OBIT: Joseph GIBBS, 1880, Johnstown, Cambria County, PA

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HOMICIDE IN CONEMAUGH.
Joseph Gibbs, a Colored Citizen, Struck on the Head and Killed - The 
Coroner's Inquest.

  A colored man named Joseph Gibbs, for several years past a resident 
of Johnstown, died in the lockup of Conemaugh borough yesterday 
morning, from the effects of a blow upon the head, administered at the 
hands of Andrew Malatt.  On Wednesday afternoon he was employed with 
several other laborers in digging a trench in Conemaugh borough.  
Toward evening he became intoxicated and quarrelsome, and on returning 
from one of his visits to the tavern found his shovel taken from the 
place where he had left it.  He accused Andrew Malatt, a colored fellow 
workman, of having taken it, but the latter denied the accusation and 
pointed out the shovel to him.  Gibbs became surly and said it was not 
his shovel but that Malatt had it.  A scuffle ensued by the parties 
were soon separated, when Gibbs began swearing at his opponent.  
Shortly after he made another attempt to grab it, when Malatt turned 
and struck him in the back with the back of it, fracturing the skull 
and wounding the nose and lips.  The wounded man then left for another 
drink, and this was the last noticed of him until he was gathered in by 
the police in the evening.  He was found asleep on the pavement and was 
hauled in a wagon to the lockup, where he was laid in a bunk.  About 
seven o'clock yesterday morning he was found dead where he had been 
laid.  An inquest was held in the afternoon, at which Dr. John Lowman 
testified that he had made a post mortem examination and discovered 
that a comminuted fracture of the frontal, temporal and side bones of 
the head had been inflicted.  A large clot of blood was found lying on 
the brain, and the front part of the brain was lacerated.  After 
hearing several witnesses who were present at the time of the assault 
the jury brought in a verdict that "Joseph Gibbs came to his death by a 
blow from a shovel in the hands of Andrew Malatt."  Both men were well 
advanced in years, and both had been slaves.  The man who was killed 
was of dissipated habits, and when drunk quite quarrelsome.  Malatt is 
a man who has resided for the last ten years in Johnstown, and has a 
wife and several children to provide for.

Morning Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Friday, January 16, 1880