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Carry handy $ui-boHa
by William T. Brannoa,
Art by Elmer Smith
Lewis kinsey was among the first
in Chattooga County, Ca.,
to own an automobile. He drove
a Ford touring car on his rural mail
route out of the Summerville Post
Office, and it was known to many of
the residents along the back country.
He had cut a slit in the side curtain,
and this made the car distinctive.
In his off hours, Kinsey used his
car to drive traveling salesmen and
others to nearby communities. On a
wintry night in January, 1921, he told
his wife he was going to drive a man
to Rome, Ga., 24 miles away. He
never returned.
The distraught wife told Sheriff
Frank Thomason that her husband
generally told her who his passenger
was, but he didn't on this night.
While deputies combed Summer
ville and the road to Rome, the police
of that city searched for Kinsey's car;
it couldn't be found.
Sheriff Thomason called on his half
brother, Alex "Tiny" Glenn, for help.
Glenn himself had been sheriff and
had made a fine record; now he was
sworn in as a special deputy. While
other deputies searched the roads
leading from the Rome highway, Glenn
went to see Mrs. Kinsey.
She could add nothing to what she
had already reported. Her husband
had left about 6 p.m. to drive a man
to Rome, and had told her he'd be
back before bedtime. Two days had
elapsed and she had heard nothing.
v.
lenn prowled around the house
and discovered some tire
tracks in the mud from a recent
rain. Mrs. Kinsey said the tracks had
been made by her husband's car;
Glenn got out a pad and quickly
sketched the marks.
Meanwhile, the deputies had found
a man who recalled seeing Kinsey
driving out Peach Orchard Road, a
rough byway that led off. the Rome
road four miles from Summerville.
Kinsey knew the road, because he
drove over parts of it to deliver mail,
but why would he be there at night,
especially when he supposedly was
driving to Rome with a passenger?
Glenn and other deputies drove out
Peach Orchard Road. They found a
few witnesses who had seen the mail
carrier alone. Glenn drove for four
miles, watching the rutted road. Then,
at a turnoff, he stopped.
Heavy treads indicated a car had
stopped, backed into the turnoff, and
then headed back toward the Rome
highway. Glenn studied the tire tracks
and compared them with his sketches;
they matched.
Glenn inquired of a man at a cabin
half a mile away. Yes, the man said,
he had seen the mail carrier. Some
time later, he had heard some gun
shots, five or six, then he had seen
the car going back toward Rome.
WS0 Missina
The deputies went back to the turn
off, little more than a trail that led
into dense woods to the West. They
searched the area until dark, but
found no indication of any violence.
At daybreak the next morning, Glenn
and the deputies were back, following
the trail of the tire tracks.
The trail ended at the Rome high
way, where the tracks turned South, '
then were lost in the gravel. The
deputies kept on, stopping to study
tire tracks at every crossroad. Finally,
they picked up the trail again leading
off the highway into Back Valley
Road, which ran North towards Chat
tanooga, Tenn. But the car hadn't
turned from the North; the tracks
plainly showed that the car had turned
from the South, jrom Rome.
Glenn decided that the car, after its
brief journey on Peach Orchard Road,
had returned to the highway and gone
on to Rome, later coming back and
turning off into the Back Valley Road.
Glenn ordered a canvass of the area.
They found a farmer who recalled
seeing the mail carrier's car. It had
passed his house about 10 o'clock that
night, going north on the Back Valley
Road. The farmer had noticed the slit
side curtain, but he didn't see whether
the driver was alone.
lenn followed . the trail north
VJ ward. At Lafayette, he talked
to the town marshal, who re
called seeing the car about 11 o'clock
headed toward Chattanooga. The dep
uty went on to enlist the help of
Chattanooga police.
Within half an hour, they found the
car parked in a vacant lot next to the
railroad station. Two cab drivers told
Glenn they had seen the car driven
into the lot. A man had got out and
hurried into the station.
The cabbies described the man as
tall and slim. He had dark hair and
wore a broad-brimmed, light-colored
felt hat; his slender features were
tanned as if from exposure to the
elements. This was almost a perfect
description of the missing mail carrier.
Glenn inquired in the station. A
night ticket agent, who often co
operated with police in tracing fugi
tives, recalled the man. He had in
quired about trains to Hot Springs
and Knoxville, buying a ticket to
Knoxville because that train left
earlier. The agent gave the same de
scription of the man.
"Any scars?" Glenn asked.
"Yes, there was one on his neck, a
long one that seemed to have been
made by a knife."
Glenn had the car driven back to
Summerville and he questioned Mrs.
Kinsey again. She said a .38 caliber
revolver her husband usually carried
in the car was missing. She also said
that Kinsey had about $300 in his
wallet the night he vanished.
Puzzling over the mystery, Glenn
sat in the sheriff's office and went
through the files, studying pictures
and descriptions of wanted criminals.
Glenn kept digging and finally
found what he wanted. It was a war
rant for the arrest of Clint Mathis, a
local bad man who had been indicted
on several counts of larceny, but was
still at large. Telling only the sheriff,
Glenn quietly took up the trail of
the fugitive.
After weeks of searching, he finally
found Clint Mathis in Marion, N. C.
Mathis still had Kinsey's .38 caliber
revolver. He wore Kinsey's broad
brimmed hat, and his general appear
ance was the same as that of the
missing mail carrier. He denied that
he had harmed Kinsey or stolen his
car, but he was taken back to Georgia.
Two weeks later, Kinsey's body
was found in the woods some distance
from Peach Orchard Road. He had
been shot five times with the revolver
found in Mathis' possession. Mathis
was convicted of murder and given a
life sentence.
Glenn explained why he had gone
after Mathis: "I wondered why Kin-
16
Family Weekly, December S, 1957