Jan. 12, 1888: The Comet reported, âThe Johnson City Foundry and Machine Works are crowded with work. They are at work on a large lot of bridge castings for the C.C. & C. railroad and an order for car wheels from Pulaski City, VA.â Jan. 12, 1893: The Austin Weekly Statesman, a newspaper in Austin, Texas, carried a remarkable story with a dateline of Johnson City, Tenn., and a date of January 4.â Last night a mob of 500 masked men entered the jail at Bakersville, N.C., and took Calvin Snipes, who murdered Isaac Osborne, a prominent citizen of Mitchell county (sic), in a dense forest about half a mile away and lynched him. Eleven of the sheriffâs posse were killed in their efforts to defend the prisoner. About twenty-five of the mob were killed, and among the dead and wounded are some (of) the most prominent men in the county. The facts which led up to the terrible affair are as follows: Aaron Wiseman and Calvin Snipes were partners in an illicit distillery in Mitchell county (sic), N.C., and told W. Osborne and Isaac Osborne, two brothers, where the distillery was situated. W. Osborne reported the distillery to the officers of Bakersville, N.C., and helped destroy it. Wiseman and Snipes suspected Isaac Osborne as the reporter. On the night of Aug. 27, Snipes and Wiseman went to Isaac Osborne and called him out. He came to the door and they opened fire, riddling him with bullets. Wiseman and Snipes were arrested, but sufficient evidence was not obtained against Wiseman and he was released. Snipes was bound over to the superior court on purely circumstantial evidence. He was placed in jail and after being confined two weeks confessed to the killing in the manner above related.â