Perry Joshua "Josh" Austin:
KILLED BY NEGRO.
JOSH AUSTIN KILLED BY RAYMOND BROWDY, THE SLAYER A BAD CHARACTER.
About six o'clock Saturday evening as Josh Austin was passing
Fioney's
livery barn, a Negro keeper, Raymond Brawdy, stopped Mr. Austin
and begun
a quarrel. There are a number of stories current as is usually
the case
but from the best authorities Austin and Brawdy had been hauling
gravel
that morning and Brawdy took some friendly joke of Austin as (as
he called
it), a "Ballin". He stopped young Austin and was asking
why he "balled"
him out, to which Austin remarked he meant no harm when Brawdy
broke forth
with oaths and threats and made for Austin. In the scuffle Brawdy
was put
on the ground but released at once and Austin started to his home
and
perhaps not yet suspecting the Negro being mad, as he often played
such a
role even in a joke. But Brawdy was not through and seizing a
buggy breast
yoke struck Austin twice, once on the head that felled him to
the ground
and then struck him again.
Austin was conscious about three hours after he was taken home.
Doctors
were summoned but all efforts failed to save his life. He died
a little
after 12'm Sunday.
At first it was thought the young man was not so seriously hurt
and the
Negro was placed under a $200 bond. Afterwards he was rearrested
and
confined to Harrisburg jail where he is there without bail.
The victim was about 25 years of age and was the son of Shade
Austin,
one of Carrier Mills' implement and feed men. Josh was one of
Carrier
Mills' most highly respected young men, peaceable, honest and
industrious;
in fact one of the most inoffensive of our citizenship.
The slayer is considered a very bad Negro, having come very near
getting
killed in a fight only a short time ago and although a minor has
been his
own "boss" as he says for several years.
Feelings ran high Saturday night, Sunday and Sunday night in which
it
took steady heads to suppress the mob spirit which was much in
evidence.
No doubt if they had thought the victim was so badly hurt Brawdy
would
have been lynched the night of the awful deed.
The better element of colored citizens to a unit deplore the sad
affair
and are ready to give their assistance in giving the slayer speedy
justice
as they did when Alec King was hung for the murder of his father-in-law.
From The Carrier Mills Mail, Carrier Mills, Illinois Fri. Oct 9 1914
* Dates taken from Bible records and Cemetery records:
Perry Joshua Austin was born 18 May 1888 in Pope County, Illinois,
the son of Shade and Mary Frances "Fannie" (Moore) Austin.
He died 4 October 1914 in Carrier Mills, Saline County, Illinois.
He is buried at the New Zion Cemetery in
Pope County with his parents and other family members.
Submitted by Phyllis, E-mail: kbush@mail.coin.missouri.edu