A search for documents related to Daniel Vick turned up this scrap of paper in William Hinnant‘s estate file. It’s difficult to interpret without better context clues, but it appears that Offie Battle signed over to Daniel Vick his “witness ticket” — and the fee that came with it — perhaps to pay off or pay down on a debt Battle owed Vick. More interestingly, the file also contained a summary of the testimony in the trial of Amy Hinnant, Administrator for William Hinnant, deceased, vs. Wilmington & Weldon Rail Road Company.
In May 1890, William Hinnant had been fatally injured while attempting to cross the railroad between Nash and Barnes Streets. A train engineer had, Hinnant’s widow alleged in her complaint, negligently allowed an “inexperienced, careless, and incompetent subordinate” to move an engine in a crowded, busy section of track, striking her husband.
The trial unfolded in February 1893. Amy Hinnant testified:
- She was the wife of William Hinnant.
- He came home for dinner [what we now call lunch] injured; Rufus Taylor was helping him walk. This was on a Monday.
- She examined him and found his collarbone and two ribs broken on his left side.
- He died at 10:30 on Wednesday of the same week.
- They had been married 19 years and had no children.
- Her husband was a good provider.
- He was always healthy except for an occasional cold or backache.
- They lived in a house he bought. [The house had a mortgage and since been foreclosed on due to her financial state. This testimony was struck.]
- Her husband was 32 or 33 years old.
R.T. Stevens testified:
- He assisted the physician in dressing Hinnant’s wounds.
- His collarbone and two or three ribs were broken on the left side.
- Hinnant had worked for him for 11 years before he died.
- Hinnant drove a team for Wootten & Stevens furniture dealers and undertakers, as well as their hearse.
- When he wasn’t driving, Hinnant worked around the shop packing and unpacking furniture, “dressing bed slats and such.”
- The team was used for delivering furniture and hauling furniture from the depot.
- “It required a careful sober hand to do the kind of work he was engaged in. We regarded him as a good careful sober hand.”
- For three or four years, Hinnant had been paid $4.50 per week. He boarded and clothed himself out of his wages.
- He guessed Hinnant was about 35 years old.
W.P. Wootten testified:
- He was a member of the firm Wootten & Stevens (W&S).
- Hinnant had worked for them for 11 years. He delivered furniture.
- “His character was good and he was one of the most careful hands I ever knew. He was sober and attentive to business.”
- Hinnant was never absent except for sickness, and he was not out as much as five days a year.
- Hinnant’s health was good.
- Wootten’s business was on the north side of Nash Street and west side of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad.
- Hinnant’s house was on the north side of Nash Street and east of the railroad.
- W&S’ stables were on the south side of Barnes Street, which runs one block west and parallel to Nash.
- Employees in W&S’ workshops “work by Hackney Bros’ bell” and are allowed 45 minutes for dinner. The bell rings at 12 o’clock.
- “On the day of the accident, Hinnant carried the horses from the shop to the stable at the ringing of the bell, and put them up and fed them for dinner.”
- Hinnant had to cross the railroad to get to his home from the stables, a distance of about three-eighths of a mile. The stables were about 300 yards from the shop.
- Hinnant was about 35 to 40 years old.
Tom Keezer [Keyser] testified:
- He was hauling corn from a car on the spur track, nearly opposite of where Hinnant was injured.
- Hinnant was injured on a side track.
- Keyzer did not witness it, but saw Hinnant immediately after when he was pulled from between the cars.
- “A colored man by the name of Willis Pearson was switching with an engine on the side track. He was a fireman. He was running back hard against the bumpers trying to make the cars couple.”
- Stephen Meredith was the engineer of the freight train engine. He was sitting in front of a grocery store about 20 to 30 yards from the railroad crossing when the accident happened.
- The place where Hinnant was crossing was a regular railroad crossing and was the most direct route home for Hinnant.
- The engine was north of the crossing.
- Hinnant was crossing by a footpath generally used by people crossing from the north to the south side of the railroad. Leeper uses the crossing; there is no street there.
- Keyzer did not think Pearson was ringing the bell or giving any signal.
- After unloading corn, he crossed Barnes Street to Pettigrew Street, then to Nash Street and was crossing the railroad on Nash when the accident happened.
- The engine was making more noise than usual.
- Hinnant crossed between Barnes and Nash Streets, about fifty feet from Nash Street.
Orphy [Theophilus] Battle testified:
- He was near where Hinnant was injured. He saw him going from Barnes Street across the railroad toward Nash Street on a walking path.
- The cars were standing still, thirty to forty feet apart, when Hinnant started to cross.
- No bell was ringing, and no whistle blowing.
- Willis Pearson, a fireman, was shifting the cars, while engineer Meredith stood under a tree near a grocery store about sixty to seventy feet away. “The cars came back hard.”
- William Hinnant was a sober, industrious man.
- Nash Street is “tolerably thickly settled” and many people use the crossing.
- Battle was sitting in a chair in front of a barber shop looking at the train switching.
- The engine was making a lot of noise.
- Battle’s view was obstructed when Hinnant was struck.
- Hinnant was neither blind nor deaf.
- Hinnant could have crossed at Barnes Street, but it would not have been as convenient.
- Battle had been brought before the mayor several times for drunkenness, but nothing else. He drank sometimes, but was sober at the time.
The defendant declined to present evidence.
The court determined that defendant Railroad Company was not negligent; that Hinnant was guilty of contributory negligence; and that the Railroad Company could not have avoided the accident.
After securing a waiver of required security payment, Amy Hinnant appealed.
——
- Amy Hinnant
- William Hinnant
- Tom Keyzer
- Willis Pearson
- Theophilus Battle — in the 1880 census of Town of Wilson, Wilson County: Mary Battle, 55, and sons Theophilus, 26, blacksmith, and Blount, 16.
Probate Estate Case Files, Wilson County, North Carolina 1854-1959, http://www.familysearch.org