The first person to be charged with murder in Tishomingo County was acquitted.

The first man to be killed in Tishomingo County was Stephen W. Smith, who was shot by Benjamin F. Reynolds on June 7, 1840.  Stephen W. Smith, Benjamin F. Reynolds, Ira Weems, Alexander Dugger, and Stephen A. Hale, the two latter residents of Itawamba County, met at Carrollville on the day before the homicide and after spending the greater portion of the day drinking and shooting at a mark returned to their respective homes, having agreed to meet the next day and hunt together.  Meeting according to agreement at the home of Smith, the parties became involved in a quarrel and Reynolds shot Smith, inflicting a mortal wound, from which he died in a few hours.  Reynolds was indicted by the grand jury for murder in the first degree and Hale and Dugger as accessories.  The parties were later on acquitted in the Circuit Court.

Source:  Nabors, S. M.  History of Old Tishomingo County 1832-1940.

Contributed by Tishomingo County Historical & Genealogical Society