In the fall of 1910, 17-year-old Robert Carter was a prisoner in the Dandridge, Tennessee, jail, convicted of larceny of corn from the farm of a Mr. McMahan. He was sentenced to the workhouse, required to work outside the jail as part of a chain gang with other prisoners.
On November 30th the young man managed to escape.
Even though he was never found by the law, his freedom was short-lived.
A few days after he left the chain gang, colder temperatures arrived and the snow began to fall. So much snow fell that blizzard conditions were soon reported in the mountains of east Tennessee.
On December 9, in the middle of that blizzard, the jailer at the Dandridge jail heard someone knocking at the main door. When he opened that door, the jailer saw Mr. Carter, wet, hungry and shivering from the cold. Upon seeing the jailer, who must have looked very surprised, Carter said:
“I want to get back where its warm and where I can have something to eat.”
He was welcomed in and escorted to his waiting cell, there to finish the rest of his sentence.
