antique letter W E MAULDIN lawyer OZARK ALABAMA DALE CO william ward MURDERER

Description: Please email with any questions. 10 1/2" by 8" letterhead of W E Mauldin, Attorney at Law in Ozark, Alabama. Dated February of 1884, the letter was sent to hardware merchants in Macon, Georgia who were owed money by a man named W J Ward. The letter reads: W J Ward of Echo this county is indebted to your house and as the attorney for his largest creditors I am endeavoring to affect some sort of settlement of my claims. You are aware of his condition- if not I will briefly state that he is in jail charged with the murder of Jacob Parmer, and that he has been denied bail by the highest Court of the State. His property is heavily mortgaged and the costs of his defense will be large. I believe a settlement of all claims against him can be effect at 50 cents on the dollar without trouble of litigation. Will you take that for yours? I unhesitatingly advise it and refer you for further information to Captain John W Dowling or any other reputable merchant of this county. Paper shows soiling, fold lines from original mailing and some holes and tears and a piece separated along the top edge. W E Mauldin (1841-1889) is buried in Union Cemetery, Ozark, Dale County, Alabama.The following is an article about the murder and trial of William J Ward printed in the 1886 Troy Messenger:Wm. J. Ward, the Dale county murderer, was hung at Ozark, the county seat, last Friday. William J. Ward was born in Dale county, of respectable parents in 1835, and was, therefore, something more than fifty years old. He resided in Dale county all his life.He had a common education, and was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, good address and polite manners. He was about five feet, six inches tall, carried himself well, had blue eyes, and was considered rather handsome. He leaves his third wife and fourteen children, having lost two wives by death. Meeting him, rightly at himself, one would have been impressed with the fact that he carried along with him many of the instincts that characterize the gentleman. THE CRIME for which Ward was hung was the murder of Jacob J.Parmer in Dale County, September 30th, 1883. It was a bright September afternoon, when Parmer passed through the little village of Echo, on horseback, going down the road toward Newton. Soon after, perhaps within a half hour, Ward was seen to ride off in the same direction, and shortly returned rapidly. He was a riding a red mule, in strange keeping with the bloody crime he committed. Latter in the evening, Parmer was found by his friends lying by the roadside four miles from Echo twice wounded, with the lifeblood ebbing fast away.Kind hands carried him home that night--home to linger but a little while amid the prayers and tears of the loved ones there, and then to die. And when the sun had risen, then he was dead; and that little home was sabled in grief. The dying man remained conscious to the last, and in the presence of witnesses made a deathbed declaration, The witnesses were Charles Brannon, William Woodham, R. H. Bright, Seabon Brannon, John V. Rivenback and J. J. Bennefield. Parmer said that while he was riding quietly toward home Ward rode up and asked him (Parmer) his name. Parmer told him, and then without another word, Ward drew a revolver and shot him twice, first in the back and then in the shoulder.The deceased said he knew Ward very well. Dr. H. J. Simpson, the attending physician, testified that he reached Parmer about one o'clock on the morning of October 1st, and found him dead.The physician made a professional examination of the wounds. One shot entered the left side near the spine and came to the surface two inches below the left nipple. The other shot entered the right shoulder rather behind and came near the surface in front near the exit. One bullet passed very near the heart, and the other penetrated the right lung. The physician gave it as his opinion that either wound would have produced death.The weapon that did the murderous work was a thirty-two caliber revolver. THE TRIAL. The case has been rather a remarkable one in the criminal jurisprudence of Alabama. Ward was arrested on a warrant charging him with the murder of Parmer. He had a preliminary trial, which resulted in his commitment to prison without bail. The prisoner applied to the Chancery Court, through his counsel and by writ of habeas corpus, for bail.He was represented by Col. Wm. C. Oates, Congressman from the Third District. The Chancery Court refused to allow the prisoner bail and the case was then appealed to the Supreme Court.The Supreme Court sustained the reading of the Chancery Court. The prisoner was then tried in the Circuit Court of Dale county. diet The jury in the case returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree fixed the penalty of death by hanging, Again the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and again the decision of the lower court was sustained. The prisoner was then sentenced, and the date of execution fixed on the 19th day of March, 1886. It is said that Parmer had purchased some land which Ward expected or desired to purchase, and that brought about the, hard feeling between them.Ward was merchandising at Echo, a small village in the eastern portion of Dale county, and had for some time been advancing money, supplies, &c., to one Jacob J. Parmer. During the course of their various business transactions, Parmer purchased from W. W. Wilkinson, a resident of Butler county, Alabama, a tract of land for which he agreed to pay sixteen bales of cotton, the trade being not directly with Wilkinson, but through Ward, who represented himself to Parmer as being Wilkinson's agent.When about half the cotton bad been paid over to Ward, Parmer found that Ward was not the agent of Wilkerson, but that one Acree, living in the community, was, and that he could have obtained the land from Acree for eight bales of cotton, just half of what Ward charged him. He thereupon paid over eight bales to Acree and obtained titles to the land. This action of Parmer seems to have enraged Ward and he immediately resolved to get rid of him. And on Friday last, William J. Ward, in the full maturity of a vigorous manhood, passed from the footlights of time behind the drop | the curtain penalty of eternity.of his He crime-life simply paid for life; that was the sentence passed by the judge and jury. Ward has long been known among his neighbors as a man of bad character, having been suspicioned of killing other men in Dale county, but upon these suspicions no proof could be made at the time. THE PLEA FOR COMMUTATION. Petition after petition was presented to Governor O'Neal praying for a commutation of the death sentence to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. The main reasons urged by the petitions praying for the commutation were that homicides are rare in Dale county; that the killing of one white man by another caused a wave of excitement and indignation against Ward, the murderer, and that the jury who tried him were actuated more or less by this same feeling regardless of the true status of the case.The Governor, however, refused to commute the sentence and in reply to the petitioners said: "I regret that the reasons urged for commutation do not raise a doubt of my duty in the premises. The petitions do not even allege re mitigating circumstance. If there were a single doubt in my mind I would be quick to give the benefit of it to the doomed man. I am constrained to let the sentence of death be executed." On Friday the 12 inst., just one week before the day of execution, Mrs. Ward, wife of the doomed murderer; visited Montgomery, sought Governor, and besieged him with prayer to commute the death sentence or grant her husband respite.Painful and trying as it was, the Governor firmly refused to change the sentence in any way, saying that there was absolutely nothing to justify executive intervention, and that it was his solemn duty to see the laws faithfully executed. A final appeal in the doomed man's behalf was made to Governor O'Neal last Wednesday night by a committee of citizens from Dale County, Once more the Governor, in obedience to the dictates of duty and honest convictions, refused to commute the death sentence or grant & respite, In more ways than one, the Ward Parmer murder case is remarkable. Dale county is in a quite Alabama; its annals are uneventful and its people are peaceful, The killing of Parmer very naturally caused a wave of excitement, and for a time the feeling of indignation against Ward, the murderer, ran high among the people. Lately, however there seems to have been a partial reaction in the popular sentiment, the petitions in his behalf, while urging no valid reasons, have been strong and numerous. There was no good cause for making a commutation of the death sentence, or granting a respite, hence both were firmly refused.The Governor knew his duty and did it; that was all. Ward was the first white man hanged for murder in Alabama since the late war. But it all goes to show that in when one man commits murder cold blood and stains his hands with the life blood of another he must suffer the consequences; and wealth and friends and influence can not always save him from the punishment dictated by even handed justice. The hanging of William J. Ward for the murder Jacob J.Parmer will be remembered in the years to come; it is a remarkable event in the county's history.

Price: 19.99 USD

Location: Macon, Georgia

End Time: 2024-12-12T19:07:40.000Z

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