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| The Winston-Salem Journal Tuesday, September 27, 1904 |
| DOUBLE TRAGEDY AT KERNERSVILLE Terrible Scene Enacted There yesterday Mrs. Celse Carmichael is Dead, miss Malas Dwiggins is in serious Condition and Lewis F. Carmichael a Suicide |
A terrible double tragedy was enacted at Kernersville, a little town 11 miles east of this city, yesterday morning about 7:30
o'clock. Lewis F. Carmichael, aged 64, a carpenter, apparently in a fit of insanity murdered his wife Celie, aged [??],
attached his step daugher, Malas Dwiggins, aged 14, with a razor from the effects of which she may not recover and
then killed himself.
This story as related by those on the scene to Journal reporter who arrived in Kernersville shortly after the tragerdy [sic],
is as follows:
For some time there had been dissention between Carmichael and his wife, and for the past three weeks they had not
been living together.
On Saturday he had gone to his wife and it is said sought a reconciliation. Mrs. Carmichael's second daughter, Iva
Dwiggins, ordered him never to return again. He left in an angry mood and with a threat that he would kill Iva unless she
left him along or would kill himself remarking by the way of emphasis that he had nothing especially to live for anyway.
Sunday morning Iva went to the home of her uncle Sam White on the Stokesdale Road with the family and in the
afternoon Mrs. Carmichael wrote Mr. Carmichael a note telling him as far as she was concerned he might return but that
Iva, her daughter, would not agree to it.
This note seemed to have angered him to the verge of insanity and after eating breakfast yesterday morning at the home
of his sister, Mrs. Anderson Lewis, on the opposite side of the town, he went into the room of Mr. Charley Griffith,
who works in this city, and took from the bureau a razor and 38-calibre revolver. Carmichael then in a deliberate manner,
proceed to the Carmichael home, approaching the house from the rear, as shown in the diagram. He came upon Mr.
Carmichael in the kitchen preparing the morning meal. What was between them will never be known, but it is generally
supposed that it was something regarding the girl Iva Dwiggins who had driven him from home.
Carmichael then proceeded to vent his anger on the wife, slashing her ?? (rest of sentence blurred). The mother ???
???? ????? the youngest ??? ????? was lying in the adjoining room and she rushed into the kitchen to ascertain the
cause of the disturbance. She met her mother and Carmichael just inside the kitchen. He was hacking Mrs. Carmichael
with the razor in his right hand and holding her with his left. Just as the girl Malas, came in reach, Carmichael slashed at
her, inflicting a wound ten inches long, slicing the right breast entirely in two.
Carmichael then chased the wife out into the hall, through the bedroom, hacking her at every step and finally almost
decapitating her. She ran through the hall, falling into the yard just beyond the steps and expired in a few minutes.
Carmichael, realizing the seriousness of the crime, or crazed with anger, hacked himself on the neck in five different
placed, then placing the pistol to his head, put behind the right ear, two times. Two shots went crashing through the ??,
one grazed the side of his head and one went wide on the neck embedding itself in the side of the room.
In a few minutes a crown, attracted to the shots had gathered around the house, and finding the almost decapitated and
slashed body of Mrs. Carmichael in the yard, several procured Winchester rifles, as it was conceded that no sane man
could have perpetrated such a crime, and he was thought to be barricaded in the house.
It was some time before anyone would ??/ ??? several minutes of waiting and ??? coming from the house the girl Malas,
aged 14, ?????? bleeding and screaming ??????? ????? Carmichael on the floor in a pool of blood.
Those who had gathered then carried the dead woman into the house and Drs. Ashworth and Linville were summoned.
Dr. Ashworth went immediately to the home of Mr. W.F. Winfrey, where the girl had been taken and dressed her wound,
which required sixteen stitches. In an interview with the Journal reporter, the doctor stated that Miss Dwiggins condition
was serious, but that she would recover unless blood poisoning set in. Indications, however, were in the young woman's
favor.
Dr. Linville dressed the dead woman's wounds which consisted of a gash from the center of the forehead down the side
of the face, splitting the right ear entirely. Four gashes in the throat, one from ear to ear, and almost entirely severing
the head from the body, and another from the wrist to the tip of the third finger on the left hand apparently received in
trying to ward off the razor as it descended on her.
Carmichael was removed from the floor and placed on the bed. He died at 10:30. An examination of his wounds proved
that the slashes in his neck would not have caused death, as only some small arteries had been severed. His wounds
were bathed by Dr. Linville and an attempt was made to locate the bullets in his head. It was found that two of them
entered the brain. As the probe was removed, the brains oozed out.
Prior to the tragedy, Mr. Carmichael had been considered an industrious man. He had a position at the box factory of his
brother-in-law, Mr Lewis and was a good carpenter.
Mrs. Carmichael was a widow, a Mrs. Dwiggins before her marriage and was a skillful dressmaker. She was a most
industrious woman.
The two daughters of Mrs. Carmichael, Iva, aged 18 and Malas, aged 14, were employed in the Kernersville Knitting Mills.
Iva, the eldest, was not athome at the time of the tragedy. She did not return from the home of her uncle until about 10
o'clock and knew noting of the tragedy until her arrival.
This was conceded by everyone in Kernersville, who knew the particulars, as bing the most terrible tragedy ever enacted
in the county.
The bodies of the victims will be interred in the Kernersville cemetery this morning.
o'clock. Lewis F. Carmichael, aged 64, a carpenter, apparently in a fit of insanity murdered his wife Celie, aged [??],
attached his step daugher, Malas Dwiggins, aged 14, with a razor from the effects of which she may not recover and
then killed himself.
This story as related by those on the scene to Journal reporter who arrived in Kernersville shortly after the tragerdy [sic],
is as follows:
For some time there had been dissention between Carmichael and his wife, and for the past three weeks they had not
been living together.
On Saturday he had gone to his wife and it is said sought a reconciliation. Mrs. Carmichael's second daughter, Iva
Dwiggins, ordered him never to return again. He left in an angry mood and with a threat that he would kill Iva unless she
left him along or would kill himself remarking by the way of emphasis that he had nothing especially to live for anyway.
Sunday morning Iva went to the home of her uncle Sam White on the Stokesdale Road with the family and in the
afternoon Mrs. Carmichael wrote Mr. Carmichael a note telling him as far as she was concerned he might return but that
Iva, her daughter, would not agree to it.
This note seemed to have angered him to the verge of insanity and after eating breakfast yesterday morning at the home
of his sister, Mrs. Anderson Lewis, on the opposite side of the town, he went into the room of Mr. Charley Griffith,
who works in this city, and took from the bureau a razor and 38-calibre revolver. Carmichael then in a deliberate manner,
proceed to the Carmichael home, approaching the house from the rear, as shown in the diagram. He came upon Mr.
Carmichael in the kitchen preparing the morning meal. What was between them will never be known, but it is generally
supposed that it was something regarding the girl Iva Dwiggins who had driven him from home.
Carmichael then proceeded to vent his anger on the wife, slashing her ?? (rest of sentence blurred). The mother ???
???? ????? the youngest ??? ????? was lying in the adjoining room and she rushed into the kitchen to ascertain the
cause of the disturbance. She met her mother and Carmichael just inside the kitchen. He was hacking Mrs. Carmichael
with the razor in his right hand and holding her with his left. Just as the girl Malas, came in reach, Carmichael slashed at
her, inflicting a wound ten inches long, slicing the right breast entirely in two.
Carmichael then chased the wife out into the hall, through the bedroom, hacking her at every step and finally almost
decapitating her. She ran through the hall, falling into the yard just beyond the steps and expired in a few minutes.
Carmichael, realizing the seriousness of the crime, or crazed with anger, hacked himself on the neck in five different
placed, then placing the pistol to his head, put behind the right ear, two times. Two shots went crashing through the ??,
one grazed the side of his head and one went wide on the neck embedding itself in the side of the room.
In a few minutes a crown, attracted to the shots had gathered around the house, and finding the almost decapitated and
slashed body of Mrs. Carmichael in the yard, several procured Winchester rifles, as it was conceded that no sane man
could have perpetrated such a crime, and he was thought to be barricaded in the house.
It was some time before anyone would ??/ ??? several minutes of waiting and ??? coming from the house the girl Malas,
aged 14, ?????? bleeding and screaming ??????? ????? Carmichael on the floor in a pool of blood.
Those who had gathered then carried the dead woman into the house and Drs. Ashworth and Linville were summoned.
Dr. Ashworth went immediately to the home of Mr. W.F. Winfrey, where the girl had been taken and dressed her wound,
which required sixteen stitches. In an interview with the Journal reporter, the doctor stated that Miss Dwiggins condition
was serious, but that she would recover unless blood poisoning set in. Indications, however, were in the young woman's
favor.
Dr. Linville dressed the dead woman's wounds which consisted of a gash from the center of the forehead down the side
of the face, splitting the right ear entirely. Four gashes in the throat, one from ear to ear, and almost entirely severing
the head from the body, and another from the wrist to the tip of the third finger on the left hand apparently received in
trying to ward off the razor as it descended on her.
Carmichael was removed from the floor and placed on the bed. He died at 10:30. An examination of his wounds proved
that the slashes in his neck would not have caused death, as only some small arteries had been severed. His wounds
were bathed by Dr. Linville and an attempt was made to locate the bullets in his head. It was found that two of them
entered the brain. As the probe was removed, the brains oozed out.
Prior to the tragedy, Mr. Carmichael had been considered an industrious man. He had a position at the box factory of his
brother-in-law, Mr Lewis and was a good carpenter.
Mrs. Carmichael was a widow, a Mrs. Dwiggins before her marriage and was a skillful dressmaker. She was a most
industrious woman.
The two daughters of Mrs. Carmichael, Iva, aged 18 and Malas, aged 14, were employed in the Kernersville Knitting Mills.
Iva, the eldest, was not athome at the time of the tragedy. She did not return from the home of her uncle until about 10
o'clock and knew noting of the tragedy until her arrival.
This was conceded by everyone in Kernersville, who knew the particulars, as bing the most terrible tragedy ever enacted
in the county.
The bodies of the victims will be interred in the Kernersville cemetery this morning.
From the FCHA Editor:
This photograph of Malas Dwiggins was included in the newspaper along with the
article. It was difficult to reproduce.
This photograph of Malas Dwiggins was included in the newspaper along with the
article. It was difficult to reproduce.
| SHORT LOCAL ITEMS The Winston-Salem Journal Tuesday, September 27, 1904 |
Sheriff Alspaugh is reported to be improved.
Mrs. J.D. Williams is seriously ill with typhoid fever.
Mr. S.E. Peterson spent yesterday in Wilkesboro.
Mrs. Le Roy Tise returned from Greensboro last night.
Mr. Thomas Woodruff, of Mt. Airy, was here Sunday.
Mr. Charles Griffith returned from Kernersville last night.
Tom Blum has taken his dog show to the fair at Roanoke.
Mr. C.A. Jenkins returned last evening from Vade Mecum Sprinngs.
Mr. Paul Lehman has purchased the Smokers Den from Mr. Rufus Swaine.
Mr. and Mrs. D.H. Mast, of Panther Creek, spent yesterday in the city.
Chief of Police F.G. Crutchfield returned Sunday from Virginia where he spent his vacation.
Mr. Clint Miller returned last evening from an extended pleasure trip to St. Louise, Colorado and California.
Gurney Quate was fined $10 and the costs for resisting an officer yesterday and $1 and costs for drunkeness
Mrs. J.D. Williams is seriously ill with typhoid fever.
Mr. S.E. Peterson spent yesterday in Wilkesboro.
Mrs. Le Roy Tise returned from Greensboro last night.
Mr. Thomas Woodruff, of Mt. Airy, was here Sunday.
Mr. Charles Griffith returned from Kernersville last night.
Tom Blum has taken his dog show to the fair at Roanoke.
Mr. C.A. Jenkins returned last evening from Vade Mecum Sprinngs.
Mr. Paul Lehman has purchased the Smokers Den from Mr. Rufus Swaine.
Mr. and Mrs. D.H. Mast, of Panther Creek, spent yesterday in the city.
Chief of Police F.G. Crutchfield returned Sunday from Virginia where he spent his vacation.
Mr. Clint Miller returned last evening from an extended pleasure trip to St. Louise, Colorado and California.
Gurney Quate was fined $10 and the costs for resisting an officer yesterday and $1 and costs for drunkeness