The Sad Tale of the Perquimans County Sheriff

A Sheriff Gagged and Robbed.

            It is stated, that Sheriff Jno. H. Cox, of Perquimans county, was met on the road two miles out of Hertford, the county seat, by two masked men, one armed with a double barrel gun and the other with a pistol, who gagged and tied him to a tree and robbed him of $1642 in money. He was thus found two hours after by some one passing. No clue to the perpetrators.

            Sheriff Cox was taking the money to Edenton [Chowan Co.] to express to Treasurer Worth.

[The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, NC) 20 Feb 1879]

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            Sheriff J. H. Cox—This gentleman reached this city (Raleigh, Wake co.) Thursday night. He is the sheriff who had the misfortune to be robbed a few days ago in Perquimans county of $1,642. The foot-pads took him from his buggy at the point of a double-barreled gun and pistol and despoiled him of his tax money. He says that being tied for two hours to a tree is all very fine for boys to read about in a yellow-back novel, 4 for a dime, but devilish poor fun for a sheriff who has got to devote his term of office to

retrenchment in order to get even again.

[The Charlotte Democrat (Charlotte, NC) 21 Feb 1879]

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 1879

night session.

            Bill for the relief of Jno. H. Cox, sheriff of Perquimans county. Passed

[Observer (Raleigh, NC) 22 Feb 1879 and 27 Feb 1879]

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            Robert White has been elected Sheriff of the county of Perquimans to succeed Jno. Cox [who] resigned.

[The Weekly Economist Elizabeth City, NC) 9 Sep 1879]

Halifax County Archaeological Find

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            Ancient Americans.—The work men engaged in opening a way for the projected railroad between Weldon (Halifax Co.) and Garysburg  (Northampton Co.), N.C., struck, about a mile from the former place in a bank beside the river, a catacomb of skeletons, supposed to be those of Indians of a remote age, a lost and forgotten race. The bodies exhumed were of a strange and remarkable formation.

            The skulls were nearly an inch in thickness; the teeth were filed sharp as those of cannibals, the enamel perfectly preserved; the bones were of wonderful length and strength, the former being probably as great as eight of nine feet. Near their heads were sharp stone arrows, some mortars in which their corn was brayed, and the bowls and pipes, apparently of soapstone. The teeth of the skeletons are said to be as large as those of a horse.

            The bodies were found closely packed together, laid tier on tier, as it seemed. There was no discernable ingress or egress to the mound. The mystery is who these giants were, to what race they belonged, to what era, and how they came to be buried there. To these inquiries no answer has yet been made, and meantime the ruthless spaces continue to cleave skull and body asunder, throwing up in mangled masses the bones of this heroic tribe. It is hoped that some effort will be made to preserve authentic and accurate accounts of these discoveries, and to throw some light, if possible, on the lost tribe whose bones are thus rudely disturbed from their sleep in the earth’s bosom.—Raleigh Republican

[The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC) 26 May 1874]

Note: I wonder what happened to these artifacts?