The following newspaper account of the death of William Pierce Mabry appeared originally in The Home Journal, Volume I, No. 12, Farmerville, LA, Friday 1 May 1885.
The killing of Mr. W.P. Mabry, near Shiloh, of which mention was made last week has caused quite a breeze of excitement. On Thursday last W.C. Henderson and Walter Ferguson were arrested, and two others - Calvin Skinner and Jack Melton - have since been taken in custody and charged with complicity in the killing.
One of the accused - Jack Melton made the subjoined voluntary statement: "On the 19th of April I saw W.C. Henderson at Pisgah church; he said he wanted to see me on particular business and I went to his house Tuesday night. When I went into the house I found Walter Fergerson and Calvin Skinner there. I asked Henderson if that was the crowd; he replied that it was. I at first refused to go with them and started to Mr. Bennett's but they begged me to go with them. When we reached Caroline's house we walked up into the yard and Skinner called to the old negro to open the door. She asked who it was? She commenced hallooing and opening the door, ran out by us. When they caught her, Skinner led her back to the house. We were all standing talking to her, when I thought I heard some person coming. I stepped around the house to see what it was and Skinner ran back something near 50 yards towards Mr. Mabry's house. I heard some one call out stop,' and then heard the report of a pistol. Skinner came back to where we were and said that he had shot, and stated that he guessed that he had hit old man Mabry. I asked him if he shot at him? He replied, No, I did it accidentally.' Mr. Mabry was friend, and when I went there I had no intention of harming him."
The negro woman - Caroline Simley, being sworn, said: "I live at Mr. W.P. Mabry's. On the night of the homicide I and my two little boys, and two small grandchildren were asleep in my house. Late in the night Mr. Henderson, Mr. Fergerson, and others came to my house to talk with me. I became frightened, jumped up, put on my dress and ran out of the house. I ran some 30 yards from the house and fell. Mr. Fergerson met me there and struck me on the head with a small stick. Ferguson, Henderson and two other men then carried me back near the house. All of them were armed with pistols. Henderson struck me in the eye with a pistol. A few minutes afterwards Mr. Mabry came up and hallooed out: Heigho! What is the matter? What are you doing there?' Henderson then turned me loose and ran back in that direction. Some one exclaimed, Old Mabry has come!' I then heard two pistol shots, after which they all ran off in the woods. I went to Mr. Mabry's."
On cross-examination, witness stated as follows: "I saw four men and first learned of the presence of Mr. Henderson and Mr. Fergerson by hearing their names called. The moon was not shining that night but it was light. I suppose I could see a man or a pistol about 100 yards; the pistols the men had looked new and bright. Mr. Fergerson and two other men had hold of me when the man that did the shooting, and did not see the flash of the weapon."
Joseph E. Mabry, sworn, stated: "I am a son of W.P. Mabry, deceased. The last time I saw my father alive was Tuesday night, Apr 21st. He was then in his house. I next saw his dead body about a quarter of a mile from the house. Do not know when he left the house. I heard some one halloo and the report of a pistol which caused me to go to the place he was killed. When I found my father his body was warm, I turned him over and saw blood running from his nose and mouth; also saw blood on his brest that came from where he was shot. The ball entered a little to the left of the center of the breast."
J.M. Russel worn, stated: "Mr. Joe Mabry first informed me of the killing. I went to where the dead body was. Did not see any weapons there."
R.T. Moore, sworn, stated: "I heard of the homicide the next morning after it occurred. I went direct to Mr. Mabry's house, and from thence to the place of the killing. I, with four others, examined and found tracks of persons leading off north from the house. We noticed two different tracks; one of about a No. 5, the other No. 7 shoes. We traced them about a quarter of a mile through the woods, and found where horses had been hitched in the woods, near the corner of a field. We found horse hair on the sapling where the horses had been hitched."
The preliminary trial had not closed, up to the time of our going to press. We will publish the additional evidence in our next issue. -- From The Home Journal, Volume I, No. 12, Farmerville, LA, Friday 1 May 1885
Excerpt from a later issue, date unknown: The trial of W.C. Henderson and Calvin Skinner, charged with the murder of W.P. Mabry, was closed Friday night; the jury bringing in a verdict of: "Not guilty."
[Note: Karen Rice has long researched the family of William Pierce Mabry and would appreciate hearing from anyone with additional information.]
MT. OLIVE CEMETERY, On Louisiana Highway 2, just west of Bernice, LA.
This is a small cemetery. Ten of the thirty four people buried here are children. Originally associated with Mt. Olive Baptist Church on land donated by Richard Tubb Moore, twenty one of the people buried here are Mabrys or related to the Mabrys by marriage, so the cemetery is sometimes referred to as the Mabry family cemetery and is maintained by descendants of William Pierce and Catherine Henry Cook Mabry.
W.P. Mabry, 13 Aug 1825 to 21 Apr 1885
Catherine H. Cook, wife of W.P. Mabry, 28 Jan 1830 to 2 Jul 1913
Blanch Mabry, daughter of W.H. and Mattie, Dates not readable
Mattie M. Mabry, wife of W.H., 10 May 1858 to 28 July 1882
W.H. Mabry, 3 Feb 1850 to 8 May 1938
Willie Mabry, son of J.T. and Amanda M., 26 Jul 1872 to 17 Oct 1876
[Note: The complete cemetery survey is available on the Union Parish, LA, USGenWeb Archives.]
LUCILE MABRY RICE is the daughter of Captain Philip and Theresa Chambers Mabry, born at Carrolton, Mississippi, and has spent her life in constructive, progressive, charity, educational and civic work.
BELIEVING: Nations depend for their prosperity, their defense and their glory upon the home and the children, and will become whatever these make them; Advance in civilization, in character, in all that makes individual or national existence worthwhile, depends upon the spiritual, mental and physicœ life of the nations' children-all are of utmost importance;
The home is the primary unit of good citizenship-the haven of rest for struggling humanity, the earthly object to be most desired by old or young--a place to be loved, adorned-sacred to all ambitious families, where all the graces of life may be cultivated, where comfort, happiness and peace may dwell;
The young people should be constantly trained in the responsibilities of enlightened, constructive, progressive factors of citizenship. Then the law enforcement problem will vanish;
Light-look at God's perfect work. Over this wonderfully beautiful world-visions of rapture, fair to behold-every creature a product of His infinite love.
OUR SCHOOL PROBLEMS by Lucile Mabry Rice
THE Bureau of Education is sending out many leaflets and forms to gather needed information to improve our entire school system. These problems concern the adult as well as the children. There must be inculcated principles of morality and thrift, established sanitary conditions, personal efficiency and responsibility felt. In dealing with business affairs some are much more capable than others through native endowment, education and experience, consequently there are variations and differences which demand consideration.
In addition to teaching the children in schools, whole communities must be elevated.
They want tabulated data concerning the teaching staff, the student body, the material equipments, the receipts and expenditures, anti the branches of study for each group or class of schools in the United States.
The members of the National Educational Association and Bureau of Education are vitally concerned with the working out of these significant educational problems. Now listen! They say there is no greater force or more reliable help than the S. I. A.'s of our land, and every woman's club that studies civic conditions or child life and social service workers are helpful. Bow to them. Are we coming into our own?
In the public schools there are 506,040 teachers employed, of which 21.4 per cent are men, 108,300.
Four hundred million dollars are spent in public school's. The average cost per pupil has doubled in twenty-five years. Has our efficiency kept this pace? The demand that money spent for education shall bring the greatest return and that no money be wasted is not a criticism of public education, but a cry for the best possible organization and administration of our public schools. The work undertaken by the Bureau of Education to bring about reform in accounting and reporting statistics will help toward that standard of efficiency which is the right and duty of every community to expect. Why so much talk, trouble and expense about the schools and education? E means out, duco to lead--to lead out thoughts formed in childish minds. When the average child looks with absolute dread upon a number of yellow or green backed books that must be absorbed in a specified time. How very strangely this idea of education has gotten upside down.
After all that science and psychology can do for us, the intuitive preferences of childhood can no more be explained than his aversion to Dr. Fell. This is a feeling as deep as biological law and as high as an attribute of God. Parents are the God-given protectors and instructors of their families and should carefully maintain their purity, filling the lives of their children so full of Cans and Dos that Quits and Don'ts become relegated to the past to form humus to make better ideals flourish on.
Education is the key that unlocks the storehouse of the world's knowledge. It is a companion no misfortune can depress, no clime destroy, no enemy alienate, no despotism enslave. Rome was Grecianized by her slaves.
The taxpaying people of this country own their schools, and they would be run by a hard working lot of men and women, who have a profound sense of their responsibility to the public, and they should do it in a way that will produce the desired result-efficient, moral, broadminded manhood and womanhood--men and women who are prepared to deal with the problems of this civilization and those the future will bring. Longfellow says in the "Builders:"
"Our todays and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. Build today then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base, And ascending and secure, Shall tomorrow find its place."
Agitation is the first child of prosperity and education. To give a man something does not benefit him. The Sage foundation fund says all schools are public service corporations, and that the public is entitled to know the facts concerning their development and administration, whether those facts pertain to the financial or to the educational side. However, I do not know that there has ever been a syndicate formed on brains.
Arkansas, our Arkansas stands forty-third in the columns of states, with 65.1 per cent of her children in the school four months in the year, a monument to our clumsy management, and the result is 53,000 white voters who cannot read or write their names to make our laws.
Our boys and girls of today must decide the issues of tomorrow. A mighty educational campaign must hammer home these facts. Send a child home impressed with these truths and he'll convert his parents, whom you could never reach. One great lesson taught by this war is-it costs more to destroy a village than it does to build it. To have ideas on or about a subject and enforce them, is difficult and interesting.
We cannot stop to embroider our language or pluck flowers from the gardens of rhetoric. We cannot use gloves, but we do need hooks that are strong and will bear heavy loads, that need turning; to make moral sentiment and laws effective and honorable officers to enforce them; eliminate present wrongs and use such means to prevent their recurrence. Little traits show the drift of character, and no plan that places a premium upon dishonor will ever receive anything but condemnation.
The school situation throughout the United States demands that classes be formed for the bright, the slow, the backward and the deficient child. Instead of repeating the work over and over again, children should have the opportunity to make such progress from year to year as for them is possible. Our grammar schools show from 30 to 48 per cent of their pupils retarded. One-fifth of our entire population is in school, besides the army of teachers.
Compulsory laws, a greater appreciation of education, better equipment and buildings, wore sanitary surroundings, better prepared and more efficient teachers, in fact the trend of our nation demands that this progress be made.
To develop thought power is the key-note of the age. We need experts in trade, commerce and manufacture. In this great world war these thinking experts will determine the destiny of nations, and has made apparent the ignorance of the governing classes. This kind of ignorance is not confined alone to politicians. In attention to facts, concentration on physical prowess, wide spread ignorance of science, contempt for investigation are the basic faults of our present day educational systems. This war should open our eyes to many perils that have been overlooked. We want the initiative to bring the schools into such relation with everyday life as to make education more valuable, interesting and real. Teach children to see with their own mental eyes, not parrot-like; understand with their own brains, and feel their personal responsibility to life, home and country.
Mayberry, Joseph, wife of (Caroline P. Henry) Fifth District Court 5014
MAYBERRY, JOSEPH (MRS.) (CAROLINE THOMPSON HENRY) 31 Y 6/21/1851 6/22/1851 P 2, C 6
MAYBERRY, SAMUEL V. (MRS.) (MARY E. HORSWELL)