There were members of the Ward family in nearly every town in the county. I don't know how they were all related, but this may give someone some information they need.
The Bokchito News
September 7, 1905
Dr. Ward is the new doctor and all are pleased with him.
The Caddo Herald
January 6, 1911
Criminal Docket District Court
Judge Hardy Will Re-Convene December Term Next Monday
Judge Summers Hardy, the newly elected Judge of the sixth Judicial District, will re-convene the December term of Bryan county Court in Durant next Monday morning. The court will immediately go into the criminal docket, which is set as follows:
Monday, Jan. 9, 1911
…State of Oklahoma vs. B. E. Ward, manslaughter.
The Durant Daily Democrat
May 10, 1915
Dr. Ward is Lynched by Citizens
Former Durant Man Taken from Norman
Jail and Hung to Tree
A mob composed of a dozen white men from Noble, eight miles south of Norman, took Dr. B. E. Ward, white, from the Cleveland county jail at Norman early Sunday morning and hung him to a tree two miles south of town. Ward strangled to death within a few minutes. Ward, two weeks ago, stabbed to death his wife, at their home in Noble, while under the influence of liquor.
The mob, with one of its members handcuffed, knocked on the door of the county jail, and when the jailer put his head out of the window, said they were officers and had a suspect whom they desired to place in the jail. When the jailer opened the door he was overpowered, his keys taken, and the mob seized Dr. Ward.
Dr. Ward, two years ago, was committed to the state asylum, but released after one month on a writ of habeas corpus. A plea of insanity was expected should Ward have been tried for the killing. Officers are investigating the lynching, but have no clue to the identity of members of the mob.
Dr. Ward was formerly a citizen of this county and lived in Durant for some time. He was charged with manslaughter in the first degree here in 1910 and the trial resulted in a hung jury. Later the case was dismissed for the reason that the prosecution witness had gone to Texas and refused to return.
He is remembered by nearly all of Durant’s old citizens. He left here several years ago. He was committed to the insane asylum, but had been released. It is stated that he horribly butchered his wife in killing her, and there were strong feelings at the time the murder was committed, but it was supposed to have abated.
Dr. Ward’s first wife died at Silo a short time before he departed from this county. In his murder trial he was represented by McPherson & Abbot.
Note: Other articles mention that Deputy H. C. Cottrell was on duty. Two men handcuffed him, took him quite some distance away, put the keys in his back pocket and told him he could walk back to the jail. He stopped at the depot where someone removed his handcuffs. One paper commented on how perfectly Ward’s abduction was planned.
The Norman Transcript
May 13, 1915
Prof. J. W. Smith of Waco, Texas, a high Mason of that city, telephoned H. P. Meyer, W. M. of Norman Lodge yesterday, asking him to send Denny* Ward, 8-year-old son of Dr. B. E. Ward, deceased, to him at that point and he would be taken care of. Mr. Smith is a brother-in-law of Dr. Ward. Denny left this morning for his new home. (*Should be Benny.)
The Durant Daily Democrat
May 15, 1915
(The first part of this article is a repeat of the crime.)
…Dr. Ward lived in Durant and practiced medicine from 1909 to the latter part of 1911. He came here from Blue. On January 7, 1910 the grand jury indicted him for manslaughter in connection with a case of criminal abortion in which he was accused of taking part in this city.
He was tried on February 4, 1910, but the case resulted in a hung jury. The case was to come up for trial on February 4, 1911, but was dismissed by the state after finding that the chief witness for the prosecution was out of the jurisdiction of the court and would not appear against Ward.
Shortly after this Ward moved to Silo, where his wife died shortly under rather suspicious circumstances. The opinion was freely expressed that Ward was responsible for her death, but no charges were ever preferred against him. He then moved back to Blue, it is said, and thence to Coleman; thence to Noble where he lived at the time of his next. Ward bore a bad reputation here, it being said that he was addicted to excessive use of liquor and drugs and further that he never paid a debt if it could be avoided.
A citizen of Durant met Ward on a train coming out of Oklahoma City on April 13th. At that time the citizen was introduced to Ward’s wife. It was only shortly after this that Ward attacked his wife, while he was drunk, and stabbed her to death. He was taken into custody and placed in the Cleveland county jail at Norman, with the result mentioned.
The Daily Transcript
August 13, 1915
Dr. B. E. Ward was Insured
Mr. W. S. Shannon was here from Durant, Okla., today, getting official statements about the death of Dr. B. E. Ward, who was lynched for the murder of his wife in May last. Mr. Shannon is clerk of the W.O. W. of Durant of which Ward was a member in good standing at the time of his death, and insured for $2,000, the policy being made payable to his wife. As she is dead, the money will go to the two children, probably in equal parts. There is no doubt of the demise of Dr. Ward. Several citizens of Cleveland county could, if they would, make affidavit they saw him die.
Notes and comments from other issues and papers:
- A “six inch surgeon’s knife” was used to stab Mrs. Ward in the heart.
- Ward “was on one of his periodical drunks”…”when he gets tanked up he makes all sorts of trouble”.
- “He became involved in trouble a few months after arriving in Noble” in 1913.
- Married his wife, Mabel Jeffries, at Noble, March 30, 1913 “against the wishes of her family”. She was the daughter of Esquire Jeffries.
- Funeral for Mabel Ward was Friday, May 14, in the M.E. Church with Ward, Rev. Allen, and Rev. Ethridge officiating. Burial in Noble Cemetery.
- Benjamin E. Ward’s body was shipped to Chico by his brothers and buried there. He was born October 10, 1877 and died May 9, 1915.
- The Ward sons were Benjamin Osler Ward (1906-1961) and Charles Edwin Ward (1914-1993)
- A coroner’s jury was called by Justice of the Peace Linton and found the mob to be “unknown to us” and found Deputy H. C. Cottrell and Sheriff Claud Pickard “blameless” in the death of Dr. Ward.
- Ward had filed for bankruptcy in Bryan County in 1908.
One paper reported that the citizens of Noble were relieved that Dr. Ward was dead. They feared he would have gone back to the asylum and then been released again to cause further trouble.
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