Perry Edward Hall

Perry Edward Hall, son of Francis Marion Hall and Rebecca A Geiger, born 11 Oct 1885, Putnam CO, FL, died 21 Aug 1927 Flagler CO, FL, buried Oak Hill Cemetery, Palatka, Putnam CO, FL, married Lena Fulghum, dau of George W Fulghum and Margaret Holcombe born Jan 1889, Richland, Stewart CO, GA, died Apr 1964, Marion CO, FL

They moved to this area about 1917 from Hastings and resided in the Haw Creek area where he was employed by Zeb E Booe, manager of Haw Creek Farms.

The family is listed on page 26 of the 1920 census of Flagler County with his occupation given as "Manager Farm." He later purchased a farm. He was active in community affairs and in 1922 an account in the Flagler Tribune has "Perry Hall, as usual, has organized the Haw Creek baseball boys and is training hard for a series of games."

In 1924 he was elected Sheriff of Flagler County and the family moved to Bunnell, serving until he was murdered in the line of duty on 21 Aug 1927 as he attempted to make an arrest.

When elected sheriff, he prevailed upon his brother-in-law William J. (Bill) Williams, an experienced law officer from St. Augustine, to move to Flagler County and be a deputy and jailor. Bill Williams had worked in law enforcement in St. Johns County for many years in the police department and as a deputy sheriff.

THE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, August 25, 1927

Sheriff Perry Hall died in the Flagler East Coast Hospital at St. Augustine, following a fracture of the skull inflicted by a Negro named Jim Smith, who struck the officer over the head with a bottle of whiskey early Sunday morning at Roy, a small settlement in the northern part of the county, when the sheriff attempted to arrest Smith.

A posse, numbering 150 and 200 men, searched the county and adjacent neighborhoods for the assailant and up to the present time, the Negro is still at large.

The Negro, according to reports reaching the sheriff’s office here, delivered a blow from which Sheriff Hall never regained consciousness when commanded to throw up his arms. The assailant, it was said, flews immediately and was believed to have taken to the hammock lands nearby in an effort to escape.

Bloodhounds were put on the trail Sunday. They circled the wooded area near Roy but did not track the fugitive.

Sheriff Hall was rushed to the St. Augustine hospital after news of his injury was made known. He was admitted to the hospital at 3:30 a.m., Sunday and died at 1:30 p.m. without having gained consciousness.

Full details of the encounter are not known, but it was stated that the sheriff entered single-handed, a place where several Negroes were drinking. Then he ordered one of the number to throw up his hands, the Negro first raised one and then the other, bringing down with the second, a liquor bottle which felled the officer

Henry Williams, Yelvington Negro at whose house Smith is said to have hidden for several hours following the attack on Sheriff Hall is held at the county jail in Palatka.

There was no actual witness to the killing and Negroes in the vicinity of Roy have told conflicting stories about it. Several Negroes are being held in jail here for questioning.

Deputy Williams was about a quarter of a mile away when the sheriff was attacked. Negroes in the building are said to have heard the attack and investigated, finding the sheriff unconscious on the ground. Deputy Williams was notified and carried the sheriff to Hastings where first aid was given. Deputy Sheriff A. P. Turlington, St Johns County, drove the injured sheriff to the East Coast Hospital in St. Augustine, while Williams returned to the scene of the attack.

Henry Williams, Negro of Yelvington, admitted that Smith had stayed at his house following the killing until six o’clock Sunday morning. He was arrested by sheriff’s deputies of Putnam County who feared the members of the posse might lynch the Negro for his part in the affair and was rushed to the jail in Palatka for safe keeping.

Bloodhounds brought into service by the posse failed to track the Negro, although authorities seem to think that he was unable to get very far away.

Meanwhile the sheriff’s offices in neighboring counties are making every effort to bring the Negro to justice. The opinion was expressed that the Negro is being hidden out by his friends. Up to the present time, nothing authentic has been learned of the Negro’s whereabouts.

Sheriff Hall was serving his first term as sheriff and is survived by a widow and three children.

Funeral services were held here and at Hastings, Tuesday. Services here were conducted at the Baptist church at 10 o’clock in the morning for those friends who were unable to attend the service at Hastings, and it is estimated that there were about five hundred present at the Hastings’ service. Burial was at Oak Hill Cemetery, Palatka.

THE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, September 15, 1927

Justice overtakes the guilty sooner or later was again demonstrated Sunday afternoon when a posse attempted to arrest Jim Smith, alias Geo Jones, slayer of the late Sheriff Perry Hall, shot the Negro to death in Brookfield, Georgia, according to O. O. Thomas, special deputy sheriff, who was in the posse.

The Negro was known here as Jim Smith and was known at Brookfield as George Jones. He killed Sheriff Hall while the sheriff was making a raid on a Negro joint at Roy in the northwestern part of this county on the night of August 20.

The Negro had told here before the murder that he once resided in Tifton, Georgia and officers there were notified at the time the crime was committed. It was also known that either relatives of himself or wife lived at Brooksfield. According to Mr. Thomas, the Negro went to Brookfield on Sunday, September 4, and sent word to his wife here to join him at Brookfield. Deputy Thomas followed the woman to Tifton. In the meantime the Georgia officers had learned that Smith was in Brooksfield and made a search for him Saturday night but failed to locate him. Smith, it is said, had a double-barreled shot gun, which he kept with him at all times ready for use.

Sunday afternoon the officers learned that Smith was in the house off John Chatman, Negro, in the turpentine still quarters of Bowen & Harrell, at Brookfield, and the house was surrounded by a posse composed of Deputy Sheriff O. O. Thomas from this county, Sheriff J. O. Thrasher, Deputy Sheriff Chesley Thompson, Chief of Police E. F. Preston, Warden J. G. Nelson, Commissioner N. L. Coarsey all of Tift County, Georgia. When two of the officers went in the front of the house, Smith ran out the back and he was shot down when he refused to halt. Deputy Thomas stated that the Negro ran about 100 yards from the house and fell dead.

After death of the Negro the body was identified by Smith's wife and others there who knew him at Brookfield. Deputy Thomas carried the body to Tifton and had it embalmed and brought it back here, arriving Monday afternoon where it was further identified by a number of Flagler County white men and several Negroes who knew him here. The body was buried Tuesday morning by the county convicts.

No doubts are entertained here about the Negro being the one who committed the murder. It was reported by Mr. Thomas that the murderer, after arriving at Brookfield, carried the shotgun all the time and boasted to Negroes at Brookfield about what he had done in Florida and what he would do if officers tried to catch him. Having heard these reports, naturally the officers were prepared to shoot to kill when they went after Smith and did not give him a chance to use his gun and make good his boasts.

Deputy Thomas stated to The Tribune that the Georgia officers are to be thanked by people of this county for their work; that they acted with promptness when called upon and gave perfect cooperation in the raid and capture of the Negro.

After the killing of Sheriff Hall, Son Durrance, deputy sheriff of this county, was killed by another Negro while searching for Jones or Smith. The deputy also shot his slayer, but the Negro is recovering and is being held in jail for trial. Jones, or Smith, it is said, also gave another Negro a pistol with which to kill a Negro woman. The deputy was shot at a water tank while he was looking for Smith or Jones.

Mr and Mrs Hall were the parents of three children;

1. James Edward Hall, born 28 Dec 1915, Haw Creek, St Johns, now Flagler CO, FL, died 03 Sep 2000, married 25 Jan 2000, Duval CO, FL, Doris Louise Varnes, dau of Lemuel Bryant Varnes & Lee C. Byrd, born 24 Feb 1925, Stark, Bradford CO, FL, died 14 Apr 2002, Tucson, Pima CO, AZ

2. George Fulghum Hall, born 12 Jan 1918, Haw Creek, Flagler CO, FL, died 03 Jun 1984, Pinellas CO, FL, buried Woodlawn Memorial Gardens, St Petersburg, Pinellas CO, FL, married 02 Sep 1937, Pasco CO, FL, Mildred Rose Hodsock (Div)

3. Margaret R Hall, born Dec 1919, FL

Lena Fulghum married 2nd, 02 Sep 1929, Court House, Ocala, Marion CO, FL by NP F A Montgomery, Charles Wesley Church, born about 1892, ND

 

Source: The First Families of Flagler by Mary Ketus Deen Holland who cites as her sources, Census, Published Articles and Wyllie Williams Eichholz.

Additional sources used by the compiler were: 1920 United States Federal Census, Haw Creek, Flagler, Florida; 1930 United States Federal Census, Martin, Marion, Florida;World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918; World War II Draft Registration Cards 1940-1947; Florida Death Index, 1877-1998; George W Fulghum family information posted on ancestry.com and The Flagler Tribune, Bunnell, FL, 25 Aug 1927, 01 Sep 1927, 15 Sep 1927, 05 Sep 1929.

Please send questions, corrections or additions to Sisco Deen, P.O. Box 637, Flagler Beach, FL 32136 or email him at Sisco_Deen@hotmail.com