On February 11, 1921, a Baptist minister, his wife and their four-year-old daughter were the victims of a bombing.
The family was asleep in the church parsonage in Pocahontas, Virginia, when, shortly after midnight, someone threw a lit stick of dynamite through the little girl’s bedroom window. The dynamite exploded near her bed, shattering furniture in the room, causing a large hole to be torn in the floor, and bringing down all the plaster on the walls.
The girl was, miraculously, unharmed, but her mother suffered loss of hearing due to the explosion.
Reverend W. R. Rickman was a man well-known in the area as opposing alcohol, gambling and other unsavory activities, and he preached fearlessly for what he thought was right. What little evidence that was able to be collected indicated that the attack was the work of “conspirators, liquor men and gamblers…and the motive, to punish the preacher, who, as is well known, has fought this element in his town for years, unceasingly and relentlessly, and this cowardly attack is believed to be the outcome of his fight.”
After the explosion the family moved to Mrs. Rickman’s family’s home in North Carolina until the parsonage could be repaired. During this time, Reverend Rickman traveled to Pocahontas to preach, including at a revival that was held in April.
Apparently the attack was too much for the family to bear and Reverend Rickman resigned his position at the Baptist church on September 21, 1921.
