I. W. Perdue
I. W. Perdue was a school teacher and married man with three grown children who had come to Georgia in 1887 and built a school at Hicks Station. He was being held in the Mount Vernon jail in Georgia on November 23, 1895, when, according to a dispatch reprinted by the Shenandoah Herald, a group of armed white men overpowered the sheriff at his home, took his keys and pistol, and forced him to the jail. The mob took Perdue from the jail, dragged him about two miles through the woods and killed him. The account says the sheriff was later released but made to go home under guard, and that his family believed in his innocence to the end. The report is a newspaper account from the time and its claims about the death have not been independently verified.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. An Atlanta Journal dispatch reprinted by the Herald says a mob took Perdue from the Mount Vernon jail, overpowering the sheriff, and his throat was cut from car to ear.
Reported by: Atlanta Journal dispatch from Mount Vernon, Ga., as reprinted by the Herald (reporters).