Tuesday, Aug. 27, 1889, probably seemed like a normal day for William Roberts.
On the day in question, he was the brakeman on Western and Atlantic Railroad freight train No. 6, which departed Chattanooga, Tennessee, that morning.
When the train reached Greenwood Station, about two miles south of Ringgold, around 10:30 a.m., it stopped to take on water and coal. At that point, it would seem nothing was out of the ordinary.
That is, until Roberts and William Gentry, the station master, started arguing quite intensely. The topic of discussion, however, has seemingly been lost to history, although one newspaper account indicates that Roberts mentioned the tank was leaking.
“The row was quite bitter, and attracted most of the people in the neighborhood,” The Atlanta Constitution reported. “When it was at its height someone stepped up behind Roberts and struck him a terrific blow on the back of the head with a piece of fire-wood.”
George Gentry, the station master’s nephew, was suspected of delivering the fatal blow. However, no arrest had been made at the time of reporting.
Roberts, a resident of Atlanta and a former Marietta & North Georgia Railroad conductor, was rendered unconscious. He never regained consciousness. He was transported to Tunnel Hill, where a doctor attempted to treat him.
However, he died about four hours later.
At the time, Roberts’ wife and child were in Marietta, where they once lived. He was to be buried in Smyrna.
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