In a message dated 3/29/2006 12:02:12 AM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: have Toleman on my tree..but never heard of a murder..would you mind sharing your obit? Donna Below is a transcript from The Higbee News courtesy of Kathy Bowlin Friday, 20 Mar 1925, Vol 38 No. 47, pg.1, col. 1 & 2; pg. 4 col. 3 & 4; pg. 8, col.2,3,4,5 & 6--GRUESOME AND MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY--DEAD BODY OF TOLEMAN G. BURTON FOUND IN HOME IN POOL OF BLOOD--HAD BEEN DEAD THEN HOURS--NO SIGN OF STRUGGLE--CRIES OF "HELP!" HEARD BY MANY--WAS HE MURDERED OR HIT BY CAR?--TRAGEDY SEEMS TO BECOME MORE MYSTERIOUS--Sheriff McCanne and deputy Steve Jones were here late yesterday and gave it out that they had exhausted all clues, and that they had about arrived at the conclusion that Mr. Burton was struck by a car. No arrests are contemplated, they stated, and none will be made unless new evidence develops. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolman Gorham Burton was the son of Uncle Joe and Aunt Sally Burton, remembrance of whom is a benediction, and was born on October 30, 1855, in the house in which he died. He was married to a Miss Rogers of Chariton county in 1883, and who has been dead 35 years or more. He is survived by one daughter, Miss Flossie, of Columbia. He also leaves one sister, Mrs. J. M. Crew, of Muskogee, Okla., and three brothers--H. W. and Medley Burton of this place and J. R. Burton of Mystic, Ky.; also three half-brothers--Speed and Ben Burton of Norborne, Mo., and Thos. Burton of Huntsville. Funeral services were held at the Christian church Sunday afternoon by the pastor, the Rev. Egan Herndon of Centralia, it being the most largely attended of any held here in years, every available seat being taken long before the hour set for the service and hundreds were turned away. Interment was made in the Burton cemetery by the side of his parents and brothers and sisters. To the surviving relatives and especially to the daughter, the deepest sympathy of all goes out. This mysterious and brutal tragedy has cast a pall over the town and entire community, such as nothing ever did before, and all who saw the gruesome sight can't get it off their minds and each is endeavoring to work out a solution. The officers are busy and no stone will be left unturned by them or the people in general as long as there is a possibility of the guilty party being found out. Marshal Cain has offered on his own initiative a reward of $100 for arrest and conviction of the guilty parties, and this will no doubt be added to, as it should be.