Post by Brian on Aug 30, 2010 23:55:04 GMT -5
08/31/07 at 11:47 PM
Maria
After months of intensive research and conversations with a dozen people I learned that the bodies of the Lawson family were taken to Knight Funeral Home in Madison, N.C. The main reason being because they had an elevator and there were a lot of bodies to be transported upstairs where the funeral parlor was located. T.B. Knight was the owner of the funeral Home and it was Mr. Knight who bathed, embalmed, dressed and prepared each member of the Lawson family for burial. I learned that in 1929 the funeral homes consisted of a small office, an embalming room and a casket display room. They did not have viewings of the bodies at the funeral homes back then. After the body was embalmed and prepared, a family member would then go to the casket display room and select a casket. The body was always returned to the family's home for viewing, The funeral was then held at the home, a church or the cemetery. But the Lawson's presented a unique problem. There were 8 bodies, 7 caskets, therefore they could not be sent home for their viewing due to the number of bodies/caskets. There was just not room for that at the Lawson home so the bodies were taken to Yelton Funeral Home for the viewing part. Yelton had ample room for viewing multiple bodies but no elevator. Knight funeral Parlor had an elevator but no room for viewing bodies. The bodies were viewed at Yelton's the following day. If you stand outside in front of where the Knight Funeral Home was you can see the building that was once Yelton Funeral Home, they were that close together. Both were located on Murphy Street, Yelton on the north end of Murphy and Knight's on the west end. Then the day of the funeral the bodies were taken in 7 hearses to Browder Cemetery for the funeral. Since the funeral was not held at the home or in a church, the caskets were opened for viewing at the Cemetery as was the practice back then. The funeral car at Knights at the time of the Lawson's funeral, a combination hearse and ambulance, was a 1925 Studebaker. This information came from, among others, Richard Miller, who with his wife Kathy owns the Madison Dry Goods Store which held Knight's Funeral Parlor on the top floor of the Dry Goods Store, then called Penn Hardware Store in 1929.1 also spoke with Steve Ray, retired owner of Ray's Funeral home in Madison. Steve's family moved to Madison in 1929 when he was seven months old. His father Vance Ray worked with Mr. Knight in his funeral Home. But Vance Ray was not pleased with the fact that Mr. Knight did not have or make room for a viewing room so he left Knight's and opened his own funeral home. Bobby W. at Rays Funeral Home also spoke with me on 4 occasions and arranged for me to be able to speak with Steve Ray. I also spoke at length with Diane Joyce, owner of Nelson Funeral Home in Danbury, N.C. which was in business in 1929. Mr. Miller called me yesterday and told me he wanted me to come back to Madison to see him because he had some things to show me that he had not showed me when I visited him at his store in May. I asked him what he had to show me and he said he has the elevator that used to be in the store and that it was on the elevator that the bodies rode up to the top floor. Also he has a portable embalming table to show me that was used back then on the occasions that the funeral home had to go to do the embalming at the home of the deceased. Then came the real "kicker in the gut" when he said "Maria, do you remember that room at the top of the stairs that you went into that was my office and you screamed real loud when you saw me unexpectedly. I said yeah. And he said...by the way Maria, you were standing in the middle of what was the embalming room in 1929 where the bodies of the Lawson's were embalmed." I said oh my gosh you're kidding, why in the world didn't you tell me that back then!! He said I didn't want you to go ballistic again like you did when you saw the embalming machine. He said his wife Kathy said she had never seen anybody get that excited and freaked out over an embalming machine before. I guess Mr. Miller made a good decision not to tell me where I was standing that day because I probably would have panicked and jumped out the window in my haste to get out of there!! I am going this afternoon (Saturday) to see to see Mr. Miller and his artifacts and to take some additional photos. He also said he would take me over to his home and let me take some pictures of the actual embalming table that he was told was very likely the one that was used to embalm the bodies of the Lawson's. I believe he said it was made of wood. It is not on display in the museum with all the other artifacts but is kept in his private home. So I consider it a privilege that he is taking me into his home and letting me take photos of it. This is something no one else has ever been allowed to do although he said several other people had wanted to get a picture of it some time ago.It has been told by a number of people that the first place the bodies of the Lawson's were taken was Burroughs funeral Home in Walnut Cove but that is not correct. I spoke with a lady at Burroughs Funeral Home the other day and she said that Burroughs did not open until 1941.
Maria
09/01/07 at 11:18 AM
sissy
Man this is sooo interesting. Imagine you were in the building where the bodies of the Lawson family were taken and didn't even know it. Did they take Charlie's body here also? I know they did the autopsy of his brain. I think I read where they did that in the doctor's office not sure. Make sure you get so more pictures when you go back. Keep us posted.
sissy
09/01/07 at 11:32 AM
Maria
My camera is charging up as we speak Sissy and I plan to take a lot of good photos. Unfortunately I will not be showing them in the forum. I am saving them for the scrapbook. I am really more excited about going today than I was when I went the first time back in May.
Maria
09/05/07 at 11:56 AM
Angel71242
I was hoping you were going to include those in the scrapbook!) That's really cool...all this info you found out. I have looked in the window of the Madison Dry Goods (they were closed) -1 can't wait to get out there one Saturday before they close so I can go inside!!
Angel71242
09/05/07 at 02:37 PM
sissy
Quote:
Maria
It has been told by a number of people that the first place the bodies of the Lawson's were taken was Burroughs funeral Home in Walnut Cove but that is not correct. I spoke with a lady at Burroughs Funeral Home the other day and she said that Burroughs did not open until 1941.
End quote.
So were they not taken to a funeral home in Walnut Cove at all?
sissy
09/05/07 at 02:41 PM
Maria
There was a funeral home in Walnut Cove before Burroughs Funeral Home opened in 1941. The name of it was P.T. Harrington Mortuary. It was located on the top floor of the old Mercantile store across the street from the Dodson Hotel. I assume if the bodies were taken to Walnut Cove it would have been to Harrington's.
Maria
09/05/07 at 02:44 PM
sissy
So I guess that is also where the autopsy of Charlie's brain happened?
sissy
09/05/07 at 02:47 PM
Maria
Probably. Either at the Mortuary or in Dr. Helsabeck's office. Dr. Spotswood Taylor took the brain to Johns Hopkins with him for a more invasive autopsy.
Maria
09/05/07 at 02:58 PM
sissy
Thanks for the info. Your knowledge of this subject never fails to amaze me.
sissy
09/05/07 at 04:29 PM
Angel71242
I definitely second that!
Angel71242
09/06/07 at 04:38 PM
Maria
Hi Holly,
Sorry it took me awhile to answer your question. But yes, other people besides Charlie's relatives and authority knew that an autopsy was performed on Charlie's brain. In some of our interviews I remember a number of people mentioning the autopsy.
Maria
09/06/07 at 05:12 PM
iluvnumber3
Thank you Maria
It is very interesting that Dr Taylor took the brain for more study. At least this displayed interest in a reason on why this truly happened to Charlie. I wish they had the took that they do now
-Holly
iluvnumber3
09/06/07 at 10:31 PM
LuvMyDog
I truly wished they had left everything just the way this tragic event had happened! There were just too many people and too much contamination to understand what really happened that tragic day! I would have love to have seen the home, and taken a step back in history to that day, but everything seemed to be destroyed, for what reason?
LuvMyDog
09/07/07 at 09:48 AM
Angel71242
Oh man, I would have loved to seethe home too!!'! I sure wish that someone would have at least taken pictures of it when it was opened up for tours again in 1979....surely someone did. If only they would find this forum'!
Angel71242
09/07/07 at 10:30 AM
Maria
I consider myself lucky to be numbered among those who were able to see and walk through the house even when it was empty. But the problem is that when I went to see it in 1979 I really did not have the slightest concept of it's importance. I heard the story 20 years before I toured the house but basically all I knew was that a man had killed his family in that house on Christmas Day long before I was even born. I had not read a book about it...that would come ten years later, but the book did not present the story in a way that made me want to learn more about it. The content was interesting and a little scary but the presentation of the story did little if anything to impress me or reveal the true depth of it's importance or even the potential for importance. The story lingered in my mind but not for long. Perhaps George Watts felt the same way. He had no real concept that Charlie Lawson's house would be that important to so many people for so long therefore he tore it down rather than salvage and restore it. Only when Matthew and Eric decided to make a documentary about it and recruited me for the research part of it did I slowly but surely come to realize how significant and complex this story is. You really have to go in-depth for that. And I have gone in-depth and been knee-deep in it for two years now. And believe me it has been one heck of a ride. No other experience in my life has come close to being as exciting and moving and intense a journey as the journey I've taken back through time into the lives of Charlie, Fannie. Arthur, Marie, Carrie, Maybell, James, Raymond, and Marylou Lawson as well as the lives of all those people, relatives and friends and neighbors alike in Stokes County, North Carolina in 1929. Sometimes I get this momentary glitch in my soul that I lived in Germanton inl929 and that I was friends with all those people.
Maria
09/07/07 at 10:32 AM
Angel71242
I cannot believe you didn't have a camera with you back then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just kiddin.....I still love you Maria!!
Angel71242
09/07/07 at 12:40 PM
Maria
As I said earlier P.T. Harrington Mortuary was in the old Mercantile building. What I didn't know until this morning was that the old mercantile store was also located in the building that held the Drugstore and Dr. Helsabeck's office and is now home to Jerry Rutledge's Law firm.
Maria
09/07/07 at 01:35 PM
LuvMyDog
I love your post Maria about seeing the house. You have such a knack for writing.........you are the one who should have written the book. At least it would have been more factual rather than being based on imagination.
LuvMyDog
09/07/07 at 05:18 PM
Michael818
Has anyone ever thought of building a replica of the house? As for why was it torn down? Perhaps it was getting to be too much of a curiosity. Also, maybe it was becoming unsafe. I believe it was supposed to have bee nearly 200 yrs old when Charlie bought it! If it were there today, it would be closing on its tricentary! Much has been made over the worn condition of the steps. Maybe it just wasn't safe anymore, and the owners feared lawsuits if someone got hurt.
By the way, where was the store Arthur was gone to? Is it still there?
Michael R.
Michael818
09/07/07 at 05:20 PM
Maria
Luther McKenzie's store where Arthur went that day is long gone.
Maria
09/08/07 at 08:22 PM
LuvMyDOg
Did Arthur have any say in the burial of his parents and his siblings? It sounds more like it was a community decision than his. I'm just curious as to who had the funeral arrangements made. Surely he would have had more control in this matter than anyone else.
LuvMyDog
09/08/07 at 08:44 PM
Maria
I'm not sure about this but I think Marion had the most to do with the funeral arrangements. Arthur was too distraught, naturally. Marion handled pretty much everything. He was executor of the estate and it was Marion who decided to let the tours take place and on the auction paper it lists Marion as Administrator.
Maria
09/08/07 at 09:18 PM
LuvMyDog
Even after death it seems like Arthur had no decisions to make on his own. How sad. That only seems like more proof that Charlie was going to kill Arthur as well as the rest of the family. I wonder when he made his brother executor of the estate.
LuvMyDog
09/09/07 at 08:48 AM
Michael818
WAS that Charlie's decision, OR did Marion simply take on the mantle because Arthur was so devastated. Also, may
have been, since none of the children had reached their majority, Arthur COULDN'T be the executor. Not sure what
the laws about this were back then, but seems unlikely a minor would have been allowed to be an estate executor.
Michael R.
Michael818
09/09/07 at 08:55 AM
Maria
Good point Michael. Charlie may not hove left a will per se and Marion took it upon himself to administer the
estate. I'm sure that Arthur could not possibly have been fit to do any thing of that nature, especially so soon
after the murders.
Maria
Maria
After months of intensive research and conversations with a dozen people I learned that the bodies of the Lawson family were taken to Knight Funeral Home in Madison, N.C. The main reason being because they had an elevator and there were a lot of bodies to be transported upstairs where the funeral parlor was located. T.B. Knight was the owner of the funeral Home and it was Mr. Knight who bathed, embalmed, dressed and prepared each member of the Lawson family for burial. I learned that in 1929 the funeral homes consisted of a small office, an embalming room and a casket display room. They did not have viewings of the bodies at the funeral homes back then. After the body was embalmed and prepared, a family member would then go to the casket display room and select a casket. The body was always returned to the family's home for viewing, The funeral was then held at the home, a church or the cemetery. But the Lawson's presented a unique problem. There were 8 bodies, 7 caskets, therefore they could not be sent home for their viewing due to the number of bodies/caskets. There was just not room for that at the Lawson home so the bodies were taken to Yelton Funeral Home for the viewing part. Yelton had ample room for viewing multiple bodies but no elevator. Knight funeral Parlor had an elevator but no room for viewing bodies. The bodies were viewed at Yelton's the following day. If you stand outside in front of where the Knight Funeral Home was you can see the building that was once Yelton Funeral Home, they were that close together. Both were located on Murphy Street, Yelton on the north end of Murphy and Knight's on the west end. Then the day of the funeral the bodies were taken in 7 hearses to Browder Cemetery for the funeral. Since the funeral was not held at the home or in a church, the caskets were opened for viewing at the Cemetery as was the practice back then. The funeral car at Knights at the time of the Lawson's funeral, a combination hearse and ambulance, was a 1925 Studebaker. This information came from, among others, Richard Miller, who with his wife Kathy owns the Madison Dry Goods Store which held Knight's Funeral Parlor on the top floor of the Dry Goods Store, then called Penn Hardware Store in 1929.1 also spoke with Steve Ray, retired owner of Ray's Funeral home in Madison. Steve's family moved to Madison in 1929 when he was seven months old. His father Vance Ray worked with Mr. Knight in his funeral Home. But Vance Ray was not pleased with the fact that Mr. Knight did not have or make room for a viewing room so he left Knight's and opened his own funeral home. Bobby W. at Rays Funeral Home also spoke with me on 4 occasions and arranged for me to be able to speak with Steve Ray. I also spoke at length with Diane Joyce, owner of Nelson Funeral Home in Danbury, N.C. which was in business in 1929. Mr. Miller called me yesterday and told me he wanted me to come back to Madison to see him because he had some things to show me that he had not showed me when I visited him at his store in May. I asked him what he had to show me and he said he has the elevator that used to be in the store and that it was on the elevator that the bodies rode up to the top floor. Also he has a portable embalming table to show me that was used back then on the occasions that the funeral home had to go to do the embalming at the home of the deceased. Then came the real "kicker in the gut" when he said "Maria, do you remember that room at the top of the stairs that you went into that was my office and you screamed real loud when you saw me unexpectedly. I said yeah. And he said...by the way Maria, you were standing in the middle of what was the embalming room in 1929 where the bodies of the Lawson's were embalmed." I said oh my gosh you're kidding, why in the world didn't you tell me that back then!! He said I didn't want you to go ballistic again like you did when you saw the embalming machine. He said his wife Kathy said she had never seen anybody get that excited and freaked out over an embalming machine before. I guess Mr. Miller made a good decision not to tell me where I was standing that day because I probably would have panicked and jumped out the window in my haste to get out of there!! I am going this afternoon (Saturday) to see to see Mr. Miller and his artifacts and to take some additional photos. He also said he would take me over to his home and let me take some pictures of the actual embalming table that he was told was very likely the one that was used to embalm the bodies of the Lawson's. I believe he said it was made of wood. It is not on display in the museum with all the other artifacts but is kept in his private home. So I consider it a privilege that he is taking me into his home and letting me take photos of it. This is something no one else has ever been allowed to do although he said several other people had wanted to get a picture of it some time ago.It has been told by a number of people that the first place the bodies of the Lawson's were taken was Burroughs funeral Home in Walnut Cove but that is not correct. I spoke with a lady at Burroughs Funeral Home the other day and she said that Burroughs did not open until 1941.
Maria
09/01/07 at 11:18 AM
sissy
Man this is sooo interesting. Imagine you were in the building where the bodies of the Lawson family were taken and didn't even know it. Did they take Charlie's body here also? I know they did the autopsy of his brain. I think I read where they did that in the doctor's office not sure. Make sure you get so more pictures when you go back. Keep us posted.
sissy
09/01/07 at 11:32 AM
Maria
My camera is charging up as we speak Sissy and I plan to take a lot of good photos. Unfortunately I will not be showing them in the forum. I am saving them for the scrapbook. I am really more excited about going today than I was when I went the first time back in May.
Maria
09/05/07 at 11:56 AM
Angel71242
I was hoping you were going to include those in the scrapbook!) That's really cool...all this info you found out. I have looked in the window of the Madison Dry Goods (they were closed) -1 can't wait to get out there one Saturday before they close so I can go inside!!
Angel71242
09/05/07 at 02:37 PM
sissy
Quote:
Maria
It has been told by a number of people that the first place the bodies of the Lawson's were taken was Burroughs funeral Home in Walnut Cove but that is not correct. I spoke with a lady at Burroughs Funeral Home the other day and she said that Burroughs did not open until 1941.
End quote.
So were they not taken to a funeral home in Walnut Cove at all?
sissy
09/05/07 at 02:41 PM
Maria
There was a funeral home in Walnut Cove before Burroughs Funeral Home opened in 1941. The name of it was P.T. Harrington Mortuary. It was located on the top floor of the old Mercantile store across the street from the Dodson Hotel. I assume if the bodies were taken to Walnut Cove it would have been to Harrington's.
Maria
09/05/07 at 02:44 PM
sissy
So I guess that is also where the autopsy of Charlie's brain happened?
sissy
09/05/07 at 02:47 PM
Maria
Probably. Either at the Mortuary or in Dr. Helsabeck's office. Dr. Spotswood Taylor took the brain to Johns Hopkins with him for a more invasive autopsy.
Maria
09/05/07 at 02:58 PM
sissy
Thanks for the info. Your knowledge of this subject never fails to amaze me.
sissy
09/05/07 at 04:29 PM
Angel71242
I definitely second that!
Angel71242
09/06/07 at 04:38 PM
Maria
Hi Holly,
Sorry it took me awhile to answer your question. But yes, other people besides Charlie's relatives and authority knew that an autopsy was performed on Charlie's brain. In some of our interviews I remember a number of people mentioning the autopsy.
Maria
09/06/07 at 05:12 PM
iluvnumber3
Thank you Maria
It is very interesting that Dr Taylor took the brain for more study. At least this displayed interest in a reason on why this truly happened to Charlie. I wish they had the took that they do now
-Holly
iluvnumber3
09/06/07 at 10:31 PM
LuvMyDog
I truly wished they had left everything just the way this tragic event had happened! There were just too many people and too much contamination to understand what really happened that tragic day! I would have love to have seen the home, and taken a step back in history to that day, but everything seemed to be destroyed, for what reason?
LuvMyDog
09/07/07 at 09:48 AM
Angel71242
Oh man, I would have loved to seethe home too!!'! I sure wish that someone would have at least taken pictures of it when it was opened up for tours again in 1979....surely someone did. If only they would find this forum'!
Angel71242
09/07/07 at 10:30 AM
Maria
I consider myself lucky to be numbered among those who were able to see and walk through the house even when it was empty. But the problem is that when I went to see it in 1979 I really did not have the slightest concept of it's importance. I heard the story 20 years before I toured the house but basically all I knew was that a man had killed his family in that house on Christmas Day long before I was even born. I had not read a book about it...that would come ten years later, but the book did not present the story in a way that made me want to learn more about it. The content was interesting and a little scary but the presentation of the story did little if anything to impress me or reveal the true depth of it's importance or even the potential for importance. The story lingered in my mind but not for long. Perhaps George Watts felt the same way. He had no real concept that Charlie Lawson's house would be that important to so many people for so long therefore he tore it down rather than salvage and restore it. Only when Matthew and Eric decided to make a documentary about it and recruited me for the research part of it did I slowly but surely come to realize how significant and complex this story is. You really have to go in-depth for that. And I have gone in-depth and been knee-deep in it for two years now. And believe me it has been one heck of a ride. No other experience in my life has come close to being as exciting and moving and intense a journey as the journey I've taken back through time into the lives of Charlie, Fannie. Arthur, Marie, Carrie, Maybell, James, Raymond, and Marylou Lawson as well as the lives of all those people, relatives and friends and neighbors alike in Stokes County, North Carolina in 1929. Sometimes I get this momentary glitch in my soul that I lived in Germanton inl929 and that I was friends with all those people.
Maria
09/07/07 at 10:32 AM
Angel71242
I cannot believe you didn't have a camera with you back then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just kiddin.....I still love you Maria!!
Angel71242
09/07/07 at 12:40 PM
Maria
As I said earlier P.T. Harrington Mortuary was in the old Mercantile building. What I didn't know until this morning was that the old mercantile store was also located in the building that held the Drugstore and Dr. Helsabeck's office and is now home to Jerry Rutledge's Law firm.
Maria
09/07/07 at 01:35 PM
LuvMyDog
I love your post Maria about seeing the house. You have such a knack for writing.........you are the one who should have written the book. At least it would have been more factual rather than being based on imagination.
LuvMyDog
09/07/07 at 05:18 PM
Michael818
Has anyone ever thought of building a replica of the house? As for why was it torn down? Perhaps it was getting to be too much of a curiosity. Also, maybe it was becoming unsafe. I believe it was supposed to have bee nearly 200 yrs old when Charlie bought it! If it were there today, it would be closing on its tricentary! Much has been made over the worn condition of the steps. Maybe it just wasn't safe anymore, and the owners feared lawsuits if someone got hurt.
By the way, where was the store Arthur was gone to? Is it still there?
Michael R.
Michael818
09/07/07 at 05:20 PM
Maria
Luther McKenzie's store where Arthur went that day is long gone.
Maria
09/08/07 at 08:22 PM
LuvMyDOg
Did Arthur have any say in the burial of his parents and his siblings? It sounds more like it was a community decision than his. I'm just curious as to who had the funeral arrangements made. Surely he would have had more control in this matter than anyone else.
LuvMyDog
09/08/07 at 08:44 PM
Maria
I'm not sure about this but I think Marion had the most to do with the funeral arrangements. Arthur was too distraught, naturally. Marion handled pretty much everything. He was executor of the estate and it was Marion who decided to let the tours take place and on the auction paper it lists Marion as Administrator.
Maria
09/08/07 at 09:18 PM
LuvMyDog
Even after death it seems like Arthur had no decisions to make on his own. How sad. That only seems like more proof that Charlie was going to kill Arthur as well as the rest of the family. I wonder when he made his brother executor of the estate.
LuvMyDog
09/09/07 at 08:48 AM
Michael818
WAS that Charlie's decision, OR did Marion simply take on the mantle because Arthur was so devastated. Also, may
have been, since none of the children had reached their majority, Arthur COULDN'T be the executor. Not sure what
the laws about this were back then, but seems unlikely a minor would have been allowed to be an estate executor.
Michael R.
Michael818
09/09/07 at 08:55 AM
Maria
Good point Michael. Charlie may not hove left a will per se and Marion took it upon himself to administer the
estate. I'm sure that Arthur could not possibly have been fit to do any thing of that nature, especially so soon
after the murders.
Maria
You have pictures of the inside of the cabin?
I would loooooooove to see them!!!! I will pm you my email address if you would be willing to do that. Also, the friendship quilt you talk about - that's fabulous! I can't believe you have something like that! That's really awesome!!
