Lenoir County, NC, Obit.  Susan RHODES 1872
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Copyright © 1999 by Sloan S Mason. This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives. by Sloan S.Mason
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Carolina Messenger
Goldsboro, Wayne Co.,N.C.

Thursday-September 19, 1872
Lenoir Co.,N.C.
A most diablolical murder was committed near La Grange, in Lenoir Co. on Sunday night last. Susan RHODES, a negro woman, employed as cook by James S. WOOTEN, Esq. Was found dead in her bed on Monday morning, with her brains beaten out. The outrage seems to have been perpetrated with an axe, which was found at the wood pile, stained with the blood of the victim. The murderer had taken pains to lock the body up in the house. The windows were all fastened inside, and thekey was missing. No arrest had been made when we last heard from there. There is however strong circumstancial evidence pointing to a negro man, named Octavous DAVIS, as being the perpetrator of this hellish crime. DAVIS had for some time been paying attention to Susan; on last Sunday the two had a quarrel. A pair of shoes which he had given Susan were also missing, and an old pair of shoes recognized by other negroes to be the property of DAVIS, were found near the wood-pile.