This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: BACON, BIRD, BRADFORD, BYRD, COLE, COLEMAN, DAVISON, DAVIDSON, EADY, GAND, GANN, HAMMOCK, JOHNSON, McCAHEY, McSWAIN, NEWSOME, WIGGINS, WOOD Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Xd.2ADE/1455 Message Board Post: “[MURDER AT CLAPP’S FACTORY?].—The life of Wm. BIRD, an employee of the Eagle and Phenix Factory, of this city, was taken about 10 o’clock on Saturday night last at Clapp’s Factory, three miles above here. The following are the particulars, as far as we could gather them: Wm. BIRD was in the city early in the night, engaged in drinking. Report has it that Ben. WIGGINS, a brother-in-law, and Jackson BIRD, a brother (employed at Clapp’s Factory), came to town about 8 o’clock Saturday night, and that William BIRD went home with them; that shortly after [arriving?] there, some time between ten and eleven o’clock, Ben. WIGGINS, Finn WIGGINS, and Jackson BIRD, all in li[quor?], got up a general fight and that Wm. BIRD, in attempting to interfere, received six severe cuts, three in the body, one in the throat, one in the forehead, and one in the [arm?], from the effects of which he died in about half an hour.� 80�Afterward Isaiah BIRD, another brother of the d! eceased, came to town for the police to [arrest?] the parties. He was informed that any one could make the arrest. Accordingly, early Sunday morning the WIGGINSES and Jackson BIRD were brought to the city by the said Isaiah BIRD and others, where they were held until yesterday morning by order of the Mayor [James JOHNSON], when a warrant was duly taken out and the parties committed to jail to await a preliminary examination at the Court-house at 10 o’clock this morning, before Justices COLEMAN and McCAHEY. “Coroner’s Verdict—Sunday morning Coroner WOOD, attended by Sheriff BRADFORD, repaired to the scene of the homicide, where a jury was summoned and the verdict below rendered, after the examining physician, Dr. J. E. BACON, had given an opinion that [the] deceased came to his death from the effect of the wound in the neck: “We, the jury, certify that Wm. BIRD came to his death by a wound inflicted in the throat with a knife or some cutting instrument in the hands of some person unknown to us. S. DAVISON, Foreman W. C. HAMMOCK, John NEWSOME, A[rchibald] H[ood] COLE, Dan McSWAIN, H[enry] P. EADY, H[enry] C. GAND.” [From the “Columbus, Georgia, Daily Enquirer” newspaper, 22 NOV 1870, Vol. XIL, No. 878, page 3, top of column 2. Transcribers note: this image is dark and portions of it difficult to read, particularly the top. Corrections appreciated. What number is XIL – 39, maybe? – jml]