Sherman Daily Democrat
Monday May 21, 1917
pg. 4

BIGAMY CASE ON TRIAL
State vs. J.A. Dawson is the style of a case on trial in the 15th District Court, in which the defendant is charged
with bigamy.  Dawson pleaded not guilty, and is conducting his own trial without the aid of an attorney.  On the stand he admitted that the two women, both of whom were in the court room, sitting side by side, were his wives, one of whom he married at Hobart, Oklahoma on December 23, 1915, and the other at Sherman on November 25, 1916.  The first wife, Edith Harris Gibbs, was married, it is alleged, under the name of Ira Gibbs, and the second wife, Ellen Buchanan Dawson, under the name of J.A. Dawson.  The defendant bases his defense on the claim
that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of marrying his second wife.
It appears that both wive are on friendly terms and have been living together for some time.



Sherman Daily Democrat
Tuesday, May 22, 1917
pg. 4

Found Guilty of Bigamy
J. A. Dawson, tried yesterday in the Fifteenth District Court on a charge of bigamy was found guilty and his punishment fixed at three years in the state penitentiary. Dawson withdrew his first plea of not guilty and entered
a plea of guilty.