Sensational Murder Over A Woman at Marion, NC

Col. Roger J. PAGE, a prominent lawyer and editor of the Times-Register at Marion, N.C. was shot and instantly killed at that place just after alighting from the midnight train, which brought him from Round Knob.

He had gone a hundred yards from the station, and was leaning on the arm of his friend, Judge HAYWOOD, of Texas, while on his left was another friend, when someone came up behind him and shot him through the neck, which was broken by the ball.  His assailant ran, mounted a horse and fled the town.  A coroner’s inquest was hurriedly held, rendering a verdict of death by a person unknown.

A young man had threatened to kill Col. PAGE, and was seen following the dead man at the station. Quite a crowd had gathered, expecting trouble, and, indeed, the rumor that some one intended injuring Colonel PAGE was current in the town, and when the pistol shot was fired at midnight many persons remarked that Col. PAGE was in trouble.

It is said that a woman is at the bottom of the tragedy.

Source: Roanoke Beacon, 2 August 1889.  Available online at digitalnc.org.