Claude Ervin Pressley was the son of Joseph Monroe Pressley 1855-1916 and Rhoda (Surmantha?) Pressley - Pressley 1848-1918. His family were living in Buncombe County at Limestone on the 1880 through 1910 census's, so he was probably born there.
There is no record of his wife Annie Qualls, daughter of Robert Qualls of Henderson County, until a 1901 Asheville Pauper's list saying they gave her 59 cents in June & another 59 cents again in November (the paper printed a list at the end of the year of county expenses, listing every Pauper by name & amount given for each month). On 28 June 1906 at age 20, Claude married Annie Qualls of Horse Shoe, Henderson County, NC. Annie was already the mother of two children, George Ira & Sadie Rose, their father is unknown. Claude was 20, Annie was 27. (Claude's sister Alice Pressley had married Annie's half-brother Cephus Vendo Qualls in 1901 in Henderson County.)
On the 1910 census, Claude is listed in Henderson as working at a lime kiln and they had had a daughter named Rachel, but by 1912 he was working for a wagoner named Wade Foster in Asheville when he was attacked by another wagoner named Matt Napp & died either hours or days later beside the railroad tracks "near Arden". His death was first ruled a possible strike by or fall from a train until an investigation was made. Since the inquest testimony as reported by the newspaper could not say definitively in 1912 whether the blow Matt Napp gave him with a hatchet was what killed him, Napp was never prosecuted, but they found a quantity of blood where Claude had stood after the attack while he shook his boss's hand in the wagon yard & said goodbye in a way that sounds like he was quitting his job and leaving town, so it is likely he eventually bled to death from the head wound while walking home to Henderson County.
The inquest, as reported in the Asheville newspapers in great detail, said that multiple people testified Matt Napp had bragged of having not only hit Claude but also several negroes in the head with his hatchet because he was "fed up" with them. Claude was said by his wife to have come home drunk that night after midnight & they'd had an argument & he had left again saying he was going to divorce her & she'd soon be sorry. He was then seen at the wagonyard an hour or so later near 2-3am and pestering Napp for whiskey. There was concern over how his body got from the wagonyard to where it was found in the southern part of the county near Arden with the suspicion being that Matt Napp had tried to hide him, but they never found any evidence that Napp took him off in his buggy. His body was not found for several days, perhaps three days since the death certificate date looks like they first wrote a "2" and then erased it and wrote "5".
The death certificate says Claude was buried in Horse Shoe, but he may have no stone.
--Jeni
There is no record of his wife Annie Qualls, daughter of Robert Qualls of Henderson County, until a 1901 Asheville Pauper's list saying they gave her 59 cents in June & another 59 cents again in November (the paper printed a list at the end of the year of county expenses, listing every Pauper by name & amount given for each month). On 28 June 1906 at age 20, Claude married Annie Qualls of Horse Shoe, Henderson County, NC. Annie was already the mother of two children, George Ira & Sadie Rose, their father is unknown. Claude was 20, Annie was 27. (Claude's sister Alice Pressley had married Annie's half-brother Cephus Vendo Qualls in 1901 in Henderson County.)
On the 1910 census, Claude is listed in Henderson as working at a lime kiln and they had had a daughter named Rachel, but by 1912 he was working for a wagoner named Wade Foster in Asheville when he was attacked by another wagoner named Matt Napp & died either hours or days later beside the railroad tracks "near Arden". His death was first ruled a possible strike by or fall from a train until an investigation was made. Since the inquest testimony as reported by the newspaper could not say definitively in 1912 whether the blow Matt Napp gave him with a hatchet was what killed him, Napp was never prosecuted, but they found a quantity of blood where Claude had stood after the attack while he shook his boss's hand in the wagon yard & said goodbye in a way that sounds like he was quitting his job and leaving town, so it is likely he eventually bled to death from the head wound while walking home to Henderson County.
The inquest, as reported in the Asheville newspapers in great detail, said that multiple people testified Matt Napp had bragged of having not only hit Claude but also several negroes in the head with his hatchet because he was "fed up" with them. Claude was said by his wife to have come home drunk that night after midnight & they'd had an argument & he had left again saying he was going to divorce her & she'd soon be sorry. He was then seen at the wagonyard an hour or so later near 2-3am and pestering Napp for whiskey. There was concern over how his body got from the wagonyard to where it was found in the southern part of the county near Arden with the suspicion being that Matt Napp had tried to hide him, but they never found any evidence that Napp took him off in his buggy. His body was not found for several days, perhaps three days since the death certificate date looks like they first wrote a "2" and then erased it and wrote "5".
The death certificate says Claude was buried in Horse Shoe, but he may have no stone.
--Jeni
Claude Ervin Pressley was the son of Joseph Monroe Pressley 1855-1916 and Rhoda (Surmantha?) Pressley - Pressley 1848-1918. His family were living in Buncombe County at Limestone on the 1880 through 1910 census's, so he was probably born there.
There is no record of his wife Annie Qualls, daughter of Robert Qualls of Henderson County, until a 1901 Asheville Pauper's list saying they gave her 59 cents in June & another 59 cents again in November (the paper printed a list at the end of the year of county expenses, listing every Pauper by name & amount given for each month). On 28 June 1906 at age 20, Claude married Annie Qualls of Horse Shoe, Henderson County, NC. Annie was already the mother of two children, George Ira & Sadie Rose, their father is unknown. Claude was 20, Annie was 27. (Claude's sister Alice Pressley had married Annie's half-brother Cephus Vendo Qualls in 1901 in Henderson County.)
On the 1910 census, Claude is listed in Henderson as working at a lime kiln and they had had a daughter named Rachel, but by 1912 he was working for a wagoner named Wade Foster in Asheville when he was attacked by another wagoner named Matt Napp & died either hours or days later beside the railroad tracks "near Arden". His death was first ruled a possible strike by or fall from a train until an investigation was made. Since the inquest testimony as reported by the newspaper could not say definitively in 1912 whether the blow Matt Napp gave him with a hatchet was what killed him, Napp was never prosecuted, but they found a quantity of blood where Claude had stood after the attack while he shook his boss's hand in the wagon yard & said goodbye in a way that sounds like he was quitting his job and leaving town, so it is likely he eventually bled to death from the head wound while walking home to Henderson County.
The inquest, as reported in the Asheville newspapers in great detail, said that multiple people testified Matt Napp had bragged of having not only hit Claude but also several negroes in the head with his hatchet because he was "fed up" with them. Claude was said by his wife to have come home drunk that night after midnight & they'd had an argument & he had left again saying he was going to divorce her & she'd soon be sorry. He was then seen at the wagonyard an hour or so later near 2-3am and pestering Napp for whiskey. There was concern over how his body got from the wagonyard to where it was found in the southern part of the county near Arden with the suspicion being that Matt Napp had tried to hide him, but they never found any evidence that Napp took him off in his buggy. His body was not found for several days, perhaps three days since the death certificate date looks like they first wrote a "2" and then erased it and wrote "5".
The death certificate says Claude was buried in Horse Shoe, but he may have no stone.
--Jeni
There is no record of his wife Annie Qualls, daughter of Robert Qualls of Henderson County, until a 1901 Asheville Pauper's list saying they gave her 59 cents in June & another 59 cents again in November (the paper printed a list at the end of the year of county expenses, listing every Pauper by name & amount given for each month). On 28 June 1906 at age 20, Claude married Annie Qualls of Horse Shoe, Henderson County, NC. Annie was already the mother of two children, George Ira & Sadie Rose, their father is unknown. Claude was 20, Annie was 27. (Claude's sister Alice Pressley had married Annie's half-brother Cephus Vendo Qualls in 1901 in Henderson County.)
On the 1910 census, Claude is listed in Henderson as working at a lime kiln and they had had a daughter named Rachel, but by 1912 he was working for a wagoner named Wade Foster in Asheville when he was attacked by another wagoner named Matt Napp & died either hours or days later beside the railroad tracks "near Arden". His death was first ruled a possible strike by or fall from a train until an investigation was made. Since the inquest testimony as reported by the newspaper could not say definitively in 1912 whether the blow Matt Napp gave him with a hatchet was what killed him, Napp was never prosecuted, but they found a quantity of blood where Claude had stood after the attack while he shook his boss's hand in the wagon yard & said goodbye in a way that sounds like he was quitting his job and leaving town, so it is likely he eventually bled to death from the head wound while walking home to Henderson County.
The inquest, as reported in the Asheville newspapers in great detail, said that multiple people testified Matt Napp had bragged of having not only hit Claude but also several negroes in the head with his hatchet because he was "fed up" with them. Claude was said by his wife to have come home drunk that night after midnight & they'd had an argument & he had left again saying he was going to divorce her & she'd soon be sorry. He was then seen at the wagonyard an hour or so later near 2-3am and pestering Napp for whiskey. There was concern over how his body got from the wagonyard to where it was found in the southern part of the county near Arden with the suspicion being that Matt Napp had tried to hide him, but they never found any evidence that Napp took him off in his buggy. His body was not found for several days, perhaps three days since the death certificate date looks like they first wrote a "2" and then erased it and wrote "5".
The death certificate says Claude was buried in Horse Shoe, but he may have no stone.
--Jeni
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