The Rock Hill Herald reported on Aug. 8, 1888 – “Many from Rock Hill have gone to the big picnic at Mr. Abernathy’s near the intersection of the 3C’s and GC&N railroads. (Now known as Catawba Junction). Candidates for public office will be there to speak and the Fishing Creek Coronet Band will provide music.”
City Directories and History: From the Yorkville Enquirer, March 6, 1889.
Sheriff Crawford learned of a lynching party from eastern York County planning to come to Yorkville to lynch four men, Charles McManus, John Feaster, Charles Colston, and William Barnett. The first three are charged with the murder of Mr. W. C. Abernathy at Catawba Junction about a month ago. Barnett was charged with attempting an outrage on a child of Mr. Abernathy. The Sheriff, along with Deputy R. L. Scoggins and assisted by R. M. Whitesides, took the prisoners to Blacksburg by train, from there to Spartanburg, and then to Columbia, where they were placed safely in the Richland County Jail. The would-be lynch party arrived in Yorkville to find their targets had escaped. They quietly left town.
The Yorkville Enquirer on June 12, 1889 reported – “John C. Feaster and Charles R. Colston were hanged within the walls of the jail of York County on last Friday for the murder of Mr. W.C. Abernathy last Jan. at Catawba Junction. On the night of Jan. 25th Mr. Abernathy was sitting in his store. He was struct by a heavy object and was able to get to his home, a short distance from the store, but collapsed in his doorway and never regained consciousness dying two days later.”
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