This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: BACON, BIRD, BLANFORD, BYRD, COLEMAN, CRAWFORD, McCAHEY, THOMAS, WIGGINS, WILLIAMS Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Xd.2ADE/1457 Message Board Post: “COMMITTED FOR MURDER.—Yesterday morning, at the Court House, occurred the preliminary trial of Ben. WIGGINS and Phineas WIGGINS—the first charged with murdering his brother-in-law, Wm. BYRD, and the latter with being an accessory. The affair was the one mentioned yesterday as having occurred Saturday night, about nine o’clock, in one of the houses of the Columbus Factory, located three miles from the city. The Justices were Messrs. McCAHEY, and Chas. COLEMAN. The evidence differed little from the account given yesterday, although it was proven that throughout the affair Phin. WIGGINS was a peacemaker. The warrant against him was dismissed. No one was nearer than fifteen feet from Ben. WIGGINS and Wm. BYRD when the latter was stabbed. Both were drunk, so the witnesses said. A few moments before they had come, with Jackson BYRD, from the city, very friendly, and Wm. BYRD had been put to bed in WIGGINS’ house. Ben. WIGGINS and Jackson BYRD, after spending a little while in an adjoining room, where a party was going on, engaged in a difficulty on the road in front of the house about their relative manhood. They were being held apart. A little brother of BYRD’s came to them saying Bill BYRD had drawn a chair on WIGGINS’ mother. WIGGINS started for the ! house as Bill BYRD staggered out. They met near the road, when Jackson BYRD testifies he, being held all the while, saw Ben. strike Bill two blows with a knife on the neck and his brother fell. Dr. BACON testified the wound on the neck was a fatal one. “The testimony of others showed that Jackson was very tight, if not drunk. “The Court sustained the charge of murder against Ben. WIGGINS, and he was committed to jail for safe keeping. Counsel for the defense were Hon. M[artin] J[enkins] CRAWFORD, Col. M[ark] H. BLANFORD, Reese CRAWFORD and C. H. WILLIAMS. “Grigsby E. THOMAS, Esq., for the State and prosecution.” [From the “Columbus, Georgia, Daily Enquirer” newspaper, Wednesday, 23 NOV 1870, p. 3, column 2, top.]