Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1901 — Sheriff Saves Wegro from Mob. [ARTICLE]

Sheriff Saves Wegro from Mob.

The nerve of a Georgia sheriff at Carrollton, that state, whose name is Joseph Merrill Friday upheld the law of the state and saved the life negro from a mob. In protecting the negro, who was saved from the gallows only a few hours before through the efforts of his lawyers, one life was lost and two men were wounded. The arrival of the state militia averted a threatened trouble, and at 9 o’clock a special train bearing the negro, whose crime was the murder of a little white boy whom he found fishing alone, was speeding toward Atlanta, under guard. The man killed in attacking the jail was George Bennett of Carrollton, and the wounded men are Thomas Smith, also of Carrollton, and an unknown man, presumably a farmer.