More details about the 'highway robbery' of I.S. Hyde in August 1915

I.S. Hyde's grave in Evergreen, Ala.

In this space last week, I gave my monthly review of the news highlights from a century ago in Conecuh County. In that column, I briefly mentioned a “highway robbery” that occurred near Herbert. After that column came out, one of our sharp-eyed readers e-mailed me to see if I had any more information about the incident.

As it turns out, due to limited space, I didn’t give the full details about the robbery in last week’s paper, but there is a lot more to the story. What follows is the complete article about the robbery from the Aug. 18, 1915 edition of The Evergreen Courant.

“Highway Robbery: I.S. Hyde of Herbert was held up and robbed of $23.50 about two o’clock on Saturday afternoon beyond the home of Mrs. Temple Rutland by two strange men. Mr. Hyde was on his way home from town and stopped at a spring near the roadside to slake his thirst. One of the men was in the road when Mr. Hyde left his team, the other at the spring.

“On his way to the spring, he says he took some loose change from his pocket and put it in his pocketbook, and, as he reached the spring, the man there dealt him a blow, felling him to the ground and knocking the pocketbook from his hand. The man seized the pocketbook and fled.

“Mr. Hyde described the men to citizens at Herbert, who kept a lookout for them. Early in the night, they appeared in the little village and were taken in charge by citizens and held until the arrival of the sheriff, who brought them to jail and lodged a charge of highway robbery against them. They gave their names as Charles Morris and Walter Murphee, and had evidently been employed in some turpentine works.

“Mr. Hyde has not so far recovered his money.”

I did a little digging, and now believe that I.S. Hyde was Ingram Spence Hyde, who would have been 28 years old at the time of the 1915 robbery. Hyde was born on Aug. 20, 1886 and at some point he moved to Evergreen. He and his wife, Sarah E. Hyde, later moved to Montgomery.

I.S. Hyde lived to the ripe old age of 76 and died at his Montgomery home on Sept. 21, 1962. He was buried in Evergreen’s Magnolia Cemetery on Sept. 23, 1962. His survivors included his wife, a son, two daughters, a sister, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

I also searched for information about Mrs. Temple Rutland, Charles Morris and Walter Murphee, but was unable to find out anything about them. However, there is a Lewis Temple Rutland buried in Magnolia Cemetery, and it’s very possible that this man was Mrs. Temple Rutland’s husband. In August 1915, Lewis Rutland would have been 29 years old, but I’m not sure why the original article referred to his 1915 residence as the “home of Mrs. Temple Rutland.”

In the end, that’s about all of the additional information I have about the August 1915 highway robbery incident, but if anyone out there knows anything more about it, please let me know by e-mailing courantsports@earthlink.net.