William Honeycutt was the son of Thomas Honeycutt and Sarah Josephine Saxon. William married Mary Elizabeth "Patsy" Smith, 02 Nov 1812 in Putnam Co., Georgia.

The Murder of William Hunnicutt and Martha Elizabeth "Patsy" Smith:

William married Martha Elizabeth "Patsy" Smith 02 Nov 1812 (Marriage Book A pg.70 Putnam Co., Ga.) This story has been passed down through ages about the Hunnicutts. It seems that a daughter of the Hunnicutts would not leave the ax outside over night. She would always bring it into the house for safe keeping. The story goes that her parents had been killed with an ax.

In Autauga Co., Alabama Probate ledgers, the estate of William Hunnicutt has some information on him and his wife's murder. In August 1848 commissioners court minutes. "That James Lawhr, Coroner, be paid $24.00 for holding and inquest over the dead bodies of Mr. and Mrs. William Hunnicutt.

The custom of the day on estate settlement was for the husband of the daughter of the deceased to receive her money to manage for her. In William Hunnicutt's settlement his married daughter Elmira Bagley, received her share directly, not through her husband. Later in Feb. 1849 Commissioners court, paid Wiley Heath $4.00 for going to Centerville (Bibb Co.,) after prisoner Bagley. In the same minutes was comments on the Inspection of and paying a Mr. I.G. Graham for the building of an iron cage within the jail.

At the Alabama archives theirs a microfiche (SDMF133&SDM-246) Report of Inspection of Alabama Penitentiary, 1850-1851. On the fiche was prisoner 145 Jacob Bagley age 33, 5'5" tall, a farmer born in N.C., received 03 Dec 1850. Convicted at Montgomery Alabama. The Price's in Toomsuba Mississippi related that they had heard the old folks talk about cousin Riley Monroe Hunnicutt visiting them in Mississippi and the Prices piece of the murder mystery fell into place.

The story passed down with the generations is that some one killed William and Patsy Hunnicutt in the midst of trying to steal a trunk of gold they thought he had buried on his land. The instrument used was the family ax from the yard. So thereafter the daughter would never leave the ax out over night. So from the paper trail, the family story is true and it was his son-in-law Jacob Bagley who did the dastardly deed:

The little girl that would not leave the ax out side over night was Palley O. Honeycutt, my 2rd G-grandmother, she was 15 years old. She and George Washington Price married the next month, 11 Aug 1848 and apparently moved right away to Lauderdale Co., MS, presumably to get her away from the notoriety of her parents being so brutally killed.