The newspaper’s accounts of workplace injuries and separate burglary incidents.
Shop incidents
Five shots in the garage, 1921
Missing tires had the Roling shop on watch. In its December 23, 1921 issue, the Salisbury Press-Spectator reported that tires and other property had disappeared, and the men had begun taking turns staying in the garage after dark.
On the Friday night described in the article, Joe and Ben Roling had been working on Emil Vitt’s car until almost eleven. Ben and Emil left, while Joe remained inside. According to the newspaper, Joe heard a window break, waited until a man had climbed into the building, and switched on the lights. The article identified the man as Mace Black, also spelling his name Maceo later in the account.
The paper said Joe called for him to halt, then fired five pistol shots as he ran toward a front door. It reported no hit.
Source: Salisbury Press-Spectator, December 23, 1921, page 1, lead article reporting the garage shooting. Original newspaper page. The full page is preserved in the family archive.
When the workshop fought back
A machine shop’s newspaper history was not all new equipment and satisfied customers. On April 26, 1895, the Salisbury Press-Spectator reported a frightening accident involving machinist J. F. Roling at his West Side shop.
He had been grinding on an emery wheel when it broke apart. The newspaper put its speed at about 1,500 revolutions a minute and said a flying piece struck his neck, cutting a deep gash. Drs. Welch and Jennings dressed the wound. By the time of the report, he was recovering, though his neck remained very sore.
A September 18, 1896 notice described another injury: a piece of steel had entered J. F. Roling’s left eye while he worked at his West Second Street shop. A physician removed it, and he had to stop work for a day or two. The same notice stated that he had lost his right eye in a similar accident about four years earlier. That earlier injury is reported retrospectively here; its exact date has not been established.
These brief accounts put a human cost alongside the shop’s machinery and advertisements.
Sources: Salisbury Press-Spectator, April 26, 1895, page 7, “The Emery Wheel Bursted”; September 18, 1896, page 3, notice beginning “A piece of steel flew in J. F. Roling’s left eye.” Publication details and text checked against family-preserved clippings.
Windows, a tool chest, and two missing guns
The Roling shop appeared in Salisbury burglary reports long before the 1921 garage shooting. In April 1895, the Press-Spectator described a night of break-ins at three businesses, including two bakeries and Roling’s machine shops on Second Street.
At the machine shop, someone opened a window and broke into a tool chest. The report added that Mr. Roling could find no tools missing. The same article described red mittens left at one of the bakeries, a small detail in the newspaper’s account of the night’s events.
A January 1914 notice recorded a different result. Roling’s machine shop had again been entered through a window, and this time a revolver and a shotgun were reported stolen. Neither notice names the intruders or gives Mr. Roling’s first name. They document separate episodes, nineteen years apart.
Sources: Salisbury Press-Spectator, April 5, 1895, page 5, “Burglars,” original page; Salisbury Democrat, January 9, 1914, page 1, short machine-shop burglary notice. Original page and clipping preserved in the family archive.