Transcribed by Katherine Ricker
JONES CO. SHERIFF DEAD;
WESTBROOK TO BE BURIED TOMORROW
Jones County literally mourned today for its “sheriff with a heart of gold,”
Joseph R. Westbrook, who died yesterday morning. The 58-year-old
official succumbed to a heart attack at his farm home in the upper part of
the county, near the Lenoir County line. He had appeared to be in good
health. Friday night he attended a country dance, and was “the life of the
party.”
The sheriff died in bed. He managed to awake his wife, but expired before
she could do anything to assist him. The time was between 7 and 8 o’clock.
It is no exaggeration to state that “Joe” Westbrook was one of the most unique
figures in North Carolina officialdom. He was elected sheriff more than 12 years
ago; he started a seventh term in December. He was county treasurer before
becoming sheriff. He expected to be sheriff as long as he lived, and political
leaders in Jones said that had he died 20 or 30 years hence he would have died
in office. His popularity was justified, they said. He was a man of enormous
stature, of great strength and tried courage, but he was “as sort-hearted as a
woman.” Everyone in the county was “neighbor” to him. He was charitable, and
aided many in distress. He allowed prisoners in the county jail at Trenton
privileges unheard of in other parts of the world. It was his boast that the little
prison was empty most of the time.
On his last visit here he said:
“The people in my little country county are good. We seldom have a
murder or anything of that kind. Once there was a lynching. That was when
the boys got a little hot-headed. They beat me to the spot and strung up the
culprit before I had a chance to reason with them. And there was good reason
to believe that most of the lynchers were from Lenoir County, not Jones.”
Westbrook died on the plantation on which he was born and reared. He was
born in a log cabin, but died in a house of fairly iposing proportions. He lived in
plenty. He liked to “have company,” and many were the dinner guests who
heard him say, “We have too many pigs and chickens and geese and such on
this place, and somebody must help us get rid of them.”
There is a large family at the Westbrook house. When the sheriff’s second
wife went there to live some years ago she took six children of her own to join
Westbrook’s six and a nephew he had reared as “one of his own.” He was “an
ideal father to all of the 13,” Mrs. Westbrook stated today. The children are
Mrs. Albert Scott, J. R. Westbrook, Jr., R. T. Westbrook, W. G. Westbrook,
Wilson Westbrook, Charles C. Wells, John W. Wells, Sarah Wells, Dorothy
Wells, Kathryn Wells and Hobson Wells, all of Jones County, and Miss Leona
Westbrook of New York. The nephew is McKiver Westbrook of Sapulpa, Okla.
A brother, W. Raymond Westbrook, and a half-brother, J. B. Westbrook, of
Jones County, also survive.
The Westbrook home is three and a third miles from a paved road. There were
deep ruts in the dirt road leading to it, and highway workers went to work this
morning to fill the holes and drain off the water from recent rains for the benefit
of the thousands expected to attend the funeral tomorrow at 2 p.m. They will
come from several counties. Rev. L. B. Bennett, pastor of the Disciples’ church
known as Haskins’ Chapel, and Rev. John D. Young, Methodist, will conduct the
funeral. Masons from the Trenton lodge and members of the Pleasant Hill
council of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics will attend. He was
a member of both, and of the Haskins’ Chapel congregation.
Pallbearers will be George Nobles, register of deeds’ George Hughes, clerk
of Superior Court; George C. Herritage, county auditor’ Benjamin Pollock,
Earl Bell, Claude Banks, Guy Hargett and Tobias Dillahunt, county
commissioners; Leon Mattox, deputy tax collector; A. C. Holland, county
superintendent of schools; Benjamin L. Brock, clerk to the county board of
education; J. K. Warren, county attorney, and J. T. Monroe, county farm
demonstration agent. “All citizens of Jones and Lenoir counties” have been
designated honorary pallbearers.
Handwritten note: 1933.
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