1881-01-21
Sampson County, NC
Alleged offense: Murder
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Age: Unrecorded
Legal intervention (in alleged offense): Yes
Legal intervention (following lynching):
Mob size: Unrecorded
Mob members: Unrecorded
Alleged victim: Charley Boone
Household Status: Unrecorded
Occupation: Horse Trader
Doyle Bryant was a drayman and horse trader in and around Fayetteville, North Carolina in the 1870s and 1880s. In 1873 he and Wiley Evans were accused of the murder of Charley Boone, a “man of good family, who had been a faithful soldier in the late war, but a man of dissipated habits.” The subsequent trial found them both not guilty. But “public opinion refused to acquiese in the verdict of the jury,” and Bryant was still often considered guilty. In 1881 he was seen heading away from the fair in Clinton in the company of fellow horse traders. He was later found “hanging by a halter on a tree between Fayetteville and Clinton.” Later reports claimed he was alive but failed to substantiate that claim.
Documentation
Death certificate: None found
Census: None found
News coverage:
Location
Town: Clinton, North Carolina
Latitude/Longitude: 34.996405, -78.323312
Rationale: Between Fayetteville and Clinton.
Additional Resources:
Researcher’s Note: