Pearisburg, Va., Oct. 26. – Special.-
Albert Baldwin, one of the railroad detectives, placed George Brown, a negro, in jail here yesterday evening charged with shooting Jas. Urquhart, a brakeman on the Norfolk and Western railroad., on July 25, 1897, near Eggleston, this county. The negro, with another tramp, was stealing a ride on a freight going east on the morning of July 25. Brakeman Urquhart ordered him off the train. He jumped to the ground and fired five shots at the brakeman, none taking effect, although two struck the car upon which he was standing. At Eggleston Springs the conductor with other parties tried to arrest the negro and some fifteen or twenty shots were fired but the negro made his escape. The railroad company put their detectives on his track. Last week one of them went hunting near Vickers, employing a small boy named Irving Jones, living in that neighborhood, to show him where to shoot squirrels. This boy was a nephew of George Brown and evidently must have talked too much. Anyhow Brown was located and arrested at Upland, W. Va., and brought back to this State. Brown waived an examination before J. P. Snydow, justice of the peace, and was sent on to answer at next term of county court. This makes the fifth criminal arrested by Baldwin’s men and placed in jail here in the last two weeks.
The Roanoke Times (Roanoke, Va.), 27 October 1897.