~ ^ m f ■ j ONLY NEWSPAPEt^ IR yjfflflYAHIA COUNTY A HOME PAPER FOR HOME MOPUE-ALL HOME PRINT VOLTJIE—XVI BREVARD, NORTH GAROimA, lilDAY. NOVEMBER 24. 1911. NUMBER-47 IN PITCHED BATTLE WITH MURDERERS LAST THURSDAY LOCAL OFFICER SHOOTS TO KILL While Tiying To Arrest Two Elrod Men Wanted For Murder in Pickens County, Deputy Slieriff i^xton Has Hard Figiit and KiHs One. . In a pitched battle on the out skirts of Brevard last Thursday af ternoon about four o’clock between Thomas Elrod and his son, Leroy Garrison Elrod, and Deputy Sheriff Branch Paxton the younger Elrod was shot and killed by the officer, and the elder Elrod and Mr. Paxton were both rather badly bruised. About noon Sheriff Shuford re ceived a long distance message from the sheriff of Pickens county. South Carolina, asking him to be on the lookont for the two Elrod men who were wanted for the killing on the previous day of a man near Easley. Information soon reached the ofEL- cers that two men answering the descriptton had been seen along the railroad track between here and Pisgah Forest, and Sheriff Shuford and Deputy Sheriff Paxton went after them. Sheriff Shuford went on the afternoon train to Pisgah Forest to head them off there, while the deputy started out from Bre vard along the railroad. At the house of Pink Camp near the Y just out of town Derputy Pax ton found the two men wanted. He ordered them to surrender, and they threw up their hands. ’He then approached close to them to secure their weapons, when the elder Elrod knocked the pistol from the hands of the officer, and a hand to hand conflict followed. A num ber of shots were fired. The young er Eh'od had a shot gun which he fired twice, and also shot at the of ficer with his pistol. The officer returned the fire, and one of his shots entered the breast of young Elrod, as a result of which he died within a few minutes. The father of the boy was soon overpowered, and brought on to the county jail. In the fight Mr. Paxton received a number of painful bruises over the head and shoulder, and was struck in the leg by scattering shot from the shot gun. While painful ly hurt, his wounds were not of a serious nature. Thomas Elrod was badly beaten over the head before finally surrendering. Sheriff Shuford had gone on to Pisgah Forest and did not reach the scene of the fight until after Mr. Paxton had succeeded in overpow ering his men and making the ar rest of one. Sheriff Roark of Pickens county, S' C., arrived in Brevard shortly aft€r the affair, and stated that the Elrod men were the ones wanted. The following from the Greenville News tells the story of the tragedy in South Carolina for which the uien wero being arrested: “A disturbance occurred in the Georj,'e's Creek settlement near Easley Wednesday afternoon which resulted in Alex Graham receiving ^ Kunshot wound in the right leg, Causing his death early Thursday Corning. The two other men in volved were Thomas and Leroy El- father and son. These two • ^ave made their escape and the other one did not give out a state- ®^ent before his death, so it is not '^own which of the Elrods com mitted the crime. “Rumors are to the effect that the frozen from the lon^ exposure. He was carried to thp house imme diately and medical aid summoned. The physician did not think the wound Prions but from the shock he died sometime early Thursday morning.” About eight o’clock Thursday evening Coroner A. E. Lyday held an inquest, the following being the members of the jury: J. L. Bell, L.^ Aiken, J. C. King, W. H. Ly- da;y, it. I. Allisou and J. P. Bowen. The verdict was that Leroy Garri son Elrod came to his death at the hands of an officer in the discharge of his duty, and that the homicide ♦vas justifiable. In testifying before the coroner’s jury Mr. Paxton said: ‘ Sheriff Shufor^ phoned me he was going to Pisgah Forest and that George Marshall had told him he saw the men at the railroad Y who fitted the description and for me to come on and he would get off the train at Pisgah Forestand meet me. When I got to the Y I saw our men at a house, I suppose • it was Pink Camp’s. I arrested them. The boy ran around the house and the older man overpowered me ana got my pistol. I got it back and reloaded it, and they were going towards the woods. The boy had a shot ^un. I told them to throw up their hands. The boy shot at me and I shot at him three times. I arrest-ed the old man and turned him over to the sheriff. That is about all I know. They made an assault on me at the house but I was not hurt at that place. The boy hit me once after he was shot. I think three or four shots were fired at me. The old man shot twice and the boy twice, once with pistol. I went to the place in consequence of information the sheriff got from the sheriff of Pick ens county. The homicide occurred while both parties were ^ resisting arrest.” Pink Camp, near whose house the affair took place, testified to the desperate struggle which took place between the Elrod men and the officer. Sheriff Shuford, J. A. Galloway, T. B. Summey and W. R. Kinsey told of the finding of the dead body of the younger Eli*od, of the. condition of the grounds, and the condition of the deputy sheriff and the arrested man, all of which showed the hard fight which had taken place. The sheriff from Pick ens county testified that the two men were the two wanted. He had followed their trail as far as Cedar Mountain from which place he had called for the aid of the local of ficers. Thomas Elrod wap taken back to Easley Friday, and the body of his son was taken home in a hack. Alex Graham, who was killed »in South Carolina, at one time lived in this county, and was quite well known here. Thomas Elrod is a man about sixty-two years old, and his boy was p bout nineteen. The old man admitted that he had shot Graham as charged, and he will probably have to pay the penalty for his crime. the quarrel grew frorn jealousy on part of the Elrods. The woman ^^^^tion it seems was in the habit ?ome: to Graham’s house several lilies a w'eok to clean up his quar- ^ or some reason unknown e other two men objected to this so yesterday afternoon the ^ ree were in a corn field together again brought up the ]ect. About an hour after the place (graham was scene of the shooting ^ e to move, as he was almost INCREASE CLERKS’ PAY President Finley, of the Southern Railway Company, announced last week that, in recognition of the value of their service and their loyalty to the interests of the com pany, the inanagement had author ized an advance in the salaries of its clerical employees heretofore rebeiving $70.00 per month or less. This advance is to be effective as of November 1, 1911. REMODELING fUniDING. -J The store room qn the corner of Main and Broad sf.iwts, formerly occupied by T. W. ^Whitmire, ’ js being fitted up' for a. new drug store, J. W» Duckworth is proprie tor and manager of Jt]^e new en^to- prise. ^ ’ ' The work w^iicli being don# Includes, a general ot'erhauling of the interior of the J^otn and such changes on the outa&^ ren der the building for the business in vi0w. The install ment of mahogany fixtures, coun ters, fountains, etc., will take place, and these together with .the changes and repairs will necessi tate a considerable outlay of capital. The front of the room and abput twenty feet on the Broad street side will be^ fitted up with «olid glass panels. Workmen are now busy cutting out the required space in the wall along Broad street. At the corner there will* be an entrance from each street. This will be an advantage to customers coming from, eithpr Erection. The situation f turnip ^edjger acre^ gr the Cow- horn variety, claiming that the turnip leaves protect the young clover plants in their early stages. It can do no harm to sow the turnip seed as these crops are intended to plow under next spring to improve the soil. / The seed should be covered with a cultivator or with a harrow about one inch deep. In the western part of the state these should be put in at once so as to make sufficient growth to withstand the wintejr. In the Costal Plain section Bur Clover is also fine for a. winter- cover c^op. The seed of this is usually purchased in the rough or bur and should be planted at the rate of from three to four bushels of the burs per acre, and covered about one inch deep. These should go in at once. Acid phosphate can be used with these to advantage. Hairy vetch also makes a fine winter-cover crop, and will succeed in almost any part of the state on well drained land, especially where Partridge or Mountain peas ^row. If spwn alone sow at the rate of 30 pounds of seed per acre, and if with rye or other small grain, one bush el of small grain and 20 pounds of vetch per acre. They should be sown at about the same time as crimson clover and covered from one to two inches deep. Where none of these crops will grow successfully sow rye at the rate of one and a half bushels per acre. You want a heavy growth to protect the land and to add a great quanity of veja^etable matter when turned under next spring., Turn under two or three weeks before you wish to plant the crop which is to follow. Rye especially should not be i)ermitted to get woody before turning under. Bet ter turn it under as soon as the heads begin to appear than to wait until it is grown. If it ^ets tull grown and dry weather follows it would leaVg the land so open and loose that the crop following it would suffer more than if no rye was put on the land. All these crops should be disked well and thoroughly cut up before plowing under next sprinp;. Good results may expected only when they are well mixed with the soil before the^crop is planted. If anyone doubts the benefits to' Continued on page 3.