From Days Gone By Sept. 15, 1911

September 15, 1911. The tragic death of Mr. Ernest T. Pounds of Johnson County, which occured last sunday night in Savannah, from being shot by patrolman Charles Fennell, of the Central Railway force a few moments before he was to board the train for home was quite a shock to his relatives and friends here and elsewhere. Mr. Pounds came to Wrightsville four years ago from Sandersville and lived on a farm two miles from town. He was a successful farmer and doing financially well. Mr. Pounds, accompanied by C. H. Sheppard and S. T. Tanner of Sandersville, R. L. Downs of Davisboro and others from here left home sunday morning on a Tybee Special for Savannah to spend the day at the beach. The following is the account produced by the Savannah News: '" E. T. Pounds of Wrightsville, a sunday excursionist, was shot and instantly killed last night at the Central Railway passenger station, a few moments before the time for the train to depart, by patrolman Charles H. Fennell of the Central Railway's police force. Pounds was resisting arrest at the time he was killed, and according to witnesses had drawn a pistol on the officer. The shooting occured about a 100 yards west of the passenger station proper and near the engine of the train which was to take Pounds and his friends to their homes. The dead man was killed by a bullet which entered above the left eye and passed through the brain and emerged from the back of the head. Mr. Pounds fell in his tracks and died without speaking. The patrolman, with J. O. Wallace, special agent of the Central met Pounds near the engine. While on the train Pounds made a motion as though to take a pistol from his hip pocket, and the officer was told on his trip back to get him, that Pounds had made the statement he would not submit to arrest and had displayed a revolver. As the patrolman and Wallace approached their man, Fennell called on him to throw up his hands as he passed into the light from the engine. He replied that he would not, and produced the pistol. Fennell had prepared his pistol for use, fired 3 times and Pounds fell." On request of the attorneys for the prosecution the case of Charles Fennell, who shot and killed Mr. Pounds, was continued by Recorder Schwarz until the next day. Twiggs & Gazan who have been employed to prosecute asked for the continuance because they had not had time to investigate the case and summon their witnesses. On wednesday Recorder Schwarz dismissed the case deciding he shot and killed Pounds in self-defense and not murder. Judge Twiggs argued that Fennell should be held for a higher court, but Schwartz refused. Relatives of Mr. Pounds are making haste to prosecute policeman Fennell, saying Pounds was shot down without provocation and without any chance to defend himself from the murderous assualt of the policeman. It has been expected all summer that the sunday excursion trains to Tybee would result in a tragedy. A passenger from Sandersville states he will never go again and asserts that drinking beer and playing cards take place on the trains and once in Savannah are indulged to have all the beer and whiskey they care to buy, without restrictions, especially at Tybee. It has become a sunday debauch and a shame that the state of Georgia does not stop it. The spanish bull fight is a sunday school picnic compared to a sunday coast excursion in Georgia. When people assemble to depart for home many are boisterous by the sale of illegal intoxicants. If the police would do its duty to prevent this instead of standing ready to shot the unfortunate excursionist who becomes to noisy it would not be necessary to arrest someone. It is claimed by those who were with Pounds in Savannah that he was not intoxicated, that he only remonstrated with Fennell because he was placing another man under arrest, and that the officer became angry because he did so, making threats to arrest him. Mr. Pounds left the train so as to get out of reach of Fennell, walked down the track so as to catch the train as it pulled out and that Fennell followed him and shot him down. Mr. Ernest T. Pounds was survived by a wife and three children. He was buried at Sisters Church in Sandersville.