NATCHEZ — In 1923, a 20-year-old farm boy from Nebraska named Charles P. Nutter fled Columbia, Mo., by train in the middle of the night because he feared for his life.

He had recently reported in the Columbia Evening Missourian newspaper the lynching of James Scott, a black man who was wrongly accused of assaulting a white girl. He had also taken the stand as a witness in the trial for George Barkwell, an otherwise upstanding white man whom Nutter testified was responsible for the lynching.

Nutter fled soon after the jury deliberated for 11 minutes before finding Blackwell not guilty.

Nutter died in 1987 at age 84 after a long, successful journalism career, but his son, Natchez resident Jim Nutter, will accept an award on his father’s behalf from the James T. Scott Monument Committee in Columbia this weekend.

Until recently, Jim said he knew very few details of his father’s involvement in the story and trial.

“I had heard rumors,” Jim said, “But that was about it.”

Jim’s wife, Diana Nutter, said a man named Doug Hunt recently contacted her on Facebook wanting to know if she was related to Charles Nutter.

Hunt, a professor at The University of Missouri, released a book this month titled “Summary Justice: The Lynching of James Scott and the Trial of George Barkwell.”

Jim learned the full story about his father’s involvement when he was asked to accept the award at the memorial service, which will also include the unveiling of a new headstone for Scott.

“I feel it’s wonderful, and I’m as proud as I can be,” Jim said.

Jim, who also worked as a journalist, said his father lived all over the world reporting on issues.

Jim said his family has a photo of his father with Ernest Hemingway in 1937, which was taken while the elder Nutter covered the Spanish Civil War in Madrid.

“He covered the world,” Jim said.

Jim said he remembers his father as a hard-working man of talent who started off as a farm boy from Nebraska.

Because his grandfather did not support his father, Jim said his father worked his way through college by working at the newspaper.

“He was a terrifically active guy and a terrific writer,” Jim said.

Diana said she never remembers seeing her father-in-law in blue jeans; it was always slacks and a shirt.

“He thought the biggest waste of time was hunting and fishing,” Jim said.

Jim helped his father operate newspapers in many cities in the South over the years, and when Jim was a boy, his father took his family abroad for international jobs.

“Jim was learning to speak Russian (as a child) in Moscow,” Diana said.

Charles Nutter reported the truth, Jim said, even if it was an unfavorable truth about his best friend or an entire county board of supervisors.

“It was almost like osmosis, he went in and covered everything,” Jim said.

Diana said while her father-in-law could ask the most piercing questions and extract information from any source, he was hard to read himself.

“He had a sense of humor, but he was gruff,” Jim said.

“As long as you got the paper out, you were OK,” Jim said of his father’s dedication.

Jim and Diana will leave for the trip to Missouri today. Jim said he looks forward to the trip and his father’s recognition.

“It makes me tremendously proud to be his daughter-in-law,” Diana said.

“He was a true newspaperman,” Jim said.

The event will recognize also J. Lyle Caston and Hermann Almstedt.

Caston, the minister of Scott’s church, played a key role in arranging Scott’s legal defense for the trial he never had.

Hermann Almstedt, a professor of German and father of the girl who was assaulted, stood up in front of the mob and begged them to wait for a trial.