William Puryear was an African American man who resided in Alamance County. In 1870 after supposedly witnessing the the Ku Klux Klan lynch county constable Wyatt Outlaw, Puryear reportedly followed some of the perpetrators home. When Puryear confronted them, they attacked and drowned him in a nearby pond in an attempt to conceal their identities. Governor William W. Holden later cited Puryear's murder as one of the motivating factors for declaring martial law in Alamance County. Puryear's murderers were never tried.