The Russellville Democrat., 1889-04-18
CIV .Forehand, Defendant Testimony

CIV .Forehand, Defendants Testimony
This is the first time / was ever a
witness in court; am 20 years of age,
| was born and raised in Woodruff
county, Arkansas, and came here in
| 1880; deceased was living in Doxer
when we moved here; some time after
| came here deceased married Miss
Katie Rollow; i married in 1881, and
| deceased and | lived close together.
Before deceased went to housekeeping
I was working for Neal, .and deceased
| told me we could make money in the
drug business. We afterwards formed a
partnership in that business and in
seven or eight months | bought him
out. About this time deceased's wife
| died and left an infant which my wife
cared for; sold out in 1885 and moved
my family to Hope, Arkansas; l sold
my drug store to j. L. Odom. The
letter read in evidence on Yesterday,
dated Hope, was written by my wife to
deceased; quit staying at Hope in
January, 1886, and returned to Dover
and went to farming; during that fall
had very severe spell of sickness,
deceased waited on me as physician and
recovered; on some occasions deceased
sat up with me, sometimes Mr.. Higgins
sat up with me; / learned afterwards
that at the time of this sickness the in-
timacy between my wife and deceased
commenced; this was in the fall of
| 1886; the next year | farmed in the
same bottom; during that summer my
wife was taken sick and | could not get
any help for her, and as had her work
and mine to do was kept quite busy.
DR.. Marberry waited on my wife dur
ing this sickness and after her recovery
| he frequently came to our house, but i
| had no suspicious about the intimacy
then, as | had all confidence in deceas-
ed. In the summer of 1888 | became
suspicious of my wife and deceased and
| became convinced that was wrong.
| NV wife was very much devoted to me
until after my sickness, when it seemed
to me that she did not care much for
me, and the feeling seemed to grow. l
was getting pretty jealous of Marberry
and told her so. and she suggested that
we had better change our location; l
| had noticed that whom she went to
town deceased would make it conven-
| lent to come home with her, and | told
her | was going to leave her, but she
| persuaded me not to go. | watched,
and tried to find out something, then
| tried to move in order to get rid of de-
ceased, and | rented part of house
at Coal Hill, and was going to move
| there, and deceased also began to make
arrangements to move to the same
place; then my wife got out OF the
| notion, and / thought she did not want
! to 90 because deceased had given out
| going had never had any positive
! evidence of her guilt, but / was pretty
certain that there was something
| wrong between deceased and my wife.
left home and went to the Indian
| Territory, but returned home at night
and slipped home, and did not see any
one but my wife and children; my wife
greeted me so cordially that | again
became satisfied that | was wrong. In
December, last, we moved out to where
we now live; one evening short time
after our removal to the country de-
ceased came to my house and delivered
message to us from our little
girl who was then at Argenta,
ard left: he afterwards came at my re-
quest to see my little boy who was sick.
He came also the next day. This was
close to last Christmas. On Friday be-
fore Christmas / sold Mr.. arwell a
horse, and he started out home with
me after it; when we got out on the
mountain we saw horses track, and
when it turned off to go to my house l
began to getuneasy, and just before we
got to the house, the track went out of
the road | asked my little boy where
his mother was and he said he did not
know: / went down to see If she was at
my fathers, knowing if she was not
there. there was something wrong. l
came back home and found her there,
and when Mr.. Harwell left / told her
that she might as well OWE up that she
was caught: she replied that she was
not caught: Harwell was then gone;
she fell on her knees and begged me to
shoot her, told her | would not do it.
but [ would shoot myself, but the
children, after | got the pistol, CON-
menced crying, and | would not do 1t;
| then told her that she must leave.
which she refused to do; did not want
to make the matter public, because l
wanted to save my children from shame
and disgrace; next morning | made up
my mind to stay until l could make
some shift to get away; she then wrote
deceased letter entreating him TO stay
away; showed me the letter and mailed
il TO the deceased; this letter was in
PRODUCED as evidence on yesterday;
that evening had been bird hunting
when started to get some wosd, and
saw deceased coming, | told her to go
back which she did, and he rode up and
said he wanted to rent my barn Mt town.
| told him that he was liar. He SEEM
ed 20 be excited and asked me what was
the matter. | told him that he knew
what was the matter. | had my gun
| in my hand at this time. | then told
| him that | wanted him to stay away
| from my premises, and he said "You
bet | will.p lie asked me to take a
drink with him, and told him that |
did not want any of his whiskey. That
night the dog commenced his gyrations
around the house. and barked nearly
all night. ! did not sleep much that
night, because | was troubled so much.
On the next morning | went ont to my
barn, and when | returned my wife
gave me a note saying, "Ilere is note
| that fellow left here last night" He
said in the note that he would take any
kind of chances to see her once more.
| | do not know what has become of the
note, il is now lost, | suppose. | was
! familiar with the handwriting of deceas-
| ed, and the note was In his handwrit-
| ing. | was more particular then than
ever. On the next morning | went af-
ter some colts that had bought from
Mr.. Bewly. This was on Friday before
| Christmas. The next time saw deceas-
ed, he was near my house In the woods
with gun, and from that time on my
dog made considerable Asise every
night. When / went after my colts,
and took my gun, as | was afraid to 20
without it, when got to Dover | saw
| lnn.nrnd ..an. Nnalta atcrn LIZ .una OF