 West Hill Cemetery Sherman, Texas
Palestine Daily Herald Thursday afternoon, August 31, 1905 pg. 1 WAS MISTAKEN FOR A BURGLAR Lee Copeland Got Into Wrong House at Mt. Pleasant and Was Fatally Shot Sherman, Texas, August 30 - At a late hour Tuesday afternoon Lee Copeland, bridge foreman on the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, residing in South Hazelwood street, this city, was reported as being in a dying condition at the company's hospital at Texarkana, from a pistol wound received about 10 o'clock Monday night at Mt. Pleasant, Titus County, 110 miles east of Sherman, where the gang of men under Copeland are working. Copeland, from the best information obtainable, arriving late, mistook the house of a Negro family for the house at which his men were quartered and entered, passing through one room into another. Homer Collins, who admits to the officers at Mt. Pleasant that he did the shooting, says that he felt sure that the intrusion was for the purpose of burglary, and having a 38-caliber pistol under the pillow took it out and fired. The prostrate man proved to be Copeland, and it was found that the ball had entered almost squarely between the eyes. He was taken to Texarkana, it being nearer and could be reached much sooner than the hospital at Sherman. A critical examination shows that the ball had penetrated the skull and lacerated the brain. At 4 p.m. the chances against his recovery were placed at 20 to 1. Mrs. Copeland left on the first train for Mt. Pleasant and received word while en route to proceed to Texarkana. Palestine Daily Herald Thursday afternoon, August 31, 1905 pg. 5 TWO AWFUL MISTAKES Mt. Pleasant, Texas, August 31 - At Mt. Pleasant Lee Copeland, a Cotton Belt bridge foreman, mistook the house of a Negro named Homer Collins Tuesday night for that of one of his men and started to enter. Thinking him a burglar, Collins shot and mortally wounded Copeland. The latter was taken to Texarkana to the Cotton Belt hospital. West Hill Cemetery Elaine Nall Bay ©2013 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
