A Double Lynching A Man and Woman Accused of Two Murders Taken from Jail and Hung on the Same Tree

Rome, Ga., Oct, 21. Centre, Ala., thirty six miles from this place, is in a state of Intense excitement, the result of a double lynching. Mrs. Mary Davis was one of the best known ladies in Cherokee county, Ga. Sometime ago her husband had a quarrel with one Dorsey, her uncle, and the latter forbade his wife visiting Davis's house, A few days afterward Dorsey heard that she had been at Davis's contrary to his orders, and threatened to kill both Davis and his wife. On the night of Oct. 6 Dorsey and a prostitute named Jane Ward were at Alpine drinking. On the evening In question Davis was called away from home, and a gentleman named C. C. Jones was spending the evening at his house as a guest, Dorsey was seen coming near the house. Mrs. Davis locked the doors and bared the windows to keep him out. Some time afterward Mrs. Davis came to the door and looked out, and almost at that Instant a gun was fired and she fell a corpse across her own threshold, her body perforated with slugs. Mr. Jones ran to the door for assistance and as soon as he came in range the gun was again fired and he fell in his tracks, bleeding from several wounds and died the next day, Mr. Davis returned home soon afterward and was almost stupefied by the shock.
Search was at once begun for the murderers, who were arrested and put in Jail at Centre, The murdered man, Jones, lived in Chattooga county, Georgia, and considerable bad feeling was caused by his murder. Last night, near midnight, about forty masked men, supposed to be from Chattooga county, visited the Jail and peremptorily demanded the keys from the Jailer. With forty pistols staring him in the face the Jailer delivered the keys to the leader. Dorsey and June Ward were taken a quarter of a mile from the Jail, and by the same rope both were hung from the limb of an oak tree. The bodies remained hanging until noon today.
Washington D.C. Wednesday Morning October 22, 1884

A negro is lying in jail at Somerset, Ky., awaiting a requisition to be brought to Georgia and be tried for the crime of ravishing Miss Kendrick in Chattooga county. Mr. Nelson Haggard, of Walker county, has been on the track of this negro for some time, and finally came up with him at the above named place, where he was arrested and put in jail.
A day or two after the deed was done, he went home and told his wife that he had committed the crime and left. Since he has been arrested he has confessed being the one wanted.
17 Aug. 1887 Atlanta Constitution