NEWSPAPER ABSTRACTS FROM "THE CLEBURNE NEWS", Heflin, Cleburne County, Alabama for AUG. 23rd thru AUG. 30th, 1934 NEWSPAPER Issue of Thursday, AUGUST 23, 1934 OLIVER DODSON PASSES TO BEYOND ON MONDAY Oliver Dodson, nephew of the Editor of the Cleburne News, passed at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. G.F. Dodson in Buchanan, Georgia on Monday morning, after a long illness. He had been confined to his home for more than seven years. He was never known to complain. Peace to his pure soul. The family has the profound sympathy of a large number of relatives and friends. ----- MRS. T.J. OWEN HAS BIRTHDAY DINNER On Sunday, August 19th, a host of relatives and friends met at the old home place of Mr. and Mrs. T.J. Owen near old Cane Creek to spend the day celebrating Mrs. T.J. Owen's 66th birthday anniversary. The day was enjoyed by a large crowd. The dinner was spread on tables under the shade trees in the yard. The tables were filled with plenty of good things to eat and in the center was a large birthday cake with 66 candles. The afternoon was spent talking over old times, and eating watermelons and fruit. Seventy children, grandchildren and close relatives left for their homes in the afternoon, happy and wishing for mother and grandmother, many more happy birthdays. ----- ELIJAH E. MYERS, 89, LAID TO REST Elijah E. Myers, 89 years old, was buried at Ai on Friday. Mr. Myers was a good man and was a resident of this county for about 50 years, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. Several children survive him. ----- FORMER CLEBURNE WOMAN BURIED HERE Mrs. Elizabeth Daugherty, 35, wife of Duston Daugherty, died in a Gadsden hospital Tuesday night of last week, after an illness of a few days with rheumatism. The funeral and burial services were held at Ai on Thursday with Rev. W.M. Barr in charge of services. Mrs. Daugherty is survived by her husband, two half-brothers, W.A. Dodson of Bivins, Texas and C.F. Dodson; two uncles, J.M. and B.F. DeFreese of Ruston, La. She was a member of the Ai Baptist church. ----- IN MEMORY OF OTTO PRICHARD In loving memory of Otto Prichard who departed this life August 12. In my heart your memory lingers sweetly, tender, fond and true. There's not a day dear Daddy that I do not think of you. Oh, how we miss the voice that never calls. How we long for foot steps that never come. We miss you dear Daddy in a million ways. But we cannot and will not say you are dead, but just some day we'll understand; we'll all be together in a better land. A daughter, Mrs. John Wilson ----- CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY Mr. and Mrs. John Austin and children spent the weekend with Mr. Austin's parents at Sylacauga where a family gathering celebrating Mr. J.C. Austin Sr.'s 62nd birthday. The entire family went to Fayetteville and enjoyed a picnic dinner at the home of Mr. Sam Merrill, with more than 65 relatives attending. A good time was had by all. ------ LOCAL News S.C. Beason has been suffering from poison on his left leg. --- WIDESPREAD HUNT BEGUN BY OFFICERS FOR MISSING GIRL Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 22nd Mysteriously missing since she left for an automobile ride Monday might, Miss Fay New, 19 year old Howard College senior, was the object of a widespread search by police and from citizens on Tuesday night. The search was centered in the vicinity of the Ruffner Mines, about a mile and a half east of Irondale on the Trussville-Irondale highway. Police said they were told by a negro family living near the mine that they heard a woman scream some during during Monday night. Police said that Harold Taylor, Miss New's escort on the automobile ride, told them that the young woman jumped from his automobile and ran away while they were parked on the highway about midnight on Monday night. In an interview begun at noon on Tuesday, police said Taylor told them " I am praying that nothing has happened to her, but of course, I can't help knowing that something is almost bound to have happened." The Birmingham News Mr. and Mrs. Lon New, Miss Fay New's parents, are former residents of Heflin. Miss New is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Rowell of this Cleburne county. ----- NEWSPAPER Issue of Thursday, AUGUST 30, 1934 SLAIN GIRL LAID TO FINAL REST IN HEFLIN CEMETERY; Body of Slain Co-Ed is Borne to Grave at Childhood Home (written by Robert Kince of Birmingham Age-Herald) Heflin, Ala., Aug. 23 - - "For the Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." While tears streamed from the eyes in a silence broken only by the sobbing of the grief torn mother, Dr. T.V. Neal, Howard College President, spoke these simple, but impressive words over the body of Fay New on Thursday afternoon, shortly before it was consigned to its last resting place in the family burial ground here, where she was born 19 years ago. Here, where in the days of their courtship, Lon New waved a cheery greeting to Miss Dorsey Rowell, who later became Mrs. Lon New, from the platform of his speeding passenger train; now, the child of their bosom lay at rest among those she knew and loved the best. Here, among familiar surroundings, the same sturdy oaks, the same red hills, Fay New was buried while the entire community gathered in reverence to the memory of the little girl who left them years ago to seek her education in the city. While the familiar town clock of her childhood days solemnly tolled the hour of four atop the ancient courthouse, Fay New's body was lowered into the bosom of the earth, borne to its last resting place by five of her uncles on whose knees she climbed while a mere tot. The six pallbearer was A.B. Cain, her avowed sweetheart, whom police a few short hours before had released from custody after hours of relentless questioning in an effort to wring from him some information that could identify the one who had stabbed his sweetheart to death and dragged her lifeless body into a dismal cornfield near Irondale, where a searching party found it Wednesday afternoon. Cain, the man who said he loved Fay New had followed her part of the way on the fateful ride from which she never returned, stood beside her grave, his arm supporting the invalid father of the murdered girl, his eyes swollen with weeping while the body of his sweetheart was consigned to the earth. Throughout the two hour train ride from Birmingham he had whispered words of encouragement to the parents and had been gathered to their bosom, a man exonerated of all suspicion, a friend and benefactor in their time of trouble, the sweetheart of the dead girl. Services at the church were brief and simple. The Rev. O.G. Waid, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, read from that portion of the scripture which said "whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" and said a prayer over the flower laden casket. The choir sang "God Will Take Care of You" and Dr. Neal, choking back emotions, paid a tribute of respect to the life and character of Fay New while she was a student at Howard College. Mrs. New, who had sobbed hysterically throughout the services, gave way to her feelings when the casket was borne to the waiting hearse. "Oh, Fay", she cried over and over again. "Mother is talking to you, answer me my darling, my love." On the verge of collapse, Mr. and Mrs. New leaned for support on the arms of willing friends and relatives for the short ride to the adjacent cemetery where the simple services were concluded. Pleading for "just one last look", the distraught mother was led away while the casket sank slowly into the grave, after repeatedly kneeling by the side of the grave and calling over and over the bier of her dead child. All but relatives and the closest friends of the family were excluded from the train before it left Birmingham when Sid Baxter, veteran Southern Railway conductor and a life long friend of Lon New, entered the special car provided by the railroad and and announced that "as much as I hate to do it, it is my duty to inform you that only members of the funeral party will be allowed to travel in the car." Whereupon the car, crowded beyond capacity, quickly thinned out, only relatives and close friends remaining. Mrs. New chatted with friends throughout the two hour ride. Kindly neighbors and relatives talked to her of anything and everything but the tragedy. Lon New, occupying a seat immediately behind his wife, sat throughout most of the trip with his sister Mrs. Will Harris of Bessemer. Cain sat first with the mother and then with the father. Crowds gathered on the platforms of the various towns through which the train passed, hoping to catch of glimpse of the funeral party, but Fay's body had gone ahead and was resting at the little church when the family arrived. ------ INDICTMENT FOR TAYLOR FILED Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 28th Harold Taylor, 29, son of a former city comptroller, was formally charged with the murder of Miss Fay New, a Howard College student, in an indictment returned late Monday by the Jefferson County Grand Jury, and was ordered held without bond pending his trial. After hearing 13 witnesses, including many who have been mentioned frequently in the recent investigation of the college girl's death, the Grand Jury voted unanimously to return an indictment of first degree murder, shortly before 4 p.m. Monday and about 30 minutes later, reproted its findings to Judge J. Russell McElroy. Action of the Grand Jury came exactly one week from the day in which Taylor admitted to police that he accompanied the young woman in his automobile to a by-road near Irondale and he said that the young woman leaped from his car and fled into the woods after he "got rough with her." The capias charging Taylor with Miss New's death was served on Taylor in his cell in the county jail about an hour after the indictment had been voted, and the accused man received the formal notification, read to him by a deputy sheriff, without a change in his expression. BURIAL FOR MRS. HIGGINBOTHAM Anniston, Ala., Aug. 27th Funeral services for Mrs. C.M. Higginbotham, age 23, of near Oxford, who was drowned Thursday in the Alabama River near Montgomery while on a swimming party, were conducted at Chulafinnee church at 4 o'clock this afternoon by the Rev. T.O. Slaughter, pastor of the First Christian Church. Interment was in Chulafinnee cemetery with Ussrey in charge. Mrs. Higginbotham's body was found about three miles down stream from the point where she stepped off a ledge of shallow water into the deep part of the river. Joe Stewart, a member of the swimming party, narrowly escaped drowning when attempting to rescue Mrs. Higginbotham when she screamed for help. The body was found by searching parties late Sunday afternoon and was returned to Anniston early today. Surviving Mrs. Higginbotham are her husband and her sister, Mrs. Mary McKeand whom she was visiting in Montgomery. About a year ago, her brother-in-law, H.M. Higginbotham of the Alabama Power Company office here, was drowned in Mellon's Mill pond near Oxford. ----- MAN JAILED IN SLAYING Piedmont, Ala., Aug. 27th Warren Lorren of Borden Springs, has been placed in the Calhoun county jail in connection with an investigation of the slaying of F.A. Kimberly, age 58, Piedmont policeman, Saturday night. Sheriff Borders was told by Plice Chief Snead of Piedmont, who was with Kimberly at the time, that Lorren had been arrested, handcuffed and was being taken to jail when he pulled a pistol from his pocket and fired at Kimberly. Following the shooting, Chief Snead said, he disarmed Lorrens and took him to the county jail at Anniston. Lorrens has declined to discuss the shooting, county officers said. Funeral services for Kimberly were held Monday afternoon at the Piedmont Methodist church. Burial was in Piedmont cemetery. Surviving are two sons, two daughers and five sisters. ----- F.P. OWENS IS LAID TO REST HERE SUNDAY; F. Pierce Owens, Merchant, Funeral Director, Dies in Atlanta Hospital Funeral services for F. Pierce Owens, age 50, widely known Heflin funeral director, who died Friday in an Atlanta hospital, were conducted at 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon at the Heflin Methodist church by the pastor, the Rev. C.P. Hamby, assisted by the Rev. L.S. Wessinger and Dr. G. Fred Cooper. Interment was in Heflin Cemetery, with White of Anniston in charge. Active pallbearers were brothers and brothers-in-law. They are J.A., L.A., M.F., R.T., W.H., Neal and Frank Owens and Louis DeArman. Mr. Owens had been a funeral director in Heflin for about 20 years and was one of Cleburne county's best known citizens. He was active in Masonic affairs, being a Shriner, and also active in the Methodist church which he served as a steward. Surviving are the widow, a son, F.P. Owens Jr., two daughters, Eva and Annie Pearl Owens, all of Heflin; five brothers, M.F. Owens of Miami, Okla., Dr. W.H. Owens of Charlotte, N.C. and J.A., L.A., and R.J. Owens of Heflin, and three sisters, Mrs. Thomas G. Hill of Tallapoosa, Ga., and Misses Alice and Minnie Owens of Heflin. ------ HAPPY OCCASION A happy occasion was last Sunday when the following persons spent the day with Mr. and Mrs. Roy Bell, at the old home place at Bell Mills: Mr. and Mrs. Ben House Miss Mattie Sue House Mr. and Mrs. Hampton House and daughter Mr. and Mrs. Henry Keen and daughter R.C. Bell Causey Tumblin G.B. Gaines Baley O'Brien from Atlanta Mrs. White and daugher Mrs. Oscar Hallman and children of Birmingham ----- IN MEMORY OF JOSEPH MORGAN DEFREESE Joseph Morgan DeFreese was born in Cleburne county, Alabama on June 26, 1863 and died near Ruston, La., on Aug. 21, 1934. Mr. DeFreese moved to Lincoln Parish, La., in 1885 and remained a resident of said parish. Mr. DeFreese professed faith in Christ while quite young and joined the Congregational Methodist church. After moving to Louisiana, there wasn't any Congregational church near so he and his wife united with the Cumberland Presbyterian church at Greenwood in September 1890. He remained a member and also a ruling Elder of the church until death. He loved his church and nothing afforded him more pleasure than attending church services. Mr. DeFreese's companion departed this life January 1920 and since that time he has filled the place of mother and father. Mr. DeFreese leaves to mourn is going, six children, Joe, Jasper, Arthur, Venden, Bessie and May; seven grandchildren and one brother, B.F. DeFreese. Mr. DeFreese was buried at Viena, Wednesday, Aug. 23. ------