BRUTAL MURDER PROMPTED LYNCHING

By Marshall McClung
Contributing Writer to the Graham Star

A brutal murder in the Mountain Creek section of Graham County in the 1800’s brought about the only known lynching in Cherokee County.  On Sunday, June 19, 1898, Thad Sherrill was on his way to bring some salt to his cattle when he was ambushed.  The bushwhacker shot him twice from a hiding place in some nearby laurel bushes.  His body was then dragged into the thicket where his head was pounded off with a rock.  The assailant then fled the scene.

Isaac Crisp and Bill Rice found Sherrill’s body in the woods a short distance off the trail.  Pate Wiggins and Robert Adams found evidence that a Winchester rifle had been used to kill Sherrill.  Graham County Sheriff John A. Ammons and deputies Bob Adams and George Crisp worked day and night in an attempt to determine who had killed Sherrill.  News of the vicious murder spread through neighboring counties both frightening and angering residents.

Soon after the investigation began, suspicion began to point to a neighbor of Thad Sherrill, George Maney.  Sherrill, a bachelor lived with two spinster sisters Margaret and Angeline Sherrill.  Maney had married Hester Prewitt and had three children, a son, and twin daughters.  Maney suffered from a severe cough, often spitting up blood.  It was thought that he had “galloping consumption”, a form of tuberculosis.  Sherrill and his sisters had become very friendly with the Maney family and feared that the children would be infected by tuberculosis.  Maney refused to get medical treatment, so Sherrill advised Mrs. Maney to take the children and go live with her parents, the Reverend and Mrs. William Prewitt.  When Maney learned of this, he became enraged and decided to kill Sherrill.  Maney learned that Sherrill was planning to go salt his cattle the next day, so he hid in the bushes and shot Sherrill in the chest and beat him with a large rock.

Graham County Magistrate Nathan Green Phillips charged Maney with the murder of Sherrill, and upon being arrested, he confessed to the murder.  Maney was jailed in Robbinsville.  Soon, an angry mob formed threatening to hang him.  Sheriff Ammons and his deputies had to hold the crowd at bay with rifles and shotguns to prevent a lynching.  Under the cover of darkness, and accompanied by heavy guard, Maney was quietly moved by horseback to the Cherokee County jail in Murphy on the night of June 23, 1898.

Soon after his transfer to the Murphy jail, Maney and some other prisoners sawed their way out of jail and escaped into the mountains.  Ben Sherrill, a brother of Thad, came to Graham County from Georgetown, Texas to organize volunteers to hunt Maney down.  After weeks of searching which extended into winter, they could not locate Maney.  Months later, suffering from exposure and malnutrition, Maney turned himself in on January 15, 1899 in Murphy.

News of Maney’s surrender soon reached Graham County.  A large group of armed men left for Murphy on horseback.  As they traveled along, other men from several communities including Andrews, Coalville, Marble, Tomotla, Regal, Peachtree, and Murphy joined them.   Maney was seized from the jail and taken to a bridge over Valley River.  Maney was asked several times to make a statement, and then hanged from the bridge.

Thad Sherrill is buried in the Old Mother Cemetery near the Old Mother Church.  Several years ago, a fund was started to mark his grave.  Contributors were:  Magistrate J.J. Dula, Leonard Phillips, Willie Bridges, Laverne Maxwell, Sheriff Boyd Crisp, County Attorney T.M. Jenkins, former sheriff G.E. Brewer, Representative Leonard Lloyd, Clerk of Court W.M. Sherrill, W.G. McKeldrey, G.A. Harwood, Mrs. Walter West, Walt Wiggins, Mrs. Clyde C. Lloyd, Druggist Ed Ingram, Editor Todd Reece, Ross Smith, J. Smith Howell, and Bob Barker.  The grave stone reads:  Thad Sherrill son of Jason and Clarissa, 1846-1898, Bushwacked on Mt. Creek by George Maney, Maney Lynched by mob in Murphy 1899, hanging him to Upper Valley River Bridge.