ARTHUR SPRUILL INSANE.

__________

His Strange Conduct Accounted For.

_________

            A young man named Arthur Spruill located in Snow Hill somewhat over a year ago for the purpose of practicing law. Coming well endorsed, of pleasant address, he soon gained the confidence and esteem of all good citizens. Reports damaging to his integrity have recently gained circulation and among these was a charge of forgery. Soon after, Mr. Spruill disappeared from Snow Hill, and nothing was known of his whereabouts until the following item appeared in the Washington Progress of last week: 

An Insane Man Captured.

           From Mr. W. S. Dickinson, who resides in Chocowinity township [Beaufort County], about six miles from town, we gathered the arrest and confinement of Mr. Arthur Spruill, a young lawyer from Snow Hill, Greene county. Mr. Dickinson was in his field at work on Friday last, when he heard a voice calling in pitiful accents to an imaginary friend to come back and not leave, then pleading with a supposed enemy, begging not to be shot, that he would surrender. Mr. Dickinson’s curiosity was aroused and he proceeded to a piece of woods from whence the sounds proceeded, and there found a man acting so strangely as to leave no doubt of his being insane. The stranger wrote his name, Arthur Spruill, and from his incoherent talk, it was learned that he had been practicing law in Snow Hill. It was also surmised that a slander suit recently tried in Greene county was the cause of his present demented condition. Mr. Dickinson cared for the maniac at his house Friday night, and on Saturday morning brought him to this town and lodged him in jail. We believe Mr. Spruill originally came from Washington county, and is connected with the best families in that section.—Washington Progress.

[Taken from Goldsboro Messenger, (Goldsboro, NC) 3 May 1886 and The Daily Journal  (New Bern, NC) 30 Apr 1886]

A Rocking Chair for Sarah

Elbert Alfred Moye, 5th child of Alfred and Orpah Tyson Moye, was born in 1844. He farmed in Pitt Co., NC until he joined the Confederate forces at the age of 17. On Sept. 3, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company G, Gen. Bragg's Guards, 8th Reg. of the NC Infantry. … On an oath of allegiance he was described as being 6 feet with a ruddy complexion, light hair and grey eyes.

Elbert was promoted to corporal in 1862, and on Jan. 3, 1863, he was promoted to 1st sergeant, Clerk to General Court Martial at Wilmington, NC. He was promoted to 2nd Lt. on Nov. 23, 1863.

On May 31, 1864, at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Elbert Moye was taken prisoner by the Union forces. He was taken to Ft. Delaware, Del. on June 25, 1864, and remained there until June 16, 1864, when all prisoners were released.

While a POW, Elbert made a rocking chair. He carried it the long distance home and gave it to his niece, Sarah Elizabeth Lang, daughter of Ann Priscilla Moye Lang. Lizzie Lang treasured the chair, and after many years gave it to her eldest daughter, Annie Elberta Joyner, namesake of Elbert Moye. Elberta Joyner Foster, her only daughter died and Elberta Foster gave the chair to her eldest granddaughter, Laura Foster Renard.

After the war, Elbert returned home to NC and farming. He was a member of the State House of Representatives in 1877 and in the Senate in 1879. From 1885 to 1898, he was a Clerk of Superior Court.

Elbert Moye married Mary Edwards, daughter of Newit Edwards, farmer, of Green Co., NC. They had 3 children: Elbert Alfred Moye, Jr. who married Hortense Forbes; Robert M. K. Moye, who married Lillian Barnhill; and Mary A. Moye, who married John L. Carper.

Elbert Moye married 2nd, Delphia King and they had no children. He married 3rd Lucy Johnston and they had a son, Robert Sweeney Moye.


[Taken from The May, Lang, Joyner, Williams Families of N. C. (Pitt Co. Area), by Laura Foster Renard, 1974. The book is available at ECU library. The story was published in The Connector, newsletter of the Tar River Connections Genealogical Society, in the Fall 2007 issue.]