Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives News.....Murder, 1900 

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"The Virginian-Pilot" (Norfolk, VA), Sat., May 19, 1900, p. 8, col. 4 

      BRANCHVILLE. 
         _____ 

MURDERED MAN FOUND FLOATING IN THE MEHERIN RIVER. 
     (Special to Virginian-Pilot.) 
  Branchville, Va., May 18.- An inquest was held back of J. J. Wodard's farm, 
on the Meherrin river, near here to-day upon the body of an unknown white man 
found there floating in the river.  The verdict of the coroner's jury was that 
he came to his death by a pistol shot in and from the hands of an unknown 
person.  The body had evidently been in the water several days.  The falling 
away of flesh from putrefaction had destroyed all evidences of identity, the 
lower jaw being gone and all outer or exposed skin from the face, neck and 
head was gone, also the eyes, leaving only the skull and neck-bone.  Other 
parts of the body the flesh had left.  The coarse blue-knit shirt, common 
cotton pants and pair double-souled plow shoes was all the clothing found. 
Nothing was in the pockets but a cheap handkerchief.  The holes in the skull, 
where the ball entered a little below and behind the right ear and passing out 
at the left temple, caused the jury to render a verdict of murder.  No one is 
missing from the neighborhoods, and no evidences of identity and no traces 
whatever of suspicion as to who did the murder, causes a mystery yet to be 
solved.  He was placed in a coffin and buried near where found. 

  From his preserved teeth and hands, he appeared to about 25 years old, about 
five feet nine inches in height and would probably have weighed 150 pounds. 


"The Virginian-Pilot" (Norfolk, VA), Sat., May 26, 1900, p. 8, col. 2 

             FRANKLIN. 
               ___ 

THE ELECTION TUESDAY - NO NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN DROWNING MYSTERY. 
     (Special to the Virginian-Pilot.) 
  Boykins, Va., May 25.- The very inclement weather had much to do with the 
vote cast yesterday.  The negroes were very generally allied against any 
change in our Constitution.  They had been wonderfully worked up by threats of 
disenfranchisement, re-enslavement, banishment to the Philippine islands. 
This bore fruit by bringing the last negroes out and making them almost 
unanimous in their oppositions, as one very forcibly put it, "against he 
whites."  And yet there were 275 votes in favor of and 167 against the having 
of a new Constitution. 

        STILL A MYSTERY. 

  There have been no new developments in the case of the man found drowned in 
the Meherrin river.  It still remains a mystery.  All clues have been followed 
up in vain.  No one is known to be missing in that community on either side of 
the river.  The theory that the body floated from further up the stream is 
combatted by persons asserting that there are so many complete dams formed by 
driftwood and rubbish as to make this impossible.  From the course the ball 
took, ranging from the lower and back part of the right side of the head to an 
exit just above the left eye, it is generally thought to have been a case of 
murder. 
[... ]


Additional information: 

Jefferson J. Woodard appears age 68 in the 1900 Census in Boykins Dist. (#56)- 
  sheet 8B #80. 



Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
File Manager Matt Harris (zoobug64@aol.com). 

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/news/19000519vp.txt