STATE GAZETTE
DYERSBURG, TENNESSEE
FORTY-SECOND YEAR NO. 2

JANUARY 10, 1907
THE TROY TRAGEDY -- There is a blood stained spot in a field near Troy; there is a new made grave at the Campground; there is a broken hearted widow at the HOLDER home, and there is a young man in the first flush of young manhood charged with patricide, one of the blackest crimes in the calendar.  Rev. B. L. HOLDER was born on the battlefield of Shiloh about 42 years ago. He married when but 17 years of age, his wife being 16. Some years thereafter, though with a family on his hands and though poor and uneducated, he determined to become a Cumberland Presbyterian minister.  With a self reliance, he made his way through college, and entered upon his chosen work, much of which has been done in Obion county, where he was known and respected. His eldest son, Dolphus, while Mr. HOLDER lived at Beech, in No. 10, gave his father some trouble by forging names to orders. After this, Mr. HOLDER moved to Troy. The boys frequently ran off and went to different states. Dolphus finally ran off again and when he drifted back to Troy, his father refused him coming home.  Dolphus knocked about Troy for two or three weeks, slept in livery stables and subsisted on what Lee, a younger brother, could bring him and finally through exposure, contracted pneumonia. During the preacher's absence, Dolphus was carried home, where Lee and his dear mother nursed him through the illness. In the summer of 1904, while the big tent meeting was in progress in Troy, Dolphus shot and came near killing John WELLS.  HOLDER seems to have stuck to the boy through it.  He helped him to escape and afterward, when captured, secured the $1, 500 bond with his own name and several friends.  When the boy jumped his bond and left, for South America, never to return, Mr. HOLDER stated that he would pay the full bond himself.  We are told he paid $500 on it recently.  About a year ago, Mr. HOLDER traded his Troy property to Rev. D. T. WAYNICK for 125 acres of the BRIGHT or WAYNICK farm on the east side of Troy road and moved there.  Down in the valley between STEPHENS' and LANCASTER's home, the branch made a loop in the road, two small bridges with a levee between them.  This is the scene of the murder. About the middle of December, Mr. HOLDER bought a cheap single barrel shotgun from Rufus ROCHELLE, the Troy merchant, also buying "new chief" shells to go with it, bright yellow shells #5 shot.  Mr. HOLDER, with his little children, came to Troy on Thursday morning, December 27th, paid a debt at Pressly & Kirby's, showed his children the Christmas toys and went home.  In the afternoon he went hunting, returning after dark and placed the gun where it was kept-in Lee's room at the foot of the bed.  A few minutes before 6 o'clock, HOLDER started for the Masonic installation of officers to be held in Troy.  He was driving a blind mare and was in an old worn open top buggy.  This is the last time his family saw him alive.  Mr. Luther LANCASTER, at the back of his residence, cooking out lard, heard a shot, then another shot, a scream for help, a cry of Murder.  In 4 or 5 minutes, a horse came from the shooting towards the HOLDER house.  Mr. Jake BRANTLEY, who lives in the STEPHENS home also heard these shots.  Uncle Warren BROWN, passing the bridge about 11 p. m., saw a horse and buggy down in the branch where they had fallen from the bridge nearest Troy.  Uncle Warren notified Mr. LANCASTER, who recognized the mare as being Mr. HOLDER's and took her down there.  The family could give no explanation of the matter and Lee and his little brother, Earl, about 14 years, Mrs. HOLDER, Mr. & Mrs. LANCASTER and some 15 or 20 other neighbors searched for Mr. HOLDER.  About daylight Friday morning, Mrs. HOLDER found her husband; he was on his back about 40 or 50 feet from the overturned buggy, his gloves and overcoat and one overshoe were on, his bowels protruded from two ghastly wounds in the abdomen, his hat was clenched in his hand, there was a hole in the top of his head and the skull was split almost from ear to ear and on each side of the head terrible blows had been inflicted. Shells were found and picked up; "new chief" yellow #5's. Tracks of the murderer were made with a #6 shoe, one of the tracks indicated a run down shoe.  It was noticed that fresh tracks made by Lee HOLDER were identical in size and prints of the murderer's tracks.  On Friday morning with the arrival of Sheriff FINCH, inquest proceedings were held before Justices of the Peace; W. H. PYLES and James A. ???.  Lee HOLDER was the first witness.   He was stolid, indifferent and manifested no grief or feeling whatever. He denied that he had seen the gun since his father came from hunting on the preceding evening;that he was in the house all the time, from the time his father left till he went to bed, "except two or three minutes that he had stepped out." Earl HOLDER stated that Lee had been out of the house maybe 5 or 8 minutes after his pa left and before he went to bed.  Mrs. HOLDER, in a conversation before her being subpoenaed as a witness said that "Lee had not left the house more than 10 minutes from the time his pa left till he retired, not more than 15 minutes unless someone had run back the clock." About the first thing that was done Saturday morning was the swearing out by many prominent citizens of a warrant charging Lee HOLDER with 1st degree murder.  He was taken to Union City by Deputy Sheriff BRICE and jailed.  About noon Thursday, several hundred citizens marched to the HOLDER residence, determined to find the gun.  James ORR found it under the barn, the stock broken off the barrel, the barrel bent, twisted, covered with mud, blood and human hair, being the length and color of Mr. HOLDER's. (lots of speculation of the progress of the murder.)  Mr. HOLDER's body was buried at the Campground cemetery last Sunday. Talks were made by Revs. J. CALHOUN, McLESKY and BOYD.   The sermon was preached by Rev. McLESKY.

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