Dr. Charles T Phythian
Cincinnati Enquirer, 26 May 1893, page 4
HARROWING EXPERIENCE OF DR. CHARLES PHYTHIAN AT THE HANDS OF CHARLES HOLLIDAY
The residence of Dr. J L Phythian, on York street, Newport was the scene of a horrible and bloody encounter yesterday afternoon. That there is not a tragedy to chronicle was not the fault of the assailant in the case, a colored servant named Charles Holliday, a young lad about 20 years of age.
He was called upon by Mrs. Phythian, the wife of the doctor, to bring in some coal and answered in an insolent manner. She saw at once that he had been drinking and appealed to her son, Dr. Charles Phythian, who told her that he had better not interfere, knowing the very turbulent disposition of the fellow when intoxicated.
This conversation was held in the dining room where Dr. Charles Phythian had his infant daughter in his arms feeding it. Before they had finished talking the fellow came into the room and addressing the doctor demanded to know what he had said about him. The doctor told him he wanted none of his insolence. Without a word of warning Holliday struck at the doctor with a knife, which until then he had concealed in his sleeve, inflicting a deep wound over the left eyebrow, from which the blood flowed in torrents.
The doctor at once grappled with his assailant and catching him around the neck, threw him back on a stairway, where he held him. The hand holding the knife was still free and he struck the doctor repeatedly in the face, cutting him in several places. The doctor's aged mother then seized the servants hand and endeavored to twist the knife from his grasp, but he got his other arm free and dealt her several terrible blows in the face, felling her to the floor. Her daughter, Miss Lizzie Phythian, then rushed in. The sight that met her gaze would have made many a strong man flinch. Her little niece was on the floor in imminent danger of being trampled to death.
Her mother was lying prostrate, with blood streaming from her face and her brother beside his mother, just freeing himself from the grasp of the would be murderer, with his face covered with wounds. She quickly picked up the child and placed it out of danger. her screams brought several of the letter carriers who were in the Post office opposite to the rescue. The servant then made his escape through the back yard.
Holliday has a bad reputation and has figured in Police Court cases several times. His brother Henry is not serving a term of three at the Frankfort Penitentiary for cutting a man on the Newport ferry boat and almost putting an end to this existence. A warrant was issued for his arrest. The police of the three cities have been furnished with a full description and are now on the lookout for him. Mrs. Phythian is almost utterly prostrated over the terrible occurrence. Both of her eyes are swollen and blackened.
Her son, Dr. Charles Phythian, whose office in on East Fourth street, in this city, since the death of his wife some months ago has boarded with his parents. His father, Dr. J L Phythian, who was absent at the time attending a call, was furious over the affair and it would have boded Holliday no good if he could have caught sight of him. The whole family, who are among the leading society people of Newport, were last night visited by a number of their friends who condoled with them over the terrible affair and congratulated them on their luck escape from serious harm.
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Cincinnati Enquirer, 4 January 1894, page 5
NEWPORT
CHARLES HOLLIDAY CAPTURED-Officer "Butch" Flynn captured a man
yesterday that the old police force were looking for over eight months, it being
no other than the notorious colored fellow, Charles Holliday. The crime
for which he is wanted, and for which he has been indicted, was for cutting Dr.
Charles Phythian with a knife and striking the doctor's mother several times in
the face.
He was employed as coachman by the Phythians and at the time of the occurrence was somewhat under the influence of liquor and excitement over the affair ran so high that if he had been caught immediately after the courts would have been saved the trouble of a trial. He made good his escape, however, and since the25th of May last, the date of the dead, he has managed to elude the vigilance of the police.
Yesterday his presence was tipped off to Officer Flynn and he ran across him near his home on Columbia street near Third, and at once placed him under arrest. He was taken before Judge Helm, who fixed his bond at $1100, in default of which he was remanded to jail.