By Beverly Belcher Woody
As the familiar adage goes, “To live in the hearts of those we leave behind is to never die.”
This week, I want to remember two beautiful young ladies from Patrick County that were victims of senseless murders. I will not mention the names of the assailants (who also lived in the county) because this story is to remember the special young women, not to give infamy to their killers.
Lucinda Emmerdine “Emma” Hall was born in 1883 to Elijah Hardin Hall and Nancy Cockram Hall of the Mountain View section of the county. She was the tenth child born of this union and sadly, Nancy died only five days after Emma’s birth.
At the age of 16, Emma married Pinkney Eldridge Goode and they set up housekeeping in Woolwine. Their son John was born in 1900, Charles in 1902, Joseph in 1904, and Emma had just given birth to their fourth child, when tragedy struck.
The following is the awful account that was published in The Roanoke Evening News, Volume II, 5th of June 1905. “Mrs. Pink Goode, a respectable woman living near Woolwine, Patrick County, was shot to death in her own yard Friday, the shot going through her chest. When Mr. Goode returned from the day’s work at the local sawmill, he found his wife lying dead in the yard. The only witnesses to the crime were her young children, the oldest being five years old. The assailant had a preliminary hearing before Magistrate J. H. Dillon at Tuggles Gap and is being held without bail. The case was sent to the grand jury for the murder of Mrs. Goode. She was a daughter of Hardin Hall, a respectable citizen of this county. It appears the defendant was drunk, went to the Goode home, and was shooting chickens in the yard. When Mrs. Goode came out of the house and begged him to stop, he fired on her, killing her almost instantly. Claiming it was an accident, he fled the scene and was arrested near Floyd.”
The assailant served very little time for this terrible crime; in the 1910 census, he was living in Fulton County, Kentucky. Sadly, Emma was not his only victim. Emma’s three-month-old baby also died shortly after, likely due to malnourishment from losing his mother.
Like Emma, Lelia Cockram was born in the Mountain View community of Patrick County. Lelia was born in 1897 to John Jefferson Cockram and Louisa “Lutie” Helms Cockram and was the eighth of thirteen children. Their majestic home still stands on the corner of Helms Road and Laurel Creek Road.
The Harrisonburg Daily News Record published this heartbreaking account in their September 13th, 1914 edition. “Miss Kitty Cockram, sister of the slain girl and an eyewitness to the homicide, said she was up in an apple tree shaking down apples and her sister (Lelia) was picking them up. When the assailant appeared, Lelia asked him if he had come to help them gather apples and he answered in the affirmative. After he had picked up a few, Kitty heard her sister scream. She looked down and saw the attacker beating her sister and then she saw him draw a knife. When Kitty got down from the tree, the murderer had run away, and her sister was bleeding profusely. Kitty put her hands under her sister’s neck to try to stop the bleeding. Lelia was carried to the house, where she was conscious until she died.”
Luther Wade Hylton, who is the brother-in-law of Lelia, captured the assailant and took him to the jail in Stuart. The prisoner talked freely to Mr. Hylton about the crime, saying that Lelia had refused his advances and rather than see her with anyone else, he decided to kill her.
The Enterprise reported that on October the 19th, 1914, six weeks after Lelia’s murder, the defendant received a life sentence. Immediately after the verdict, F. B. Burton, the defense attorney, asked the court for the defendant to be removed to Henry County jail because of the number of threats made to lynch him if he escaped the death penalty.
The murderer was sent to Goochland State Prison and his name shows up there in the 1920 census. He was later sent to Southwestern Virginia State Hospital in Marion where he died in 1933.
Mrs. Olive Hylton wrote the obituary for Lelia and included the following information. “Lelia had recently began teaching school when her life was so horribly taken on the 7th of September 1914. She was 17 years, 7 months, and 10 days of age. She was a lovely woman, and by her sweet and graceful manner, had won a deep affection in the hearts of her people. Two years before, she had joined Mountain View United Methodist Church and faithfully attended the meetings.”
Emma and Lelia remain forever young.
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning; we will remember them.”- Laurence Binyon.
Thank you to Betty Lawson Lawless for assistance with this article.
(Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com.)