Blount County TN Archives News.....News Articles January 12, 1878 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tn/tnfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Glenn Teffeteller glennt@icx.net August 19, 2005, 12:53 pm BLOUNT COUNTY STANDAR January 12, 1878 Saturday, January 12, 1878 Moses Melton, an old man, living near Kingston, Tenn., hung himself the other day while in a fit of aberation. Last Sunday night John Mangus, at Tracy City, committed suicide by jumping into a coke oven. At Malvern, Ark., Jan. 4th, James Cooper shot and killed a desperado named H. Giles. The act is considered justifiable. A negro was shot and killed the other day at Elizabethton, Carter County, Tenn., by a man named Markland. Whisky the cause. William Smith was thrown from a wagon near Cleveland, Tenn., the other day, while hauling wood, and instantly killed, by his neck being broke. James Fry, son of the late Col. Fry, who figured conspicuously in East Tennessee during the war, was shot and killed at Morristown, the other day, by Nannie Simpson, his stepdaughter. On last Saturday, the 5th inst., in the lower end of Sevier County, 10th District, John Garner was stabbed to the heart by A.C. DeLozier. Garner was a man of 50 years of age. Whisky was the cause. On the 1st day of January, near Hartsville, Trousdale County, Tenn., a negro by the name of George Miller was shot and killed by R.P. Hall and P.B. Clay. The coroner’s verdict was that the killing was done “willfully, deliberately, premeditatively, and of malice aforethought.” Whisky was the cause. Married---On Thursday morning last at the residence of the bride’s father, by Rev. C.E. Tedford, Mr. S.A. Patton, of Rockwood, Tenn., and Miss. Mattie Norwood, of Maryville. They left on the 8:30 A.M. train for Rockwood. In Maryville at the residence of Mrs. S.J. Tedford on New Year’s day 1878, by Rev. C.E. Tedford, Rev. M.A. Mathes and Miss. Nannie Tedford. Died---On Sunday the 6th inst., on Nail’s Creek, in this county, Miss. Jane McGill of consumption, aged 18 years. The Donaldson Case---The case of the State against Spencer Donaldson was brought to a close in the Circuit Court at this place on Saturday last. In this case, the defendant, Donaldson, was charged with the murder of Priscilla Gregory, a colored girl about 17 years of age. The murder was committed some 18 months ago, and notwithstanding the testimony was all circumstantial, yet the chain of proof was so strong and so well linked together that at the December term of the Circuit Court at this place one year ago, he was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hung. He appealed from this decision to the Supreme Court at Knoxville, which Court reversed the judgement of the Circuit Court, and ordered a new trial in the case. The last trial which closed on Saturday last, occupied the time of the Court from the 26th of December to a late hour on the night of January 3rd when it was given to the jury. The proof in the case showed that Donaldson and the deceased had been on intimate terms; that she had been working for him, (hoeing potatoes) just a few days before her death, that he (Donaldson) had been at the house of the girl’s father on the day previous to her death, and had insisted on her mother sending Priscilla over after her hoe; that she went to his house on the day of her death, got her hoe, started home with it; that Donaldson saw her while there; that he left home while the girl was there; that the girl was murdered within a few hundred yards of his house with the hoe she carried; that horses tracks, composing with the feet of Donaldson’s horse are found leading from Donaldson’s stable to where the body of the girl was found; that Donaldson gives no account of his whereabouts from about the time the girl left his house which was about 3 o’clock P.M. till 5 P.M. that he gave different accounts, to different parties as to his whereabouts on that evening; that when hunting for the girl two days after her death, he tried to mislead those who were going in the direction of the body; that at the inquest over the body after it was found, and when he was being examined as a witness, his actions were such as to cause suspicion by some of the jurors; that at the burial of the body of the murdered girl, Donaldson tried to evade the company of others, was tremerlous, and showed signs of uneasiness. Even the man who had shod Donaldson’s horse testified to the kind of shoes he had shod it with, all old ones, one of them being welded in the middle, and the tracks leading from Donaldson’s stable to where the girl was murdered compared exactly with those worn by Donaldson’s horse even to the welded shoe, it making an impression in the ground at the place where welded. In fact, every particle of proof pointed to Donaldson as the guilty party. Donaldson has had two trials in the Circuit Court. Twenty-four men have sat upon two juries which have tried him, and 23 out of that 24 men have said he was guilty of murder in the first degree. In the last trial, as we understand the thing, eleven of the jurors were for finding a verdict of “guilty of murder in the first degree,” while one was opposed. This one, we learn is opposed to capital punishment, and in order to get at a verdict at all, the eleven had to agree to render a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, with mitigating circumstances, and recommended the defendant to the elemency of the Judge. This was done, and with the understanding that no appeal would be taken from his judgement; his Honor Judge Hall sentenced him to “imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for the remainder of his life.” Before passing sentence, Judge Hall asked the prisoner if he had anything to say, and was told by the Judge that if he had anything to say he now had an opportunity of doing so. Donaldson answered through his counsel “that he had nothing to say.” It was expected by some that as Donaldson claimed to be innocent, he would at least make some sort of statement, but not so; his lips appeared to be sealed, and will probably remain so with regard to this matter until the secrets of all hearts shall be made known. Notwithstanding the fact that Donaldson goes to prison for life, yet he certainly feels good under the circumstances. His was a narrow escape from the jaws of death. In this instance one man saved his life, against eleven. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/blount/newspapers/newsarti30gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/tnfiles/ File size: 6.7 Kb