Adams-Clarke Tragedy, Lenoir ,NC
Nelson A. Powell (1816-1910) wrote local history for newspapers of Lenoir, NC, from about 1897 until his death, and twice mentioned a fatal incident at the store of Waugh & Harper, in what is now Lenoir, Caldwell County, NC. Until 1841, this vicinity was part of Burke County.
"Are We Better Or Worse? Views Of An Optimist"
By "Pine Burr," (N.A. Powell)
For The Semi-Weekly Visitor, published in l897
"In the same decade John Adams, at Harper's store, walked up to a Mr. Clarke and cut his bowels open, for which he received the extreme penalty of the law."
N. A. Powell did not assign a date to the notable crimes he recalled in this accountexcept he mentioned the 1820's for one, and also mentioned the hanging of a young woman, Frankie Silver, (which occured in old Burke County in July 1833).
In another article, "Harper's Store," Mr. Powell mentioned the incident again.Date and specificname of the Lenoir, NC, newpaper are undiscovered at present.
"Waugh & Harper retailed liquor up to the time oftheAdam[s] and Clarke tragedy.Then there was one of the greatest whiskey revolutions ever witnessed in this county.That night the firm shut down and closed out the whole concern, washed off the counters and next morning the sun shone on a strictly temperance [sic] house.Mr. Harper made no compromise with the dram drinking after that. It was not allowed to come about the place if he knew it and strange to say, none of his clerks ever drank.That action of Mr. Harper revolutionized the whole county in regard to the liquor question, and from that time the temperance cause found a new impetus.The old topers would go to the store after that on Saturday evening and stand around like they were at a funeral."
Of theestablishment, healso wrote, "If I am not mistaken, Waugh & Harper opened their store there in the latter part of 1826 or '27.From that timeto about 1842 it was a place of business equal to a town or county seat.All kinds of work was done by workmen of the best order.A large tannery, smithy, a shop where the finest quality of boots and shoes were made, a saddle and harness shop, tailoring and carriage making and repairing, etc."
For a number of years speculation about the given name of Clarke was futile, but recently I obtained selected pages of the encoded timeline/diarykept by William Thomas Prestwood (1788-1859) published by crytographer Nathaniel C. Browder (1904-1984).For Saturday, 29 October 1836, Prestwood, whose diary entries are spare indeed, wrote, "Joel Clark killedStore," and the next day he wrote only, "Dug grave."Interestingly,Mabel/Mavil Clarke, mother of Prestwood's wife Celia, died Thursday, November 3, 1836--on the fifth day after Joel perished--and was buried on the 5th.
This may not be the Clarke tragedy to which N. A. Powell referred, but Joel Clark/Clarke's death was a killing, it was on a Saturday,on that day Prestwood went to the store, October 1836 was at a time when Waugh & Harper were in business, and the Frankie Silver hanging also mentioned in the Powell narrative was only some three years before Joel Clark/Clarkedied. However, W. T. Prestwood did not thereafter mention the trial and execution of anyone named Adams or any other fallout from Joel Clark/Clarke's death except he noted that he quarreled with someone represented in the diary as "BR" on Monday the 3lst, which Browder identifies as the day Joel was buried. That quarrel may have been completely unrelated.On pages I have not read, cryptographer Browder MAYhave discussed that death further inasmuch as he knew about the burial.
Hopefully, someone will know further details about this long ago calamity, and beyond doubtwhich Clark/Clarke it was who met a tragic end.