Newspaper account of murder of Joseph C. Strader, 1903:
Killing Near Clinton. Joseph C. Strader, one of the most substantial business men of Clinton and Anderson County, member of the livery firm of Wallace & Strader, was found murdered by the public roadside six miles south of Clinton Tuesday afternoon about 3 o’clock by a passerby. Life had fled, but the body was yet warm. A deep fracture at the base of the skull silently told the tale of an awful crime. Railroad Foreman Hammond, of the Eubanks, Underwood & Co., railroad camps, is now lying in Anderson county jail charged with the deed. Hammond confessed, but claims he killed Strader as a result of a quarrel in self defense. He hit his victim with a piece of railing.
Powell’s Valley Courier, April 16, 1903
Vol. 1, No. 4, pg.2