Columbus Adair was tried for murder in Henderson County, found guilty, and hanged in the 1870's. He, along with others, was accused of murdering a family in Rutherford County (where he lived)on April 26, 1871, when the husband of the family, Silas Weston, would not help bury stolen whiskey, Mr. Weston was then a witness to the theft. The thieves turned murderers and after the murders, set fire to the house. His wife lived long enough to crawl to the nearest neighbor's house to tell the tale. The Adairs had found a niche for their crimesprees in Reconstruction Era Rutherford County, when social classes were turned upside down, and the then ruling party, more often than not, looked the other way when crimes were committed against formerly upstanding individuals. The Adairs made their mistake in stealing the whiskey from across the nearby McDowell County line, where the eye of the law was not as easily diverted. A marker has been erected at nearby Round Hill Cemetery in honor of the murdered family by the descendants of the Adair family and the Rutherford County Historical Society. See picture.
Columbus Adair was tried for murder in Henderson County, found guilty, and hanged in the 1870's. He, along with others, was accused of murdering a family in Rutherford County (where he lived)on April 26, 1871, when the husband of the family, Silas Weston, would not help bury stolen whiskey, Mr. Weston was then a witness to the theft. The thieves turned murderers and after the murders, set fire to the house. His wife lived long enough to crawl to the nearest neighbor's house to tell the tale. The Adairs had found a niche for their crimesprees in Reconstruction Era Rutherford County, when social classes were turned upside down, and the then ruling party, more often than not, looked the other way when crimes were committed against formerly upstanding individuals. The Adairs made their mistake in stealing the whiskey from across the nearby McDowell County line, where the eye of the law was not as easily diverted. A marker has been erected at nearby Round Hill Cemetery in honor of the murdered family by the descendants of the Adair family and the Rutherford County Historical Society. See picture.
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