur and proprietor of the steamer Bertie, and his
wife Abbigail “Abbie” Adams. Bob Lee Askew parents were Thomas R. Askew and
wife, Mary, of White’s Township.
The younger Harden and Bob Lee Askew had become embroiled in a dispute although
the nature of their “difficulty” was not disclosed in published reports. During
the evening of Monday, September 14,1891, the two individuals again found
themselves in the presence of each other. A group of men had gathered in the
public room of the American House Hotel in Windsor. Among them was Charles
Harden who “was very much excited and was using a good deal of profane language,
interspersed with many wild epithets.” Harden directed his verbal tirade toward
Bob Lee Askew, also present at the hotel. Harden continued to use profane
language until some of his friends succeeded in getting him out of the room and
were endeavoring to lead him to his residence, a short distance from the hotel.
The citizens had led Harden out of the inn and onto the street in front of the
building when Askew came out of the piazza. He had been listening to Harden’s
abusive language and obviously, was quite agitated. Askew walked out into the
street where Harden was standing and “something was said.” Abruptly, Askew drew
a revolver and fired a shot into Harden’s lower abdomen. Harden collapsed with a
wound in his left side a few inches above his groin.
Local citizens carried the gravely wounded Harden to his home. The bullet
apparently severed “some small artery” and produced internal hemorrhaging which
could not be curtailed. Harden suffered extensively for approximately thirty-two
hours before he expired on Wednesday morning about eight o’clock. He was married
and left a widow (Mary Elizabeth Donaldson), and an eighteen-month-old son,
Perry Rothwell Harden.
Immediately after shooting Harden, Askew fled from Windsor “to parts unknown.”
The predominant belief was that he fled to Virginia. By February 1892 Askew had
not been apprehended, prompting Gov. Thomas M. Holt (North Carolina) to offer a
$200 reward for his arrest.
__________
Author’s comments: The author found no accounts indicating that Robert Lee Askew
was arrested and brought back to Bertie County to stand trial for Harden’s
murder. Shortly before he was murdered, Charles T. Harden, Jr’s father appointed
him to the captainship of the steamer Bertie. Charles Jr. was a member of the
Windsor baseball team which was scheduled to play the Roper club at Plymouth on
Tuesday, September 15, 1891 (the day after Harden was shot). On account of the
shooting the game was postponed. Harden’s widow gave birth to the couple’s
second son in 1892. She named the boy Charles Thomas Harden. 




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