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} Largest County Circulation—Proof Whenever You Want It hi 3”'.. '■% .k wJF ^/OFFICIAL ORGAN OF GRADY COUNTY. VOL. 4 CAIRO, GRADY COUNTY, GEORGIA. FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 190. NO. 4 MID-NIGHT BUTCHERY OF BODIFORO FAllLY Desperate negro Ed Leconte, Steals into s Bodiford Home to Committ Rape, Is Discovered and Attempts to Ex terminate Entire Family. This report of the facts in connection with the attempt ed butchery of the Bodiford family, the best report we have seen,4s taken from theThomasville Times-Enterprise One of the most brutal crimes •ever reported in this section ol.the state occurred last Friday night . at eleven o’clock, when a negro at tempted to kill the entire family of Mr. George Bodiford, with an axe. The crime occurred twelve miles northwest of Thomasville and six miles northeast of Cairo, where Mr. Bodiford lived. Mr. Bodiford was struck on the forehead and his skull crushed. Mrs. Bodiford sustained the most se vere injuries, her entire forehead ■being mashed in by the force of a blow administered at. short range. A small child in the bed with Mr.- and Mrs. Bodiford cam* out un- tpuched, except for a slight scar on the head where the axe glanced from the head of its father. Mary Bodiford, a sixteen-year-old girl, was hit with the axe across the ■face, a large part'of her nose being taken off and her mouth horribly mutilated. iRhody Bodiford was hit over the head with the axe and in a scuffle with the negro, received sev eral other severe Injuries. .Charlie,, the eleven-year-old son, sustained a blow on the shoulder and another slight cut on the head. Georgia May, eight-years old, was also hit on 'the shoulder, but not injured to any ex tent. Gene, the flve-year-old hoy, ■was the only one In the family to es cape without any bruises. Brutally -Vicious Crime. The crime, as related by the young children to a Times-Enter prise reporter, Friday, showed beyond a doubt that it was a delib erate attempt on the part of the negro to kill both Mr. and , Mrs. Bodiford and without any reason or cause. He came to the house at 11 o’clock last night and tried to open a window, leading from the porch to the room which was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Bodiford. R'hody, in the next-room, heard him and tried ■to call both her mother and 'father. By that time the negro had gotten into the room and the girl came in and saw him strike, her father, who was in bed. The thirteen-year-old child, realizing the danger of her parents, attempted to stay the blow from her mother, and grappled with the negro. She was not able, with her Ineffective strength, to dislodge the blow, which descended on the forehead oif her sleeping mother, crushing her skull horribly.. The . girl clung to the negro’s arm, fight ing ana biting him all the time, making the most desperate effort to stay the murderous hand. Instead of accomplishing this, she brought the Tegroe’s attempt to herself and he slashed her across the forehead with the Instrument, felling her to the floor. He then saw her older sister and hit her across the face, the blow glancing and the butt end of the axe cutting off her nose. ' The other children received Ills attention then and the bruises as noted above resulted. Leaves and Conics Back. - Rliody stated that while she had not lost consciousness ,she was not' able to get around but yelled at the top of her voice, hoping that the neighbors would hear and come' to her rescue. The negro went to the porch, returned and choked her into complete silence, and then went away. Mr. Henry Simms, who lives about three hundred yards away, heard the child’s scream an V ran to the place with his wife, carrying a lantern. When he arrived at the home, his eyes beheld the result of one of Grady courfty’s most atrocious crimes. Mother and father lying on the bed, both in a .pool of blood, three children on the floor uncon scious . and blood ' streaming from wounds In head and shoulders and another small child, placing over the bodies of its parents, who lay on eithef side of him, wounded unto death. /Mr. Slmins did everything possi ble for the Injured and awakening some other neighbors went at once to Cairo for physician^. They ar rived toward early morning and the wounds of the whole family were dressed and they were made as com fortable as possible. Drs. Walker, Lindsey and Arline responded. The Negro Lived Nearby. It is absolutely certain that the ne gro. who committed the crime was Ed. Lacorite, who lives within a stone’s throw of the place, and who worked' at a. turpentine still nearby, owned .by Mr. Burroughs. One negro A pair ,of shoes were found outside the gate and further down the road p. banjo, which this negro, had pur chased from another negro, a short time before, was found. The woman who was living with Ed.- Laconte, was brought to the scene and she readily identified- the shoes as those of Ed’s, and when shown the axe which was left in the room, where the crime had been committed, stated positively that this was his instrument. She was taken with her 12-year-old son, and a ne- Continued on Page 7 On 12 months time certificates we pay 5 per cent interest On 6 months time certificates vs e pay 41-2 per cent interest We also solicit your active account which shall have Our prompt and careful, attention at all times. We keep a complete record of every transaction made with this institution, and same is- filed sys tematically for the protection and" convenience of our customers, and we are always glad to give you a history of any transaction which you make with us. If we can be of service to you call on us whether our customer or. not. “Make Our Bank Your Bank” FARMERS & MERCHANTS BANK W. T. Crawford, President J. E. Forsyth, Thomas Wight, V-president. 5c Cashier • WAS mi SUCCESS The meeting of the Farmers Institute held last Friday at the Court house, was a splendid success. 'This was the first meeting of this organization? which is a lo cal or county affair, but it was quite well attended and was.in- esting from the first. The chairman, - Mr. J. B. Wight, called- the meeting to or der at 10 o’clock. In his preli minary remarks he made .some good points as to j|hy it was necessai’y for farmers to have these organizations. The first subject discussed was food crops, and Mr. Wight dis cussed the raising of sweet and Irish potatoes. He told how a fall crop of Irish potatoes might be raised as readily as the spring' crop; how to plant, how to ferti lize, etc. He discussed also’ the growing of sweet potatoes at a profit, marketing, etc.? and made ah interesting and profitable talk... Dr. Glower followed Mr. Wight Dr Clower, as most of our read ers, know, is a real farmer. In fact, he has a model farm and has experimented quite largely with different • crops. The Doc tor told of his experiment with cotton. He kept an accurate ac count of expense, profit—or rather income. After two years of cotton, he. figured up, and found that he had lost money. He was after the long green, so he quit cotton. He next tried sugar cane. Again he went “in the hole.” Then he tried food crops, hogs, beef cattle, cabbage, sweet potatoes, oats, corn, etc. Dr: Clower stated that the balan ce on the.ledger was now on- the right side. He has been selling sweet potatoes since June at $1.15 per bushel; he sells pork and beef to the local market in season about twice or three times a week. The Doctor’s talk was highly profitable from an agri cultural point of view. Mr. W. L. Williams and sever al other present added some thing. good to this subject, and then the meeting passed to the next subject, Live Stock. Mr. W. B. Roddenbery was the prin cipal speaker on this subject and there was “good stuff” in every word. Mr. Roddenbery told about his success with beef cat tle. Some time back he bought some common piney wood steers. He kept them for four months, feeding them on Japanese cane, velvet beans ' and cotton seed meal and hulls. On April 20th, he sold the bunch, making a clear profit of $4.87 on each of the 82 head of steers. He estimated that the. fertilizer from the stock was worth $1,000 addition al. Mr. Roddenbery went on to show then that if he had a better grade of cattle his profits would have been more than doubled, as the better grade would have eat no more tnat the common stock and yet would have weighed 50 per cent more at selling time. Mr. Roddenbery said that he was going to have the better stock. He has recently been to Tennes see investigating the cattle busi ness. In the fall he will buy some fine cattle from that state and will continue in the cattle raising business on a much larg- BYLIN! SINGLETARY SATURDAY NIGH! A deplorable killing occurred about five miles east of Cairo Saturday night when Hardy Rawls was shot dead by Linton Singletary. Last Saturday night, about eleven o’clock, Hardy Rawls, Jack Hall Henry Adams Crate Singletary and a son of Craton Singletary were in the road near the home of George Cook. Near the road a fence and on the other side of the fence was Cook’s cane patch. From beyond the fence, some one called out, so it is al leged, “Down the road over there”, and there was the report of a gun, and Hardy Rawls step ped back two or three steps and fell dead, with the words, “boys, I’m a dead man” on his lips. At the report of the gun Cray ton Singletary and Jack Hall fired at a man running through the field, filling the back of the fleeing man with small shot. That man'was Lint Singletary. The wounded man ran about forty yards and fell in a cane patch. Hardy Rawls was shot it the Dreast, the load making a fright ful wound. It was only about ten steps from where Rawls stood to where the man stood who shot him. Five shots were firee; two from the field and three from the men in the road. The hat of Jack Hall was also pierced with shot. Singletary is not • seriously hurt, and is under arrest, charg ed with the. murder' of Hardy Rawls. Rawls and his party were out looking for the negro Lecont, and Linton Singletary and Archie Adams were supposed to be watching a negro house, where they hoped to get information from another negro of the.where abouts of Lecont, the negro wanted for the attempted butch ery of the Bodiford family. Mr. Rawls, the dead man, was the son of Mr. Bill • Rawls. He was a young man and had many friends. He was in the prime of or scale. We have given only one illustration from Mr. Rod- denbery’s talk, and all of it was just as good. The next meeting of tjie In stitute will be held on the 1st Friday -in September, and the prograimfor that meeting will be announced later. of life and as fine specimen of a man as there is in the county, weighing more than 200 pounds. There are rumors concerning^ the killing, but as we do not know the truth of any of them, we give simply the bare facts as giyen to us by those who are in position to know. The remains of Mr. Hardy Rawls were interred at Pearce Chappel Sunday afternoon and the funeral was largely attended. BIG ODD FELLOWS PICNIC FOR AUGUST 221. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the county of Grady are going to hold a big rally on Friday, August 22. This was decided at the last meeting of the local lodge at Cairo. The matter was discuss ed among the members and com mittees were appointed to look after the big affair. The picnic will be held at Copeland Springs in this city. Every lodge in Grady county has been invited to come, bring well filled baskets and join the Cairo lodge in a grand rally for the good of the Order. The program committee is now at work on the program, and the speakers will be announced next, week. It is aimed to make this occasion one of the best of its-kind ever held in this section of the State. Committee o n Program.— Mack Johnson, Pryor Jones, C. S. Stewart. Committee on Arrangement,— J. W. Miller, chairman, T. S. Copeland, Henry Prince, W. D. Barber, John Sword and Herbert Maxwell. The above committee is re quested to meet at the office of Crawford-Miller Co., Saturday morning at 10 o’clock. PROGRAM Exercises called too rder at 10:30 a. m. by Hon. M. L. Led- ford^master of ceremonies. 11:00—Address— “Friendship, Love and Truth,” Hon. Roscoe Luke, of Thomasville. 12:30—Dinner. 1:30—Address—“Histroy of Odd Fellowship”—Hon. R. C. 2:30—An Address—“Our vVives - and Mothers”—Hon. S. R. Blan ton. P. A. Jones, B. M. Johnson and C. S. Stewart. Statement of condition of Citizens Bank-of Cairo, Ga. At close of business May 22, 1913 published under call from State Bank Examiner •'( ' | RESOURCES LIABILITIES Time Loans... •‘?178.9:10.97 8 Capital Stock J 60,000.00 Banking House 7,975.531 Surplus and Undivided Profits 26,345.74 Furniture and .Fixtures 5,530.37 j Cashier's Checks 138.78 Duo from Banks and Gash in Vault 55,239.84 Total. $247,676.71’ Deposits Time certificates 47,012.24 Subject to check 125,179.95 Total Deposits 172,192.19 Upon the strength of the above statement we solicit your account, it is the policy of this bank to, at all times take care of the needs of it’s customers, and this fact together witn courteous treatment to all has made our business what it b. If yoii are not already one of our customers we. would be glad to have you open an account with us and be satisfied with your banking connection. W. S. WIGHT, Pres., H. G. W. H. SEARCY, Vice-Pres & Cashier CANNON, Vice-Pres.