The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1885-02-04
Adultery, Murder and So'o'oo
AFeavfuI Domestic Tragedy"
An Awful Ending to Illicit
Love-.

On Thursday, the 29th ut, a re"
Lac from WhIteville, IN Columbus
county. and near the South Carolina hne'
oocTrTed one of those terrible domestic
tagedies which shock the unitles
IN Which they take place and which are
a legitimate ending of an unholy and IL
legitimate love. The facts connected with
the case which terminated, 50 tar as two
ofthe actors we're concerned, IN a brutal
murder and deliberate suicide on the day
and at the place mentioned, are about as
follows:
Mr.. ]. P. Ward aud Mr.. Elisha Prince
were neiphbors who lived but a short
distance from each other, and both were
Intelligent and we'll to do farmers. They
were also brothers in-law, Ward having
married a sister of Prince. The relations
between the two men and their famllles
had been amicable and pleasant untli
about two years ago, when 1T was WINS,
pered that an improper intimacy existed
between Ward and the wife OF Prince.
These rumors soon became SO much OF a
certainty that bad blood was ~engendered
and bitter luminosity was aroused between
the men. Recently Ward and Mr.. Prince
eloped together and went as far as Savan
nah, Ga, but soon after arriving IN that
city the guilty pair saw IN one OF their
rambles, a car load of collins, which lm
pressed them with the idea that a ter
rible epidemic was in progress, and they
were so much frightened that they lmme-
diately returned to their old homes IN
Columbus county. Upon returning home,
the guilty woman, now deeply penltent
and sorrow stricken, promised anew her
fidelity to her husband, soon joined the
church, and was in all respects a re-
formed woman.
This conduct on the part of Mrs.
Prince irritated and enrageG the bllndly
infatuated Ward to that degree that he
armed himself on the day mentioned
with a loaded revolver, a double-bar-
relied shot gun, charged with bucN-shot,
two phials of laudanum and a wal OF
opium, and thus prepared he went to a
convenient place and hid III ambush
awaiting the appearance of his wronged
brother-in-law, and when the latter ap-
peared, quietly pursuing his work, Ward
stepped from his place of concealment
and discharged the shot gun, the entire
load, consisting of ten buckshot, taking
effect in Princes breast The latter at
tempted TO run TO MS mousse DuI ndu
gone only a few steps when he fell to the
ground a corpse.
Ward then left and, after going a
short distance, he met a nelghbor to
whom he stated that he hau killed
Princh and that he intended to kill HIM
self bv taking poison. At this juncture
two other neighbors arrived and attempt
ed to prevent Ward from carrying his
threat into execution, but he held them
at bay with his loaded revolver, and
drained the fatal contents OF the phlal,
after which he went to his home and
slept away in a few hours a blasted, but
hitherto useful life.
Mr.. Prince was a quiet, in~offensive
man. Both men were married and leave
wives and children and both were buried
on the some day, in the some cemetery.
Just before his death Ward gave a long
letter to his wife, to be delivered to
Mrs. Prince, in which he expressed his
great love for the latter and regretting
that she had forsaken h.m.-Wilming-
ton ReUieu.