Files
Download Full Text (2.8 MB)
Description
This article recalls several memorable incidents in Cleveland County during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It includes stories of Shelby residents winning the Louisiana lottery in the 1850s, the death of former Governor Augustus Burton in 1836, and violent events involving local law enforcement in the early 1900s, including the killings of Police Chiefs Robert Shelton Jones and B. Edgar Hamrick. It also recounts the county’s last public hanging and a 1909 roadside confrontation near Fallston involving Dr. T. B. McBrayer and a man named Walker.
Publication Date
2026
City
Shelby, NC
Keywords
Billy Corbett, John F. Stephens, Augustus Burton, William Perry Andrews, Robert Shelton Jones, B. Edgar Hamrick, A. B. Suttle, Solon Ford, T. M. Lowery, Jim Lowery, Ben Clark, Joe Kendrick, Ben Palmer, Iverson McBrayer, Frances McBrayer, Miriam McBrayer, Rush Thompson, Shelby, public hanging, county jail
Contributors
Fay Webb Gardner Collection in the Gardner-Webb University Archives
Recommended Citation
Jones, Mamie, "Undated (03) - Cleveland County Early Days" (2026). Cleveland County Early Days Newspaper Column. 67.
https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/fay-webb-gardner-cleveland-county-early-days-newspaper-column/67