The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-29
HELD FOR PEONAGE
TWO PREsTwooDs REQUIRED TO
 GIVE $500 BONDS.
Case . Pathetic one-Alleged Peon w ite Man, Feeble and Bent, Support of e Large
 Family.

Troy, Aug. 2S.-(Special.)-T trial of ] Marion Prestwood and his son. Noah Prestwood. who Is a justice of the peace.
 charged with peonase, cane up before Commissioner Tutwiler today. The Prest. woods reside in Coffee County, just be- low the line between Pike and Coffee. The Assistant District Attorney was present and conducted the prosecutions.
 The evidence was very damaging to the defendants.
 According to the evidence. as testified to by the Engiishs, and corroborated by the other testimony in the case, ih May. 1909, a fire occurred In Prestwoods tur- English and his family were cuitivating lands on Prestwood's plantation, and ac- | cording to English's testimony. they would have made ten or eleven bales of cotton. About the last of June, Bob Eng l lish had tc~go and work otherwheres to get supplies for his family. About the
 latter part of July or the first of August he returned to pull his fodder. when Ma
 rion Prestwood went before his tPrest- | wood's) son and swore out warrants for | Bob English and one of his sons. charg- | ing them with negligently setting his turpentine orchard on fire. The warrants we,c placed in the hands of one Goodson. | who was Nosh Prestwood's tenant, and the constable of his court He arrested the EAfEMStlS, anu AIttE tuSt WCfS dI V | rested, Marion Prestwood proposed to the old man, Bob English, that if he worked out $50 to pay for the damages to the | turpentine orchard, he would take him | under q contract to that effect and stop the prosecution. English. 1t seems. first refused to do this, and Goodson started, | as he stated, to carry them to Elba jail.
 and got as far as Ensiish's residence, | about a mile away. Then English decided | to Int tho and At6 n. | The contract was in court, and Is drawn
 so as to make 1t appear that $50 was ad- l vanced to English, and makes him &C., | knowledge the receipt of that amount, and is approved by the young Prest- wood as justice of the peace. The war rants of arrest were also produced, and | show that they were never returned Boh
 English testified that Justice Prestwood
 refused to give him trial. and told him
 the case was not baifabie.
 | This evening in the trial of Noah Prest. | wood. the justice of the peace. he took
 the witness stand in his own behalf. He
 testified that he had nothing to do with compromising the case. That he Issued | the warrants on his fathers afsldavits. l That he never docketed case unless |,
 was a murder case. and that these war rants were made returnable to the crimi- nal court of Coffee County; that he never
 docketed cases only when he held pre- | liminary trials.
 | He made an effort to prove by anothel | justice from Coffee County that they had been instructed by the circuit and county
 solicitor that I was not necessary to
 docket such cases. but this evidence was | not admitted.
 Young Prestwood put up his father, the other defendant, as witness in his be- half. The Assistant District Attorney
 questioned him very closely and he ac-
 knowledged that he had been informed
 in May, 1902, of the fire in his turpen-
 tine orchard; that he sent word to Eng
 lish to put 1t out; that this word was
 sent to English by his son, George Prest-
 wood; that his son informed him that
 when he told English about 1t. English
 seemed mad and this Is why he swore out
 the warrants about the first of August.
 Both of the Prestwoods, were bound over in bonds of $500 each.
 Goodson's case will come up for trial tomorrow. The case is a very pathetic
 one. Old man English is getting feeble
 and bent with years. and has eleven in family He can neither read nor write.