MARY CORMIER BADLY BEATEN

The Church Point Democrat March 30, 1901

Mary Cormier, colored, is a badly beaten up and much abused woman. She arrived in this city Wednesday about 8 o’clock from her home one mile east of Rayne and was taken to the home of her daughter, Celia Philips, in Coontown, where it was discovered that the results of the fuss which she had had with a white man named Breaux near her home early this morning would likely prove fatal.

She was seen by a Signal representative soon after her arrival to whom she told her story. The woman says that her son was working on the same farm as Breaux’s son, and that the two boys had some difficulty, and that her son had been severely whipped. She decided to go over and inquire of the man for whom the boys were working what the trouble between had started about when she was met by Breaux.  Breaux asked her where she was going and after she told him he picked up a board and commenced beating her with it.

The woman’s face is frightfully disfigured. On the left side as well as over her eyes are great gashes left as the imprint of the board with which the man struck her.