Murder in the Courthouse - a feud between two rival Purvis newspaper editors ends in murder in 1915.

A feud between Dr. Samuel E. Rees, editor and publisher of the Purvis Booster, and Wiley A. Blackburn, editor and publisher of the Progressive Star resulted in the death of Mr. Blackburn  when Dr. Rees shot Blackburn four times. The shooting took place inside the Lamar County courthouse in Purvis, MS on October 19, 1915. The two men were at the courthouse to submit competing bids to print the ballots for the upcoming election. Blackburn was unarmed.

Dr. Rees was arrested and confined in the Lamar County jail. He was released under a $6,000 bond two days later.

On February 2, 1916, Dr. Rees was indicted by a grand jury of first degree murder and returned to jail. Bail of $15,000 was raised on behalf of Dr. Rees and he was released to await trial.

On February 14, 1916, a jury was finally seated and the trial began. Dr. Rees claimed that he shot Blackburn in self-defense. After a two day trial, the jury returned a verdict of murder in the first degree. Rees was sentenced to life in prison and again confined to jail.

A group of local area physicians petitioned for the release of Dr. Rees. They declared that Dr. Rees’s health “would not stand further confinement in jail.” On March 4, 1916, Rees was released on a $30,000 bond pending appeal of his murder conviction to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

On February 5, 1917, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction and life sentence of Dr. Rees.

Soon petitions were circulated asking the recently elected Governor Theodore Bilbo to pardon Rees. Dr. Rees had been a prominent supporter of Bilbo’s campaign. On March 10, 1917, Governor Bilbo suspended the sentence of Dr. Rees “until July 15, at which time the state board of pardons will have met.” Dr. Rees was released from the state prison farm.

Dr. Rees returned to his home in Purvis. I found no record of it, but I assume the state board of pardons granted a full pardon to Dr. Rees. By June, 1917, Rees was once again appointed by the State Board of Health to be the health director for Lamar County. He is enumerated in Purvis in both the 1920 and 1930 census. Dr. Rees died on July 2, 1935.

More details about the murder, the trial, and the pardon can be found in the 16 newspaper clippings below.

 

 

Miss Arizona Roxanna "Duck" Wall - newspaper editor and business woman in early 1900s Purvis, MS.

With a nod to Women’s History Month, I want to share the story of Purvis resident, Arizona Roxanna “Duck” Wall. She was the last of thirteen children of Micajah Wall and Mary Ann DePriest. She was born 25 Nov 1879 in Jasper Co. MS and died 16 Jan 1953 in Florida. By 1900, Miss Wall was in Purvis with most of her family, where she lived most of her life.

 Duck Wall grew up at a time when it was rare for women, other than teachers and nurses, to work outside the home; and especially rare for women to run a business. Miss Wall was an exception. In 1900, at the age of 22, she published a newspaper called the Purvis Echo from her office in Purvis.

 Tragedy struck on April 24, 1908 when a devastating tornado hit Purvis. Her office and all of her printing equipment were destroyed and Miss Wall barely escaped injury or death. In December, 1908, Miss Wall leased the Lumberton Headblock and published that paper for several years.

 I believe Miss Wall lived on a farm just outside Purvis in 1916 with two brothers and a sister. In the early 1900s it was kind of a big deal for farmers to lay claim to the first cotton bloom of the season. On June 22, 1916, Miss Wall claimed the “first cotton bloom of the season in Purvis.”

 During the teens, Miss Wall was the local correspondent for several metropolitan newspapers. In 1916, she became the editor of another Purvis newspaper called the Progressive Star. This paper was previously published by Mr. Wiley A. Blackburn, who was murdered in 1915 by Dr. Samuel Rees, the rival publisher of another newspaper called the Purvis Booster.

 The 19^th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920. Just two years later, Miss Duck Wall was a candidate for mayor of Purvis. She was defeated by the incumbent mayor, T. C. King. This 1922 election was notable for the fact that a record 258 people voted and 100 were women.

 In 1924, Miss Duck Wall returned to Lumberton to again become the publisher of the Lumberton Headblock. In 1932, she was named as one of the directors of the Paramount Oil and Gas Corporation.

 About 1935, Miss Wall moved to Hattiesburg. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Nation moved into the Duck Wall house in Purvis, where Mrs. Nation opened her music studio. (Many of you will remember Mrs. Evelyn Nation who gave private piano lessons for many years).

 About 1944, Miss Wall moved to Tampa, FL where her niece, Mrs. James R. Graham lived. After a long illness, Miss Wall died in Tampa on 16 Jan 1953. She was buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Hattiesburg, MS near her mother who died in 1909.

Below are newspaper clippings that I used to write this article.

Purvis Fever - the Migration of Families From North Alabama to Purvis, Mississippi (1918 - 1928)

In the late teens and early twenties many families moved from northern Alabama to the Purvis, Mississippi area. They did not come all at one time. It was a gradual migration. They came primarily from Marshall and Blount counties, towns such as Guntersville, Boaz, and Oneonta, communities such as Grassy, Walnut Grove, Shoal Creek, and Arab, and geographic areas such as Sand Mountain and Brindlee Mountain.

 By the late teens, say 1918, much of the land in south Mississippi was considered “cut-over land.” It had been owned by large lumber companies, but was being sold and divided into small farms. It was considered good farm land, being mostly flat and free of rocks. Land in northern Alabama was generally more hilly and rocky.

 Colonization and Realty Companies were formed to hasten the settlement and cultivation of the cut-over land. They purchased large tracts and divided them into smaller farms. One such company was the Purvis Realty Company. E. A. Nation of Blount County, AL was in charge of the sale of land for this company. He moved from the small town of Liberty, in Blount Co. AL to Purvis in 1919. Mr. Nation induced many farmers from the Blount and Marshall County Alabama area to relocate in Purvis. Around this time, advertisements began to appear in Alabama newspapers about good farm land in south Mississippi. Many of those ads specified Purvis, Mississippi “where farm work is pleasant every day of the year.”

 By the early 1920s, so many north Alabama farm families had relocated to Purvis that, upon hearing the news that yet another family was relocating, a Blount County, AL newspaper lamented that that family had caught “the Purvis, Mississippi fever.”

 When many of these north Alabama families moved to Purvis, they kept their subscription to their home town Alabama newspaper and had the newspaper mailed to them in Purvis. They wanted to keep up with their old home town, friends, and former neighbors. Some even wrote letters back to those newspapers about their new home in Purvis. These letters were published as a column in the local communities section of those papers under the heading of “Purvis, Miss.”

 Among the amusing things I found in a 1928 Alabama newspaper, were “letters to Santa” written by Purvis, MS children. Two of them mentioned their teacher, Miss Ruth Baxter. Some of you will remember that Miss Baxter was still teaching in Purvis (2^nd grade) until her retirement in 1962.

Below you will find advertisements, articles, columns and over 150 personal mentions of Purvis people published in north Alabama newspapers 1918 – 1928 that help to chronicle the north Alabama to Purvis, MS migration of the late teens and early twenties.

Below are personal mentions of over 150 Purvis residents found in Alabama newspapers between 1918 and 1928.