This article contains descriptions of a sexual assault against a minor and the injustice that followed. For privacy, I have redacted the girl’s name and those of her family members.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 5 August 1933.
I have not found the Daily Times‘ “brief statement” about this incident, and I continue to search for information about what happened after charges were dismissed against the alleged assailants.
Wilson Mirror, 6 November 1889.
Algie Vaughan’s stepdaughter was Sarah Ward, who was about 15 in 1889. Sarah’s mother Mittie Ward had two children, Sarah and Joseph H. Ward, before she married Vaughan in 1879. This terrible incident may explain why Mittie reverted to her maiden name and Minerva used “Ward” as an adult.
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On 6 May 1879, Algenon Vaughn, 22, married Mitty Finch, 27, in Wilson.
In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Sarah Darden, 57, son-in-law Algia Vaughn, 23, daughter Mittie, 22, and grandchildren Joseph, 8, Sarah, 6, and Macinda Vaughn, 5 months. [Joseph “Vaughn” was actually Joseph Ward, listed with his stepfather’s surname.]