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- 1910 Roane Cenus-Wheat page 35
FRY, SylvesterheadMW57TNFarmer
Martha A.wifeFW40TN
Sylvester married and moved to Ten Mile, Tennessee on a farm. Helived in a log cabin and reared his family there. In the year 1881,he began having problems with a black man. His patience was growingthin with this black fellow. In the fall of 1881, while he was in hisyard, he looked at the other end of the bottom where he had stackedhis corn in fodder shocks. There he saw the black man making his wayfrom one shock to the other with a gun in his hand. Sylvester put hisfamily in his home in a back bedroom and told them not to make asound. He then got his gun, locked the front door, knocked somechinking out of a wall in the cabin from between the logs where hecould see, and stuck his gun barrel out the hole. The black man cameon toward the house, knocked on the door, then backed into the yard.There he raised his gun, ready to fire when the door opened. He didthis three times. The last time he did this, Sylvester called to him.When the black man turned to shooot, Sylvester already had his aim onhim. He pulled the trigger and killed the black man. At this time,Sylvester told his family to notify the black man's family. While theblack man lay dying in his yard, he walked over his dying body, lefthomme (he went to North Carolina), and stayed several months. When itwas considered safe, Sylvester returned to Tennessee. It was told afew months after the death of the black man, that Sylvester's wifegave birth to a set of black twin boys. from "A History of theCoalfield Area" by W.B. Lyles
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