part two gets really interesting...... Anyone connecting to this line, please contact me... He's a shirt tale cousin of mine.... Jean (Part One) "The Daniel Dean Case by Roy V. Wolfe,SrOne of the most interesting cases ever to be tried in the State of Virginia, was the case of the Commonwealth against Daniel Dean, even ever tried in Scott County, Virginia. On Monday morning, June 25, 1877, Henry Fugate was shot in the back while he was plowing in a field near his home which was located about midway between Gate City and Nickelville. From the gun shot wound Mr Fugate received on Monday he died on the following Wednesday. Daniel Dean, who lived less then a mile from where Fugate lived was indicted for the murder of the latter on July 14, 1877. The case was tried three times in the Scott County Court, the first and second trials resulted in mistrials, Juries were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. On the third trial a jury was brought from Washington County. The third trial took place at the May term of the Scott County Court in 1878 and the prisoner Daniel Dean was found guilty of murder in the first degree and the Court sentenced him to death by hanging. Many years ago I had a long conversation with the late John P. Corns, who assisted in the Prosecution of Daniel Dean. Mr Corns told me he was returning to his home at Nickelville from the University of Virginia where he had been a law student, he had left the train at Mendold and was going on foot across Clinch Mountain and Moccasin Valley, in the valley he approached a dwelling where were gathered many people. Curious as to the cause for the gathering Mr. Corns joined the crowd and found they were having a preliminary hearing for Daniel Dean who was being accused of the murder of Henry Fugate. This was the first Mr Corns had heard of the killing. He was there employed by some of Fugate relatives to assist in Deans Prosecution. The Dean case theretofore was the first case for J. P. Corns, who later was to have a distinguished career at the bar. In the course of our conversation Mr Corns told me he knew the case as well or better than any case he ever tried afterwards. He also said he was as well satisfied with his speech to the jury as that to any other jury thereafter. An episode which was very hurtful to Dean's case was that of a witness provided by one of the assistance defense attorneys. This certainly a surprise witness, almost a bombshell to the ears of the Commonwealth, the witness stated that on the day before the fatal shooting he had been over in Moccasin Ridge digging for a ground hog, on returning home that night, he had found he had lost his knife, he believed he had lost it on the hill where he was digging for the ground hog, therefore he went to that place Monday morning and there found his knife. While there on the hill between eight and nine o'clock he said he head a gun shot .Immediately thereafter he looked down into the field below him and there saw Daniel Dean plowing. This time and place put Dan Dean across the hill and far away from Henry Fugate. Mr Corns said the attorneys for the state held a hurried conference, they dispatched a messenger into the Long Hollow neighborhood, where the witness lived, the runner found out the witness was at home all day the day he swore he was ground hog hogging. The state attorney confronted the witness, telling him perjury was a serious offence, that he had better tell the judge and the truth, so it came about that he went before the judge and told his honor that he had previously lied - that he had been given fifty dollars to tell that tale. In the meantime the lawyer who had bribed the witness jumped out of the window at the back of the courthouse, straddled his horse which was hitcher nearby and made haste for the Tennessee line. It is said he was not again in Scott County for 25 years. There are many other ususal and extraordinary occurrences to be related in connection with the trail of the Dean case. The witness that got fifty dollars from his lawyers uncle to swear falsely, was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary for perjury. The counselor received no punishment except a self-imposed exile of twenty five years from his native place. When he returned he was then an old man and probably because of his age, his transgressions while he was a practicing attorney were largely forgotten. In further conversation with Mr. Corns, I made a point to ask him as to weather he considered, after the lapse of years, Daniel Dean guilty of the murder of Henry Fugate, Mr Corns replied, "to be perfectly frank with you, I must say I think there was room for a reasonable doubt. It is possible Dean did not do the actual killing but probably had some other near and dear to him to do the bloody deed". As said preciously Mr Corns was one of the prosecution attorneys. The Chief Counsel for the defense was Patrick Hogan, one of the best lawyers and one of the finest men ever produced by Scott County. In the early part of the century, probably in 1904 or 1905. I went with my uncle , W. R. Wolfe, to see Mr. Hogan at his home, Hogan Hall near Dungannon. My uncle was to see a donation from Mr Hogan to help in the building of the Clinch River Bridge at Dungannon. I recall distinctly that Mr Hogan wrote a check for $100., after that business over, I listened with real attention to the conversation between my uncle and Mr Hogan, in the course of their talk my uncle asked Mr Hogan to name the most interesting case in his law career, he replied immediately, " without question it was the Dean Case." Uncle Will then asked him weather after all the years he still believed in Dean's innocense, Mr Hogan said with emphasis, "Dan Dean was wholly innocent, I believed he was then and I am still of the same opinion." In the early thirties or maybe the late twenties the custodian of the Scott County Courthouse was an old man named Logan Nottingham. This old gentleman told me that at the time when Dan Dean was hanged, his father was a jailer and deputy Sheriff under Sheriff J. R. S. Willehelm. He said Sherif Willehelm offered my father $300, if he would execute Dan Dean, Logan said his father flatly refused the offer, saying, "That's a lot of money, and the Lord knows I need it, but I wouldn't hang that man for ten times that much because I believe he's innocent. During my conversation with Logan Nuttingham I learned that in his first trail Sheriff Willehelm had been one of the jurors who tried Dan Dean, in that instance Willehelm had voted for the acquittal of the accused. Between the dates of the first trail and the actual hanging of Dan Dean, Willehelm had been elected Sheriff of Scott County and it therefore became his painful official duty to execute the prisoner whom he believed innocent. An interesting sequel to the story of Sheriff Willehelms connection with the Dean case is that shortly after the hanging of Dean, Willehelm vanished into parts unknown. He was never again seen or heard of from any Scott Countians, I talked with his brother Joe Willehelm not many years before the latter's death. He told me he had spent much time, money and effort in trying to locate his brother. Said it was all in vain, not one of us knows what ever became of him". The gallant fight made for Daniel Dean by his lawyer Patrick Hogan has been a conversation topic for lawyers throughout the years following the trial. IT is traditional that during the course of the trial, Mr hogan said privately that if he failed to get an acquittal for Dean, he would never try another Criminal Case, anyway weather his remark was fictional or factual, Mr. Hogan after the Dean case entirely quit the practice of Criminal law, thereafter he gave his attention to Civil vases only." It was ninety years ago last June 25, when Henry Fugate was plowing in his field on that Monday morning was shot in the back by a hidden foe. Mr. Fugate's wife heard the shot and looked in the direction of the field in which her husband was working, saw the horse ha had been working running away and heard Fugate feeble cries for help, she ran to help and found him in great agony , she asked him what had happened to which he replied, "I'm shot, someone shot me from the brush." Doctors were called at once and do all they could do for the wounded man, but in spite of all their efforts Henry Fugate died on Wednesday." Roy V. Wolfe born May 19, 1891 and died Nov. 18, 1979 buried in Holston View Cemetery, Scott Co., VA. Daniel Dean was hanged in the Cedars, where now the Gate City Highschool and Foot Ball Stadium is in 1990. This article was found by Eula Mae McNutt, transcribed by Jean Brand 11-20-2000.