He was found dead in a ditch.

by Lisa Y. Henderson

DISTRESSING. – A free colored man named Hugh Cherry, a carter, left this place with a horse and buggy on Wednesday last, for Williamston, for the purpose of brining a person home; but finding that the person had not arrived there, determined to return home that evening. The evening was stormy and an immense quantity of rain fell. Next morning he was found about twelve miles from this place dead in a ditch, and the horse upon him. The horse was blind and it is supposed, the man being unable to guide him in the excessive darkness, that the horse plunged into the deep ditch, which gave the buggy a sudden jerk, throwing the man forward and breaking his neck in the fall, plunging him into the ditch. The horse in his scuffle to get out got upon the man, and their [sic] remained until he was found next morning. Strange to say the horse and buggy were not injured. – Washington Dispatch.

North Carolina Argus (Wadesboro), 8 September 1859.