Barnes Family

"Found guilty of beating his wife, assault and battery and desertion at a trial in the Circuit Court before Judges Arthur D. Willard and Charles W. Woodward, Tuesday afternoon, Stephen G. Myers, Libertytown, was given a suspended sentence in the assault case and ordered to pay his wife $5 per week for three years, subject to order by the court. Myers was required to give $800 bond to carry out the court's order and was warned that in the event he assaulted his wife again he could be brought into court under the law of Maryland and sentenced to as many as forty lashes at the whipping post. Judge Willard also stated that any attempt he made to again assault his wife should be reported to the State's Attorney. Witnesses for the State were Mrs. Myers, the wife, Fannie Coates, H. Bruce Hammond and Denver J. Shook. Mrs. Myers said that her husband drank and on different occasions struck her. On a recent occasion he attacked her and she picked up a stove poker to defend herself. During a struggle she struck him with the poker, which she held in her right hand and in an effort to take the poker from her he twisted and inured her left arm. Myers testified that after his wife struck him with the poker he took it away from her. Charles Riordan, Albert Fogle, Louis V. Myers and Roy Gardner, called as character witnesses, testified that Myers had a good reputation in the community. Under cross-examination they admitted that he got drunk at times and became noisy and quarrelsome. The indictments charged that he assaulted his wife on February 9 and deserted her six days later. Myers was represented by Walter E. Sinn."