Two years earlier, on May 26, 1880, he was a defense attorney for W.W. Ward in a trial that led to the discharge of a firearm in the courtroom of the Williamsburg County Courthouse and subsequently to headlines in major newspapers across the nation.
A native of North Carolina, Ward had made Kingstree his home by 1860, where he opened a grocery store. By 1867, he was elected a warden (town councilman) for the Town of Kingstree, and by 1870, he had also run for and been elected Sheriff of Williamsburg County.
His store was one of those burned in the fire of 1873 in which all the stores on Main Street across from the courthouse were lost.
In August 1872, Ward was appointed to the election commission for Williamsburg County. However, in 1874, the Grand Jury for Williamsburg County indicted Sheriff Ward, along with all three Williamsburg County Commissioners and County Treasurer Phillip Heller.
The Commissioners, William Scott, Robert T. Scott, and Ambrose Tisdale, were charged with misconduct in office for making contracts with themselves and then paying themselves based on the contracts. Treasurer Heller was indicted for paying out county funds without sufficient orders to do so, and Sheriff Ward was charged with "offering bribes to certain executive and judicial officers with intent to influence their acts and decisions in the discharge of their official duties."
It should be noted that this was during Reconstruction, and political differences during that time were deep and vicious. Whether the charges against these five men were legitimate or based on political differences is hard to determine from our vantage point. It appears that, at least in Ward's case, he remained Sheriff until the 1876 election when he was defeated. There is also some evidence that he refused to acknowledge his defeat and leave office, although he was no longer sheriff when he was tried in May 1880.
The case that led to the excitement in the courtroom in May 1880 began in March 1879 when Ward was involved in a foreclosure case, James Harper v. W.W. Ward. Ward held a receipt of Harper's for $2,400 in payment of a bond but which Harper denied signing. Judge Mackey, sitting in equity, declared the document a forgery and ordered that Ward be indicted on charges of forging the document.
The case came to trial in late May 1880, with Richard Dozier handling the prosecution and Pressley Barron and John Lambson providing legal counsel for the defendant. The trial took two days, with the jury of 10 white and two black men reaching a guilty verdict on Wednesday, May 26.
"The most exciting and tragic scene that has ever occurred in a court in this state was enacted here today..." began news stories about what happened next.
After the verdict was announced, Judge Aldrich instructed the sheriff to take Ward into custody. The news reports state, "Ward, who was sitting inside the bar of the court, and who was perfectly sober, deliberately arose from his seat, drew his pistol and fired at (James) Harper one time and at W.K. Lane, one of the witnesses."
The shot missed Harper, but Lane was wounded in both hands, although not seriously. Several men jumped on Ward, disarmed him, and took him to jail.
News stories also noted, "When the shooting occurred, Harper and Lane were both sitting inside the bar, which was crowded with lawyers, officers of the court and citizens, all within a few paces of Ward."
One of the balls fired buried itself in the wall of the courtroom, while the other had not been found, according to news reports.
"Great consternation and excitement prevailed in the crowded courtroom, and one or two Negroes jumped out of the windows to the ground, a distance of 25 feet, uninjured."
Judge Aldrich issued a warrant against Ward for assault and battery with intent to kill, but later sentenced him to seven years in the penitentiary for the forgery. He is listed in the 1880 census as an inmate whose profession had been grocer. According to several public family trees on Ancestry.com, Ward died while incarcerated on September 4, 1880.
As for John Lambson, he was a native of New Castle, Delaware, who, after serving in the Confederate Army, relocated to South Carolina. He apparently was a man of some means who set himself up in a mercantile business and also engaged in lumber and naval stores (turpentine). However, he was not successful and in 1877 entered the practice of law with H. Pressley Barron of Manning. Lambson was elected to the Legislature in 1878. His story, too, came to a tragic end when he died by suicide on October 29, 1882.
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