Newspapers / Marion Progress (Marion, N.C.) / June 11, 1942, edition 1 / Page 1
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THE MARION PROGRESS A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE OF MARION AND McDOWELL COUNTY ESTABLISHED 1896 MARION, N. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1942 VOL. XLVI—NO. 46 Delbert Lewis Given 29 To 30 Years In State Prison For Murder Fisher Is Sentenced To 19 To 20 Years; Latta Smith Gets 9 To 10 Years. Delbert Lewis, 59, charged with strangling his aged wife to death here last September, entered a plea of guilty to second degree murder through his attorneys Tuesday morning in McDowell superior court and was sentenced to 29 to 30 years in state's prison. The judge made it plain, it was his intent to see that Lewis was in carcerated for the remainder of his natural life on account of mental aberrations alleged in the testi mony. He was arraigned Tuesday morning. Sheriff Grady Nichols was placed on the stand. He testified that about two years ago, Lewis bound and gagged his wife and left her at home but that a neighbor found and released her. The slain woman was his second wife. Sheriff Nichols testified that his first wife, now residing in South Carolina, wrote him that Lewis told her that he killed a paymaster for the C. C. & 0. railroad at the time the road was built here and robbed him and buried him. She said he showed her the grave. He said Lewis was sent to the asylum at Morganton in 1916 and that he was said to have been suf fering from delusions and halluci nations. It was brought out that Lewis shot at his first wife on one occa sion and then tried to drown him self. He remained at the hospital when it was said he seemed to be more feeble-minded than insane. According to his confession, Lewis gagged and garroted his 65 year-old wife, Emily, in their three room cottage here early in the morning of last September 6, then went off to work, leaving her to strangle. He was arrested by Sheriff Grady Nichols two days later, as he was returning home from his wife's funeral. On Sep tember 10, he was charged with murder, and later being left lo think it over, he sent for the sheriff five days later, and confessed the crime in detail. At the time of the slaying, he was employed in a coal and wood yard here as a labor cr. Henry (Bud) Fisher accused of shooting Victor Rutherford, young •negro, to death near here last March was convicted of manslaught er and sentenced to the state prison for a term of 19 to 20 years. Latta Smith, charged with rob bery, was sentenced to 9 to 10 years in state prison. Macon O'Dear, transporting whis key, four months on road. Delia Duncan, driving without operator's license, sentenced to 45 days in jail. Vernon Teague, involuntary manslaughter, sentenced from 5 to 7 years in state prison. M. H. Mull, "peeping Tom", ten months in jail. Calvin Honeycutt and Orbie Honeycutt, malicious injury, burn ing of box car and trespass; sen tenced to 15 months in jail on first charge; prayer for judgment con ducted in each case on 2nd charge. Mamie O'Dear, .assault with dead ly weapon, 45 days in jail. Bob Gilliam, assault with deadly weapon, 18 months on road. Bill and Emily Harding, trespass ing, 30 days; drunk and disorderly, 30 days. Ben Hendley, assault, prayer for judgment on payment of costs. FIVE HEAD OF CATTLE KILLED BY LIGHTNING Five head of cattle belonging to Bruce Gibbs were killed by light ning at Pleasant Gardens during the lectrical storm last Saturday afternoon. The cattle were graz ing in the pasture near Lake Ta homa when a bolt of lightning struck in the field, killing two fine Hereford cows and three calves. Enlisting in the scrap metal cam paign, the Texas petroleum indust ry has already gathered 45,0-00 gross -^tons of "idle metal". ANNOUNCE ALLOTMENT OF $16,000 FOR BURKE AND M'DOWELL PROJECT Allotment of $16,000 for the Burke - McDowell Electric Member ship corporation has been announc ed in Washington by the Rural Electrification administration. Officials of the local cooperative explained that this allotment is for membership extension, making pos sible electric service on present lines, and does not provide for new construction which appears to be suspended for the duration of the war. The fund comes as a loan for ma terials and other expenses of con necting housea with the present lines, part of which cost has already been paid from another fund which means that a portion of the new al lotment goes to replace the amount thus spent. For the duration, the REA coop erative is limited to serving patrons within 250 feet of its present lines. Not only has the war postponed plans for new lines but it has also reduced to 250 feet the distance for which the cooperative can ex tend service from the present lines. FARMERS FEDERATION PICNIC TO BE HELD AT GLENWOOD, AUG. 8 The annual Farmers Federation picnic this year will be held at Glen wood Saturday, August 8. This year the Farmers Federation picnic will be especially devoted to a war program for the farmers of j McDowell county. Every part of the program will be used to explain and encourage the farmers' part in the great national war effort. War bonds will be stressed and a special committee will be used to secure pledges and war bonds. An effort will be made to make this a great patriotic picnic and ral ly for McDowell county. The pic nic will be held at the Glenwood j high school. Everybody in the county is invited to attend and bring a well filled basket. The meeting will start at ten o'clock in the morning with music by the i Farmers Federation String band. A special invitation is extended to any musician in the county to take part on the program in the morning meeting. Along with the special music several short talks will be given. At noon the picnic lunch with watermellons will be served. Foot races, relay races, tug of war and various other contests will follow immediately after lunch with appropriate prizes in each contest. At two o'clock in the afternoon there will be two hours of singing. All choirs, quartets and other sing ers in the county are invited to at tend and take part in the singing. Song books will be given to the win ning choirs and prizes will be given to the winning quartets. MERCHANTS APPOINT BOARD OF GOVERNORS A meeting of the Merchants As-] sociation was held Tuesday evening! in the community building and the following Board of Governors was appointed: V. T. Eckerd, president, J. M. Lancaster, treasurer, D. W. Tainter, C. A. Workman, B. M. Isen hour, R. C. Spratt and I. J. Lond ner. The financial budget for the year was approved and V. T. Eckerd, president, stated that the amount pledged to the organization by members assured the continuance of the organization. Announcement was also made that material may be obtained by any local merchant from the office of the Merchants Association free of charge which pertains to recent OPA rulings. Forms are also avail able for application for license to do credit business. MASONS TO HAVE MEET NEXT MONDAY EVENING A special communication of Mys tic Tie Lodge No. 387, A. F. and A. M., will be held Monday evening at eight O'clock, it was announced this week. There will be work in the master Masons degree. A full attendance is desired. LUTHERANS OF MARION TAKE FIRST 5 HONORS AT STATE TALENT QUEST Members of St. Matthew's Luth eran church of Marion won five first prizes in the State Talent Quest held at St. Stephen's Luther an church in Hickory last Sunday. The winners are: Miss Mary Jane Kluttz, piano solo; Miss Evelyn Britt, dramatization (Mastergift); Mr. and Mrs. Junior McKinney, newspaper clippings as church news; Mr. and Mrs. Junior McKin ney, history of St. Matthew's church in pictures; John Kluttz, match cover exhibit. The winners • will be eligible to enter the International Talent Quest at the International conven ion of the Walther League to be held in Denver, Colo., July 12-18. The winners in the contest Sun day evening presented a program over WHKY Sunday evening from 8 to 9 o'clock. GLENWOOD CHURCHES TO HAVE MEMORIAL DAY Annual Memorial Day services will be held Sunday at the Glen wood Methodist Church at 11 o' clock with both the Methodist and Baptist Churches taking part. Rev. H. W. Bell, pastor, will preach the Memorial sermon and at 11:45 ser vices will be held in the cemetery. The W. 0. W. camp of Glenwood will hold services at the graves of their deceased members with a short talk by the district leader and graves will be decorated after wards. Lunch will be served at one o' clock and services resumed at two o'clock. Stanley Livingston, prin-i cipal of the Glenwood school, will make the afternoon address and special quartet music will be ren dered. The daily vacation Bible school and revival meeting of the Baptist Church will come to a close with a commencement exercise at the Bap tist Church at eight o'clock. The public is cordially invited to attend these services and bring baskets of lunch. N. Y. A. GIRLS ACCEPT DEFENSE POSITIONS Ten girls of the National Youth I Administration from areas in west-1 ern North Carolina left Monday from the Sardis training center of j the NYA near Charlotte to go on active training duty with the United Sates army signal corps at Fort Monmouth, N. J. They were class ed as radio technicians. Two of the ten selected were Miss Elizabeth Green and Miss Evelyn Jamison, both of Marion. Leo Manley, director of the sixth district of NYA, has announced that these girls will start their work with a salary of $1,440 a year and within six months will be raised to $1,620 a year. Residents Can Get Additional Sugar Amounts Set - Up Provides Enough For 20 Quarts For Adult, More For Children. McDowell county housewives can obtain additional sugar for canning purposes under new regulations an nounced by the county rationing board. The new aet-up allots sufficient sugar to can 20 quarts of fruits and berries for each adult member of the family, and 40 quarts for each child, plus one pound per person for making jellies, preserves and fruit butters. Persons who registered for the fivepound allotted each member of the family under the original ra tioning plan, may obtain certifi cates for the difference between that amount and the quantity due them under the liberalized policy at the rationing board. The board announced yesterday that 22,849 applications were made! for war ration books during the original registration for sugar last month. The 1940 population of the county was 22,996. It was explained that the 40 quarts per child under 18 years of! age, and 20 quarts per adult quan- j tity had been arrived at on expert! advice, and that the allowance is at J a rate of one-fourth pound per quart. In arriving at the amount a home canner is eligible to obtain, it was emphasized, home canning sugar for which certificates already have been issued will be deducted, as well as and fruit carried over from last sea son. Cites Illustration To illustrate: A family of two adults and three children under 18 years would be entitled to sugar for the canning of 40 quarts for the two adults and 120 quarts for the three children, a total of 160 quarts. If they had 12 quarts carried over from last year, that would be deducted, leav ing 148 quarts for which they would be entitled to sugar. At the rate of one-fourth pound per quart, they could obtain 37 pounds. In addition, under the new plan, they would be entitled to one pound per person, or five pounds, for mak ing preserves, jellies, and fruit but ters, thus bringing the total sugar allowance to 42 pounds. If they had already obtained cer tificates for the five pounds per person permitted under the former plan, or 25 pounds that amount . (Continued on last page) JURIST URGES ABOLITION OF GRAND JURIES IN N. C. Abolition of the grand jury sys tem in North Carolina and diver sion of money spent for that plan to improving conditions at North Carolina's hospitals for the insane were advocated here Monday by Judge Hoyle Sink in his charge to the grand jury in McDowell super ior court. Judge Sink declares it costs the state $750,000 annually to maintain the system which he said has been outmoded and that sum would go a long way toward improving life j for unfortunates in the state insti tutions, he said. Explaining his advocacy of the abolition of the grand jury as an "outmoded" institution, he said that it is now a little more than a "rub ber samp" for the bills presented by the district solicitor. In the old days, he added, solici tors often lived 100 miles or more from places where they would at tend court, and there was a definite i need for local representatives of the I body politic to investigate crimes and make presentments which the solicitors could use in preferring charges and bringing cases to trial. But nowadays, with modern means of transportation and com-) munication, and with solicitors liv ing nearer their courts, they are in a position to keep up with the crime situation in their districts, he stat ed. At least 99.5 per cent of the criminal cases are now brought into courts through warrants issued by local officers and bills based on these warrants given to the grand juries by the solicitors, he said. Thus he pointed out the function of the grand jury has been reduced to that of stamping their approval or disapproval on the bills—a func tion that could be better handled exclusively by lower courts. He asserted this is no reflection upon members of grand juries but that his remarks were aimed at an outmoded court procedure. He declares he was familiar with conditions in state hospitals cover ing a period of twenty years and that it is impossible to give patients proper care on the per patient al lowance provided for them. « The additional money would provide more doctors and better attendants, he asserted. Judge Sing praised Dr. B. F. Watkins, superintendent of the hos pital at Morganton, for "doing a fine job under handicaps." LIBRARY WILL GET ABOUT 700 NEW BOOKS DURING MONTH OF JUNE The Florence Thomag Memorial Library will be increased by around 700 volumes during the month of June, Mrs. Walker Blanton, presi dent of the library's board of trus tees, said last week. Mrs. Blanton explained that the library has over $1,000 to spend for new books. "The book selection committee is working out a well-rounded list of books, and they should be ready for the shelves within the month," said Mrs. Blanton. The number of books to be purchased this month would have almost doubled the num ber of books the library owned in 1937, the year of its founding, she said. As it is, it will bring the li brary to well over 2,000 volumes. Discussing the books, Mrs. Blan ton said that the new selections will be books which pertain vitally to the war, books to supplement the school librbaries for parallel read ing, many new children's books, books on vocations and books on sugarless cooking and the use of left-overs for the housewife as she I labors under the restrictions of gov ernment priorities and food short ages. The book selection committee is making its choices with the under standing that the books should be i come popular with Marion and Mc Dowell county readers. Along with this objective the committee is in terested in introducing readers to good books. Some of them will deal with Japan, China, India, Aus tralia and the Philippines. The newest Rand-McNally map of the world is being purchased to be plac ed on the library wall. "There will be loads of mystery stories," said Mrs. Blanton. Explaining the large amount of money which the book selection j committee has on hand, Mrs. Blan ; ton said that the Florence Thomas j Memorial Library was allotted $900 j by the state and $900 by Marion land McDowell county in April. | Then the state gave $300 more to j the library when the surplus of the state library fund, appropriated by the last session of the state legisla ure, was divided among the libraries qualified to receive the state aid. Mrs. Blanton said that the surplus ! existed because 24 North Carolina counties did not see fit to match the fund which the state would have donated. Members of the book selection committee are Mrs. Blanton, Mrs. J. Homer Beaman and Mrs. Zeno Mar tin. RECOMMENDATIONS ARE MADE BY GRAND JURY The court house, jail and sheriff's quarters were found to be in good ] sanitary condition by the grand jjury which served at this term of j court. The report was submitted I to Judge Hoyle Sink by C. L. Tate, foreman, upon the conclusion of the grand jury's duties for the term. The twelve prisoners in jail were reported well cared for. It was recommended, however, that some means whereby prisoners may com municate with the sheriff in case of emergency be installed. It was recommended that an elec trically cooled drinking fountain be installed in the corridor of the first floor of the court house. Complaints having been made by residents, the jury made an inspec tion o* the sewer disposal plant for the Town of Marion located south of highway, 221 near the cemetery. After questioning residents in that area and an inspection, recommen dation was made in the report that the County Commissioners be re quested to have the equipment in spected by state authorities and ascertain its true conditions. The state prison camp was re ported found in good condition with 76 prisoners and 9 guards. The prisoners reported treatment above reproach. The farm contained 51 hogs, 5 cows and 4 mules. Grow ing crops wtre reported in fairly good condition. TO OBSERVE MEMORIAL DAY AT HARMONY GROVE Memorial day will be observed at; Harmony Grove Baptist church on Sunday, June 14. A special pro-1 gram has been arranged for the morning service, beginning at 10 o'-l clock. Everyone is invited to at- j tend. I Marion Sponsors Soft-Ball Games For The Summer Organization Off To Good Start With Game Friday; Schedule For Season. The Greater Marion Athletic As sociation was in regular session at the high school building Monday night with Robert W. Twitty, presi dent, presiding. During the meet ing it was definitely decided that Marion would be able to sponsor an industrial twilight soft - ball league this summer. The industrial members of the league are as follows: Marion Manufacturing Company, Clinch field Manufacturing Company, Cross Cotton Mills, Broyhill Furni ture Company, Drexel Furniture Company, Josephine Hosiery Mill, Francis Marion Club and the Amer ican Legion. Besides the above named participating members the Marion Kiwanis Club and Rotary Club will also be playing company. The new organization got off to a good start last Friday where the East Marion Sluggers played the Marion All-Stars in an exhibition game played on high school athletic field. The Sluggers won by a score of 12-5 with the details of the game being reported elsewhere in this is sue of The Progress. Beginning Monday, June 15, the program for the young people of jthe town will begin. Coach Hud json, who has been employed to di Irect the activities of the association, is anxious to meet all the young folks, between the ages of 9-16, at the high school. All interested young folks are asked to report at :nine o'clock in morning on the date mentioned above. The program calls for tennis, soft-ball, volley ball and dodge ball, along with other ac tivities as the situation may demand [as the program is developed, j Coach Hudson is also interested in meeting the managers of each of the industrial units tonight at eight o'clock in high school auditorium. The purpose of this meeting is to complete details of the league which is to have a split season beginning Tuesday, June 16. Rules and regu lations will also be discussed. The schedule for the first six weeks of the season is listed below: First Week, June 16-18 Tuesday, Marion High School field: Francis Marion vs. Josephine Mills; Cross Mill vs Broyhill. Tuesday, East Marion: Clinch field vs Drexel; East Marion vs American Legion. Thursday, Marion High school field: Francis Marion vs East Ma rion; Cross Mill vs Josephine Mills. Thursday, Clinchfield: Clinch field vs American Legion; Drexel vs Broyhill. (Continued on last page) BOOKMOBILE MAKES SCHEDULE CHANGES Mrs. Ann C. Hawkins, county li brarian, announced last week that bookmobile service throughout the county will operate on a monthly schedule instead of its usual by monthly schedule. The schedule changes were made to conserve tires and gasoline. • "I don't think our rural patront will be inconvenienced any by the change," Mrs. Hawkins said, "be cause we are letting them have three or four books per month. While we were on the two-week schedule, patrons could select only two books. We are also going to carry a larger and newer supply of magazines on our bookmobile visits. They will be given away, and it is hoped that they will be passed along from neighbor to neighbor." | I J SOFT BALL GAME TO BE PLAYED HERE FRIDAY The Greater Marion Athletic As sociation announces that a double header soft ball game will be play ed Friday afternoon on the Marion high school athletic field at 5 o' clock as an opening of the season exhibition. No admission will be charged.
Marion Progress (Marion, N.C.)
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June 11, 1942, edition 1
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