Tobacco Barn Burned in Carroll County

First Use of the Torch in the Burley District - Loss $30,000

Sanders, Ky., - May 11. - The large tobacco barn of W. A. Shirley, a buyer for the trust, was burned last night, supposedly by persons in sympathy with the Tobacco Growers' Association.  The barn contained 200,000 pounds of high grade Burley, and Mr. Shirley's loss is estimated at $30,000.  He recently lost his store here, which was also destroyed by fire.

Some one in the depot, near the barn, heard a man running from the barn only a few minutes before the fire was seen, but it was too dark to see him and he could not be identified.

Mr. Shirley has acted as buyer and representative of the trust in Carroll county and had declined to go into the association pool.  The tobacco burned did not belong to the trust, but was owned by Mr. Shirley, who bought it from various planters and was rehandling it for the market.  He has conducted a rehandling house here for some time.

This is the first time that incendiarism has been resorted to in the Burley district since the fight between the growers and the trust began.

from Hartford, Kentucky's  Hartford Herald, May 15, 1907