Taylor-Harris County GaArchives News.....A Family Feud Is Aired By US Court December 10 1908
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************


File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Carla Miles cmhistory@mchsi.com October 25, 2003, 2:44 pm

The Talbotton New Era

The Talbotton New Era
Thursday, December 10, 1908
Page Seven

A Family Feud Is Aired By US Court

A Taylor County Moonshine Case Brings Out Some Pathetic Facts Under Which May 
Lie A Tragedy

Columbus, Ga., Dec. 8 – Two juries were kept busy in the United States Court 
yesterday afternoon when the court convened at 3 o’clock and every man on duty 
earned his pay.

Judge Newman believes in dispatching the business of the court promptly, and 
while he is always ready to allow the attorneys plenty of time in which to 
conduct a case they most not delay just for the sake of delay.  He believes in 
people working in his court and he gets it done too.

As fast as a case is submitted to one jury and the jury gets out of the box, 
another one takes its place and another case is taken up and pushed to a close.

There was one case disposed of in the court yesterday afternoon that revealed a 
pathetic if not tragic state of affairs prevailing among relatives in Taylor 
County.

J.T. Peterman, a man who has been before the court several times on the same 
charge, was on trial for illicit distilling, and his two cousins were the 
principal witnesses against him.  The main witness in the evidence acknowledged 
to doing the same thing that he accused his cousin of doing, and the 
revelations showed that a feud existed between the two families, the young men 
being the children of two sisters.

In attempting to break down the testimony of a government witness, the attorney 
for the defense asked a man on the stand.

“Were you not convicted of horse stealing?”

The question startled the witness so that he partly rose from his seat, his 
face flushed and his eyes snapped and he indignantly denied the assertion.  The 
question itself killed the witness’ evidence and as he passed down he made a 
move as if to attack the lawyer, but the court bailiff, Mr. Case hurried him 
out.

It looked to the jury as if Judge Dunham was going to get in trouble but the 
judge was not perturbed in the least, and the incident passed of and unnoticed 
by many in the courtroom.

Judge Dunham conducted Peterman’s case in a most able manner, and the jury was 
not out over ten minutes until a verdict of not guilty was returned.

A verdict of not guilty was returned in the case of W.A. Cannon, charged with 
illicit distilling, and also in favor of Ben Traylor and W.B. Williamson on the 
same charge.

Anderson Williams, Geo. Parrum and Ike Thornbill entered pleas of guilty to the 
same charge, but were not sentenced.

George L. Irvin, a well-known farmer of Harris County, was before the court on 
the charge of illicit distilling, a big distillery having been found a half-
mile from his house, and the officers found five barrels of whiskey buried in 
his cotton field.  It was proven by the testimony that another man had run a 
still close to Mr. Irvin’s place and had buried some whiskey nearby.

It was believed that the five barrels of whiskey found on Mr. Irvin’s place 
were put there by this man and a Negro witness testified that he had hauled the 
liquor from the still for that man.  The man had disappeared since the whiskey 
was found.  After being out two hours the jury brought in a verdict of not 
guilty, the jury standing ten to two for acquittal until the last moment when 
the two others came over.

During the day yesterday, Mr. H.P. Wallace of Butler, Ga., was admitted to 
practice in the court.  The grand jury returned several true bills at a late 
hour yesterday afternoon.



This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/

File size: 4.0 Kb