Charles Henry or Hunter Arledge

[Columbia Record paper South Carolina - July 19, 1928)

CHAS. H. ARLEDGE OF PACIFIC MILLS SECTION, SUICIDE "Goodbye, Sue, I'm Going to Leave You", Last Words to Wife WAS CARPENTER AT MILL Told Wife He Was Haunted by Negro He Killed 40 Years Ago

"Goodbye, Sue, I'm going to leave you," said Charles Hunter Arledge to his wife as she was preparing breakfast at 7:15 o'clock Thursday morning, and she turned and received his kiss, humoring him, as she thought, and said "Goodbye." He stepped into the next room, which was the bedroom, lay down on the floor and shot himself in the right temple with a 32 automatic pistol he had borrowed from his son-in-law, Grover Dees, only half an hour before, to shoot a "dog."

Mrs. Arledge rushed into the bedroom and found her husband stretched out on the floor, the smoking pistol still clasped in his hand and resting on his chest. He had not made a sound, dying instantly.

The wife said that her husband had been drinking steadily since Saturday noon when he was "laid off" at the mill where he worked as a carpenter.

"We have been married 39 years," said Mrs. Arledge, "and Mr. Arledge drank always. Whenever he was drinking heavily he would say that he was going to end it all, but I never took him seriously. This morning he got up early, dressed himself, but I did not pay any attention to it, because he always talked that way when he was under the influence of whiskey. He told me before I started cooking breakfast that he was going to get a gun and shoot himself, and if he couldn't get a gun he would get on the railway track. He went up to the home of my son-in-law, Grover Dees, who lives only a few doors away and asked him to lend him his gun, as he wanted to shoot our dog, that it had running fits. The dog has been sick a week with running fits, and my son-in-law believed him when he said that he wanted to shoot the dog. When Mr. Arledge got the gun, he came back home, walked around the house a little, then came into the kitchen, where I was cooking breakfast, and told me goodbye. He has often carried a gun around with him while he was drinking and I never could make him put it down, and once or twice he has shot the gun in the house, but not aiming at anything. I was a little worried, but thought he was just talking as he usually does. I went right ahead cooking breakfast. The stove is behind the doorleading into the bedroom, and I did not see him when he lay down on the floor. I only heard the shot and when I rushed in---"

Said Was Haunted.

It is said that Mr. Arledge has not been sleeping for the last week, and his wife said that he talked continuously of being "haunted" by a negro he had killed nearly 40 years ago, a crime with which no one ever connected him and no one suspected him, he said. The negro was killed over a quarrel, and Mrs. Arledge said that during all these years her husband had not mentioned this matter to her until last week, when he began saying that he could not sleep nights because a negro "haunted" him.

The couple have thirteen children all living, and all married except two. The two unmarried children are out of the city, the girl, Lois Arledge having left last Sunday for a camp in North Carolina with a Y. W. C. A. group. The boy John Arledge, is visiting friends in Mullins, S. C.

Mr. and Mrs. Arledge were married in 1889 near Blythewood. Mrs. Arledge was before her marriage Miss Sue Locker. The other children are Mrs. L. D. Kaigler, Mrs. Belle Coleman, Mrs. Ethel Simms, Mrs. O. Mae Tidwell, Mrs. Grover Dees, Mrs. Lula Hawkins, Mrs. Tranny Barfield, all of Columbia, Mrs. Sue Maw, Alabama, and Charles and Brooks Arledge, of Columbia.

Mr. Arledge was a carpenter at the Pacific Mills. He was always in very good health, according to Mrs. Arledge, only becoming despondent when he drank.

Mr. Arledge had been married three times, the first to miss Minnie Price, the second time to Miss Sallie Brazell. He had three children, all of whom are dead by his first two marriages. Both former Wives are dead.

Besides the 13 children living there are a number of grandchildren.

After talking with the family and L. C. Knox, policeman at Pacific Mills, Coroner J. Blakely Scott decided that no inquest would be necessary. It was a clear case of suicide, the coroner declared. Funeral services for Mr. Arledge will be held Friday morning at Sandy Level church near Blythewood with interment in the churchyard. The services will be conducted by Rev. Mr. Corbett. Besides his widow and children Mr. Arledge is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Kate Lockier and Miss Levenia Arledge, both of Blythewood. note: (the name Arledge was spelled wrong in most places, I corrected - left other errors as they were in the paper)

[The State paper South Carolina - July 20, 1928) COLUMBIAN DIES BY OWN PISTOL C. H. Arledge Kills Self Early Thursday.

Bidding his wife goodbye as she was preparing breakfast, Charles Hunter Arledge, 68 carpenter of Pacific mills, and resident of 1045 Church street, walked into an adjoining room, lay down on the floor and fired a .32 automatic pistol into his right temple about 7:15 yesterday morning and died almost instantly. Mrs. Arledge rushed into the adjoining bedroom and found her husband with the smoking pistol claspedin his hand, lying pron on the floor, face upward in a natural position. The shot presumably had killed him almost instantly as he made no sound.

Coroner J. H. Scott after consultation with L. C. Knox, policeman at Pacific, and with members of the family, deemed an inquest unnecessary. Mr. Arledge worried over the fact that he killed a Negro 40 years ago and this is thought to have caused the act.

Mr. Arledge is survived by his widow and 13 children, all living and all married, except two. Both of the two unmarried children are out of the city, the girl Lois Arledge, having left Sunday for a Y. W. C. A. camp in North Carolina, while the boy, John Arledge, is visiting friends in mullins.

In 1899 Mr. and Mrs. Arledge were married near Blythewood. Mrs. Arledge was before marriage Miss Sue Locker. The other surviving children are: Mrs. Belle Coleman, Mrs. L. D. Kaigler, Mrs. Ethel Simms, Mrs. Grover Dees, Mrs. O. Mae Tidwell, Mrs. Lula Hawkins and Mrs. Tranny Barfield, all of Columbia, Mrs. Sue May of Alabama and Charles and Brooks Arledge of Columbia. He had been married three times, the first time to Miss Minnie Price, the second time to Miss Sallie Brazell, both now deceased.

A number of grandchildren also survive. Two sisters, Mrs. Kate Lockier and Miss Levenia Arledge, both of Blythewood, survive.

Funeral services will be held at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning at Sandy Level church near Blythewood, conducted by the Rev. R. I. Corbett pastor of Southside Baptist church. Interment will follow in the churchyard.

[1900 Federal Census] Census has the last name as Auldrick Charles Auldrick Upper, Richland, S. Carolina abt 1861 S. Carolina White Head This is Charles Arledge Sue Auldrick Upper, Richland, S. Carolina abt 1872 S. Carolina White Wife This is Sue Arledge Charles Auldrick Upper, Richland, S. Carolina abt 1884 S. Carolina White Son This is Charles Arledge son of Charles Arledge and Sallie Brazzell Lillia Auldrick Upper, Richland, S. Carolina abt 1890 S. Carolina White Daughter Rella Auldrick Upper, Richland, S. Carolina abt 1893 S. Carolina White Daughter This is (Maggie) Belle Arledge. This is the only time she would have been listed in a Census as with the last name of Arledge. She married before the next census. Brack Auldrick Upper, Richland, S. Carolina abt 1895 S. Carolina White Son This is Brooks Arledge. Ethel Auldrick Upper, Richland, S. Carolina abt 1897 S. Carolina White Daughter Oalerman Auldrick Upper, Richland, S. Carolina abt 1900 S. Carolina White Daughter