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Kentucky's Famous Feuds and Tragedies · Kentucky's Famous Feuds and Tragedies

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Preface and introduction preface. The feudal Wars of Kentucky have in the past found
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considerable publicity through newspapers. Unfortunately, many newspaper reporters dealing with this subject were
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either deprived of an opportunity to make a thorough investigation of the facts or permitted
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their imagination to supply what they had failed to obtain. At any rate,
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the result was distortion of the truth and exaggeration. Exaggeration is not needed to
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make Kentucky's Feudal Wars of thrilling intensely gripping interest to every reader. More than
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a score of years were spent in the collection of this material, involving tedious
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and painstaking investigations. The greatest difficulty was experienced in separating truth from falsehood.
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Often the most vital facts could be obtained sole from the actors in the bloody
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dramas. The feudists and their relatives proved quite naturally partial or prejudiced, and
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at all times were reluctant to admit any fact detrimental to their side or favorable
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to their enemies. I believe, however, that I have succeeded with the
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aid of court records legislative investigations and official military reports. In my task of
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producing a strictly authentic history of Kentucky's famous feuds and their attending tragedies, I
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trust that the publication of this volume will serve its designed purpose to make crime
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odious, to illustrate the havoc that may be wrought anywhere through the lacks,
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inefficient or corrupt administration of justice. To arouse the people, not of Kentucky
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only, but of the country at large, to the necessity of dealing sternly
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with crime and faithless officers. Charles D. Mutzenburg, Harlan, Kentucky,
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September nineteen sixteen, introduction A brief review of the history of Kentuckians, may
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assist the reader to understand why they, a kind, hospitable people to the
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stranger, have so long borne the reputation of ready fighters who often kill upon
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the slightest provocation, and deserve that reputation in a large measure. It is
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bred in the bone for Kentuckian to quickly resent an insult or redress an injury.
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Long before the advent of the white man, Kentucky, then Fincastle County,
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Virginia had been the vast hunting grounds of the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws,
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and Catabas of the south, and of the more hospile tribes of Shawneese,
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Delaware, and Wyandots of the north. These tribes, when chance,
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brought them together on their annual hunts, and gaged in conflicts so instant,
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so fierce, and pitiless, that the territory became known as the Dark and
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Bloody Ground. It was, indeed a hunter's paradise. Dense forests covered the
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mountains, Cane breaks fringed the banks of numerous beautiful streams, while to the
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west lay immense, undulating plains. Forests, canebreak and plain were literally alive
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with bear, deer and the buffalo. The woods teemed with innumerable squirrels,
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pheasants, wild turkeys, and quail. The fame of this hunting ground had
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attracted bold and adventurous hunters long before Daniel Boone looked upon one of the most
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beautiful regions in the world from the crest of Cumberland Mines Mountain. These hunters,
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upon their return home, gave glowing accounts of the richness and fertility of
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the new country, and excited powerfully the curiosity and imagination of the frontier backwoodsmen
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east of the Alleghenies and of North Carolina. To the hardy adventurers, the
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lonely wilderness, with its many dangers, presented attractions not to be found in
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the confinement and enfeebling inactivities of the towns and little settlements. Daniel Boone visited
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the new territory. He found that the descriptions he had received of it were
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by no means exaggerations, and decided to remove thither with his family. After
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some delay, amid many difficulties, the first white settlement, Herodstown or Harrodsburg,
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was established. Within a few years, other stations sprang into existence,
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and population increased with amazing rapidity. Immigrants crossing the Cumberland Mountain settled in the
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eastern and central parts of Kentucky, while those traveling down the Ohio and Mississippi
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Rivers generally located in the northern, western, and southern portions of the state.
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This invasion by the white man was not accomplished, however, without long
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continued, bloody struggles with the savages. To maintain the slender foothold Boone and
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his companions had gained required great courage and tenacity of purpose. The man who
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shivered at the winter's blast or trembled at every noise the origin of which he
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did not understand, was not known among those hardy settlers with nerves of iron
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and sinews of steel, who were accustomed from earliest childhood to absolute self dependence
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and inured to exposure and dangers of every sort. Man in this connection must
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include the pioneer woman, who, by their heroism illustrated their utter contempt of
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danger and an insensibility to terrors which would palsy the nerves of men reared in
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this peaceful security of densely populated communities, Even children of tender years, exhibited
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a courage and self composure under trying circumstances that at this day seem unbelievable.
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The life of the Kentucky pioneer and backwoodsmen was one of long and bitter struggle.
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Hunting, clearing the forest, plowing, and fighting were his daily occupations.
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Every station had its conflicts with the savages, who fought with relentless desperation
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when they found themselves gradually but surely driven from their beloved hunting grounds. These
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armed hunters and farmers were their own soldiers, They built their own forts.
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They did their fighting under commanders. They had themselves chosen. They fought the
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foe in his own style, adopted his mode of warfare, and proved generally
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more successful than bodies of troops who battled under time honored military tactics. The
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Indian understood the advantage of cover, and the white man copied his methods.
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Thus, most of the Indian fights became nothing more nor less than ambuscades,
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in which the side displaying the most skill in placing them won the victory.
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Boone, Kenton, Brady, Wetzel, all that galaxy of pioneers and Indian
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fighters of the early West fought the enemy from annas. There were few courts,
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and the justices presiding over them knew but little law. If the law
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proved too slow or courts were too far away, the settlers tried criminals and
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inflicted the punishment. The backwoodsman was prompt to avenge a wrong. He was
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grim, stern, strong, easily swayed by stormy passions, and always a
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lover of freedom to the core. He had suffered horrible injuries from the Indians
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and learned to retaliate in kind. He became cruel and relentless toward an enemy,
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but was loyal to the death to his friends and country. He was
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upright and honest. These pioneers were indeed cast in the heroic mold. Many
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of them fell in the struggle, but there was no time for sentiment and
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wailing over the prostrate bodies of the fallen. Civilization marched triumphantly westward and gave
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to America one of the most attractive regions to the nation. Heroic soldiers,
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brilliant lawyers, men of science and of art, and a womanhood whose beauty
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and accomplishments are a byword everywhere. With the close of Indian hostilities came rapid
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development of the more easily accessible portions of the state. Intercourse with the East
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and north obliterated old habits and customs and primitive notions. The fertility of the
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soil created wealth, and with it came comfort. With increasing prosperity came that
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high intellectual development so essential to a sound moral public sentiment, Respect for the
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law, and love of peace and order, the foundation stones of a happy
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social structure. Schools and churches demonstrated their all powerful influence by the refinement and
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social purity of the inhabitants. The code Duello, which had formerly been restored
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to almost universally in settling personal differences, was made a crime by law and
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completely disappeared. In the mountains, however, development was slow. That section
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remained isolated and practically cut off from intercourse with the more populous and advanced portions
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of Kentucky and surrounding states. Only in recent years have railroads begun to spread
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their iron network through the mountains, tapping the almost inexhaustible coal veins, mineral
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deposits of various kinds, wonderful forests of timber. Until now that section has
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become the richest in the state. Education and refinement distinguished the Bluegrass Kentuckian at
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an early date. He had long enjoyed the advantages of modern civilization. While
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his mountaineer brother yet lived in the primitive fashion of his forebears and still remained
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a backwoodsman. He suffered the same privations and possessed the traits of character of
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the early pioneers of the Bluegrass. For long years, the mountain section remained
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a wilderness, with here and there a small settlement. The inhabitants lived the
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lives of frontiersmen and were generally poor. While many of them owned large tracts
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of land, its productiveness scarcely repaid the labor spent in cultivation. The great
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majority of these people were honest, upright, and hard working. But the
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wilderness the frontier unfortunately attracts the vicious, the violent, the criminal, the
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shiftless, the outcast of better communities. Such characters have a pernicious influence upon
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those with whom they come in contact, especially upon the young and thoughtless fellows
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with a taste for viciousness. The mountains of the surrounding states of Virginia,
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West Virginia, and Tennessee offered admirable asylum to fugitives from justice of those states.
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As like seeks like individuals and families of that stripe settled near each other,
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intermarried, and thus formed a dangerous element in an otherwise good population.
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Life in the wilderness the frontier is apt to bring out the true nature of
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the man, and his qualities, good or bad, are accentuated. The
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history of every frontier of this country is the same. The man who leaves
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the restraining influence of civilization behind him becomes either man or devil. If there
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is dog hare in a man the wilderness, the frontier will sprout it.
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When the wicked element in a community had once gained a foothold, it organized
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against possible interference. Once organization was complete, all attempts to enforce law and
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order were promptly stifled through terrorization, which intimidated courts and overawed the officers of
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the law. Under such circumstances, the good element has but one alternative,
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to lie supinely on its back and ask to be killed, or to organize
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and strike back at the enemy, to destroy the vicious with powder and shot
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in open fight if possible, from ambush if necessary, as their sires fought
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in the days of the Indian. Herein lies the secret of the long continued,
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bloody interniscene strifes which have made the dark and bloody ground of the Indian
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days more dark and more bloody. Herein we find the ready and clear explanation
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of the fact that many men of unquestioned integrity and honor were thrown into the
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vortex of bloody strife from necessity to fight for preservation of themselves, their families,
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their firesides. Immigration into these remote mountain regions was almost nil, and
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intermarriage between the settlers became the rule. In this wise, the population of
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any county comprised but very few distinct families. Everybody was kin to everybody else,
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and therein we find the key to the difficulties encountered by courts in dealing
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with crime. The murderer, if a member of a prominent family was certain
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to have kinsmen among the officers. We may as well use the present tense
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in speaking of this, for the same conditions exist today, though less pronounced.
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His family, man, woman, and child stand by him aid his
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escape or his defense in the courthouse. If the criminal, conscious of the
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supporting influence surrounding him, disdains flight and boldly faces trial, the next move
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is to secure a jury which will acquit him. It often happens that those
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interested in the prosecution secretly come to an agreement with the accused and his friends
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to cease prosecution, provided he and his in their turn, would do the
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same to them. In cases of their own. It is merely a case
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of you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. Citizens who love peace
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are loath to antagonize an outlaw clan, so long as they or theirs are
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not directly concerned. They have no desire to assist officers in doing their duty,
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should these wish to do it. To indict men for crime is often
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a risky thing. The criminal who has succeeded in defeating justice grows more bold,
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continues to pursue his career with an enhanced contempt of the law, until
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at last the cup runs over, and men good and true rise above self
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and for countries and humanity's sake, take upon themselves the task of restoring peace
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and order, and summarily cut short the life cycle of the outlaw. How
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far such organized bands of murderers have succeeded in over eyeing the constituted authorities is
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illustrated by instances recorded in this volume where the law the government itself actually compromised
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with the outlaws promised YEA granted them im munity from past crimes, only exacting
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a pledge of better behavior in the future. If a man had committed but
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one little murder, he was in some danger of a short term in the
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penitentiary. If he understood his business, instead of stopping at one assassination,
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he simply continued his murder mill in operation, and the authorities would send special
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ministers and envoys to treat with him as a power entitled to respect exaggeration,
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No officers of the law law have actually aided in assassinations or stood idly by
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while murders were committed in their presence. Investigation has proven that in every feud
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ridden section the entire legal machinery was rotten to the core, perverted to the
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end and purpose of protecting particular men and of punishing their enemies. Is it
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any wonder, then, that in such times, and under such conditions,
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preaching respect for law is breath wasted. Sifting the matter down, we find
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that the chief contributing causes of these feudal troubles, wherever they have occurred or
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may again occur, are due directly to inefficient, corrupt and depraved official to
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a want of a healthy moral public sentiment through lack of proper education and religious
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training. To the fact that the law abiding element of feud ridden counties has
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so long been domineered over by the criminal class and their parasites and supporters in
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secret, that they are incapable of rendering any valuable assistance in maintaining the law,
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save in few exceptions, and these few so much in the minority that
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a reformation is not to be hoped for if left to their own resources.
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That during all the social chaos attending feudal wars, the promiscuous, unrestrained,
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and illegal sale of whiskey added fury, fire and venom to the minds and
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hearts of murderers. It dragged into the terrible vortex of bloody crime many not
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directly connected with the feud, but who took advantage of the disturbed social conditions
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the state of anarchy to satisfy their own own vicious propensities without fear of interruption
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and punishment. The clannishness of the mountaineer has been the subject of much comment.
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The student of sociology must therefore be interested in learning that, in a
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great measure, the people of the Kentucky Mountains descended from the same stock that
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formed the noted Scottish clans of old. One need only run over the names
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of the principal mountain families to recognize their scot origin. The Scots love the
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highlands and to the highlands of Kentucky. Many of them drifted Scotland had her
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feuds. Those of the Kentucky Mountains have nothing more nor less than transplanted Scottish
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feuds, their continuation having been made possible by the reasons heretofore given. We
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believe it germane to the matter under discussion to add that not only feuds,
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but mobs and the like are, and ever have been, the direct outgrowth
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of a lack of confidence of the people in their courts. The shameful night
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Rider outrages in the western part of Kentucky a few years ago, in a
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section which had boasted of a civilization superior by far to that of the Mountaineers,
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where schools and churches are to be met with at every corner, were
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the outcome, so it is claimed, of the failure of the law to
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deal sternly with the lawless Tobacco Trust, the original wrongdoer in the noted Tobacco
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War. If this were true, if this justified the destruction by incendiaries of
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millions of dollars worth of property, brutal whippings, the indiscriminate slaughter of entire
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families without regard to age or sex, the butchery of little children for aiding
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the Tobacco Trust, no doubt, then indeed, is the mountaineer feudest also
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innocent of wrongdoing More so for he at least never made war upon suckling infants.
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Nor have women suffered harm except in one or two instances. Nor is
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the cultured Bluegrass citizen free to censure him when he calls to mind the outrages
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of the toll gate raids, or takes into account the numerous lynching bees proceedings
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from which the mountains have always been practically free. In view of all this,
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we cannot go far from wrong when we say that the laws delay the
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failure to punish promptly, impartially, and severely its infractions must shoulder the responsibility
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of all social disturbances. And this is true in New York, in the
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West, as well as in Kentucky. Perhaps no section in the whole United
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States has ever been the scene of more crime and long continued defiance of the
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law than that contiguous to the Tug Fork, one of the tributaries of the
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Big Sandy River, and which forms the boundary line between West Virginia and Kentucky,
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separating Logan County, West Virginia from Pike County, Kentucky. Many feuds
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have been fought there, but none equaled in ferocity the Bloody Hatfield McCoy War,
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during which crimes of the most revolting nature were perpetrated. Indeed, it
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will be difficult for the reader to believe that the devilish deeds related in this
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chapter are actually true and did occur in the midst of a civilized country peopled
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with Christian men and women, and governed by wholesome laws. Yes, citizens
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of a common country fought a struggle to the bitter death without hindrance, if
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not with the actual connivance of those entrusted with the enforcement of law and the
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maintenance of order, who looked idly upon bloodshed. The flag of anarchy,
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once unfurled, fluttered unmolested for years. Had the feud broken out suddenly and
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been quickly suppressed, we should abstain from strictures upon high officials entrusted with the
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administration and execution of the law. But this American vendetta covered a long period,
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abating somewhat at times, only to break out anew with increased ferocity.
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Utter disregard for human life, ruthless savage cruelty distinguished this feud from all others,
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and easily give it the front rank. To add to the horror of
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it all came the bitter controversy between the governors of West Virginia and Kentucky,
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nearly precipitating civil war between the two states and effectively paralyzing all attempts at concerted
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action looking toward the capture, trial, and punishment of the outlaws, at
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least for a long time. That the feud is ended now is due largely
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to the fact that the material upon which it had been feeding for so many
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years became exhausted through the pistol, rifle, or the knife. But few
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died of disease. Only one was hanged, perhaps the least guilty of them
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all, for he was a moral degenerate of such little intelligence that under other
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circumstances he might have escaped the gallows on the ground of mental irresponsibility. The
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leading spirits of the war were never punished, but rounded out their lives at
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home unmolested. The region along the Tug Fork is mountainous and has not until
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recently come in touch with the outside world. Its inhabitants, for many years,
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knew nothing of schools or churches. Ignorance prevailed to a truly astonishing degree.
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Courts exercised no authority. Their decrees were laughed at and ridiculed. If
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a man thought himself aggrieved, he sought redress as best suited him. The
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natives tried cases in their own minds and acted as executioners using the rifle or
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the knife. When trials in rare instances were resorted to, they more than
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often fanned the flame of hatred than smothered it. The contending factions in this
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interniscene strife lived on opposite sides of the Tug Fork, a narrow stream.
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Randal mc coy, the leader or head of the McCoy faction, resided on
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the BlackBerry branch of Pond Creek and Pine County, Kentucky Near him, but
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on the opposite side of Tug Fork in West Virginia lived Anderson Hatfield, who
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had adopted for himself the nondaguere of bad Ants or devil ants, the controlling
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spirit of the Hatfield clan. Both families were large, extensively related throughout the
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two counties and composing the greater portion of their population. The McCoys and Hatfields
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frequently intermarried, and thus it happens that we find McCoy's a raid on the
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side of the Hatfields and Hatfields friendly to the Randall McCoy faction. While the
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feud proper did not break out until eighteen eighty two, it is necessary to
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go back further for the enmity between the Hatfields and McCoy's dates back to the
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Civil War, during which the former maintained an ord organized company of raiders,
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ostensibly for the purpose of protecting property against invading marauders of either army. The
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McCoys supported a similar force on the Kentucky side. These bands frequently encroached upon
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and entered each other's territory, resulting in clashes and bad blood, though both
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factions adhered to the same political party. After the war, the older heads
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tried to maintain a show of friendship in their intercourse, but the younger generations
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allowed their passions a free hand. Difficulties grew in frequency, Still no lives
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were lost. A few razor backed, long legged, sharp nosed porkers,
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or the indispensable adjunct of well regulated mountaineer families. In those days, the
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farmer marked his hogs and turned them loose in the woods, whom fattened on
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the abundant mast and were late in the fall driven home to be killed.
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If one of those marked hogs happened to turn up in the possession of another,
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woe unto him. Vengeance was visited upon him swiftly, though not as
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severe as in the case of rustlers in the West. A circuit judge of
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Kentucky once remarked very appropriately that a hog seemed of more value in his district
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than a human life. There was truth in this bit of sarcasm. More
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men have been acquitted of murder in Kentucky than of hog stealing. It seems
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ridiculous that a few of the unseemly brutes should have become the innocent promoters of
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a feud. But it is true, innocent or not, the facts are
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against them. Sometime during the seventies, one Floyd Hatfield, afterwards known as
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hog Floyd, drove a number of hogs from the forests and confined them in
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a pen at Stringtown. A few days later, Randolph McCoy of Kentucky passed
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the pen in question, and, upon examination of the animals, claimed them
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as his property and demanded their delivery to him, which Hog Floyd refused to
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do. McCoy brought an action for their recovery. The trial was held at
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Raccoon Hollow, a little village some miles down the valley. Deacon Hatfield,
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Floyd's relative, presided. The McCoys and Hatfields attended the trial in force.
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Every man was armed. During the short trial, many things occurred that convinced
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those acquainted with the characters of the men composing the factions that bloody hostilities must
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result. Randolph McCoy made an impassioned speech to the jury, openly charging several
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Hatfield witnesses with perjury. Among those so accused was one Stayton, who,
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incensed by the charge, attempted to strike his traducer, but was prevented by
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Randolph McCoy's son. McCoy lost his case. The Hatfields exulted, jeered,
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and sneered. The McCoys returned home grumbling and threatening. Fists and rocks now
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gave place to the rifle, and repeated long range shooting matches occurred between the
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factions. When meeting in the forests, they treed and fought for hours with
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their old fashioned muzzle loaders and cap and ball pistols, without any appreciable result.
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In eighteen eighty occurred the first battle in which blood was drawn. It
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happened about a mile below the Hatfield Tunnel between Bill Stayton, Paris and Sam
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mc coy. They had met by accident. Stayton rightly guessed that the boys
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would show him no mercy after the many injuries and insults they had received at
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his hands. Instantly, he leaped behind a bush, broke off the top
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of it, rested his gun in the fork of two limbs, took careful
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aim, and fired. Paris mc coy fell heavily to the ground. Although
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severely wounded in the hip, he managed to regain his feet and shot Stayton
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in the breast. The two then came together in a fierce hand to hand
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combat. Having thrown down their empty and useless rifles, they fought with their
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hands and teeth, ferocious as wild animals. Paris's cheek was frightfully bitten and
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lacerated, Weakened from loss of blood, and suffering excruciating pain from his wounds,
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he was about to succumb to the superior strength of his powerful adversary when
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Sam McCoy, armed with a pistol, came to his rescue. He had
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been afraid to fire while the men were locked in their deadly embrace. Now
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came the opportunity, and he sent a ball crashing through the brain of Staton,
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who fell back and instantly expired. The body was found some days later.
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Suspicion at once pointed to the two McCoy brothers. Paris promptly surrendered himself
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to the authorities and was given an examining trial before Magistrate Valentine or val Hatfield,
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who released him from custody. Sam McCoy fled to the hills, but
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after eluding the officers for a month or more, was captured by Elias Hatfield,
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indicted by the grand jury of his county, tried and acquitted. In
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the summer of eighteen eighty two, it happened that a relative and friend of
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both factions ran for office in Pike County. The clan met on election day,
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August seventh, to work for their man. It was the custom then
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as well as now, although the law has placed serious restrictions upon the practice
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to supply voters with copious quantities of whiskey. A candidate who failed to do
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his duty in this respect was certain to lose many votes, if not the
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chance of election. On the occasion in question, moonshine liquor was plentiful.
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Both the Hatfields and McCoy's and their adherents imbibed freely, and during the day
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grew boisterous and belligerent. The immediate occasion for beginning a fight furnished when Talbert
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McCoy approached Elias Hatfield, commonly known as Bad Lias, and demanded payment of
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an old debt. A quarrel ensued, and the fight was on. Bad
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Lias got the worst of it. The fight had attracted the attention of the
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friends and kindred of both men. Officers attempted to separate them without avail.
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Then Big Ellison Hatfield took a hand. Enraged and on fire with copious drinks
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of whiskey, he challenged the victorious Talbert McCoy to fight a man of his
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size. Hatfield was a powerful man, straight as an arrow. He stood
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six feet six in his stocking feet, and weighed considerably over two hundred pounds.
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The fight now went against McCoy from the start. He resorted to his
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knife, and during the struggle stabbed Hatfield repeatedly and with frightful effect. Again
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and again he plunged the cold steel into the body of his adversary. Though
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horribly slashed and losing much blood, Hatfield yet retained strength. With a final
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effort, he threw McCoy upon the ground, sat upon him, seized a
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large jagged stone, raised it on high to strike the fatal blow when Famer
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McCoy, who had been patiently waiting for the opportunity, fatally shot Hatfield with
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a pistol. It was also charged by the Hatfields that Randolph McCoy junior,
36:45
a youth of fifteen, had stabbed Hatfield once or twice. As soon as
36:52
Famer McCoy saw the effect of his shot, he dropped the weapon and sought
36:57
safety. In flight, he was pursued du by Constable Floyd Hatfield and captured.
37:04
Tolbert and young Randolph were also immediately arrested. The wounded Hatfield was removed
37:10
to the house of one of his kinsmen. The prisoners remained on the election
37:16
ground under heavy guard for some two hours. Then they were taken to the
37:22
house of John's Hatfield for the night. Tolbert Hatfield and Joseph Hatfield, two
37:29
justices of the Peace of Pike County, Kentucky. Matthew Floyd and other Hatfields
37:35
had charge of the prisoners. The father of the three, old Randolph McCoy,
37:40
remained with them through the night. Early on the following morning, the
37:45
officers proceeded with their charges on the road to Pikeville, the county seat.
37:52
Scarcely had they traveled half a mile when they were overtaken by Val Hatfield,
37:58
the West Virginia Justice of the Peace, and bad Lias Hatfield, brothers of
38:02
the wounded Ellison. They demanded of the officers that they returned with their prisoners
38:08
into the magisterial district in which the fight had occurred, to await the result
38:14
of Ellison Hatfield's wounds. The officers complied with the demand. Randolph McCoy senior
38:22
remonstrated, but was laughed at for his pains. He then started alone to
38:28
Pikeville for the purpose of consulting with the authorities there. That was the last
38:32
time he saw his three sons alive. After being turned back by Val and
38:39
bad Lias Hatfield, the prisoners were taken down the creek. At an old
38:45
house. There was a corn sled. Val directed the three brothers placed in
38:50
it, and in that manner they were conveyed to Jerry Hatfield's house. Here
38:57
Charles Carpenter, who together with devil Ants and Cap Hatfield, Alex Messer,
39:02
the three Mayhorn brothers, and a number of other outlaws had joined Val Hatfield
39:08
and the other officers at the old house, procured ropes and securely trussed and
39:14
bound the prisoners. In this condition. They remained until they were murdered.
39:21
At noon. The crowd stopped at the Reverend Anderson Hatfields for dinner. After
39:27
the meal was over, devil Ant stepped into the yard and there cried out
39:32
all who were friends of Hatfield fall into line. Most of those present did
39:38
so from inclination or through fear. From there, the prisoners were taken to
39:45
the river and across into West Virginia to an old, dilapidated schoolhouse. Here
39:52
they lay tied upon the filthy floor. Heavily armed guards at all times stood
39:58
sentinel over the doomed brothers. Cap and John's Hatfield, devil Ants and his
40:05
two brothers, Elias and Val Hatfield, Charles Carpenter, Joseph Murphy, Doc
40:12
Mayhorn, Pliant Mayhorn, Selkirk McCoy and his two sons, Albert and l.
40:17
D. Lark and Anderson, Varney, Dan Whitt, Sam Mayhorn,
40:24
Alex Messer, John Witt, Elias Mounts, and many others remained at or
40:31
about the schoolhouse, awaiting news from the bedside of Ellison Hatfield. A long
40:38
tour knight arrived the mother of the unfortunate prisoners and the wife of Talbert McCoy,
40:45
to plead with the jailers for the lives of the sons and husband.
40:50
The pleadings of the grief stricken women fell upon deaf ears. They had no
40:54
other effect upon these hearts of stone than rough admonitions from m Val Hatfield and
41:00
others to shut up, stop that damn noise. We won't have no more
41:06
of it. Night had fallen, the women were told to leave, and
41:12
thrust from the house into the inky darkness. It had been raining hard,
41:16
and the creeks were swollen wading streams. Drenched to the skin, the miserable
41:23
women felt their way through the dark, stumbling and falling along the road or
41:29
trail along. About midnight they arrived at Doc Rutherford's house, bruised, shivering,
41:37
ill and shaking from exposure, fatigue, grief, and terror. They
41:42
could travel no further and were taken in for the night. Morning came,
41:46
and again they hastened to the improvised prison of their loved ones. There they
41:52
were viciously taunted with the uselessness of their endeavor to obtain mercy. They were
41:59
told that if Ellison Hatfield died of his wounds, the prisoners will be filled
42:04
as full of holes as a sifter bottom along. About two o'clock, val
42:10
Hatfield curtly commanded missus mc coy to leave the house and to return no more.
42:16
She pressed for the reason of this order, and was told that her
42:21
husband, Randolph was known to be at that moment attempting to assemble a crowd
42:25
to rescue his sons. Of course, you know, sneered the heartless wretch.
42:32
If we are interfered with in the least them boys of yours will be
42:37
the first to die. Missus mc coy denied the truth of the report,
42:43
but her protestations were in vain. The two women saw themselves compelled to abandon
42:49
the utterly useless struggle to save their loved ones, and departed. It was
42:54
the last time they saw them alive. All along throughout their confinement, the
43:01
brothers had shown a brave spirit. Now they lost all hope of rescue.
43:07
As from hour to hour the band of enemies increased, until a small army
43:13
had assembled through the open door. They saw them sitting or standing in groups.
43:20
Some were idly playing cards, others singing rivaled songs or church hymns,
43:27
which ever struck their fancy. All of them were drinking heavily. They heard
43:32
an animated discussion as to the manner of death they should be made to suffer
43:37
in the event of Ellison Hatfield's death. Some had suggested hanging. Then one
43:44
proposed that they make it a shooting match, with live human beings for a
43:49
target. The idea was adopted by acclamation. Along in the afternoon of the
43:57
ninth of August, the third day since the wounding of Ellison Hatfield, the
44:01
assembled band was suddenly startled, and every man brought to his feet by the
44:07
sounds of a galloping horse. Instinctively, they realized they were about to have
44:14
news of Ellison Hatfield. The stir among their guards had aroused the attention of
44:20
the prisoners. They easily guessed its portent. It was not necessary to tell
44:25
them that Ellison Hatfield was dead. His corpse had been brought to the home
44:31
of Elias Hatfield, who, together with a number of others that had been
44:37
waiting at the bedside of the dying man, now augmented the Hatfield forces.
44:42
At the old schoolhouse, a mock trial was had and sentence of death passed
44:49
upon the three McCoy brothers. These helpless, hopeless creatures, tied to one
44:54
another like cattle about to be delivered to the slaughter house, were now jeered,
45:00
joked, and mocked. They were not told yet when they must die,
45:06
nor where to keep them. In uncertainty would only increase their suffering,
45:10
and that uncertainty lasted to the end. It is nine o'clock at night.
45:17
They are taken to the river, placed on a flat boat, and conveyed
45:22
to the Kentucky side, within one hundred and twenty five yards of the road.
45:27
In a kind of sink or depression. The three doomed brothers are tied
45:31
to poppaw bushes. Around them stands the throng of bloodthirsty white savages reared in
45:39
the midst of a Christian country, and from which every year go missionaries and
45:45
fortunes in money to foreign lands to make man better and rescue him from savagery.
45:52
But somehow this region had been overlooked. Not one voice is raised in
45:57
pity or favor of the victims. An unfortunate man a youth and a child.
46:04
The monsters dance about them in imitation of the Indians. They throw guns
46:09
suddenly into their faces and howl in derision. When the thus threatened prisoner dodges
46:15
as much as the bonds which hold him will permit. Alex Messer now approaches
46:22
closely to Famer mc coy and deliberately fires six shots into different parts of his
46:28
body. This is not an act of mercy to end the man suffering.
46:35
No, he has taken care to avoid the infliction of any instantly fatal wound.
46:40
Messer steps back, views the flowing blood and pain distorted face and laughs.
46:50
Ellison Mount, supposedly the most savage of them all, now proves more
46:54
merciful. He carries a long barreled old fashioned hunting rifle. He throws it
47:01
to his shoulder, takes careful aim, and blows out the brains of Talbert
47:07
mc coy, who, immediately before the shot fired, had thrown his arm
47:12
to protect the face. The bullet penetrated through the arm into the head.
47:19
Only the little boy, Randolph McCoy junior, is left unharmed. As yet,
47:25
will they spare him some favor his release, One or two demand it
47:31
but this idea is hooted down upon the ground that he is as guilty as
47:37
the others. And even if he were not, now that he knew the
47:40
assassin of his brothers, it would be utterly folly to leave such a dangerous
47:45
witness alive to tell the story. Dead men tell no tales. Cries one
47:52
of the heartless wretches, and impatient of the useless delay, approaches the boy,
47:59
and a double charge of buckshot blows off his head. The entire band
48:05
then fires a farewell volley into the bodies of the dead. We said the
48:12
entire band, this is not correct, for one of the Hatfields had remained
48:16
on the other side of the river. The Bible condemns murder, he had
48:22
said, But this good man volunteered to stand guard and prevent any interference or
48:29
interruption of the butchery. The foul deed accomplished, The murderers recrossed the river
48:36
and entered West Virginia. Then val Hatfield. The Justice of the peace,
48:43
this officer of the law, with solemn formality, administered to the murderers the
48:49
oath never to betray the name of a member of the band, even should
48:53
death stare him in the face. What is an oath to such depraved creatures?
49:00
There standing on the banks of the river, surrounded by that throng of
49:05
midnight assassins, in sight of the spot that bore the frightful evidences of the
49:10
dastardly work, val Hatfield commanded them to raise their bloody hands to Heaven.
49:17
Each and all solemnly swore to stand by each other, never to reveal the
49:22
secret of that knight's work, asking God to witness their oath what supreme blasphemy.
49:31
After their return to West Virginia, parties who saw them and noted they
49:36
were without the prisoners asked what had become of them. Val Hatfield reported with
49:43
a smile that they had sent them back to Kentucky to stand the civil law.
49:49
As soon as the assassination became known, the brothers and relatives of the
49:52
dead, untied the torn and mangled bodies, placed them in a sled,
49:59
and conveyed them to their home. Have we exaggerated in the telling of this
50:04
story? Let us see? Years afterwards, some of the assassins were brought
50:09
to trial. During the hearing of the case against val Hatfield, the West
50:15
Virginia Justice of the Peace, Missus Sarah McCoy, the mother of the slain
50:21
brothers, testified, I am the mother of Famer, Tolbert and young Randolph
50:28
McCoy. They are dead. They were killed on the night of August ninth,
50:34
eighteen eighty two. I saw them on the Monday before that at Floyd
50:38
Hatfield's while they were under arrest. The next time I saw them was over
50:45
on Mate Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, at a schoolhouse. When
50:51
I got there, Val Hatfield was sitting by them with a shotgun across his
50:55
lap. I was talking, praying, and crying for my boys. While
51:01
over at the mouth of Mate Creek, I heard Val Hatfield say that if
51:07
Ellison Hatfield died, he would shoot the boys full of holes Toalbert was shot
51:14
twice in the head and three or four times in the body. Famer was
51:19
shot in the head and ten or eleven times in the body, maybe more.
51:24
The top of one side of the little boy's head was shot off.
51:29
He was down on his knees hanging to the bushes when they found him.
51:35
Talbert had one arm over his face. Talbert was thirty one, Famer nineteen,
51:42
and Randolph fifteen years old. They were hauled home on a sled and
51:47
buried in one coffin. When val Hatfield was sitting by them with a double
51:53
barreled shotgun in his lap. The boys were lying on something on the floor,
52:00
tied together with a rope. I fell on my knees and began praying
52:05
and begging and crying for my children. Someone said there was no use of
52:09
that. To shut up. Then some one came in and said that my
52:15
husband was on the way with a large party to rescue his sons. I
52:20
told them that there was nothing of it. They said for us to leave.
52:25
Talbert's wife was with me. They said that if they were interfered with,
52:30
my boys would be the first to die. The day following the murder,
52:37
the coroner of the district, also a hat Field, held an inquest
52:40
in which the jury reported a verdict to the effect that the three McCoy brothers
52:45
had been shot and killed at the hands of persons unknown. In affairs of
52:52
this kind, where many men are engaged, men whose acts proved them without
52:59
honor, without respect for law, man or God, truth comes to light
53:05
in spite of oaths to reveal nothing. The parties had been seen with their
53:09
prisoners by many people and had been seen returning to West Virginia without them.
53:15
Neighbors heard the shots fired, saw the bands of cutthroats armed to the teeth,
53:22
led by the brothers of Ellison Hatfield, the dead man. Aside from
53:28
that, Missus McCoy and Talbert McCoy's wife had recognized and knew personally all of
53:34
the men that guarded the boys at the schoolhouse. They had heard the threats
53:39
repeated time and again that if Ellison Hatfield died, the boys would be murdered.
53:46
The officers who had at first arrested them and taken charge of them,
53:51
testified that at the house of the Reverend Hatfields, the boys were tied and
53:57
that then they the officers were informed by devil ants Val and Cap Hatfield to
54:05
Vammouse. Twenty three of the Hatfield clan were indicted in the Pikes Circuit Court,
54:10
Kentucky, each one charged with three murders. The indictments were returned into
54:17
court on the fourteenth day of September eighteen eighty two, but none of them
54:22
was tried until seven years later. Although heavy rewards were offered for the apprehension
54:30
of the murderers, not until years after the crime was it that an actor
54:36
stepped upon the scene, whose intrepidity and shrewdness finally led to the undoing of
54:40
many of the murder clan. However, through the law's delay, many other
54:46
horrible outrages followed this one, and many lives were lost before an end was
54:52
put to bloodshed. Much speculation was indulged in after the assassination of August ninth,
55:00
why old Man Randolph mc coy had made no attempt to rescue his sons.
55:07
The explanation is simple. When he left them on the morning following the
55:12
fight, they were in charge of Kentucky officers and guarded. When turned back
55:19
by Val and Elias Hatfield, he was told by these men that the boys
55:24
should have an examining trial in the magisterial district in which the fight had taken
55:30
place, that the witnesses for both the state and the defense would be more
55:36
easily accessible there than if the trial were held at Pikeville, many miles away.
55:43
At the county seat, mc coy conferred with lawyers and engaged them in
55:47
the defense of his sons for the killing of Ellison Hatfield should he die.
55:53
He could not believe that Val Hatfield, a sworn officer, of the law
56:00
would so far forget and violate his solemn oath of office so to condone or
56:06
aid or to participate in such a wholesale butchery. Aside from this, the
56:13
arresting officers also hat Fields would see to the safety of the prisoners, as
56:19
it was their duty to do. He feared, too, that if interference
56:23
might endanger the safety of the sons, and thought it best to remain passive.
56:30
He placed his trust in the law. We have seen the result.
56:36
After the indictment of the hat Fields. They maintained their armed organization under the
56:40
leadership of devil Ants and Cap. His son devil Ants was a man of
56:47
fine physique, tall and muscular, as were his sons, Johns and Cap.
56:54
Randolph McCoy described Cap as six feet of devil and a one hundred and
57:00
eighty pounds of hell. Neither of these men suggested the outlaw and the desperado.
57:07
All of them possessed regular features, but the strong jaws, the rectilinear
57:13
foreheads with angular knotty protuberances denoted, according to the physiognomist firm, harsh oppressive
57:22
activity. In their intercourse with friends, they exhibited a jovial disposition, and
57:30
their eyes beamed kindly, But once aroused to anger, there took place an
57:36
instant metamorphosis. At such times ants Hatfield justified the sobriquet devil ants. Then
57:45
the glittering eyes told of the fires of rage and hate within. The veins
57:51
in his forehead bulged and nodded and corrugated. The quivering lips, thin and
57:58
straight, bespoke the cruelty of which he was capable of inflicting upon all who
58:04
dared oppose him or his His whole countenance at such times impressed one with awe
58:10
and fear. It had that effect upon strangers ignorant of his record of blood
58:17
and like father, like sons. Old Man Randolph McCoy, at the time
58:23
of the murder of his three sons, was sixty three years old. He
58:30
was by no means a strong man. His features wore a kindly expression.
58:36
He was quiet in his talk, and one of the most hospitable citizens of
58:40
Pike County. That he was brave when necessity demanded it, he had demonstrated
58:47
on many occasions. But he was not, and never had been, a
58:52
bully, nor was he bloodthirsty. He made all possible efforts to effect the
58:58
capture of his son's assassins, and sought to punish them through the law.
59:04
His efforts in this direction exasperated the Hatfield still more. Not satisfied now with
59:10
eluding the officers, they assumed the offensive invaded Pike County in force at any
59:17
time they saw fit, harassed the McCoy family in every possible manner, with
59:23
the evident intention of eventually driving them out of the country, and to thus
59:30
remove the mainspring of the prosecution against them in the Pike County courts. Finding
59:36
themselves baffled in this purpose, the death of the old man was decreed in
59:42
the month of June eighteen eighty four. The murder was scheduled to take place.
59:49
McCoy had been summoned to appear in court at Pikesville. In some case.
59:54
Of this fact, the Hatfields had prompt information, for even in the
59:59
case county seat, they had their spies and supporters. Knowing well the route
1:00:05
the old man must take to reach Pikeville, an ambush was prepared at a
1:00:09
suitable spot. A mistake saved the old man's life. Two of McCoy's neighbors,
1:00:17
also witnesses at court, started for town on the same day. They
1:00:22
were clad almost precisely as were Randolph McCoy and his accompanying son Calvin. Accident
1:00:30
belated the McCoys, and so they rode far to the rear of their neighbors,
1:00:36
who, on approaching the ambush at nightfall, were fired upon. In
1:00:42
the fusillade, both men were wounded, one of them crippled for life.
1:00:46
Their horses were shot dead on the spot. The assassins, confident that the
1:00:53
hated old man McCoy was no more, returned to West Virginia, jubilant and
1:01:00
rejoicing, celebrating the supposed death with a grand spree. We may imagine their
1:01:07
chagrin and disappointment on discovery of the mistake and the consequent escape of the hated
1:01:13
enemy. Discouragement, however, was a word not included in their vocabulary.
1:01:20
Failure only spurred them to renewed and greater efforts. In eighteen eighty six,
1:01:27
the feud branched off. One Jeff McCoy, brother of the wife of John's
1:01:34
Hatfield, was accused of murdering Fred Walford, a mail carrier. Finding the
1:01:39
officers hot on his trail in Kentucky, he fled and sought safety in West
1:01:45
Virginia, at the home of his brother in law. Hatfield, formerly an
1:01:52
active member of the Murder clan, had however, of late ceased to participate
1:01:57
in their lawless raids, although he had not forgotten his hatred of the mc
1:02:02
coy's. For his wife's sake, he sheltered her fugitive brother. Near John's
1:02:08
Hatfield lived Cap Hatfield, who had in his employ one Wallace. Jeff mc
1:02:15
coy had been at the home of his brother in law but a short time
1:02:21
when he became aware of the presence of Wallace at the farm of Cap Hatfield's,
1:02:25
trouble started at once. As we have seen, attempts upon the life
1:02:31
of old man mac coy had thus far proved abortive. Somehow all the best
1:02:38
laid plans of the Hatfields had miscarried. Suspicion grew that there must be a
1:02:45
traitor in their camp, and this became more strong as time rolled on,
1:02:50
with the result that the wife and mother of one Daniels were accused of furnishing
1:02:55
information to the mc coy's. One night, while Daniels was absent from home,
1:03:01
the house was surrounded, the door broken open, and two women were
1:03:07
cruelly beaten. Missus Daniels subsequently died from her injuries. The old lady was
1:03:15
rendered a cripple for life. Daniel's wife was a sister of Jeff McCoy,
1:03:21
who had somehow secured information sufficient to regard Wallace as the instigator and leader of
1:03:28
the outrage. He hunted for him high and low, but had lost all
1:03:32
trace of him, until, to his great joy, he discovered his whereabouts
1:03:38
at the home of cap Hatfield. On November seventeenth, eighteen eighty six.
1:03:45
Accompanied by a friend, he went in search of Wallace. Cap Hatfield was
1:03:52
absent, his wife lay ill in bed. When McCoy approached the house,
1:03:59
Wallace was busily at work in the yard. He was called upon to surrender.
1:04:05
On looking up, he saw himself covered by two guns. McCoy pretended
1:04:12
to arrest him for the purpose of taking him to Pikeville for trial of the
1:04:15
indictments returned against the assailant of the Daniels women. Wallace, however, readily
1:04:23
surmised the true intention of his captors. He expected no mercy at the hands
1:04:28
of the man who believed and knew him to be guilty of beating the sister
1:04:31
to death and attempting escape on the first opportunity, while the vigilance of his
1:04:39
captors had momentarily relaxed. He started to run but was shot down, Although
1:04:46
not seriously wounded. He gained the house, barricaded the door, and through
1:04:54
the window opened fire upon McCoy and his associate. These reas turned the fire.
1:05:00
Shot after shot, they drove through the windows and door. For at
1:05:04
this time the heavy repeating Winchester rifle had come into general use, while other
1:05:12
modern inventions found no market there. The most improved guns and pistols might have
1:05:17
been found in homes that had not learned the use of a cook stove.
1:05:24
The fusillade continued for some time, but Wallace, in his fort of log
1:05:30
walls, drove the enemies from the field immediately. Upon Cap Hatfield's return,
1:05:38
Wallace was told to swear out a warrant against Jeff mc coy and his companion
1:05:42
Hurley. The papers were taken in hand by Cap Hatfield, who had secured
1:05:48
the appointment of special Constable. He was not long finding the men with his
1:05:55
accustomed coolness, He covered them with his guns, ordered Hurley to throw his
1:06:00
weapons on the ground and to disarm mc coy. This capture of two armed
1:06:08
and dangerous men single handed proved the daring of Hatfield. He started for Logan
1:06:15
court House, West Virginia, with his prisoners. On the way, he
1:06:20
was joined by Wallace, doubtless by previous appointment. Together they proceeded to Thacker,
1:06:28
a small village on the way. There, a short halt was made
1:06:33
and the prisoners were left to themselves. This opportunity. Mc coy used to
1:06:39
cut the thongs that tied his hands by means of a knife held between his
1:06:44
teeth. As soon as his hands were free, he started on a run
1:06:49
for the Kentucky side. He reached the tug Fork, plunged into the stream,
1:06:56
and swam for life. But his captors were marksmen. He had reached
1:07:01
the bank of the river on the opposite side and was climbing the steep slope
1:07:06
when a well directed shot from CAP's gun tore through his heart, and he
1:07:13
fell dead upon his face. It was common knowledge that the opportunity to escape
1:07:18
had been given him deliberately. Hatfield and Wallace enjoyed to the full the fruitless
1:07:25
effort to escape death. It was sport, nothing more, Hurley strange to
1:07:31
say, was liberated. Wallace escaped, but in the following spring was captured
1:07:39
by two of Jeff McCoy's brothers, Dud and Jake, and delivered to the
1:07:44
jailer of Pike. Before trial. He broke jail and returned to Cap Hatfield,
1:07:51
who supplied him liberally with money and amount to aid his escape. For
1:07:57
some time thereafter all of him was lost. At last he was heard of
1:08:02
in Virginia. Unwilling to turn his hands to honest labor, he had engaged
1:08:10
in the illicit sale of whiskey. For this he was arrested and fined.
1:08:16
In this wise, his name became public, and in the course of time
1:08:20
his whereabouts became known. Back in Kentucky, Jeff McCoy's brothers offered a reward
1:08:28
for his capture, and two men started upon the trail of the much desired
1:08:32
fugitive. Within a short time they returned to Kentucky and claimed the reward.
1:08:40
Where was the prisoner? The answer was given by the exhibition of a bloody
1:08:45
lock of hair. The reward was paid. Came the year eighteen eighty seven,
1:08:53
still not one of the twenty three murderers of the three McCoy brothers had
1:08:58
been apprehended, although they were frequently seen on the Kentucky side. Attempts to
1:09:03
take them had been made from time to time, but the officers always found
1:09:09
them in such numbers and so perfectly armed, that an attempt to force their
1:09:14
arrest would have resulted in much bloodshed. Without accomplishing the arrest, then Governor
1:09:21
Proctor Not of Kentucky took a hand and offered tempting rewards. His successor,
1:09:29
General Simon Bolivar Buckner, renewed them and issued requisitions for the twenty three murderers,
1:09:35
upon the governor of Western Virginia, appointing as agent won Frank Phillips to
1:09:42
receive the prisoners. Weeks passed and no attempt was made on the part of
1:09:47
the Western Virginia officers to execute the warrants for these men so badly wanted in
1:09:53
Kentucky, and to the utter surprise and indignation of Governor Buckner, the West
1:10:00
Virginia executive Governor Wilson, refused to honor the requisitions, assigning various reasons and
1:10:06
excuses for his non action. Governor Buckner the old war Horse, as his
1:10:13
friends and comrades and arms and the Civil War affectionately dubbed him took the West
1:10:18
Virginia governor to task for his lack of cooperation in the apprehension of the murderers.
1:10:25
An exceedingly salty correspondence followed. The controversy grew so bitter that for a
1:10:31
time a declaration of war between the two states would have surprised no one.
1:10:39
And while the governors fought each other on paper, the murder mill ground on
1:10:44
uninterrupted. The bloody warfare continued without molestation. Now enters upon the scene Frank
1:10:51
Phillips, Governor Buckner's Kentucky agent to receive the persons named in the requisition upon
1:10:59
the governor of West Virginia. He was a deputy sheriff. Though of slight
1:11:05
stature, he was as brave a little man as ever trod the soil of
1:11:10
Kentucky, so noted for her brave sons. He was rapid as lightning,
1:11:15
and would have made an ideal quarterback for any college football team. With all
1:11:21
his bravery, he was cautious, circumspect, and shrewd, a terror to
1:11:28
evildoers. He was the general favorite throughout Pike County among the law abiding citizens.
1:11:35
An incident which occurred during the summer of eighteen eighty seven illustrates the utter
1:11:42
fearlessness of the little keen eyed deputy sheriff. Warrants for the murderers of the
1:11:47
three McCoy brothers had been issued upon the indictments repeatedly and as often returned by
1:11:54
the Sheriff not found, notwithstanding the presence of the fugitives and the Kentucky set
1:12:00
on various occasions, was common knowledge. Having so long remained unmolested, the
1:12:06
Hatfields grew bold, and in eighteen eighty seven took great interest in the Pike
1:12:13
County election. Such was their contempt of the officers that as election day approached,
1:12:19
the Sheriff of Pike County was notified to instruct his deputies that had warrants
1:12:26
against them to be certain and stay away from the voting precinct at which they
1:12:30
the Hatfields would appear on election days, or if the officers should attend,
1:12:38
to leave the bench warrants for their arrest behind. The election following the appointment
1:12:45
of Frank Phillips as a deputy was one of deep interest to the Hatfields.
1:12:50
Desiring to attend it, they sent word to Phillips to remain away or to
1:12:56
come unarmed and without warrants. He was threatened with sure death if he violated
1:13:02
these injunctions. Frank, however, was cast in a different mold from that
1:13:08
of his predecessors. He replied in writing that business demanded his presence at that
1:13:15
election precinct on election day, that he would be there, that he would
1:13:20
bring along the bench warrants would come fully armed, and that he intended to
1:13:26
either take or kill them. The Hatfields were amazed at the nerve of the
1:13:31
man, but finally came to regard it as an idle boast. True to
1:13:36
his word, Phillips went to the election ground. The hat Fields approached within
1:13:43
gunshot distance and fired a volley through the brush and bushes, stampeding all but
1:13:48
some eight or ten persons. The plucky little deputy sheriff remained till late in
1:13:56
the afternoon, but the Hatfields withdrew inspiring example of what a brave, determined
1:14:03
officer may do. And it proves that with all their contempt for law and
1:14:09
order, deep down in the hearts of outlaws there is the fear of retribution
1:14:15
and punishment. The little man had called their bluff because he had right on
1:14:19
his side and the nerve to contend for that right, and Wherever there is
1:14:25
genuine determination to put an end to outlawry, it can be done. It
1:14:30
matters not how desperate and vicious the outlaws may be. Late in the fall
1:14:36
of the same year, Phillips with three other men crossed over into Logan County,
1:14:43
West Virginia to receive the prisoners who had been arrested as he supposed,
1:14:47
on warrants issued by Governor Wilson after the issuance of the Kentucky governor's requisitions.
1:14:56
After crossing the line between the two states, he for the the first time
1:15:00
learned that no warrants had ever been issued, at least that no arrests had
1:15:05
been made or even attempted. Then something happened. He and his men suddenly
1:15:12
came upon Selkirk mc coy, Tom Chambers, and Moe's Christian, three of
1:15:18
the Murder clan that slew the McCoy brothers and who were included in the requisitions.
1:15:25
The opportunity to nab them was too good to resist. The temptation to
1:15:30
capture them even without warrants, and it was done. He hurried them back
1:15:35
and across the line into Kentucky, served them with Kentucky bench warrants and delivered
1:15:42
them to the jailer at Pikeville. The rage of the Hatfields over this unlawful
1:15:48
arrest knew no bounds. It was an outrage and a shameful violation of the
1:15:55
law. They cried. They sought an outlet for their pent up Indigos nation,
1:16:00
and decided to make another attempt upon the life of old Man McCoy.
1:16:05
For this purpose, the leaders selected the most dangerous and desperate members of the
1:16:11
clan. At midnight, January first, eighteen eighty eight, this band of
1:16:17
desperadoes, led by Cap Hatfield, heartless cutthroats, all surrounded the house of
1:16:25
Randolph McCoy on New Year, when every man and woman in the land should
1:16:30
reflect regretfully upon the many follies and errors committed during the year gone by,
1:16:36
and good resolutions should fill every heart. On New Year's night, this outlaw
1:16:43
band prepared to and did inaugurate another year of bloodshed and of horror. Silently,
1:16:50
with the stealth of Indians, the phantom shadows moved about the doomed homestead.
1:16:57
They were in no hurry, far from their intention to break into the
1:17:01
houses, and with a few well directed shots, put an end to the
1:17:05
old man, whom they had sworn to destroy. No, such a death
1:17:12
would have been too quick and painless. He must burn, they must maim
1:17:17
and torture. What mattered it that women were in the house. They will
1:17:24
serve him for company, chuckled the heartless Jim vance. They must first be
1:17:30
made to feel the impossibility of escape. To entertain their tormentors with their distress
1:17:35
and horror, they must furnish sport, the sport the savages so much delighted
1:17:42
in. Within, all was quiet. The inmates were all wrapped in slumber,
1:17:48
utterly unconscious of the fate that was in store for them. Without,
1:17:54
through the gloom of the cold January night, shadows flitted to and fro busily
1:18:00
attending to their hellish work. The McCoy homestead was a double log house.
1:18:08
Separating the two houses was a wide passage, and all under one roof.
1:18:14
On one side of the building, a match is struck. The next moment,
1:18:18
a pine torch casts a lurid glare into the darkness. The hand that
1:18:25
holds it reaches upward and touches the low board roof it sets it on fire
1:18:30
in a dozen places. The family is suddenly awakened by the yells of exultation
1:18:36
from the savages without shots pour into the houses through doors and windows. Calvin
1:18:45
mc coy, the son who slept upstairs, dresses hurriedly, grasps his rifle
1:18:51
and cartridges, and descends to the lower floor. He approaches the bed of
1:18:58
his terror stricken aged mud, pats her gently on the cheek, cautions her
1:19:02
to lie still, telling her to fear not, though in his heart he
1:19:08
has no hope. He returns to his room and opens fire upon the outlaws.
1:19:15
His father, cool and undaunted, fights the flames, devouring the roof
1:19:20
from the loft. The water becomes exhausted. He resorts to buttermilk, of
1:19:28
which there happen to be large quantities, and churns. The fire is about
1:19:33
conquered, an outlaw hand reaches up to rekindle it with another torch. Randolph
1:19:41
McCoy takes up his gun, aims and shatters the hand that holds it.
1:19:46
A curse and loud imprecations come to his ears and tell him that the shot
1:19:50
went true. In the room across the passage between the two houses slept the
1:19:57
rest of the family, two daughters and two grandchildren. The unmarried daughter Ali
1:20:03
Fair, frightened and dazed, hears a knock at the door and opens it.
1:20:10
She is requested to make a light. She replies that she has neither
1:20:15
fire nor matches. The command is repeated again, she refuses to comply.
1:20:23
Jim Vance Senior, the gray haired outlaw, commands Ellison Mount to shoot her.
1:20:30
She prays for them to spare her, but their hearts were strangers to
1:20:33
pity. Mount fires point blank at her breast, and she falls to the
1:20:40
floor with a cry. The mother, from her own room across the passage,
1:20:45
hears the expiring scream of her child, the dull thud upon the floor.
1:20:51
Oh, the horror of it. Surrounded on every hand by devils in
1:20:57
human shape, the house on fire over their heads, the husband and son
1:21:02
fighting heroically, but only prolonging the useless, inevitably useless struggle. In the
1:21:10
other room lies the body of Alifair. She hears the others screaming for help.
1:21:15
Will she dare to go to them? Yes, A true mother's love
1:21:21
fears no dangers. Where men shrink back in fear and terror, a mother
1:21:28
will rush into the jaws of death to defend and save her offspring. She
1:21:33
opens the door wide and is greeted with bullets. She cares nothing for their
1:21:39
vicious hiss. She goes on. Already she has crossed half the space that
1:21:45
separates her from her children. When she is confronted by the wretch Vance,
1:21:50
he orders her to return to her room. Upon her refusal, he strikes
1:21:57
blow upon blow with the butt of his gun upon the head and body of
1:22:00
the gray haired woman and frenzied mother. She falls badly injured upon the floor.
1:22:08
He kicks her into merciful insensibility. In the meantime, Calvin and his
1:22:15
father had maintained a spirited fire upon the assassins that encircled the house, but
1:22:21
the flames roar and feed unchecked. The smoke prevents good aim. Calvin is
1:22:29
driven downstairs by the heat and flames and acrid smoke. He suggests to his
1:22:35
father to attempt a sortie. He remembers the corn crib, a heavy log
1:22:41
structure. He would attempt to reach it. Once there, he might cover
1:22:46
his father's retreat thither. Once there, they might yet drive their assailants off.
1:22:55
He opens the door and starts on his perilous journey, running with the
1:22:59
swiftness of the deer to get beyond the betraying circle. Of light from the
1:23:02
now fiercely burning homestead. He is seen and instantly shot at. Unharmed by
1:23:11
this volley, he runs as he has never run before. The balls whistle
1:23:16
above him, around him, and plow the dirt at his feet. Already
1:23:21
he has covered more than half the distance, now three quarters of it.
1:23:27
Yet he is untouched. He is within three or four feet of the little
1:23:31
house he strives so manfully to reach. At the threshold of the refuge,
1:23:38
he throws up his hands, staggers, sinks to his knees, rises to
1:23:44
his feet again, then plunges heavily down upon the frozen ground. Dead.
1:23:51
After his son's fatal attempt to escape, old man McCoy grasped a double barreled
1:23:57
shotgun, sprang from the door or discharged both barrels with telling effect into the
1:24:03
gathered clan, and before they could realize what was happening, their intended victim
1:24:10
had disappeared in the darkness beyond the firelight, a darkness intensified by the glare
1:24:15
of the flames, making aim impossible. Not a shot of the many vicious
1:24:23
volleys that were fired after him touched him. Providence had once more decreed to
1:24:29
spare the old man, but at what cost. Finding that the main object
1:24:34
of their hatred and vengeance had again been baffled, the assassins withdrew, leaving
1:24:42
behind them their work of destruction. The burning home of Randolph McCoy, The
1:24:47
old mother groaning, unconscious and dangerously wounded on the ground, the daughter Alifare
1:24:56
lying in a pool of blood, the sun Calvin dead at the corncrib,
1:25:01
the remaining children crazed with terror and sorrow. The house was rapidly burning to
1:25:09
the ground. Before the murderers withdrew. They had carefully closed the doors and
1:25:15
window shutters with the avowed purpose of cremating the entire family. Yet in the
1:25:19
house, the insensible mother they had dragged back into one of the rooms,
1:25:26
that she too might perish by fire. The sister of ali Fair, immediately
1:25:32
upon the withdrawal of the cowardly wretches, regained her courage and self possession.
1:25:40
She placed the body of her dead sister upon a feather bed and dragged it
1:25:45
from the house. She then returned for her mother, whom she also rescued.
1:25:50
The little grandchild, a boy seven years old, also exhibited heroism for
1:25:57
one so young, for when he ran from the burning home, which then,
1:26:01
in fact was momentarily threatening to fall in. He thought of his little
1:26:06
sister. The little hero braved the fire, was swallowed up for a few
1:26:13
minutes in the smoke, but emerged triumphantly, leading the little cripple by the
1:26:17
hand. Nor did the boy cry once. It is said, during that
1:26:24
night of horror, the daughter ministered to the suffering mother as best she could.
1:26:30
Barefooted in the cruel cold of a January night, she gave no thought
1:26:35
to herself. Her feet were badly frostbitten. Not until daylight came assistance.
1:26:45
The Hatfields had scored another victory. True, the man whose death they craved
1:26:49
beyond all else had escaped them, But they had broken his spirit. They
1:26:56
had murdered, sent to eternity two more of him, his children, and
1:27:00
terribly injured, almost killed his aged wife. The blood of the victims cried
1:27:06
out to God, this time not in vain, for retribution followed swiftly on
1:27:14
the heels of the murderers. From this night on, their star of success
1:27:18
was on the wane. One by one they were struck down. One expiated
1:27:26
his crime upon the gallows. Others found opportunity and time for reflections on their
1:27:31
past deeds within the narrow, gloomy cells of the state prison. The news
1:27:39
of the dastardly, cowardly, savage night attacks spread like wildfire. Newspaper accounts
1:27:45
of the tragedy were everywhere received at first with doubt and considered as the figments
1:27:50
of imagination of sensation. Writers East, West, North, and South newspapers
1:27:59
began to make inquiries. It seemed beyond the possibility of belief that such horrors
1:28:04
could occur in the day of Enlightenment in a land which boasts of a superior
1:28:11
civilization and culture, and arrogates to itself the proud distinction of the first Christian
1:28:17
nation in the world. As days passed, the story was verified its truth
1:28:26
might no longer be doubted. Then followed a deluge of editorial comments. The
1:28:32
authorities of Kentucky and West Virginia were mercilessly assailed for their failure to cope with
1:28:39
crimes of such magnitude. Yet, even after this horror, West Virginia refused
1:28:45
to join hands with Kentucky in delivering the criminals to justice. The murderous clan
1:28:53
continued unmolested and was free to commit new crimes, invading Kentucky at work will
1:29:00
defying the entire legal and governmental machinery of that state. They felt secure,
1:29:06
with the governor of their own state apparently taking their part. Then Frank Phillips
1:29:14
started out to do on his own responsibility what West Virginia should have done.
1:29:20
Kentucky had done all that could possibly be done, to settle and arrange matters
1:29:26
through the regular channels of law and constitution. Nothing remained now but to act
1:29:32
without the consent and authority of West Virginia and the redoubtable Frank Phillips, chafing
1:29:39
at all this delay, like a restless mustang, decided to act. When
1:29:45
the news of the night attack and assassinations of January first were brought to him,
1:29:51
he threw all caution to the winds. He formed a band of trustee
1:29:57
followers, men that, like himself, would do and dare if the Governor
1:30:02
of West Virginia is determined to continue the protection of his murderous pets, I
1:30:08
will protect the citizens of Kentucky or die in the attempt. He declared.
1:30:15
From that day there was no longer rest, peace, or safety for the
1:30:19
Hatfield Clan of West Virginia. Phillips had a system entirely his own. He
1:30:27
quickly demonstrated his superiority of cunning and courage. A few days were spent in
1:30:32
equipping and organizing his band of raiders. Then swiftly they crossed the border into
1:30:39
West Virginia and commenced their dangerous operations. Always on the move, they struck
1:30:45
a rapid blow here and another there, always dashing upon the enemy at unexpected
1:30:53
times and places. To describe those raids in detail would fill a book and
1:30:59
firmish thrilling reading. But we shall select only a few incidents to illustrate the
1:31:04
daring and determination of Frank Phillips and his devoted band. On January eighth,
1:31:12
eighteen eighty eight, Phillips ascended the steep slopes of Thacker Mountain. Suddenly they
1:31:18
came in sight of Cap Hatfield and the brutal but desperately courageous Jim Vance Senor.
1:31:27
Hatfield at once saw the uselessness of engaging in combat, and precipitately fled
1:31:31
across the mountain on foot, escaping the bullets that were sent after him.
1:31:38
Cap continued on his retreat without one thought for his pal at hog Floyd.
1:31:45
Hatfield's Cap stopped long enough to secure a mount. From there, he rode
1:31:50
at breakneck speed, without bridle or saddle, to the camp of his followers.
1:31:58
Vance, thus abandoned and alone stood his ground, He opened fire upon
1:32:03
the Kentuckians without a moment's hesitation. The near presence of his enemies infuriated this
1:32:10
gray haired man, grown old in bloody crimes beyond measure. But one desire
1:32:16
paramount possessed him, the desire to kill, kill, kill, as long
1:32:23
as life remained in his aged body, to attempt escape never for a moment
1:32:29
entered his mind. He dropped behind an old tree stump, and with vengeful
1:32:33
eye, drove shot after shot into the ranks of the astonished raiders who were
1:32:39
forced to take cover. Several of them had already been wounded. Vance,
1:32:45
behind his natural rampart, remained unharmed. He laughed aloud, taunted his assailants
1:32:53
with cowardice, and continued firing. His mortal hatred of the men before him
1:32:59
in inspired him to a heroism worthy of a better cause. At last,
1:33:03
a flank movement deprived him of the protection afforded him by the stump. His
1:33:10
body now became exposed to fire from three sides and a Winchester rifle bullet brought
1:33:15
him to the ground. As he struggled to rise, shot after shot penetrated
1:33:21
him full of lead, wounded unto death, the blood streaming from his many
1:33:28
wounds. He yet attempted to use his pistols. Then Philips stepped forward and
1:33:34
approached the dying desperado, the man who had given the heartless order to Ellison
1:33:40
Mount to shoot the innocent Alifair, the heartless wretch that had pounded savagely the
1:33:45
aged Missus McCoy and had laughed and tittered in the doing, the man who
1:33:51
had incited Cap to the burning of the McCoy home and all its inmates.
1:33:57
Phillips raised the Winchester to end the outlaw's life, but the man was down.
1:34:03
He could not do it. Vance saw his hesitation. He slowly raised
1:34:10
upon his left arm, and in his dying moments, pressed hard upon the
1:34:15
trigger of his colt's pistol. Warned by companions, Philip saw the motion and
1:34:20
sent a ball crashing through the outlaw's brain. Immediately after Cap Hatfield's arrival at
1:34:28
the Camp of devil Ants, the entire available force was summoned and divided into
1:34:33
detachments plans were discussed and perfected by which Phillips was to be enticed into an
1:34:41
ambush and annihilated. This force remained under arms for many days. About ten
1:34:49
days after the raid of January eighth, which had resulted in the killing of
1:34:55
Vance, Phillips suddenly appeared on Greatville Creek, where he encountered the hatfields in
1:35:01
force. A severe battle immediately developed. The Kentuckians outnumbered the West Virginia outlaws.
1:35:11
The latter, however, were on foot and had the advantage of position
1:35:15
from the start. From it, they fired upon Phillips with telling effect,
1:35:20
killing and wounding many horses with the first volley. These maddened with pain and
1:35:28
frightened by the sudden fire, reared and plunged and threw the column into confusion.
1:35:34
The keen eyes of Frank Phillips cast about for a spot of vantage and
1:35:40
discovered a stone fence a few hundred yards away, affording a strong position.
1:35:46
With his accustomed quickness of determining an action, he prepared to seize it.
1:35:53
The command was given to dismount all those yet mounted. Bending their heads to
1:35:59
the bullet, they rushed on and over and behind the stone wall. Only
1:36:04
one of their number had dropped in the essay. Another assisted him to his
1:36:10
feet, and all reached the wall in safety. Now the tables were turned,
1:36:16
volley upon volley was fired into the ambushed hat Fields, with the result
1:36:23
that after two hours and fifteen minutes of long range fighting, the outlaws retreated,
1:36:30
taking along their many wounded, but leaving William Dempsey dead on the field.
1:36:35
In this battle, the Hatfields fought with the best rifles that money could
1:36:41
procure, heavy caliber Colts and Winchester rifles. The Kentuckians were armed less perfectly,
1:36:48
about half of them using rifles and shotguns of the old pattern Phillips,
1:36:55
and two others only fought with repeating rifles. It was due to the superiority
1:37:00
in armament that the Kentuckians suffered such heavy losses in horses and wounded men.
1:37:08
Among the most severely injured was Bud McCoy. Among the Hatfield wounded was Tom
1:37:14
Mitchell shot in the side, Indian Hatfield wounded in the thigh, Lee White
1:37:20
shot three times. Many minor casualties occurred. The Battle of grape Vine Creek
1:37:30
was the last serious fight between the Hatfield Outlaws and the Kentucky officers. Although
1:37:35
sporadic killings occurred at frequent intervals. In the several forays made by Frank Phillips
1:37:43
and his party, nine of the outlaws were captured and landed in jail at
1:37:47
Pikeville. In the meantime, the quarrel between the two governors continued. The
1:37:55
correspondence between them was exceedingly pithy and acrimonious. We shall quote one or two
1:38:01
letters from Governor Buckner of Kentucky to Governor Wilson of West Virginia, which will
1:38:08
fully explain the attitudes taken by these two gentlemen in this matter. Commonwealth of
1:38:15
Kentucky, Executive Department, Frankfort, Kentucky, January thirtieth, eighteen eighty eight.
1:38:23
His Excellency E. W. Wilson, Governor of West Virginia, on
1:38:29
the tenth day of September last, in the discharge of what I conceived to
1:38:33
be my duty as Governor of this Commonwealth, I issued a requisition upon your
1:38:40
excellency for the rendition of Anderson Hatfield and others charged by indictment with wilful murder
1:38:46
committed in Pike County, Kentucky. On the ninth day of August eighteen eighty
1:38:53
two, on the thirtieth of September eighteen eighty seven, said requisition was rea
1:39:00
turned to me with a letter from your Excellency calling my attention to a law
1:39:04
of West Virginia, a copy of which you were kind enough to enclose,
1:39:10
and which you seemed to think prevented a compliance on your part with my demand
1:39:15
until it should be accompanied by the affidavit indicated in the law above referred to,
1:39:20
without them stopping to discuss the correctness of your construction of the law in
1:39:26
question, or its validity, even conceding your construction to be correct. The
1:39:32
desired affidavit, having been obtained, was attached to said requisition, which was
1:39:38
again enclosed to your excellency on the thirteenth of October eighteen eighty seven. Having
1:39:45
thus complied with every condition which your Excellency has indicated that should be necessary,
1:39:51
I had every reason to suppose that steps had been taken for the rendition of
1:39:56
the fugitives named, and I knew nothing to the contrary until early in the
1:40:01
present month, when I was advised by the authorities of Pike County that your
1:40:08
Excellency had for some cause declined up to that time to issue your warrant for
1:40:15
the arrest and delivery of the parties referred to, and that in addition to
1:40:19
the crime for which they stood indicted, they had recently perpetrated other crimes for
1:40:26
the most atrocious character in the same locality. Accordingly, on the ninth instant,
1:40:32
I wrote your Excellency, advising you of the information which I had received,
1:40:38
and requesting to be advised whether there was then anything which prevented the rendition
1:40:44
of the criminals. In response to this letter, I received only a few
1:40:48
days since your letter of January one, eighteen eighty eight, in which you
1:40:55
did me the honor to state your reason for not complying with my request,
1:41:00
and in which, among other things, you say, and although the application
1:41:05
for the requisition does not appear to be made or supported by any official authority
1:41:10
of Pike County, etc. I confess myself at a loss to understand how
1:41:16
your Excellency could possibly know anything whatever about the character of the application made to
1:41:23
me for a requisition. In this case, I did not attach it to
1:41:27
the requisition and close to your Excellency, for the obvious reason that the law
1:41:32
governing the extradition of fugitives know where requires it or in any way intimates that
1:41:40
it would even be proper to do so. On the contrary, it seems
1:41:45
to contemplate the papers being correct in other respects that the executive making the demand
1:41:53
must be the sole judge of the circumstances under which it would be proper for
1:41:58
him to issue his requisition. I therefore had no reason to suppose that your
1:42:03
Excellency would feel it your duty to inquire into this point, especially as you
1:42:10
had, in your first letter returning the requisition given no such intimation. But
1:42:17
if your Excellency desires to be advised as to that branch of the case,
1:42:23
I certainly have no objections to telling you that the application for the requisition and
1:42:29
rewards in this case was made by the County Judge of Pike County, endorsed
1:42:35
by the Judge of the District Court, and urged by the Commonwealth's Attorney of
1:42:41
the District who was personally present when the application was presented. In referring to
1:42:48
Elias Hatfield and Andrew Varney, your Excellency is pleased to say the many affidavits
1:42:57
of reliable persons showing that these two wo men were miles away at the time
1:43:00
of the killing of the McCoys induced me to withhold for the present the warrant
1:43:08
as to them, believing that when Your Excellency was made acquainted with the facts,
1:43:13
their rendition would not be demanded. The indictment accompanying the requisition charges that
1:43:19
these two men were present and aided in the killing. This being so,
1:43:26
I respectfully submit that the guilt or innocence of these men is a question which
1:43:31
it is not the province of Your Excellency or myself to decide, but one
1:43:36
which the court, having jurisdiction of the case, can alone rightfully determine.
1:43:44
And if, as you seem to suppose, the innocence of these two men
1:43:47
can be so easily established, it would seem strange that they have not long
1:43:54
before this voluntarily appeared in the court where they stand accused, and which is
1:44:00
so convenient to their homes, and in which they might, if such be
1:44:04
the case, be triumphantly vindicated against this grave charge. From my knowledge of
1:44:13
the enlightened and upright judge of the court in which they stand charged, I
1:44:17
feel assured that they would be awarded a speedy and fair trial. But if
1:44:24
they think otherwise, and have fears either as to the impartiality of the judge,
1:44:30
or as to the prejudice of the community in whose myths they are to
1:44:32
be tried. They can, under our laws, not only swear off the
1:44:39
judge, but can, on proper showing easily obtain a change of venue to
1:44:45
another county in which no prejudice whatever exists. Under these circumstances, your Excellency
1:44:54
can readily see that they would, in any event, have no difficulty whatever
1:44:59
in obtaining a free, fair and impartial trial. Before receiving your letter,
1:45:04
I had been fully apprised of the efforts on the part of Pa Klein to
1:45:10
secure a withdrawal of the requisition and rewards in this case. In fact,
1:45:15
the cool proposition made to me by the indicted parties through their attorney, to
1:45:20
the effect that they would obligate themselves not to come again into Kentucky provided I
1:45:28
would withdraw their requisitions and rewards named, was endorsed by mister Klein, who
1:45:33
had previously shown an active interest in their apprehension. But this proposition I of
1:45:42
course declined to entertain, much less to agree to, and even admitting the
1:45:47
truth of the affidavit enclosed by your Excellency, which charges in terms that the
1:45:54
friends of the indicted parties succeeded in bribe incline their former enemy to urge the
1:46:00
acceptance of their proposition. I cannot see why this should cause your Excellency to
1:46:05
hesitate about issuing your warrant for the rendition of these parties to the proper authorities
1:46:13
upon whose application the requisition was issued, and whose conduct is not even questioned.
1:46:20
Indeed, it seems to me that the questionable means by which the friends
1:46:25
of the indicted parties have been employing to secure a withdrawal of the requisition and
1:46:30
rewards of this case ought of itself to induce your Excellency to regard with suspicion
1:46:38
the efforts which they seem to be making to prevent the issuing of your warrant
1:46:43
for their apprehension and delivery. My information as to the history of these troubles
1:46:49
briefly stated are as follows. On the ninth day of August eighteen eighty two,
1:46:57
Anderson Hatfield and twenty two others, desperate characters of Logan County, West
1:47:01
Virginia, residing near the state line, crossed the river into Pike County,
1:47:09
Kentucky, arrested three sons of Randolph McCoy, and, having tied them to
1:47:15
trees, deliberately shot them to death. It was for this cruel and inhuman
1:47:21
murder that the parties named in my requisition were indicted in the Pike Circuit Court,
1:47:28
three separate indictments having been found against the parties named for the murder of
1:47:32
the three McCoy brothers, respectively. Though it is possible that only one of
1:47:39
these indictments was attached to the requisition issued upon your excellency on the tenth day
1:47:44
of September last. So far from no move having been made in this matter
1:47:50
for more than five years after the finding of the indictments, as stated by
1:47:56
your excellency, the fact is that bench warnarrants have been made all the while
1:48:01
in the hands of the officers of Pike County, in the hope that these
1:48:05
parties, who lived near the state line and were frequently seen in Kentucky,
1:48:13
could be arrested by the authorities of the state without the necessity of applying for
1:48:17
a requisition upon The Governor of West Virginia and my predecessor at one time offered
1:48:25
a reward for those who were supposed to be most responsible for the murder but
1:48:31
the indicted parties, knowing the efforts which were being made for their arrest,
1:48:36
though frequently seen in Kentucky, always came in crowds, well armed, so
1:48:44
that it was impossible to arrest them before they could return to the West Virginia
1:48:47
side of the river. They have, on several occasions while in Kentucky unmercifully
1:48:55
whipped defenseless women and in offensive men whose only provocation was some alleged remark in
1:49:02
disapproval of their lawless conduct. The names of the various persons who, at
1:49:10
different times have been thus brutally assailed, and the circumstances connected therewith, have
1:49:16
been furnished me, but it is not deemed necessary here to mention them in
1:49:21
detail. Finally, on the tenth day of September last, upon the application
1:49:28
of the local authorities, as heretofore indicated, I issued my requisition for all
1:49:33
the persons named in the indictment for the murder of the McCoy brothers, and
1:49:40
offered suitable rewards for four of the number represented as being the leaders of the
1:49:45
party and most responsible for their conduct. Thus matters stood until the latter part
1:49:53
of December eighteen eighty seven, when Frank Phillips, named as agent in the
1:49:58
requisition for these parties, having sent the required fee, and being unable to
1:50:03
hear anything from Your Excellency, went into West Virginia in company with two others,
1:50:10
and without any disturbance or conflict of any kind, succeeded in capturing Tom
1:50:16
Chambers, Selkirk McCoy, and Moses Christian, three of the persons named in
1:50:24
the indictment for the murder of the McCoy brothers, who were brought to Kentucky
1:50:29
and lodged in the jail of Pike County. This so incensed the Hatfield party
1:50:35
that on the night of January first, eighteen eighty eight, a company of
1:50:41
twelve men, headed by Cap Hatfield and James vance Sor, came from West
1:50:46
Virginia into Pike County, Kentucky, and, having surrounded the house of Randolph
1:50:53
McCoy, the father of the three McCoy brothers who had been murdered in eighteen
1:50:58
eighty two, commanded him to surrender, saying they were the Hatfield crowd.
1:51:05
They then forced their way into a room where the daughters were sleeping, shot
1:51:11
one of them through the heart, and set fire to the house. The
1:51:15
old man and his son, Calvin, seeing that they intended to kill them,
1:51:21
made the best defense they could, but the flames soon drove them from
1:51:26
the house. The son, in his efforts to escape, was riddled with
1:51:31
bullets, and the old man, who ran in an opposite direction, was
1:51:36
fired upon by several of the party, but escaped unhurt. His wife had,
1:51:44
in the meantime come out of the house and begged for mercy, but
1:51:47
was struck on the head and sighed with a gun, breaking her ribs and
1:51:53
knocking her senseless to the ground, after which she was thrown back into the
1:51:58
house to be burnt, but was dragged out by her daughters as they left
1:52:02
the burning building. Some days thereafter, twenty six men armed themselves and went
1:52:10
into West Virginia in pursuit of the perpetrators of this atrocious crime, and on
1:52:15
reaching the house of Anderson Hatfield, so far from abusing or mistreating his wife,
1:52:23
as been presented to your excellency, they treated her kindly and at her
1:52:29
request, left some of their party there with her to quiet her fears.
1:52:34
But after leaving there in search of the men, they were fired upon by
1:52:40
James Van Senior, cap Hatfield and others and in the fight which followed,
1:52:46
James Van Senior was killed, having on his person when killed two pistols and
1:52:53
a repeating rifle. Old Randolph McCoy was not with this raiding party, as
1:53:00
has been represented by your excellency, but was at that time in Pikeville,
1:53:05
Kentucky, as the citizens of that place will all testify. The pursuing party
1:53:12
then returned to Kentucky, and being reinforced by ten additional men, went the
1:53:18
next day and succeeded without the firing of a gun, in capturing six more
1:53:25
of the men indicted for the murder of the McCoy brothers in eighteen eighty two,
1:53:30
bringing them back to Kentucky, where they were lodged in the jail of
1:53:33
Pike County. Eight or ten days thereafter, Frank Phillips and eighteen others went
1:53:41
again into West Virginia in pursuit of the remaining parties belonging to what is known
1:53:46
as the Hatfield Crowd, and only a short distance from the state line,
1:53:53
were met by Cap Hatfield Anderson Hatfield and ten armed men, who fired upon
1:54:00
Phillips and his posse from ambush before they were aware of the presence. Phillips
1:54:06
and his party returned the fire, killing Dempsey and putting others to flight.
1:54:14
Phillips and his party then returned to the Kentucky side, but went back on
1:54:19
the following day. And as to what has since occurred, I have no
1:54:24
information. The foregoing account, which differs so widely from that received by you,
1:54:31
was obtained from the County Attorney of Pike County, who claims to have
1:54:36
taken great pains to ascertain the real facts, and who seems to have no
1:54:42
doubt about its correctness. But I of course understand how difficult it is to
1:54:48
arrive at exact facts in an affair of this kind from the statements which he
1:54:54
may have heard from the parties on either side. I regret exceedingly that any
1:55:00
portion of the citizens of Pike County should have attempted, under any circumstances,
1:55:05
to arrest citizens of West Virginia for crimes committed in the state without first obtaining
1:55:13
the requisite authority. Therefore, I am satisfied that Frank Phillips, the agent
1:55:19
appointed by me to receive the fugitives named in my requisition, is not the
1:55:25
murderous outlaw your excellency seems to suppose. But as he has undertaken to arrest
1:55:31
some of the parties in West Virginia without your warrant, and is therefore objectionable
1:55:39
to you. I will, when your excellency indicates your readiness to surrender the
1:55:44
persons demanded, take pleasure in designating another agent for that purpose, Your obedient
1:55:51
servant S. B. Buckner. Governor Wilson still refused to honor Kentucky's requisitosition
1:56:00
for the indicted outlaws, asserting that the requisition of Governor Buckner had been and
1:56:05
was being abused and prostituted for base purposes, that a warrant issued by the
1:56:12
Governor of West Virginia would be used for the same purpose. He would withhold
1:56:17
the warrants for more positive proof, maintaining that a warrant issued by him before
1:56:24
the return to the state of West Virginia of the persons kidnapped in his state
1:56:29
and thrown into prison in Kentucky would be construed as a ratification of acts of
1:56:34
lawlessness on the part of Kentucky officers, which neither the peace nor the safety
1:56:41
of his people could permit or approve of. Instead of the Philip's raid into
1:56:46
the territory of a sister state being allowed to stand as examples for the invitation
1:56:53
of like occurrences. I am impressed with the belief that they should be made
1:56:58
examples of judicial determination, which would discourage their repetition either to or from this
1:57:04
state. Governor Wilson further announced that he had instituted proceedings in the United States
1:57:12
Circuit Court for the District of Kentucky for a settlement of the questions involved.
1:57:17
Comment on this attitude of West Virginia's chief executive is unnecessary, yet we feel
1:57:24
that a few paragraphs of Governor Buckner's response are in place. Your excellency,
1:57:31
answered, Governor Buckner in part, seems to have forgotten that long before any
1:57:36
of the Phillips raids referred to had occurred, a band of armed men from
1:57:43
West Virginia came into Pike County, Kentucky, violently seized three citizens of the
1:57:47
state who were at the time in custody of the local authorities of that county,
1:57:54
forcibly, took them to West Virginia, and after detaining them there for
1:57:59
some time time, brought them back to this state and deliberately shot them to
1:58:03
death. That as early as the tenth of September last I demanded the rendition
1:58:11
of the persons who then stood indicted in the courts of this state for the
1:58:15
perpetration of this atrocious crime, and that it was not until after your Excellency
1:58:21
had refused to surrender any of the persons so demanded, and until after said
1:58:28
persons or a portion of them, had committed other crimes of the most cruel
1:58:32
and revolting character upon unoffending men and helpless women in this state, that Frank
1:58:40
Phillips and other citizens of Pike County were guilty of the acts of violence and
1:58:45
bloodshed complained of. If Frank Phillips and other citizens of this state have been
1:58:51
guilty of crimes against the laws of West Virginia, however great their provocation,
1:58:59
I quite agree with your excellency that they should be made examples of judicial determination,
1:59:05
and up to this time there has certainly been no refusal, upon a
1:59:10
proper demand to surrender them to the authorities of West Virginia for that purpose.
1:59:16
On the other hand, however, your Excellency has for months past steadily failed
1:59:24
and refused to surrender any of the persons who stand charged by indictment with the
1:59:29
perpetration of the most atrocious crimes against the laws of this Commonwealth, although the
1:59:35
demand for them is accompanied by every requirement which your Excellency has indicated that you
1:59:42
thought necessary, and you now indicate that you will not, in the future
1:59:45
surrender any of the persons thus demanded. Under certain citizens of West Virginia who
1:59:53
you think are illegally detained in this state shall be released from custody and set
1:59:58
at liberty. With all due respect, I fail to see the honor of
2:00:03
your state will be maintained, or that the peace and safety of its people
2:00:09
will be preserved by a refusal on your part to surrender persons charged with the
2:00:14
most flagitious crimes against the laws of this state, simply because certain citizens of
2:00:20
this state, acting on their own motion and without the knowledge or approval of
2:00:26
the authorities of this state, have in a violent and unauthorized way, done
2:00:32
that which it was the duty of your excellent to have done in the manner
2:00:36
required by law, or because I have not felt authorized to interfere with the
2:00:42
administration of justice by one of the coordinate branches of state government by attempting to
2:00:48
release prisoners over whom I had no control whatever. On the contrary, I
2:00:56
respectfully submit that the honor of both states can be better maintained, and the
2:01:00
peace and safety of their respective citizens can be better preserved by a prompt rendition
2:01:08
of the persons charged with the perpetration of crime in either state in all cases
2:01:13
where such rendition is demanded in the manner prescribed by law et cetera. For
2:01:20
complete correspondents and exhibits filed Therewith, see Documents Kentucky, eighteen eighty eight,
2:01:28
number one. Immediately upon the institution of proceedings in the United States Circuit Court
2:01:33
for the District of Kentucky, the prisoners captured by Phillips and his men were
2:01:40
removed to the Louisville Jail pending trial. A great legal battle followed. Kentucky
2:01:46
was ably represented by General P. Watt Harden and former Governor Proctor Nott.
2:01:55
The Best Council of West Virginia represented the interests of that state. Phillips was
2:02:01
charged with kidnapping citizens of another state and was taken in charge by the United
2:02:08
States Marshal. Phillips, on the other hand, assumed personal responsibility for all
2:02:14
his acts and exonerated Governor Buckner from any connivance Therewith. The case was argued
2:02:23
at length for days. Judge Barr, who presided, decided in an exhaustive
2:02:29
opinion that the court had not jurisdiction. The prisoners were therefore returned to the
2:02:35
Pike Circuit Court to be tried there for their crimes. As a matter of
2:02:41
retaliation, Phillips was indicted in West Virginia with kidnapping citizens of that state without
2:02:47
warrant or authority of law. After a long continued legal battle, the Redoubtable
2:02:55
Raider, the captor of as dangerous and desperate a lot of men as ever
2:03:00
trod American soil, won his fight in the courts, as he had won
2:03:04
the many battles with the outlaws. For years afterwards, Phillips traveled in West
2:03:12
Virginia wherever he desired. Although the Hatfields did their trading at Mattawan, West
2:03:18
Virginia, he visited that town frequently and alone. Though always well armed,
2:03:26
none ever molested him. It is significant, however, that the Hatfields and
2:03:30
Phillips were never seen in that town on the same day. For some time,
2:03:36
no further arrests were made or attempted to be made, with the result
2:03:41
that those of the Hatfield's clan who had never been arrested again, issued forth
2:03:45
from their hiding places, and appeared more boldly. Kentucky officers had long and
2:03:53
patiently waited for an opportunity to apprehend Bill Tom Hatfield, for whom there were
2:04:00
a large reward. Learning that his partners in crime, devil Ants and Cap
2:04:05
Hatfield remained at home unmolested, he too had returned to the scene of his
2:04:12
evil deeds. The officers kept a sharp eye upon him, however, and
2:04:18
succeeded in decoying him near the Kentucky line, the scheme being accomplished through a
2:04:25
pretended friend of Bill Tom Hatfield. When he reached the spot designated, he
2:04:31
was surrounded and disarmed. The officers attempted to cross into Kentucky, but before
2:04:39
they could do so, the news of the capture had spread into the Hatfield
2:04:43
neighborhood. A strong force rushed to the rescue of the prisoner. Sheriff Keedle
2:04:50
of Mingo County, West Virginia, being near, summoned a posse and started
2:04:57
in pursuit. He prevented a bloody encounter by prevailing upon the Kentuckians to release
2:05:02
their prisoner. The Hatfields, of course, accused the McCoys of being at
2:05:09
the bottom of this affair, which the latter stoutly denied. Bill tom Hatfield
2:05:16
was, however, later in the year again taken and finally convicted for his
2:05:21
participation in the murder of the three McCoy brothers. After the return of the
2:05:28
prisoners from Louisville to Pike County, a number of the parties were put on
2:05:32
trial. Ellison Mounts was sentenced to hang for participation in the murder of Alafair
2:05:40
McCoy during that infamous night attack, while John's Hatfield, Valentine or Val Hatfield,
2:05:48
the Justice of the Peace of West Virginia, Pliant Mayhorn, and others
2:05:55
were convicted to the state penitentiary at Frankfort, Kentucky for life. Val Hatfield
2:06:01
set up the remarkable defense that the brothers were killed on the Kentucky side,
2:06:06
and that at the time of the shooting he was on the West Virginia side.
2:06:13
This was the gist of his appeal to the Court of Appeals in Kentucky.
2:06:17
This court, however, in a very pithy opinion, among other things,
2:06:23
said, confirming the judgment of the lower court, it is not pretended
2:06:29
here that the state should enforce its laws beyond the state boundary. But it
2:06:33
is well settled that if either of the appellants had stood on the West Virginia
2:06:39
side and shot the deceased in Kentucky, the offense would have been against the
2:06:45
laws of Kentucky. Regarding the appellants mayhorn, the court expressed itself in emphatic
2:06:51
language when it said, the law has been enforced in this case and in
2:06:58
its administration, the appellant's defendants in the lower court can truly say to the
2:07:03
jury that in inflicting punishment by imprisonment for life, it has tempered justice with
2:07:11
mercy. The Kentucky Appellate Court affirmed each and every one of the cases appealed.
2:07:18
Ellison Mounts, sentenced to die on the gallows for shooting and killing Alafair
2:07:24
McCoy, appealed on the ground that he pleaded guilty to the charge, and
2:07:30
having done so, he was entitled to a sentence of confinement in the state
2:07:33
prison instead of hanging. It was claimed for him that the state, in
2:07:40
introducing the wife of Randolph McCoy so brutally beaten that night of January one,
2:07:45
eighteen eighty eight, had taken unfair advantage of his condition, and that therefore
2:07:53
the case should be reversed. As in the other cases, the Court of
2:07:58
Appeals refused to disturbed the judgment of the lower court, maintaining that all the
2:08:03
authorities agreed that unless a tacit agreement between the state and defendant had been entered
2:08:09
into to reduce the punishment, the state had a right, even under the
2:08:15
plea of guilty, to introduce testimony illustrating the atrocity of the crime. On
2:08:22
February nineteenth, eighteen ninety, Ellison Mounts was hanged. For some time previous
2:08:30
to the day of execution. The sheriff had on duty a guard of from
2:08:35
fifty to seventy five men armed to the teeth, and in addition, had
2:08:41
appointed and sworn an additional force of some twenty deputy sheriffs for the special occasion.
2:08:48
Repeated reports had come to Sheriff Mayward that the hat Fields of West Virginia
2:08:54
would attempt a rescue. In view of what had transpired in the past,
2:09:00
the precaution of the Kentucky sheriff was entirely warranted. On the day of the
2:09:05
execution, the largest crowd ever brought together in Kentucky on a similar occasion,
2:09:11
assembled at the little country town of Pikeville careful and conservation estimates, judging the
2:09:18
number to have been nearly eight thousand. They came from all directions on horseback,
2:09:26
on foot in wagons drawn by oxen. They came long before daybreak,
2:09:33
and from that time on until the time of the execution after noon, the
2:09:39
stream of visitors poured into the town. Little children even were brought along by
2:09:45
mothers who had come to see the hanging with an eagerness with which they would
2:09:48
have attended a circus. Is it not strange? How morbidly curious most of
2:09:54
us are. How we jostle each other so as not to lose a glimp
2:10:00
of misery or death? Not strange? After all, the savage of the
2:10:05
stone Age is not yet eradicated from our natures. While the crowd collected,
2:10:11
an incident marred the generally peaceable behavior of the mass of people. Frank Phillips
2:10:18
was in his cups with a revolver in each hand. He walked the streets
2:10:24
of the town, announcing that he had run the hatfields down, and that
2:10:30
now he proposed to run the town of Pikeville. Sheriff Mayward remonstrated with Phillips
2:10:35
who showed fight. A number of deputy sheriffs soon disarmed him, and the
2:10:41
trouble passed without serious casualty. In the scuffle, the sheriff had been severely
2:10:48
injured. As soon as he recovered from the shock, he called the guards,
2:10:54
and from that time on matters progressed without any other interruption. At that
2:11:01
time, executions were public, not behind walls or enclosures. As now a
2:11:07
mile and a half from the town in a natural amphitheater, the old fashioned
2:11:13
gallows had been erected. The hills overlooking the scene were black with people.
2:11:20
A few minutes past twelve, the sheriff repaired to the jail and read the
2:11:24
death warrant. Keen eyed guards scanned the people around to detect any possible attempt
2:11:31
at rescue. None was made. The condemned criminal listened to the reading of
2:11:39
the warrant with the same stoicism that had marked the commission of his crimes.
2:11:45
He claimed conversion and hoped that all men and women would lead good lives and
2:11:50
to meet him in heaven, where he was going. A short time after
2:11:56
one o'clock, his lifeless form dangled from the the gallows beam. Ellison Mount
2:12:03
had ceased to be a dread to humanity, ignorant as the savage of the
2:12:07
interior Africa. He had no conception of the magnitude of his crimes. A
2:12:13
criminal by nature, he was easily influenced to obey the command of those who
2:12:18
used him as a tool. Shedding human blood was a pastime with him.
2:12:26
However, according to orthodox teaching, he consorts now with the saints. A
2:12:31
life of crime seems to have some compensation. After all, many of the
2:12:39
criminals, being still at large, wanted in Kentucky or elsewhere. The Eureka
2:12:45
detectives now took a hand. Among these were A. W. Burnett,
2:12:50
W. G. Baldwin, Kentucky, Bill, Tom Campbell, and Treve
2:12:56
Gibson. To the credit of these brave men be it said that they apprehended
2:13:03
many of these outlaws to answer for crimes other than those recited in connection with
2:13:09
this feud. They effected the capture of John Norman, Joe Frank Smith,
2:13:15
and John B. Dodson, all of whom were put on trial before Judge
2:13:20
T. H. Harvey in Logan County, West Virginia. John's and Cap
2:13:26
Hatfield went west for a time, and, though hounded from place to place,
2:13:31
Cap was never caught. John's Hatfield afterwards served a short time in the
2:13:39
state penitentiary at Frankfort for participation in the night attack on the McCoy home and
2:13:46
murder of Ala Fair and Calvin McCoy. Life's cheap, isn't it. The
2:13:52
feud was at an end some years later, However, in eighteen ninety six,
2:14:00
happ Hatfield, still at large, residing unmolested in West Virginia, committed
2:14:05
a triple murder under circumstances quite in keeping with his former record of bloodshed.
2:14:13
While his killing is only indirectly connected with the feudal troubles, an account of
2:14:18
it and the attempted capture serves, however, to illustrate the daring and recklessness
2:14:26
of this outlaw. On November third, eighteen ninety six, it being the
2:14:33
day of the presidential election, Cap Hatfield and his step son Joseph Glenn,
2:14:39
whom he affectionately called his boy, went to the voting place at Thacker,
2:14:43
West Virginia. Both were heavily armed with Winchester rifles of large caliber and braces
2:14:52
of Colt pistols. They had been at the polls but a short time when
2:14:56
they began a dispute with John and elliet At Rutherford, two natives of that
2:15:01
county, and who, according to Hatfield's story, had been members of the
2:15:07
McCoy clan and had fought with them in various battles against him and his relatives.
2:15:13
Cap Hatfield's menacing threats and flashing eyes boded evil. The Rutherfords, knowing
2:15:20
well the desperation of the man in anger, attempted to leave the poles.
2:15:26
When cap Hatfield threw the gun to his shoulder and instantly killed John Rutherford,
2:15:33
the boy fired upon Ellison Rutherford, who dropped to the ground, gasped,
2:15:39
and expired. Hence, Chambers, a prominent citizen, rushed forward just as
2:15:46
the lad fired. The boy, presuming Chambers to be a friend of the
2:15:50
Rutherfords, turned upon him, fired, and the triple murder was complete.
2:15:58
The murderers retreated very deliberately toward the mountains. Indeed, there was no necessity
2:16:03
for hurry. Every man upon the voting ground appeared dazed, dumbfounded, paralyzed
2:16:11
with astonishment and fear. The tragedy had started and finished so suddenly and unexpectedly
2:16:18
that it was impossible to realize in a moment the magnitude of the crime.
2:16:24
Even after the men regained their power of speech and action, pursuit was not
2:16:30
thought of. No one dared attempt the arrest of the fugitives, knowing that
2:16:35
it would result in more bloodshed, and there had been enough for one day.
2:16:41
But on the following morning, over one hundred armed and determined men answered
2:16:46
the summons of Sheriff Keedel and started on their perilous test to arrest the outlaws.
2:16:52
This force was augmented by another, which on the night following the tragedy
2:16:58
kept a close war over the rock Fort, a retreat in mountain wilds much
2:17:05
in favor with the hat Fields. When pursued by officers during the night,
2:17:11
Deputy Sheriff Clark and one Daniel Christian were informed by a spy that the fugitives
2:17:16
had stolen away from the fort and were going in the direction of Kentucky.
2:17:22
Clark at once followed the trail indicated and located the two near the house of
2:17:28
one of the Hatfields, where they had gone for food. Clark and Christian,
2:17:33
in following the trail, on passing a large rock or cliff on the
2:17:39
hillside, came upon the two men, who were fast asleep. Cautiously approaching,
2:17:46
the officers recognized the murderers. The hazardous pursuit was at an end,
2:17:52
and the capture effected without the shedding of blood. The excitement attending the arrest
2:17:58
of the criminals was great throughout the county. Officers feared mob violence to avoid
2:18:05
it. The prisoners were taken to Huntington, but were returned within a few
2:18:11
days to Mingo County and lodged in jail, which was heavily guarded. Cap
2:18:16
Hatfield's version of the tragedy is interesting and characteristic of the man. It was
2:18:22
a total contradiction of the statements made by all the eye witnesses. Cap Hatfield
2:18:30
said, I believe it to have been a prearranged attempt to take my life.
2:18:35
Rutherford was jealous of me years ago, some two years ago. He
2:18:41
said I had done him an injury and demanded an apology. I told him
2:18:46
I had not wronged him, but if he thought I had, I regretted
2:18:50
it. He seemed to accept this explanation, and I thought the matter ended.
2:18:56
On the day of the killing, he was quarrelsome and I avoided him,
2:19:01
telling him that I had enough trouble in my time and wanted no more.
2:19:05
Late in the evening, Joe and I started for home. Rutherford renewed
2:19:11
his quarrel and suddenly drew his revolver and began firing at me. I threw
2:19:18
my gun up to get it in position, and the first ball from his
2:19:22
revolver hit here, showing a heavy indentation on the underside of the heavy steel
2:19:28
gun barrel. The gun prevented the ball from entering my breast. He fired
2:19:33
twice more before I could get my gun in position. Then I fired my
2:19:39
gun twice and drew my revolver. At the third shot. He fell and
2:19:45
someone Ellison Rutherford, I think, was firing on me from behind and getting
2:19:52
very close to me, as you can see, exhibiting a nick in his
2:19:56
left ear and a grazed place or scratch in the neck. Chambers was shot
2:20:03
by accident, I suppose when I reached the railroad, they were so hot.
2:20:07
After me I reloaded my revolver. Young Rutherford was shot purely in self
2:20:13
defense, either by me or the boy. I don't know which. We
2:20:18
made for the woods, yes, he said in answer to a question.
2:20:26
Clark and Christian got the drop on us. I was doing picket duty and
2:20:31
sleep overcame me. The boy would have shot Clark had I not stopped him.
2:20:37
An organized band of the Hatfields attempted a rescue of the prisoners, but
2:20:41
the celerity with which the officers acted frustrated the attempt devil ants. Hatfield and
2:20:48
others were arrested for this, taken to Logan County, and placed in jail
2:20:54
there, but were soon afterwards released. Deprived of a leap, the famous
2:21:01
clan dispersed and the country breathed freely once more. Although a reward had been
2:21:07
hanging over cap Hatfield for many years without effecting his arrest, the tragedy of
2:21:13
November three at last brought him behind prison bars. But the good fortune which
2:21:20
always attended this man, did not leave him even in this dire extremity.
2:21:26
He was tried on one of the cases, fined, and sentenced to imprisonment
2:21:31
in the county jail for one year. Two other indictments, both for murder,
2:21:37
were still pending in court. He was to be tried on these the
2:21:41
following term in the Little County Jail at Williamson, West Virginia. Cap Hatfield
2:21:48
now posed as a hero, receiving his wife, friends and relatives daily.
2:21:56
One evening, he held a levy and was the gayest of the gay.
2:22:00
His gaiety was explained when, on the following morning, the jailer made the
2:22:05
discovery that the man who carried eighteen scalps at his belt was a prisoner no
2:22:11
longer. At midnight, the crowd of visitors at the jail had gone.
2:22:16
At three o'clock in the morning, Hatfield was in the mountains. A hatchet
2:22:22
given him by some of the visitors did the work of liberation. A large
2:22:28
hole through a sixteen inch brick wall caught the attention of the village policeman,
2:22:33
who gave the alarm. A crowd of men soon collected and started in search
2:22:39
of the fugitive. It seems that Cap Hatfield, though getting off easy in
2:22:46
one of his cases, was afraid to stand trial on the others, fearing
2:22:50
a death sentence. But a few days before his escape he had remarked that
2:22:56
he preferred death at the mouth of Winchester's to being made a show subject on
2:23:01
the scaffold. By noon of the following day, the whole country was in
2:23:07
motion, like the gathering of the clans of old. The sturdy citizens poured
2:23:13
into the county seat and offered their services to bring back into the hands of
2:23:18
justice the man who had for so many years defied the laws of two states.
2:23:26
The county offered rewards, private citizens contributed to defray the expenses of the
2:23:31
posse. Governor Atkinson of West Virginia promised aid. The state of Kentucky,
2:23:39
through Governor Bradley, tendered assistance, and Virginia's executive declared that the outlaw should
2:23:46
find no asylum in that state. The banks of the Ohio River were lined
2:23:52
with armed men for many miles to prevent his escape into that state. It
2:23:58
was generally believed that he would be apprehended within a day or two. But
2:24:03
days passed, and yet the outlaw had eluded his pursuers. He was no
2:24:09
longer alone. Now to his aid came his relatives John's Elias and Troy Hatfield,
2:24:16
Clark Smith, Henry Harmon, and others, each heavily armed and amply
2:24:22
supplied with ammunition. Familiar with every nook and corner of that part of West
2:24:28
Virginia. He was secretly assisted by other friends and henchmen bound to him by
2:24:35
ties of relationship, or forced to render assistance through fear of incurring his enmity.
2:24:43
This condition aroused the entire state of West Virginia. On Wednesday, the
2:24:48
sheriff, with a considerable force of militia composed of men to be depended upon,
2:24:54
again took to the mountains. Within three hours of their deparcher, Old
2:25:01
Randolph mc coy came into Williamson, West Virginia. He was clad in the
2:25:05
homespun of the country. His large brimmed hat was adorned with a squirrel's tail.
2:25:13
Carrying an old fashioned muzzle loading rifle, he looked worthy of the comradeship
2:25:20
of Daniel Boone or Kit Carson. Years before that, three of his sons
2:25:26
had been foully murdered while being tied to bushes. Some years afterwards, another
2:25:31
son and a daughter were shot down in cold blood, his wife brutally beaten,
2:25:39
his home reduced to ashes, himself escaping only by a miracle. And
2:25:45
now the old man is on the trail of one of the participants, if
2:25:48
not the actual instigator of these outrages. He had come, said mc coy,
2:25:54
to aid in the capture of six feet of devil and one hundred and
2:26:00
eighty pounds of hell, as he always described cap Hatfield, seven miles below,
2:26:07
Williamson McCoy overtook Sheriff Kedele and united with him. Stretching over as much
2:26:16
country as possible, the force scattered and advanced in skirmish lines. Nothing was
2:26:22
seen of the fugitive on that day. At night, camp was made on
2:26:28
Lower Beach Creek. The posse was now in the very heart of the Hatfield
2:26:31
country, on Cap Hatfield's native heath. Some years before in this locality,
2:26:39
Charles McKenny, a cousin of the McCoys, a lad of only eighteen,
2:26:45
had been riddled with buckshot by Cap Hatfield and two others. During the night,
2:26:52
after the moon had risen, guards reported a column of smoke further up
2:26:56
on the creek. He was not unexpected. The stronghold of the hat Fields
2:27:03
was on a decided elevation some four miles away. The smoke suggested that they
2:27:09
were there. The rumor served to keep the camp awake until daylight. When
2:27:16
the march was resumed, the posse heading direct for the Old Palisade. The
2:27:22
advance was made with caution. When within a quarter of a mile from the
2:27:26
fort, the first glimpse of the outlaw was had. His oft repeated boast
2:27:33
that if once he gained the mountains he would turn back on. No man
2:27:37
proved idle talk. He and his comrades rapidly retreated toward another mountain stronghold.
2:27:46
When the log cabin was reached, it was empty. No time was lost
2:27:52
here. The men, elated at being so close upon the outlaws, trail
2:27:56
marched with spirit and rapidity. The direction these had taken indicated that they were
2:28:03
straining every nerve to reach the mountain crag known as the Devil's Backbone. It
2:28:09
is said that from this point, some years previous devil ants Hatfield had fought
2:28:16
single handed a considerable force of men. It was then that the summit was
2:28:22
christened and received its weird name, and where old man Hatfield won his non
2:28:28
daguere of devil ants. The mountains in this section are very steep. In
2:28:35
the southeast, Beech Creek cuts in wines through the hills until it empties into
2:28:41
the tug Fork. Huge walls of rock fringe the stream. On each side.
2:28:48
The strata is tilted until it stands on edge, a remarkable, interesting
2:28:52
geological formation. Approach is impossible except from one direction. A slender footpath at
2:29:01
that point clambers laboriously upward at no place is their room for two men abreast,
2:29:09
two sharpshooters on top might successfully defend the place against a regiment. It
2:29:16
was this stronghold that Cap Hatfield and his companions were so anxious to gain.
2:29:22
He finally reached the foot of it, but at a loss. Old Man
2:29:26
McCoy was among the first of the attacking party, forging ahead with grim determination.
2:29:33
Intuitively, he seemed to know his old enemy's destination. McCoy and six
2:29:39
or seven men at last separated from the main body of the sheriff's force and
2:29:45
followed a cattle path. Sheriff Ketel pursued the other trail. It was along
2:29:52
in the afternoon that the quiet of the forest hills was suddenly broken by a
2:29:56
shot. Before another was heard. The armed posse was in a clearing which
2:30:03
commanded a view for a mile or more toward the Devil's backbone. Nothing,
2:30:07
however, could be seen, except that the summit of the citadel was yet
2:30:11
unoccupied. Then a white puff of smoke, followed instantly by a rapid fusillade,
2:30:20
told that the battle had begun. Mc coy and his party had intercepted
2:30:26
the Hatfields. At that distance, it was impossible to see the actors in
2:30:31
the drama then being acted. Shot followed shot. Both parties were in ambush,
2:30:39
ever, and anon Old Randolph McCoy's rifle could be heard. Then there
2:30:43
came a lull. By the aid of his field glasses, the sheriff saw
2:30:50
that Hatfield was flanking McCoy. It was plain that the old man must either
2:30:54
retreat or perish. But the old fox had not lost his cunning. He
2:31:01
quickly saw the danger and effected a safe retreat. While the Hatfield stopped at
2:31:07
the foot of the coveted fortress, it was seen that two of the Hatfield
2:31:11
crowd were wounded. The Sheriff and his posse now pressed forward with speed.
2:31:18
Within a few minutes they joined McCoy. It was almost dark now. When
2:31:24
the forces were once more united and approached within range of the Hatfield guns bullets
2:31:31
whistled and cut the twigs of limbs over the heads of the pursuers. The
2:31:37
sheriff commanded his men to seek cover. Instantly every man treed, then began
2:31:45
a fight, after the fashion of Indian battles of old. The moment a
2:31:50
body was exposed from a protecting tree, it was certain to become a target
2:31:54
for many guns. Gradually, carefully, never the less surely, the posse
2:32:01
forged ahead, always under cover, yet advancing, concentrating, and getting closer.
2:32:09
Escape for the Hatfields seemed now impossible unless they could put into effect one
2:32:15
of their wonderful dashes, which in the past had extricated them out of many
2:32:20
dangers and difficulties. Cap Hatfield directed the fire of his men with utter disregard
2:32:28
for their own safety. He seemed to bear a charmed life, the target
2:32:33
of every sharpshooter in the Sheriff's posse. Not once did a bullet touch him.
2:32:39
The Hatfield rifles did better execution. The posse, which had left Williamson
2:32:46
the previous morning with flying colors and full of hope, was now decimated.
2:32:52
Two of the deputies were fatally wounded, and seven members of the posse more
2:32:56
or less severely. As night drew near the battle ceased, the posse camped,
2:33:05
A council of war was held. Some were for pressing on in the
2:33:09
night, Others, with cooler judgment, suggested that it was safer to starve
2:33:16
the outlaws into submission. The latter opinion prevailed. Early on the following morning,
2:33:22
Friday, there was a short but hot skirmish, during which another of
2:33:28
the posse was wounded. At noon, the sheriff was reinforced by a force
2:33:33
led by J. H. Baldwin. This man had for some time led
2:33:39
the Hatfields a hard life. Ever on their trail he either captured them or
2:33:46
drove them from the country. Cap and his band were those who had given
2:33:50
him the most trouble, and had constantly eluded him thus far. Now he
2:33:56
had another opportunity to try conclusions with them. Baldwin was a splendidly courageous man,
2:34:03
and a crack shot with the rifle. He at once took the lead.
2:34:09
When I was a boy, he said, I smoked many a rabbit
2:34:13
out of a hollow tree. With this remark, he dispatched two men to
2:34:18
Williamson for a supply of dynamite. The besiegers sat down to wait. Late
2:34:26
on Friday evening, Baldwin winged one of the Hatfields the man had attempted to
2:34:33
reach water. At nine o'clock Saturday morning, the dynamite arrived and preparations were
2:34:39
made to place the mine. By eleven o'clock the work was complete, the
2:34:46
match applied, and the command given to retire until now the besieged had apparently
2:34:52
been in utter ignorance of what was being done. But the flashing of the
2:34:58
train of powder leading to the the dynamite brought them to a full realization of
2:35:03
their peril. Men sprang from cover and rushed hither and thither. In full
2:35:09
view. Cap Hatfield was seen to start for the path, heedless of the
2:35:13
bullets that spitefully hissed about his ears. Then they made a sudden rush down
2:35:20
the mountain. In this sortie three men went down. This convinced the rest
2:35:26
of the uselessness of an attempt to escape by the path. Thus guarded,
2:35:33
the trapped desperadoes returned to the fort and began to throw stones and boulders upon
2:35:39
the train of powder in the hope of breaking it. Then came the explosion.
2:35:45
It sounded as though the mountains were slipping from their sockets. Pieces of
2:35:50
rock and portions of trees flew in every direction. The atmosphere was surcharged with
2:35:56
dust and smoke. When the air cleared at last, it was seen that
2:36:03
more than half of the Devil's backbone was torn up and blown down the mountain
2:36:07
side into a small arm of the tug fork changing the course of the stream.
2:36:13
Hatfield was still unharmed. In the excitement of the moment, Dan Lewis,
2:36:20
Steve Stanley, and Jack Monroe of the Posse had left the shelter of
2:36:24
the trees and were wounded. Another charge of dynamite was placed, and the
2:36:31
besiegers retreated, still further down the valley. The second explosion shook the earth.
2:36:39
The Hatfields seemed doomed, but the moment the smoke cleared away, rifle
2:36:45
shots poured into the flank of Baldwin's men. Cap Hatfield had again successfully foiled
2:36:52
the plans of his pursuers. His retreat had been made possible under cover of
2:36:58
the smoke from the explosion. Thus the dynamite charge had effected nothing except the
2:37:05
destruction of one of nature's unique works. The chase was renewed, and though
2:37:11
hampered by the wounded members of his clan, he made his escape. The
2:37:16
spectacular attempt to capture the famous outlaw bore no fruit, save wounds for many
2:37:22
of the Posse. Cap Hatfield, the man who is said to have a
2:37:28
record of having killed eighteen men in his life, was gone. He was
2:37:33
never apprehended. Some years ago, he lived in Virginia, apparently peaceably,
2:37:41
but engaged in the sale of whiskey, a vocation which is almost certain to
2:37:45
get him into trouble again, as it did two of his brothers, Elias
2:37:50
and Troy, during October nineteen eleven. They were shot and killed in a
2:37:54
pistol duel at Kennelton, West Virginia by Octavo Jez, an Italian with whom
2:38:01
they had a dispute over a saloon property. The Italian opened fire upon the
2:38:07
two Hatfields, fatally wounded both, and was himself instantly killed, riddled with
2:38:15
bullets from the dying men. When the brothers were found by neighbors, the
2:38:20
expiring Troy Hatfield made the characteristic remark, you need not look for the man
2:38:26
who did this. He is dead. Years ago, the prophecy was made
2:38:33
that devil ants would inevitably die with his boots on, but he had confounded
2:38:39
the prophets. He still lives, from last accounts, the daring feudist who
2:38:46
with his sons defied the law and authorities of three states for twenty years.
2:38:52
The chieftain of as daring a band of outlaws as ever trod American soil,
2:38:58
has more than lived his lie lotted three scores and ten. He is approaching
2:39:03
the nineties. But a few days before the killing of Elias and Troy just
2:39:09
mentioned, he was converted and baptized, declaring that henceforth he would lead a
2:39:16
Christian life. It was high time, a resolution unfortunately long deferred. Randolph
2:39:24
McCoy also passed the four score mark. He seemed to have borne a charmed
2:39:30
life, marked for assassination a hundred times, he had always escaped bodily harm,
2:39:37
but his heart almost broke when three of his sons were slaughtered in one
2:39:41
night. His spirit was crushed when another son and a young daughter were foully
2:39:48
slain. His aged wife was brutally beaten and the home burned. After all,
2:39:56
he had the questionable satisfaction of assisting a few of his tormentors to a
2:40:01
temporary birth in the penitentiary. One and only one was hanged, Ellison Mount,
2:40:09
the slayer of Alafair, And he was the gainer at last, for
2:40:13
he went straight to heaven, so he said, perhaps he knew, perhaps
2:40:20
he didn't. Somehow, it seems difficult to believe that murderers should have a
2:40:26
monopoly of heaven. The murderer's band there must be very large. Let a
2:40:33
man be sentenced to death for a heinous crime. Let his attempt to obtain
2:40:37
a commutation to imprisonment prove abortive and straightway he repents, and always he goes
2:40:46
to heaven. So tis said his victim, snatched into eternity without the formal
2:40:52
preparations which Orthodox religion prescribes for candidates for heaven, must suffer in each otherternity
2:41:00
of hell. They tell us, we shall know each other. There will
2:41:05
Randolph McCoy and his wife thrill with pleasure and be overcome with ecstatic spasms of
2:41:11
happiness on beholding among the saints the slayers of four sons and a daughter.
2:41:18
Will they join in the anthems warbled by these celestial birds whose victims. But
2:41:24
let that be. We did not mean to be irreverent. We simply cannot
2:41:30
help differing from the approved and established conception of God's justice. The Tolliver,
2:41:37
Martin Logan, Vendetta, Rowan County. The royal murder at Sarajevo was the
2:41:43
spark that set the world on fire. It would be silly, however,
2:41:48
to place the blame of the World War upon it. To find the real
2:41:52
causes of the appalling tragedy, one must go further back, So it is
2:41:58
with the Great Rowan County War. There were many agency at work that contributed,
2:42:05
little by little, but nonetheless surely to that state of anarchy which disgraced
2:42:11
Rowan County and Kentucky during the eighties. The evil influences which initiated it were
2:42:18
politics and whiskey. A weak need yea corrupt administration of justice permitted its continuation.
2:42:28
The reign of terror, which continued so long unhindered, could have been
2:42:31
crushed in its infancy with any sort of an honest, determined effort at law
2:42:37
enforcement. A verse or two of Mulligan's in Kentucky finds excellent application here.
2:42:46
The bluegrass waves the bluest in Kentucky, yet blue bloods are the fewest in
2:42:52
Kentucky. Moonshine is the clearest, by no means the dearest, and yet
2:42:58
it acts the queerest in Kentucky. The dove notes are the saddest in Kentucky.
2:43:05
The streams dance in the gladdest in Kentucky. Hip pockets are the thickest,
2:43:11
pistol hands the slickest, The cylinder turns quickest in Kentucky. The songbirds
2:43:18
are the sweetest in Kentucky. The thoroughbreds are fleetest in Kentucky. Mountains tower
2:43:26
proudest, thunder peals the loudest, the landscape is the grandest, and politics
2:43:33
the damnedest in Kentucky. In the long continued struggle which brought Rowan County into
2:43:41
disrepute, many families of high reputation, men of wealth and influence, as
2:43:48
well as men of reckless, undaunted, desperate character, were pitted against each
2:43:54
other. Officers of the law, lawyers, judges, and politics of more
2:44:00
than ordinary ability and reputation quarreled, disputed, and excited such unreasoning passion as
2:44:07
to result in bloodshed. After that, the dogged, stubborn determination of the
2:44:15
different factions admitted of no other settlement of the controversy save by the arbitrament of
2:44:22
arms. A war to the death. Patrick Henry cried out before the Virginia
2:44:26
Convention. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace in
2:44:35
Rowan County. Two men cried continually for peace, Yet there was to be
2:44:39
no peace until anarchy had almost depopulated the county, and its name had become
2:44:46
synonymous with outlawry. The only alternative left was to leave the county or fight.
2:44:54
Some did leave, most of them remained and fought, fought with the
2:45:00
courage worthy of a better cause. The courts appeared powerless, the officers were
2:45:07
themselves bitter partisans. The government of the state, when applied to for troops
2:45:13
to assist in restoring order, sometimes refused aid, owing to a technicality in
2:45:18
the law, and thus was precipitated the famous bloody battle at Moorhead, in
2:45:24
which many men were killed and wounded. It may be well to add that
2:45:31
Rowan County was not a remote, inaccessible region where civilization had made but little
2:45:37
progress, as was the case along the border of West Virginia and Kentucky,
2:45:41
the scene of the Hatfield McCoy war. Good roads and railroad communication had introduced
2:45:48
to Rowan County. Even then, a civilization which should have made the bloody
2:45:54
conflict impossible. It certainly made it inexcusable. It is difficult to produce a
2:46:01
fair picture of the political upheavals and complications which eventually led to and resulted in
2:46:07
so much bloodshed without going behind the actual outbreak of the feud. While this
2:46:15
necessitates the narration of incidents of purely local interest and may therefore not grip the
2:46:22
interest of outsiders. A patient reading of it will develop the fact that it
2:46:28
is indispensable to a true understanding of the history of this war, and also
2:46:33
that it teaches a moral As early as eighteen seventy four, political quarrels arose
2:46:41
and gendering bitter hatred between prominent, wealthy and influential men of Rowan and surrounding
2:46:48
counties. At that time, it was hoped and generally believed that the difficulties
2:46:54
would be forgotten as soon as the heat of the political contests had abated.
2:47:00
But as the years passed, factional division grew more and more pronounced. Citizens
2:47:07
who had theretofore held aloof from the disputes were gradually and surely drawn into the
2:47:13
vortex of strife. As is usual and unavoidable under such circumstances, many desperate,
2:47:20
degraded characters attached themselves to the various factions. These would commit deeds for
2:47:28
pay from the commission of which the more circumspect employers of them shrank in fear.
2:47:35
In such wars, the highered assassin always finds lucrative employment. He becomes
2:47:41
the blind tool of the coward with the money, and the greater the compensation,
2:47:46
the more horrible his crimes. The innocent but direct cause of the political
2:47:52
struggle to which we must refer was the honorable Thomas F. Hargis, who,
2:47:58
in act after years, rose to the highest judicial position in the state.
2:48:05
His father before him, served in the Constitutional Convention of the state in
2:48:09
eighteen forty nine, and was a very distinguished Kentuckian. When the Great Rebellion
2:48:16
broke out, Kentucky soon began to suffer the distress and horrors of civil war.
2:48:24
It at first declared its intention to remain neutral. Governor Macoffin refused to
2:48:30
furnish troops to the Union Army and attempted to enforce neutrality by maintaining a Home
2:48:37
Guard. This brought on many conflicts with the State Guards. It became at
2:48:43
once apparent that the two bodies of troops were nothing more than partisans. The
2:48:48
Home Guards often employed their military power and authority in harassing and mistreating actual or
2:48:54
suspected sympathizers with the cause of the South. The State Guards, on the
2:49:01
other hand, used their influence and made every exertion toward turning the tide of
2:49:05
public sentiment in favor of the Confederacy. The sudden invasion of Kentucky by the
2:49:13
Federal troops was greeted with joy by the Home Guards, who made no attempt
2:49:18
to repel it or to preserve the state's neutrality, for which purpose they had
2:49:22
been organized. The larger portion of the Home Guards, in fact, at
2:49:28
once joined the Union army. The State Guards disbanded, and a majority of
2:49:33
them joined the Confederates. The division of Kentucky was now complete. In the
2:49:41
general rush to opposing armies, we find Thomas Hargis donning the gray and fighting
2:49:46
for the lost cause as captain until the close of the war. Returning home,
2:49:54
he studied law and was admitted to the bar. The date of this
2:49:58
admission, and unimportant point, it may seem, was nevertheless responsible for the
2:50:03
internecine strife of after years. In the year eighteen seventy four, Captain Hargus,
2:50:11
who had already won prominence as a lawyer of ability and sagacity, was
2:50:16
nominated by the Democratic Party as its candidate for Judge of the Circuit Court.
2:50:22
Opposed to Hargus in this race was George M. Thomas. Afterwards United States
2:50:28
District Attorney for the District of Kentucky. He was the nominee of the Republican
2:50:35
Party. The race was exceedingly hot and spirited from the beginning. The contest
2:50:41
became bitter. It was charged by the friends of Thomas, among whom were
2:50:46
not only the Republicans whose nominee and choice he was, but enemies of Hargus
2:50:52
in the ranks of his own party, that he was not eligible to the
2:50:56
office because he had not attained the requis and that he was still further disqualified
2:51:03
from holding the position of circuit judge because he had not been licensed as a
2:51:07
lawyer for a sufficient number of years. These reports were industriously circulated against him.
2:51:16
Appreciating the danger of such a rumor in a contest like this was,
2:51:22
and knowing that only a prompt refudiation and repudiation of the charges could prevent his
2:51:28
signal and disastrous defeat, he hastened to obtain copies of the records of his
2:51:33
age and of the date of his admission to the bar from the records of
2:51:37
the Clerk's office. At the time of his candidacy, Hargus was a resident
2:51:43
of Carlisle, Nicholas County, but when admitted to the practice of the law
2:51:48
had resided in Rowan County, so the records of his admission to the bar
2:51:54
must be obtained there. He therefore went at once to moor Head and instituted
2:52:01
an examination of the records. But to his consternation, it revealed the astounding
2:52:07
fact that the only record and evidence of his admission to the bar had been
2:52:11
mutilated and destroyed. The pages containing them had been cut off from the books.
2:52:20
Added to this was the unwelcome discovery that the family Bible had also been
2:52:24
mutilated, insofar as it contained the record of his age. The charges of
2:52:31
ineligibility had been widely circulated and published in the newspapers, and Hargas's inability to
2:52:39
refute them for lack of record evidence now gave them the stamp and color of
2:52:43
truth. The Republicans and the personal enemies of Hargus among the Democrats, were
2:52:50
jubilant, while his friends flatly and broadly accused Thomas's friends and supporters of the
2:52:56
crime of stealing and destroyingublic records. This further increased the already bitter feeling.
2:53:05
The friends of Thomas now charged that if any such records had ever existed,
2:53:11
Hargus himself had stolen and destroyed them. The result of it all was that
2:53:18
Hargus was defeated by his Republican opponent, and this in a district theretofore always
2:53:24
safely democratic. The close of the contest brought out another truth, no longer
2:53:30
to be denied or overlooked. Every circumstance and condition existing after the election pointed
2:53:37
clearly to the fact that something more than factional political animosity common in all hotly
2:53:45
contested races for position, had been awakened, and that in the hearts of
2:53:50
many, malice had taken deep route. Each succeeding election only augmented the bitter
2:53:56
feeling desire for revenge, and what at first seemed but political excitement and zeal
2:54:05
for the favored candidate now caused friends of old to cancel their friendship, and
2:54:11
the most prominent leaders of the opposing factions regarded each other no longer as merely
2:54:16
political, but as personal enemies. In the year eighteen seventy six, the
2:54:24
legislature of Kentucky created a circuit court for commonwealth proceedings alone, the new district
2:54:31
being composed of the same counties as the old. Hargis again announced himself a
2:54:37
candidate for judge of the newly organized court. This time he was elected with
2:54:43
an easy majority. He continued in this office, which he filled with signal
2:54:48
ability, until in the spring of eighteen seventy nine, when an event took
2:54:54
place which opened to him the road to still higher honors, and also so
2:55:00
still further fanned the flame of political and personal strife. The event referred to
2:55:07
was the vacancy created on the bench of the Court of Appeals as the result
2:55:11
of a tragedy enacted upon the streets of the capital of the state at Frankfort,
2:55:16
the assassination of Appellate Judge J. M. Eliot by one Thomas bufferd.
2:55:24
The tragic death of this able jurist horrified all Kentucky. His slayer pleaded
2:55:31
insanity. The trial jury on first ballot stood six for conviction and six for
2:55:39
acquittal on the ground of insanity. Finally, the verdict of the whole jury
2:55:45
declared him insane. He was transferred to the asylum at Anchorage, where he
2:55:52
remained but a short time he escaped to Indiana, where he remained because our
2:55:58
requisition laws were then not sufficient to enforce his return to Kentucky. Immediately after
2:56:05
the death of Justice Eliot, an election was ordered for his successor, and
2:56:11
Judge Harris again became a candidate before the Democratic Convention. A number of able
2:56:18
and distinguished jurists opposed him before that body, many of these much older and
2:56:24
experienced than he. In spite of the powerful opposition brought to bear against him,
2:56:31
Judge Hargas again succeeded in obtaining the nomination, another proof of his political
2:56:37
influence, as well as of his talents and abilities as a lawyer and politician.
2:56:43
This last and most important success of Hargus aroused anew the malign hatred and
2:56:48
envy of his numerous enemies in the camps of his own party. The old
2:56:54
charges were renewed, remodeled, rehashed, renovated, and added to. As
2:57:00
the occasion demanded. The story of his wilful, felonious destruction and mutilation of
2:57:07
court records was republished and more extensively circulated than ever. Newspapers, circulars,
2:57:16
handbills, and letters telling the story were scattered throughout the district, posted up
2:57:22
at all public places, on fences and trees along the highways, thus increasing
2:57:28
factional enmity to a dangerous intensity. Opposed to him in this race was Judge
2:57:35
Holt, a Republican politician and lawyer of prominence and of unassailable purity of character.
2:57:43
The contest between these men was waged with spirit, with the result that
2:57:48
the mantle of Judge Elliott fell upon Judge Hargas. During the canvass Judge Hargus,
2:57:56
through the Courier Journal and other newspapers, had denounced the person over whose
2:58:01
signatures a number of the scandalous accusations and derogatory charges had been made as liars,
2:58:07
calumniators, and villains. Thomas M. Greene, editor of the Maysville
2:58:13
Eagle, also correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, had been most persistent in
2:58:20
industriously keeping the disparaging accusations against Hargus in the columns of the Republican Press of
2:58:28
the Country. Editor green was, in consequence, singled out by Hargus in
2:58:33
his card to the Courier Journal as the chief offender, assailing him in most
2:58:39
bitter terms. Green applied to the law for redress and instituted suit for libel
2:58:46
in the Jefferson Circuit Court at Louisville, asking for a large sum in damages.
2:58:54
Early in the spring of eighteen eighty the case came on for trial,
2:59:00
waived all questions of jurisdiction, which it had been expected he would use as
2:59:05
a defense. He somewhat staggered his enemies by admitting responsibility for the article upon
2:59:11
which the suit was based and declaring his ability to prove the charges made against
2:59:16
Green as true. The trial lasted for many months. It was minutely reported
2:59:24
in the press of the country and read everywhere. Even now, the angel
2:59:30
of good fortune did not desert Judge Hargus. He won the case. During
2:59:35
this period, the controversy between Green and Hargus had very sharply aligned the friends
2:59:41
and enemies in Rowan County. So complete was the breach that the thoughtful ones
2:59:48
looked forward to open actual hostilities. Hope of compromise disappeared as time passed.
2:59:58
A storm so long brewing is apt to accumulate extraordinary force. A fury long
3:00:05
pent up will break loose with greater fierceness. The strife had penetrated every neighborhood,
3:00:11
almost every household. Any public occasion, especially the biennial election, was
3:00:18
looked forward to with dread. Minor political contests waged in these elections served to
3:00:26
open old sores and to inflict new wounds, adding material for the spirit of
3:00:33
revenge to feed upon. At that time, the Australian ballot system had not
3:00:39
yet been introduced, The viva voce system was in vogue, and bribery in
3:00:45
elections was therefore much more common than it is now. Candidates practically bought their
3:00:52
offices. The voter cast his vote publicly, it was recorded publicly and trial
3:01:00
publicly. In this wise, the buyer of the vote controlled the seller,
3:01:05
and very often vote sellers were driven en mass to the polls like so many
3:01:11
sheep, a cause of innumerable election fights. Another successful instigator of trouble on
3:01:18
election day was the free and promiscuous use of liquor, with which candidates treated
3:01:24
and influenced the voters. Election contests frequently excite the most staid and conservative citizens,
3:01:33
but when whiskey is added, it is certain to arouse passions which might
3:01:39
otherwise have slumbered on. Such were conditions in Rowan County on the day of
3:01:45
election August eighteen eighty four. A hot political race was on between one S.
3:01:52
B. Gooden, the Democratic nominee for Sheriff of the county, and
3:01:56
W. C. Humphrey, commonly known as Cook Humphrey, the Republican nominee.
3:02:03
The county being almost equally divided politically, the contest was close. Each
3:02:09
of the candidates was wealthy, influential, and extensively related. Money was used
3:02:16
without stint. Bar rooms were thrown wide open at Moorhead, the county seat
3:02:22
and principal town of the county, as well as at most other precincts in
3:02:28
the county. The town was crowded with excited, angry, drunken men,
3:02:33
and all through the day there were fist fights and brawls. During one of
3:02:39
these, the prelude to the conflict, which afterward attracted the attention of the
3:02:43
American press, John Martin, son of Ben Martin, a wealthy farmer,
3:02:50
was struck down and seriously injured. He immediately sprang to his feet, drew
3:02:56
his pistol, and a general pistol battle for followed. When the smoke had
3:03:01
cleared away, Solomon Bradley was found dead, Adam Sizemore severely wounded. The
3:03:09
death of Bradley, a good citizen who had taken no part in the fighting,
3:03:15
and the wounding of Sizemore and Martin proved of fatal consequences. Bradley was
3:03:22
one of the most influential republicans of the county. He and John Martin were
3:03:26
members of the best families and extensively related. Even in adjoining counties. The
3:03:35
Martins were known to be ambitious and brave men. It appeared that Martin received
3:03:41
his wounds at the hands of Floyd Tolliver, a brother of Craig Tolliver,
3:03:46
who afterwards attained such unenviable notoriety and bore the distinction of being one of the
3:03:52
most cruel, bloodthirsty desperadoes Kentucky ever had the misfortune to own as her son,
3:03:58
and whose tragic death on the day of the memorable battle at Moorhead some
3:04:03
years later was heralded throughout the country. John C. Day, the then
3:04:09
acting Sheriff of Rowan County, was charged with the shooting and wounding of size
3:04:16
More. The first blood had now been spilt, Moore was bound to follow.
3:04:22
Even the most hopeful became convinced that a long and bloody conflict could no
3:04:28
longer be averted. Those best acquainted with the state of affairs knew and rightly
3:04:33
predicted that the law would not be invoked to settle the trouble and punish the
3:04:39
offenders. A life for a life was the motto that henceforth governed the factions
3:04:45
now arrayed against each other in open desperate warfare. The wounding of Martin by
3:04:52
Floyd Tolliver placed the latter and his friends and relatives in a dangerous position.
3:04:58
They knew them Martin's would not pass lightly over the matter. Their numbers and
3:05:03
influence made them dangerous adversaries. Floyd Tolliver lived at Farmers, a small village
3:05:11
on the Licking River, a station of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway which traverses
3:05:18
the county and passes through Moorhead. The Tollivers also were a large family.
3:05:26
Floyd, believing himself in danger, now turned to his relatives and friends for
3:05:31
assistance. They responded promptly, armed and organized. The Martins, the Sizemores,
3:05:39
and the Days did likewise, thus dividing the county into four factions composed
3:05:46
of determined, courageous, and desperate men. During the circuit court following the
3:05:52
murder of Bradley, the grand jury returned indictments against John Martin, Floyd Tolliver,
3:05:58
and Sheriff John C. Day for malicious shooting and wounding and murder.
3:06:05
Bail was granted. Bonds were readily executed, and the cases continued until the
3:06:11
next term of court in December. Following the fight of August eighteen eighty four,
3:06:18
Floyd Tolliver and John Martin, who had recovered from his wounds, came
3:06:24
for the first time face to face outside of the court room and when not
3:06:30
in custody of the officers since their fight, They met in a bar room,
3:06:35
a place never suitable for enemies to meet. Had both men been duly
3:06:41
sober, trouble might have been averted. But flushed with liquor, the old
3:06:46
grudge soon got in its work. A dispute arose. Their hands reached for
3:06:52
their pistols. The shining weapons flashed for a moment, then belched forth fire
3:06:58
and flame, a cry the dull thud of a falling body. Floyd Tolliver
3:07:05
lay prostrate upon the floor dead. Martin was immediately arrested and conveyed to the
3:07:11
county jail. To his friends, the killing was a shock. They were
3:07:18
fully convinced that Craig Tolliver and the other brothers of Floyd Tolliver would seek summary
3:07:24
vengeance. Grave fears were entertained for the safety of John Martin. In the
3:07:30
old jail, rumors of the organization of a large Tolliver mob increased anxiety and
3:07:37
apprehension with each fleeting hour. But as much as the Tollivers were feared,
3:07:43
and the more they threatened, Martin's friends bravely prepared to protect him at all
3:07:50
hazards. Thus the aggressiveness of the Tollivers was counteracted by the bold defiance of
3:07:56
the Martins. The County atturnejourney, mister Young was one of the ablest and
3:08:03
most fearless Commonwealth lawyers in Kentucky. By his enemies, and they were numerous,
3:08:09
he was regarded as wholly unscrupulous. They refused to credit him with even
3:08:15
one pure thought or action emanating from a noble impulse. But unbiased investigation of
3:08:22
the facts of this matter clearly shows that mister Young did his duty. In
3:08:26
this particular. He was perfectly acquainted with the character of the men arrayed against
3:08:33
Martin, and was not the man to be deluded by their repeated declarations that
3:08:37
the law would be permitted to take its course. At the risk of antagonizing
3:08:43
the Tulliver faction against himself, mister Young promptly directed the removal of John Martin
3:08:50
to the Clark County Jail at Winchester for safe keeping. County Judge Stewart saw
3:08:56
the wisdom of it and issued the order for the removal, which was accomplished
3:09:01
without mishap. As soon as it became known that their intended victim had escaped
3:09:07
them, the Tollivers, furious and raging, gathered in large force, spreading
3:09:13
terror wherever they appeared. We can wait, they said, There is another
3:09:20
day coming. John Martin must be brought back to Morehead for trial, and
3:09:26
then just wait. December tenth, eighteen eighty four, was the day set
3:09:33
for the examining trial before County Judge Stuart at Moorhead. Before that day arrived,
3:09:39
the unusual activity of the Tollivers, the ominous collection of all the members
3:09:45
and friends of that family. The frequent but secret meetings had been quietly but
3:09:50
nevertheless keenly observed by Judge Stuart. He was convinced that if Martin were brought
3:09:58
back to Rowan County at this u time of ferment and excitement, he would
3:10:01
suffer a violent death at the hands of his enemies, and that any attempt
3:10:07
on the part of the officers and friends of the prisoner would precipitate a conflict,
3:10:11
the magnitude of which could not be foretold. In this opinion, Judge
3:10:18
Stewart was sustained by Attorney Young. After a careful investigation of the state of
3:10:24
affairs, the court decided on an indefinite postponement of the trial. The order
3:10:31
to the jailer of Clark County directing him to deliver Martin to officers of Rowan
3:10:37
County was suspended on the ninth day of December, but, unfortunately fateful neglect,
3:10:43
the order of suspension was not communicated to the Clark County jailer. The
3:10:50
wife of John Martin had been advised of the postponement of the trial. The
3:10:56
faithful woman, who had already suffered untold anxiety and fees for the safety of
3:11:01
her husband, felt relieved and hastened to Winchester to inform him of the action
3:11:07
of the Court of Rowan County. As soon as the tollivers were informed that
3:11:11
the trial would not take place and that therefore Martin would remain at Winchester for
3:11:18
an indefinite time, they convened in a Council of War to discuss plans of
3:11:24
campaign. A raid upon the Winchester jail was suggested, but the leaders,
3:11:31
though desperate and brave enough to have attempted and dared anything, did not believe
3:11:37
that such an undertaking would meet with success. They advised strategy instead of force.
3:11:46
On the ninth of December, on the same day that Judge Stewart canceled
3:11:50
the order for delivery of the prisoner by the Jailer of Clark County, an
3:11:54
order was delivered into the hands of a m Bowling town Marshal at Farmer,
3:12:00
directing him to demand Martin from the jailer at Winchester and to convey him to
3:12:05
the county jail at Moorhead. The order also directed the jailer of Clark County
3:12:11
to surrender Martin into the custody of Bowling. The plot was shrewdly planned.
3:12:18
The order forged, of course, would open the doors of the Winchester jail
3:12:24
without difficulty, and the prisoner must therefore become an easy victim. On his
3:12:28
way to Rowan County Bowling, a Tulliver clansman engaged four other members of it
3:12:35
to accompany him to Winchester Hall. Eastman Milt and ed Evans four men to
3:12:43
convey a handcuffed prisoner it was deemed best to send a sufficient number to prevent
3:12:50
outsiders from interfering in the final act of the inhuman drama staged by Craig Tolliver
3:12:56
and his henchmen. On arriving at the jail at Winchester, Bowling presented his
3:13:03
order, which was signed by two justices of the Peace of Rowan County,
3:13:07
and which directed the delivery of Martin to Bowling. The order was carefully drawn
3:13:13
in the usual form and had every appearance of genuineness. A few minutes after
3:13:20
John Martin's wife had bidden her husband goodbye, at the Winchester Jail, Bowling
3:13:26
presented his order for the delivery of Martin. While the wife was at the
3:13:31
station awaiting the arrival of the train which was to carry her homeward, little
3:13:37
dreaming that she had clasped the hand of her husband, warm with life for
3:13:41
the last time. The prisoner was aroused by his keeper and told to prepare
3:13:46
for his removal to Moorhead. Martin at once became suspicious. He remonstrated against
3:13:54
the transfer, but the jailer produced the order. The prisoner pleaded long and
3:14:00
earnestly. He explained to the official that he had received definite information through his
3:14:07
wife that on account of the danger that awaited him at Moorhead, the county
3:14:11
authorities of Rowan County had indefinitely postponed his removal. He insisted that Bowling and
3:14:18
his companions were his deadly enemies, that every surrounding circumstance pointed to treachery,
3:14:24
and that his delivery into the hands of Bowling meant nothing more nor less than
3:14:30
assassination. The jailer turned a deaf ear to his entreaties. He argued that
3:14:37
a refusal to comply with the imperative order of the Rowan County Judge would involve
3:14:43
him in trouble. He had no right to believe the order forged. It
3:14:48
bore the stamp of genuineness. It seems to us, however, that a
3:14:54
more circumspect officer, informed of the conditions and circumstances surrounding the prisoner, acquainted
3:15:01
with a dangerous state of affairs in Rowan County as the result of which Martin
3:15:05
had been removed to Winchester, would have held the prisoner until he could have
3:15:11
communicated with the authorities at Moorhead. Disobedience to the court's orders intended for the
3:15:18
protection of a helpless prisoner could not have been subject to censure, especially when
3:15:24
the forgery of the order was later on established, He might easily have verified
3:15:30
the genuineness of the paper by telegraph. Blind obedience often works injury. Threatening
3:15:39
disasters through blunders of commanding officers have often been averted by the disobedience of inferior
3:15:46
officers who preferred facing court martial rather than become a party to useless slaughter and
3:15:52
defeat. John Martin was delivered to Bowling and his companions securely shackled. He
3:16:01
was marched to the train. Doubtless he suffered the same mental agony as does
3:16:07
the man on the way to the scaffold. It was pathetic chance that missus
3:16:11
Martin boarded the same train. She entered another coach, entirely ignorant of her
3:16:18
husband's presence in the next one. While this occurred at Winchester, Craig Tolliver
3:16:24
and his band had already assembled at Farmers, ready to play their part in
3:16:30
the cowardly deed. Armed to the teeth, they were posted at and near
3:16:35
the railway station, impatiently awaiting the arrival of the train. The night was
3:16:41
dark and disagreeable, perfectly suited for a hold up. Presently, the flash
3:16:48
of light pierces the gloom. The shriek of the engine whistle echoes mournfully through
3:16:54
the night. The train bearing John Martin thunders toward the state. The air
3:17:01
brakes wheeze, the train slows up. The conductor cries all out for farm.
3:17:09
He does not finish the call of the station. A pistol is thrust
3:17:13
into his face. Armed men board the engine and cover the engineer and firemen.
3:17:20
Others enter the coach in which Martin is sitting, handcuffed, utterly helpless,
3:17:24
surrounded by Bowling and his confederates. Martin sees the men enter and instinctively
3:17:31
realizes that his end is come. He attempts to rise to his feet.
3:17:37
Instantly shots are fired. Martin sinks back upon his seat, lifeless, his
3:17:45
protectors calmly witnessing the murder. Martin's wife in another coach, had up to
3:17:52
this time believed her husband secure in his cell at Winchester, but the moment
3:17:58
she heard the shots on account undefinable dread seized her. Instinctively, she rushed
3:18:05
to the scene of the tragedy and found her suspicions. Realized there lay the
3:18:11
blood covered body of her husband, literally torn to pieces and perforated with leaden
3:18:18
messengers of death. All that the faithful, grief stricken wife could do was
3:18:24
to order the remains taken on to Moorhead. Martin was buried amid a large
3:18:31
concourse of sorrowing friends and relatives. The solemnity of the occasion accorded ill with
3:18:37
the many oppressed yet nonetheless ominous threats of terrible and swift punishment of the murderers.
3:18:45
The news of the cowardly assassination spread like wildfire over the county. The
3:18:52
war had begun in earnest from the day John Martin's body was consigned to the
3:18:58
grave, the angel of departed from Rowan County. For more than three years,
3:19:03
a reign of terror was to sweep over it, with all its attendant
3:19:07
horrors, cutting a wide path of desolation and misery. Deeds of violence now
3:19:15
occurred at frequent intervals. All manner of crime went unpunished by the law.
3:19:22
The whole machinery of the law was rotten, the officers of the courts being
3:19:28
themselves partisans in some instances very active as such. Mister Young, the County
3:19:35
Attorney, was the first to feel the wrath of the Martin Faction. While
3:19:41
riding along the road on Christie Creek. He was shot from ambush and painfully
3:19:46
but not fatally wounded. The perpetrators of this deed were not definitely known,
3:19:52
but Young's friends claimed to have certain information that the men who attempted his assassination
3:20:00
had acted under instructions from the Martin faction, which had openly accused Young of
3:20:05
playing into the hands of the Tollivers, and had even gone so far as
3:20:09
to allege that he had with them connived in the murder of John Martin,
3:20:16
whether he was or was not a Tolliver sympathizer. Another murder, committed soon
3:20:20
afterward, was laid at the door of the Tollivers. To avenge it was
3:20:26
charged the wounding of mister Young. Under the circumstances, this gentleman determined to
3:20:33
and did remove from the county, where his life was evidently no longer safe.
3:20:39
He located in an adjoining county. At the succeeding election, his son
3:20:46
was elected to the office his father had vacated. The murder above referred to
3:20:52
was that of Stuart Baumgardner Cook Humphrey, the Republican sheriff, had appointed him
3:20:58
a deputy. On the seventeenth day of March eighteen eighty five, Bombgartner rode
3:21:05
along Christie Creek, when almost at the identical spot where mister Young had been
3:21:11
fired upon, he was shot and instantly killed from ambush. No one was
3:21:18
ever indicted for that killing, but it was generally believed charged and never denied,
3:21:24
that Craig Tolliver's subordinates were the murderers. Shortly after the death of Bombgartner,
3:21:33
and during the month of April eighteen eighty five, Cook Humphrey and a
3:21:37
stranger afterwards ascertained to have been ed Pearce of Greenup County, Kentucky, appeared
3:21:43
on the streets of Moorhead, heavily armed and followed by a number of Martin
3:21:50
sympathizers. This act of defiance called forth bitter denunciation from the Tollivers and their
3:21:56
friends, among whom was ex Sheriff Day and Jeff Bowling, Men of reckless
3:22:03
courage. The leaders of the opposing factions assembled every available man and provided them
3:22:11
with arms. The most determined preparations were made to fight out their differences on
3:22:18
the streets of Moorhead. Humphrey's headquarters were at the Kerry House, a hotel
3:22:24
owned and operated by James Carey, an ex captain of the Union Army and
3:22:30
a very influential citizen. The Tollivers occupied the Cottage hotel near the Chesapeake and
3:22:37
Ohio Railway depot, then owned by doctor R. L. Raines as quickly
3:22:45
as possible. A message was forwarded to Craig Tolliver, absent from Warhead at
3:22:50
the time. He came accompanied by a number of Tollivers from Elliott County.
3:22:58
The battle opened fast and furious. A continuous fire from many guns kept the
3:23:03
citizens of the town in terror for many hours. The balls whizzed through every
3:23:09
portion of the ill fated village. Storehouses and dwellings were riddled. None dared
3:23:16
to enter the streets or expose his body for an instant. The carry house
3:23:22
apparently bore the brunt of the firing. Hundreds of balls struck and shattered the
3:23:28
slight frame structure. The Tollivers, beside superior numbers, had the advantage of
3:23:35
position. Their marksmanship was better too. Humphrey and his clan soon realized that
3:23:43
a charge upon their position would mean their annihilation, so at an opportune moment,
3:23:50
the carry house was abandoned, and the Tollivers remained in undisputed control.
3:23:56
In spite of the long, continued heavy firing, an unremitting fusillade of many
3:24:03
hours duration, there were no casualties. The battle, however, exercised such
3:24:09
a terrifying influence over the peaceable citizens of the town that all that could left
3:24:16
Morehead. In fact, the county was now in a state of anarchy.
3:24:22
The matter was reported to the governor, who immediately ordered General John B.
3:24:28
Castleman, then Adjutant General of Kentucky, to Moorhead, to investigate conditions there
3:24:35
and to discover the causes of this shameful lawlessness. General Castleman, in company
3:24:43
with others, went to Moorhead and interviewed the adherents of the different factions and
3:24:48
leading citizens of the county. This commission, on completing its mission, reported
3:24:56
its findings to the governor. The result was that the leading spirits in the
3:25:01
feud were summoned to Louisville, Kentucky, where a compromise was patched up between
3:25:07
the belligerents. Both sides pledged themselves to return home, to lay down their
3:25:13
arms, and to cease to molest each other. This proceeding brought into prominence.
3:25:20
H. M. Logan judged James Carey and Cook Humphrey as adherents of
3:25:26
the Martin faction, and Craig Tolliver, doctor Jerry Wilson, and others as
3:25:33
the Tolliver Faction leaders. The agreement entered into it Louisville, intended to restore
3:25:39
peace, effected the opposite result. It prevented prosecution of either side for the
3:25:46
Moorhead Riot. The leniency extended by the authorities merely emboldened and encouraged the warring
3:25:54
parties. The truce was violated by both sides within short time after it had
3:26:01
been agreed to. The factions charged each other with insincerity of secretly maintaining armed
3:26:09
bands and preparing for renewed hostilities. Within a few weeks after the compromise at
3:26:16
Louisville, conditions in Rowan County were as bad as ever, nay worse,
3:26:22
as we have stated. The shooting of Young, the county attorney, had
3:26:28
been charged to the Martin faction. In retaliation for this crime, the Tollivers
3:26:35
had murdered Sheriff Humphrey's deputy, Bombgartner. Subsequent developments then seemed to directly implicate
3:26:43
Cook Humphrey in the shooting of Young, and this led to a renewal of
3:26:46
active hostilities. It appears that immediately after the treaty at Louisville, Ed Pierce,
3:26:54
the man who had so mysteriously appeared on the streets of Moorhead in the
3:27:00
company with Cook Humphrey on the day of the riot, was arrested in Greenup
3:27:05
County and taken to Bath County for trial on a charge of robbery. A
3:27:11
jury found him guilty. He was sentenced to the penitentiary for a long term.
3:27:18
While confined in jail previous to his trial, he admitted his participating in
3:27:24
the shooting of mister Young, implicating also Ben Rayburn of Carter County, a
3:27:30
man but little known in Rowan County. In his confession, Pierce claimed to
3:27:37
have been employed to kill mister Young by the sisters and family of John Martin,
3:27:41
and that Sheriff Humphrey and Bomgartner, his deputy, had aided and assisted
3:27:46
in arranging the details of the plot. Humphrey and the Martins indignantly denied every
3:27:54
word of Pierce's confession and asserted that he had been bribed by mister k Young
3:28:00
to make it for the purpose of destroying the prestige of the Martin family in
3:28:05
the county, and to furnish the excuse for further outrages. Humphrey and the
3:28:11
Martin family were now put under constant surveillance by the Tollivers. The Martin homestead,
3:28:18
situated about one mile from Morehead, became an object of special vigilance.
3:28:26
Finally, on the evening of the twenty seventh day of July eighteen eighty five,
3:28:31
the Tolliver spies reported to their leader at Moorhead that two men had been
3:28:37
seen around the Martin home. Instantly everything was in commotion at the Tolliver headquarters.
3:28:46
Craig Tolliver, Jeff Bowling, Ta Day, and others, all sworn
3:28:52
enemies of the Martins, surrounded the homestead in the dark of night and remained
3:28:58
on watch until morning. Shortly after daylight, a stranger afterwards recognized as Ben
3:29:05
Rayborne, in company of Sioux Martin, a young woman of much native sense
3:29:11
and energy, emerged from the house and robbed a beehive in the yard without
3:29:16
having discovered the enemy. Rayborne was heavily armed. His presence convinced the Tollivers
3:29:24
that Cook Humphrey was in the house. They now determined upon the attack,
3:29:31
but to avoid possible failure of the plot, it was deemed necessary to increase
3:29:37
the force. A messenger was hurriedly dispatched to Moorhead. A short time afterwards,
3:29:45
the Tollivers had assembled a force of twenty five or thirty men, among
3:29:50
whom were many of the most violent men of Rowan County. At nine o'clock,
3:29:56
Craig Tolliver had stationed this force at every point of van. Then he
3:30:01
and Bowling appeared at the front door, with Winchester rifles gleaming in the sunlight.
3:30:07
For the first time. The inmates of the house seemed aware of the
3:30:11
presence of the enemy. There was apparently no chance of escape. Every door
3:30:18
was securely guarded. Tolliver was met at the door by the brave Martin girls,
3:30:24
who demanded an explanation for the intrusion. Tolliver demanded the surrender of Cook
3:30:31
Humphrey and any other man or men that might be with him. The girls
3:30:37
stoutly denied the presence of anyone save the members of the family. Tolliver knew
3:30:43
this to be false with his own eyes. He had seen ray Bourne that
3:30:48
morning. He charged the girls with duplicity and forced his way into the house.
3:30:56
No one was found on the first floor. Then they attempted search of
3:31:01
the upper story. At the stairway, a shotgun suddenly belched forth, fire
3:31:07
and flame into the faces of the Tollivers. Craig's face and part of his
3:31:11
body was filled with shot. The gun stock shivered to pieces in his hand.
3:31:18
He sank upon the steps and rolled helplessly at the feet of his companions.
3:31:24
Bowling miraculously escaped unhurt. Craig Tolliver was immediately placed upon a horse and
3:31:31
sent to Moorhead for repairs. The others, not daring to force the stairway,
3:31:39
went outside and contented themselves with firing through the doors and windows. The
3:31:45
fusillade continued incessantly for a long time. Black smoke hung like a cloud over
3:31:52
the premises. If the Tollivers hoped to force the surrender of Humphrey and his
3:31:58
companion by mere and timidation, they soon saw their mistake. These two men
3:32:03
were brave to the core. Besides, they preferred to die fighting rather to
3:32:11
being mercilessly butchered as helpless prisoners. They remembered the fate of John Martin.
3:32:18
Finally, Humphrey managed to make himself heard through the din and crash of battle.
3:32:24
He informed his assailants that he was there in the house, and that
3:32:28
by virtue of his office as sheriff of the county, none but the coroner
3:32:33
had the legal right to arrest him. The Tollivers sneered at this speech.
3:32:39
They had not come to uphold the law. They had succeeded in trapping the
3:32:43
enemy, and meant to use the advantage they had gained. Hours thus passed
3:32:50
all day. The guns roared into and from the house. The sun was
3:32:56
sinking rapidly toward the western horizon. The shades of evening grew longer as long
3:33:03
as daylight lasted. The assailants had kept covered and protected, held at bay
3:33:09
by the brave defenders, but in the dark of night the end must come.
3:33:16
They could not prevent a simultaneous attack from the entire force of the assailants.
3:33:22
Surrounded on every side, escape seemed well nigh impossible. Yet Humphrey essayed
3:33:28
to make a sortie with his companion, hoping thereby to draw the fire of
3:33:33
the enemy upon themselves, and to thus at least relieve the women in the
3:33:39
house of further damage. Of death, which had threatened them every moment throughout
3:33:43
that long day. It was a desperate undertaking, with ninety nine chances in
3:33:50
a hundred against its success. But Humphrey was brave, and so was Rayborn.
3:33:56
As expected, the instant they emerged from the house, a shower of
3:34:01
balls greeted them. They ran for their lives. Rayburne sank, rose and
3:34:09
fell again to rise no more. His body was riddled. Humphrey, however,
3:34:16
seemed possessed of a charmed life. Though his clothing was torn to shreds,
3:34:22
his body received not a scratch. Satisfied now that there were no more
3:34:28
men in the house, the Tolliver clan crowned their infamous day's work by setting
3:34:33
fire to it. The inmates escaped without even necessary clothing. The body of
3:34:41
Rayborn was left lying where it had fallen until the next day, protected from
3:34:46
mutilation by dogs and hogs by a rail pen which had been built around it
3:34:50
by the heroic Martin girls. The excitement that prevailed in the county when the
3:34:56
news of the cowardly attack upon the Martin home became known can better be imagined
3:35:03
than described. The lover of law and order was terror stricken the question was
3:35:09
asked and whispered, where will it all end? The county judge was a
3:35:16
well meaning man, but utterly incompetent as an officer, possessing none of the
3:35:22
qualifications for such an office in a county like Rowan. At such a time
3:35:26
of lawlessness and anarchy, he was weak and timid, Always in fear for
3:35:33
his life, he completely lost his head. Warrants were at last issued upon
3:35:39
the affidavits of the Martin girls against Craig Tolliver, Jeff Bowling and a number
3:35:46
of others, charging them with murder and arson. An examining trial followed at
3:35:54
that time. Such trials were held before two justices of the peace. One
3:36:00
was said to be a Martin sympathizer. The others stood accused of being under
3:36:03
the thumb of the Tollivers. The court's decision gave color to these suspicions.
3:36:11
One of the magistrates decided for commitment of the prisoners to jail without bail.
3:36:16
The other declared that no offense had been proven under the law then existing.
3:36:24
This disagreement of the court permitted the murderers to go free. The trial was
3:36:30
a pronounced farce. Afterwards, some of the parties were indicted by the grand
3:36:35
jury for arson, but none was convicted, and the murder charges against them
3:36:41
all fell. Jeff Bowling, one of the most desperate of the Tolliver faction,
3:36:48
removed from the County of Rowan a short time afterward and settled in Ohio,
3:36:52
where he continued his career of crime, evidently believing that there, as
3:36:58
well as in Kentucky, he none dared molest him. He saw his mistake
3:37:03
too late. It appears that his mother in law had married a wealthy farmer
3:37:09
named Douglas of Licking County, Ohio. It had been due to the persuasion
3:37:15
of Douglas that Bowling left Kentucky and settled in or near his Ohio kinsman.
3:37:22
Bowling had resided there but a short time. When Douglas was found one morning
3:37:28
in his barn murdered, the finger of suspicion pointed to Bowling as the only
3:37:33
one who had a tangible motive for the commission of the crime. He was
3:37:39
promptly indicted, tried, and sentenced to death, but the sentence was finally
3:37:45
commuted to life imprisonment. He served seven years of his time and moved to
3:37:50
Texas. Humphrey after his miraculous escape from the Martin House, had become thoroughly
3:37:58
convinced that it was impossible for him to longer continue in the office of sheriff,
3:38:03
and resigned. William Raymie being appointed and qualified in his stead. Craig
3:38:11
Tolliver for a time absented himself from Rowan County. He turned up in jail
3:38:18
at Cincinnati, imprisoned on the charge of robbery. He was tried, acquitted,
3:38:24
and returned to Rowan County when trouble started anew. Several killings occurred in
3:38:31
the county during the year, some of which had, however, only remote
3:38:37
connection with the feud. John G. Hughes was killed by a mob styling
3:38:43
themselves regulators. Wileie Tolliver, son of L. HB. Tolliver, was
3:38:50
killed about Christmas eighteen eighty five by one mac Bentley during a drunken row Early
3:38:58
in eighteen eighty the murder of Wit Pelfrey at Elliottsville, Rowan County, came
3:39:05
near precipitating another outbreak. He was stabbed and killed by Tom Gooden, brother
3:39:11
of S. B. Gooden, a prominent Tolliver man and brother in law
3:39:16
of J. Bud and Wilie Tolliver. Pelfrey, known as a strong Martin
3:39:24
sympathizer, was an influential citizen and wealthy. Gooden was tried for this murder,
3:39:31
but acquitted. The year eighteen eighty six brought with it an annual election
3:39:37
at which all county officers were to be chosen. Each faction had its candidates
3:39:43
in the field. It may therefore be easily imagined that neutral citizens remained in
3:39:50
a state of constant anxiety and apprehension. Cook Humphrey and Craig Tolliver roamed throughout
3:39:58
the county at the head of large forces, frequently entering the town of Moorhead
3:40:03
and parading the streets in defiance of each other. On July second, eighteen
3:40:09
eighty six, it being county court day, a warrant of arrest was placed
3:40:15
in the hands of Sheriff Raimi for the arrest of Humphrey, who was in
3:40:20
town that day. The officer went in search of and found him near the
3:40:24
store of h. M Logan. An altercation ensued between the men. Both
3:40:31
drew their pistols and began firing. Friends of both parties became involved, and
3:40:39
the shooting became general. When the fight was over, it was found that
3:40:45
the sheriff and his son and deputy were both dangerously wounded, while W.
3:40:50
O. Logan H. M. Logan's son, a youth hardly twenty years
3:40:56
of age, was killed. Immediately after the fight, the factions retired to
3:41:03
their headquarters and prepared for another conflict. The county judge was prevailed upon to
3:41:09
demand troops. His request was readily granted, and a detachment of state guards,
3:41:16
commanded by Major K. W. McKee of Lawrenceburg, hastened to the
3:41:22
scene of the trouble. When July third came, the citizens, women and
3:41:28
children trembled with fear of a bloody conflict. At the quarters of the factions,
3:41:35
guns and pistols were cleaned, oiled and loaded, cartridge belts filled,
3:41:41
every preparation made for battle. Then the long drawn notes of a bugle floated
3:41:48
in the morning air. The astonished people peered through the windows and beheld in
3:41:54
the courthouse yard a long line of soldiers then and bayonets glistening in the morning
3:42:01
sun. There was a sigh of relief. Danger had passed for the moment.
3:42:09
The troops remained at Moorhead until some time in August. It was due
3:42:15
to their presence that the election passed off without violence and bloodshed. When Circuit
3:42:20
Court convened, the Commonwealth was represented by the Honorable Asher C. Caruth,
3:42:28
Commonwealth Attorney for the Jefferson Circuit Court and afterwards Member of Congress from the Louisville
3:42:35
District. As at this time practically every citizen in the county was aligned on
3:42:41
one side or the other, it seemed impossible to secure juries that would try
3:42:46
cases impartially and without prejudice. This state of affairs did not escape the attention
3:42:52
of mister Caruth. The result of his investigations of affairs in Rowan County resulted
3:42:58
in in a noleposiquis qualified by certain conditions of the charges against the Tollivers and
3:43:07
Humphrey. His proceeding in this respect is contained in the following report to Judge
3:43:13
Coal, Presiding Judge of the Circuit Court, Honorable A. E. Cole,
3:43:20
Judge of the Rowan Circuit Court. Under your appointment, I have acted
3:43:24
as Commonwealth Attorney pro temporey at the special jury and present August term of the
3:43:31
Rowan Circuit Court. I have given the felony docket over which alone, under
3:43:37
the present law, I have jurisdiction careful study and attention. I have also
3:43:43
investigated as thoroughly as a stranger to the people of Rowan County could do in
3:43:48
the limited time of my service, the causes which led to the present unhappy
3:43:54
condition of affairs, and have sought to find a remedy for the evils afflicting
3:43:58
this people. I find it to be the opinion of the law abiding citizens
3:44:03
of all parties that the public peace could be best secured by the continued absence
3:44:09
from the County of Rowan of the acknowledged and recognized leaders of the two rival
3:44:16
factions, Craig Tolliver and Cook Humphrey. Against the former, there is now
3:44:22
pending one felony charge, that of false arrest and imprisonment against Humphrey. There
3:44:30
are three indictments for felony on the docket, each for conspiring, etc.
3:44:35
To commit personal violence. I have the written request of each of these persons
3:44:41
accused to suspend further proceedings in their cases, coupled with a promise on the
3:44:48
part of each to leave the County of Rowan, never to return unless temporarily
3:44:54
to attend the funeral of some immediate relative. The person's charge words to have
3:45:00
been injured by their acts also request this disposition of the pending cases. It
3:45:07
is the opinion of the members of the Grand Jury now in session, and
3:45:11
of the vast majority of the citizens of the County, that this disposition of
3:45:16
the cases will do much to restore peace and confidence to the community. After
3:45:22
full consultation with the members of the bar residing here or practicing here, with
3:45:28
the commander of the forces now stationed at the County Seat, and with citizens
3:45:33
of high position and authority in the Commonwealth, and considering the uncertainty of the
3:45:39
criminal trials, I am convinced that this is the best available method to secure
3:45:46
the end in view. No harm can by this means be done the state,
3:45:52
because should the agreement be violated, the cases can at once be set
3:45:58
for trial and prosecutions made. The following written agreements were then signed and attested.
3:46:05
Asher G. Caruth, Commonwealth's Attorney pro Tempore, fourteenth Judicial District,
3:46:15
I request you to suspend any further proceedings in the cases now pending in the
3:46:18
Rowan Circuit Court against me, and promise that I will remain away from the
3:46:24
County of Rowan permanently should I ever return to said county. I am willing
3:46:31
that the cases shall be redocketed and the trials proceed. I will leave said
3:46:37
county on or before the eighth day of August A. D. Eighteen eighty
3:46:43
six. In this agreement, I reserve the right, in the event of
3:46:48
the death of any of my immediate relatives, to return to attend their burial,
3:46:52
but I must immediately thereafter leave the county to permanently remain away. Signed
3:47:01
Craig Tolliver, A test D. B. Logan. A similar agreement was
3:47:09
prepared and signed by W. C. Humphrey, attested by G. A.
3:47:13
Cassidy. We do not wish to criticize mister Caruth's course in this matter,
3:47:20
but it occurs to us, and must occur to the reader, that
3:47:24
the practice of compromising with outlaws proves a weak need administration of the law.
3:47:31
It seems that a man or set of men may terrorize a community as pleases
3:47:37
them, then demand of the authorities immunity for crimes on certain conditions prescribed by
3:47:43
the criminals. Mister Caruth acted for the best interests of the community, as
3:47:50
he believed aware the juries were partial or prejudiced. He realized that trials in
3:47:58
Rowan County of either of the facts would result in injustice one way or another.
3:48:03
The grand juries were corrupt and accustomed to wreak vengeance on some and whitewashing
3:48:11
others. The selection of trial juries was so palpably unfair that visiting lawyers commented
3:48:18
upon it, and afterward testified before the Legislative Committee. To that fact,
3:48:26
several court officers were undisguised partisans. It seems to us, however, that
3:48:33
these cases might have been removed from the county and tried elsewhere upon a change
3:48:37
of venue. At any rate, the compromise effected by mister Caruth proved not
3:48:45
only unsatisfactory but ill advised. The success of his scheme was founded upon the
3:48:52
belief that the parties to the agreement would adhere to the pledge to leave the
3:48:56
county. He did not understand the character of mister Craig Tolliver. To secure
3:49:03
his signature to an agreement that would put an enemy out of his way was
3:49:07
one thing, to make him keep it another. Tolliver remained absent from Morehead
3:49:15
long enough to assure himself that the indictments against him were dismissed when he promptly
3:49:20
returned. Although the compromise was based upon the understanding that if either returned,
3:49:26
except under the conditions recited in the agreement, that the indictments against the party
3:49:33
so returning should be redocketed and revived. This was never done. Tolliver was
3:49:41
free to continue his career of crime. Humphrey kept his word and never violated
3:49:48
his pledge. He sold out his earthly possessions in Rowan County and bade farewell
3:49:54
to his native state. Previous to his election as sheriff, Humphrey had been
3:50:01
a highly esteemed citizen, a man of exemplary character of amiable disposition. His
3:50:09
fatal connection with the feud was mainly due to his unfortunate selection of Stuart Bombgardner
3:50:15
as his deputy. The latter was a citizen of Elliott County, where he
3:50:20
had a reputation for violence and desperation pursuing the same course in Rowan. Humphrey's
3:50:28
association with him made him many enemies. Bomb Gardner's connection with a Martin faction
3:50:35
compromised Humphrey. Thus, step by step, he was thrown into the whirlpool
3:50:43
of trouble. The formerly quiet, inoffensive citizen grew dangerous and violent. The
3:50:50
dormant unholy passion of revenge was aroused. Humphrey became, for the time being
3:50:58
a character dreaded by those the opposed him. At the time of his participation
3:51:03
in the feud, he was yet in his twenties and unmarried. After leaving
3:51:09
Kentucky, he went west, never to return to his native heath until after
3:51:16
the death of Craig Tolliver and his followers, and then only on special business.
3:51:22
With Humphrey gone, the Martin faction practically disbanded. Had Tolliver observed the
3:51:30
treaty stipulations as faithfully and honestly as did Humphrey, this chapter might end here.
3:51:37
The writer would be spared the unpleasant task of continuing the record of violence,
3:51:41
murder, and anarchy. It is evident that Tolliver had entered into this
3:51:46
agreement with the avowed purpose of violating it. He had every reason to believe
3:51:52
that Humphrey would observe it. He out of the way, there stood no
3:51:58
one to dispute Tolliver undisputed sway in the county, especially at Moorhead. His
3:52:05
adherents remained faithful and joined him. They did as they pleased, In fact,
3:52:11
had things their own way. If the authorities did not dare molest them,
3:52:18
who should. A few of the citizens who had attempted a mild protest
3:52:22
against Craig Tolliver's dictatorship were easily intimidated by keeping them in constant fear of death
3:52:30
or destruction of their property. Saloons were opened and operated without license. Magistrates
3:52:39
refused to issue warrants, knowing that such an act would forfeit their lives.
3:52:45
Had the warrants been issued, no officers could have been persuaded to execute them.
3:52:50
The residences and grog shops of the Tollivers resembled and were arsenals. An
3:52:58
effective and favorite method of Craig Tolliver to rid himself of any to him undesirable
3:53:05
citizens was to send a written communication to them, setting forth the fact that
3:53:11
Rowan County could dispense with their presence, and that on a certain day in
3:53:16
the near future, certain funerals would take place unless they were gone from the
3:53:20
county. A funeral is not a pleasant function at any time, and the
3:53:26
prospect of one's own set for a definite time has a tendency with many persons
3:53:33
to try hard to avoid it if possible. It was therefore not surprising that
3:53:39
parties thus notified preferred absence from the county to being principles at funerals. A
3:53:48
few regarded those letters as idle and meaningless threats, but the sincerity of the
3:53:54
advice could no longer be doubted or questioned when several prophesied funerals. It did
3:54:00
take place. To detail the circumstances of the various killings that occurred during that
3:54:07
stormy period of Rowan County would prove tedious. Suffice it to say that from
3:54:13
the first Monday in August eighteen eighty four to the twenty second of July eighteen
3:54:20
eighty seven, twenty three men were killed in Rowan County. No convictions were
3:54:26
secured for any of these murders, but of this later on, on October
3:54:35
twentieth, eighteen eighty six, H. M. Logan was shot from ambush
3:54:39
in the streets of Moorhead while walking from his place of business to his residence.
3:54:46
The wound was dangerous, but not fatal. Judge Kerry came in for
3:54:52
a full share of the enemy's hatred and vengeance. His hotel was frequently fired
3:54:58
into it at night by parties armed with needle guns and large caliber Winchesters.
3:55:05
His house assumed the appearance of having been struck by a cyclone. Windows and
3:55:11
doors had been completely shot away, and the walls perforated. In a thousand
3:55:16
places, it required neither doors nor windows to admit daylight. The Exchange Hotel
3:55:24
shared a similar fate. It was managed by eight Sea Powers, another Humphrey
3:55:31
adherent this kind of argument was convincing, more forcible than words or letters.
3:55:39
Powers and carry both felt a sudden desire to remove from the atmosphere of Moorhead,
3:55:46
concluding that Covington, Kentucky, possessed greater allurements for the time being than
3:55:52
did their home town. Both remained away from the county until after the bloody
3:55:58
final battle at Moorhead in eighteen eighty seven. Unfortunately, we have no authentic
3:56:05
account of the leave taking between the Tollivers and Carry and Powers. It must
3:56:11
have been very affectionate, since the Tollivers had exhibited such concern for their safety,
3:56:18
comfort and health as to persuade them so urgently to remove to a happier
3:56:24
and better land. Howard Logan h M Two had enough of this joke about
3:56:31
funeral predictions. He could not see the point of it, and concluded that
3:56:37
Ashland, on the banks of the beautiful Ohio would be the proper place to
3:56:41
recover from his labors and see the world. He also remained away until after
3:56:48
the annihilation of the Tollivers. There were a number of others who seemed suddenly
3:56:54
seized with a fever to emigrate. Among them were John R. Powers,
3:57:00
James E. Clark, a prominent lawyer who found a more congenial home in
3:57:05
Unionville, Clark County, Missouri. James Brain, a brother in law of
3:57:11
Judge Carey R. C. Humphrey, brother of Cook Humphrey, both of
3:57:18
whom settled in Missouri. Many others scouted in neighbouring counties until the return of
3:57:24
peace. Judge Tussey, brother in law of the murder John Martin, on
3:57:31
the advice and persuasion of his wife, remained absent in Carter County and returned
3:57:37
only to take part in the final drama. Nearly all of the parties who
3:57:43
were thus driven from the county were men of wealth and business capacity. Removals
3:57:50
continued. The magnitude of the exodus may be realized by examining the figures given
3:57:56
the population of the county seat Morehead from eighteen eighty five until the early part
3:58:03
of eighteen eighty seven. In eighteen eighty five, Moorehead was a flourishing town
3:58:09
of more than seven hundred inhabitants. Within two years this figure was reduced to
3:58:16
less than three hundred. More than half the population had removed. Private residences
3:58:24
and storehouses stood empty, with windows nailed up, or were taken possession of
3:58:31
by the Tollivers whenever it suited their fancy. The Tollivers made up the population.
3:58:39
The offices of police judge and town Marshall were filled by Tollivers. On
3:58:46
June one, eighteen eighty seven, Craig Tolliver had the entire town under absolute
3:58:52
control. He was elected police judge without opposition. He did a driving business,
3:59:00
selling whisky without license. Of course, the law as to obtaining license
3:59:05
to sell liquor applied not to him. He was above the law. He
3:59:11
took possession of the Exchange Hotel, which H. C. Powers had left
3:59:16
without a tenant by right of conquest. Why should he have troubled himself with
3:59:22
renting property when houses stood empty, and he was monarch of the town the
3:59:30
property of his enemies was his. The spoils of war. The central hotel
3:59:37
was placed at the disposal of Tolliver by its owner. The former leased a
3:59:43
Debunk Mannon and his brother Jim Mannon. These too were Craig Tolliver's constant associates.
3:59:50
He had brought them from Eliot County. Knowing their reputation as desperadoes,
3:59:56
he created them his body guard. Bunk Manning, bloodthirsty, brutal, but
4:00:03
courageous, believed he could serve his chieftain best by capturing the office of town
4:00:09
Marshal. He set himself up as candidate and was elected without a whisper of
4:00:13
opposition. As town Marshall and hotel keeper. He opened a saloon at the
4:00:20
Central Hotel, operating it in the manner of the one run by Craig Tolliver.
4:00:26
In violation of the law. Bud Tolliver was made a member of the
4:00:31
town council. Craig Tolliver's triumph was now complete. The midnight carousals the continuous
4:00:39
discharges of Winchester rifles and pistols made night hideous. Persons of unquestionable courage grew
4:00:48
nervous. At this period. The exodus of the inhabitants was greatest. Social
4:00:54
functions were out of the question. Adjutant General Hill says in his report to
4:01:00
the Governor after the final Battle of July eighteen eighty seven, one night,
4:01:05
while I was there, the young people of Moorhead had a social at the
4:01:09
home of a prominent citizen, and I was told that it was the first
4:01:13
ever of the kind, which had occurred in the little town for years.
4:01:18
The Tullivers controlled the court and the grand Juries. A witness daring enough to
4:01:24
indict them for their many offenses was certain to be indicted for some imaginary offense
4:01:31
in return for his audacity. Thus, during one court shortly after the shooting
4:01:37
up of the Carry House, two daughters of Howard Logan testified before the grand
4:01:43
jury and indicted one, doctor Wilson, for participating in the riot. The
4:01:50
same evening, the grand jury returned indictments against the two young ladies for faulse
4:01:56
swearing. The secrets of the grand jury leaked constantly. Every word of testimony
4:02:03
uttered before it was promptly and minutely reported to the Tollivers. Missus Martin,
4:02:11
who had been a witness against them on several charges, was indicted for sending
4:02:16
a poisoned turkey to a Tolliver sympathizer. Is it a wonder that Attorney General
4:02:22
Harden stigmatized the whole machinery of justice in the county as rotten? Is it
4:02:28
a wonder that crime was rampant and of daily occurrence? Is it a wonder
4:02:33
that outraged manhood at last took the law in its own hand and annihilated the
4:02:39
outlaws? Sometime in the latter part of eighteen eighty six or early part of
4:02:46
eighteen eighty seven, H. M. Keaton, constable of Moorhead Precinct,
4:02:52
was shot and killed by Bud Tolliver. Keaton, too had been duly served
4:02:56
with notice of the date of his funeral. Remaining in the county, he
4:03:01
furnished the body. W. N. Wicker was shot and killed by John
4:03:07
Trumbull, a Tulliver man. At the February turn of the Rowan Circuit Court
4:03:13
in eighteen eighty seven, Doctor Henry S. Logan, R. M.
4:03:18
McClure, John B. And W. H. Logan and Louis Raybourne were
4:03:24
indicted for conspiracy to murder Circuit Court Judge A. E. Cole, James
4:03:30
H. Sally, Commonwealth Attorney, and Z. T. Young. All
4:03:35
the parties indicted were prominent citizens and of such a character that those not prejudiced
4:03:41
against and acquainted with them at once declared the charge's faults. The entire transaction
4:03:50
bore the earmarks of a shrewdly laid plot to rid the county of these men
4:03:54
who had become objectionable to Czar Craig Tolliver because they had dared to criticize his
4:04:01
rule. The indicted parties were arrested and confined in jail, their bail having
4:04:07
been placed at an extraordinary sum. They were hustled off to Lexington for safe
4:04:13
keeping. John B. And W. H. Logan gave bond and returned
4:04:20
to their home, about four miles distant from Moorhead. Their father remained in
4:04:26
prison. When it became known that James Pelfrey was the chief witness against them,
4:04:33
it seemed easy to see through the whole affair. Pelfrey's black character was
4:04:37
well known by some of the Tulliver clan, and to this unscrupulous man they
4:04:43
had turned to effect their villainous conspiracy. A suitable story was concocted and rehearsed.
4:04:52
With it, Pelfrey appeared before the grand jury and loaded upon his sin
4:04:58
stained soul, the dastard Black crime of perjury. After their return home,
4:05:05
the Logan Boys lived quietly and alone, taking charge of the farm in their
4:05:09
father's absence. W. H. Logan Billy was a consumptive twenty five years
4:05:16
old and almost reduced to a skeleton by the dread disease. His brother,
4:05:24
J. B. Logan Jack, was a youth of eighteen. On the
4:05:28
seventh of June eighteen eighty seven, a disreputable character named Hiram Cooper, who
4:05:35
lived in the neighborhood of the Logan Boys, came to Moorhead and swore out
4:05:41
a warrant against the Logan Boys and their cousin A. W. Logan,
4:05:45
charging them with confederating and banding together for the purpose of murdering him Cooper.
4:05:52
This act was in pursuance of the original plot to rid the county of the
4:05:56
family, which however, had failed to some extent. When the boys had
4:06:01
succeeded in giving bail and were released from prison, Craig Tolliver, the police
4:06:09
judge, issued the warrants. They were placed in the hands of his confederate
4:06:13
town Marshal bunk Mannon, who summoned a posse of ten men to assist him
4:06:18
in the execution of the warrants against the two boys. Among these brave officers
4:06:26
were Deputy Sheriff George Hogg, Bud Tolliver, J. Tolliver, Cal Tolliver,
4:06:33
Hiram Cooper, and one young Completely ignorant of the impending danger, the
4:06:39
boys were found at home. The first warning they had of the approach of
4:06:45
the assassins under the guise of officers was the rapid firing of guns. The
4:06:52
boys, terrified ran upstairs, Mannon and Craig Tolliver rushing after them. Jack
4:07:01
Logan seized a shotgun and, over the earnest protest of his brother, Billy,
4:07:07
fired into the body of Mannin, inflicting a painful but unfortunately not fatal
4:07:13
wound. Mannon and Craig Tolliver retreated from the house, while the boys waited,
4:07:18
tremblingly with bated breath for developments. They saw there was no hope for
4:07:26
them. The smell of burning wood and clouds of smoke told them of their
4:07:31
peril. By order of Judge Tolliver, the Posse Commiatis had built a fire
4:07:37
on the porch, intending to burn the house, and thus forced the boys
4:07:43
to come out. The crackling of flames. The shouts and cruel, derisive
4:07:48
laughter of the brutal band outside presented a scene such as we read of with
4:07:54
horror in the stories of the Indian Wars. Deputy Sheriff Hog then requested permission
4:08:01
to extinguish the flames. The other representatives of the law consenting, a parley
4:08:09
was held. Hogg went into the house and offered the boys the alternative of
4:08:15
surrender or death by fire. They naturally chose the former, hoping against hope
4:08:22
that some miracle might yet save them, or that perhaps their appearing unarmed might
4:08:28
move the band with compassion and mercy. However, before leaving the house,
4:08:35
they wished assurance that their lives should be protected. Deputy Sheriff Hogg reported to
4:08:41
Craig Tolliver and that redoubtable officer of the Commonwealth authorized him to promise them protection.
4:08:50
This assurance was then communicated to the boys, Supplemented by the personal guarantee
4:08:56
of Sheriff Hogg. The boys, determined to live leave the house. Billy
4:09:01
Logan went downstairs in company of Hog. The younger boy was yet reluctant to
4:09:07
trust himself into the hands of Craig Tolliver and Bunk Mannin the town Marshal,
4:09:13
but being again assured that no harm should come to him, he too followed
4:09:18
and emerged into the yard. They were led away some fifty feet from the
4:09:24
house to near a spring. There, John Mannin opened fire upon the elder
4:09:31
boy, shooting him in the back. This was the signal for a general
4:09:35
fusillade by Craig Tolliver, bunk Mannon and others. The boys fell dead.
4:09:43
Not satisfied with their deaths, the heartless assassins, among whom town Marshall Mannin
4:09:48
was the most ferocious, trampled the prostrate forms, stamped them, and poured
4:09:54
volley after volley into the dead bodies, thus mutilating them beyond recognition. They
4:10:01
were left lying where they had fallen, a gory, shapeless mass. The
4:10:07
glassy eyes upturned to the sky in mute appeal to God to avenge this horrible
4:10:13
assassination. God saw and retribution followed close upon the heels of the inhuman wretches.
4:10:22
Deputy Sheriff Hogg testified afterwards that he ran away as soon as the firing
4:10:28
began. The murderers joined him. However, before he had reached town,
4:10:33
on the brow of a hill, overlooking Moorhead. Craig Tolliver halted the red
4:10:39
handed band and instructed them all to tell the same tale, that the boys
4:10:45
were killed in resisting arrest, and that their killing had been an absolute necessity.
4:10:52
On the following day, d Boone Logan, a cousin of the murdered
4:10:56
boys, accompanied by eight m Hiram Pigman and ap Perry, went to the
4:11:03
Logan homestead and found and cared for the mangled remains of his relatives on that
4:11:11
evening. Upon their return home, they were warned that they would share a
4:11:16
similar fate in the event they attended the funeral. Up to the time of
4:11:20
the murder of the Logan boys, neither d Boone Logan nor Pigman had taken
4:11:26
any active part in the feudal strife. Indeed, they had carefully kept aloof
4:11:33
from any act or speech that might in any way connect them, either directly
4:11:37
or indirectly, with the faction. Boone Logan had attested the agreement signed by
4:11:43
Craig Tolliver to remove from the county, but beyond this he had remained neutral,
4:11:50
not content, however, with Foully murdering his young relatives. Craig Tolliver
4:11:56
sent to Boone Logan the exasperated message that he must leave, that he Tolliver
4:12:03
would rent his house and hire Logan's wife out to make a living for her
4:12:09
children. By threatening d B Logan, Craig Tolliver made the mistake of his
4:12:15
life. He conjured up a storm which passed soon beyond his power to control.
4:12:22
When it broke loose in all its fury on the twenty second day of
4:12:26
June, and the streets of Moorhead ran red with blood. The desperadoes experienced
4:12:33
at last the lash of an avenging god. Boone Logan made feudal efforts to
4:12:39
have the murderers arrested. After several days had elapsed, bunk mannin the town
4:12:46
Marshal, went to Logan and told him that he wished to have a trial,
4:12:52
and that the Tollivers were also ready for trial. But said mannon it
4:12:58
must be understood that we attend with our winchesters. Judge Stuart was also notified
4:13:03
by the Tollivers that they wished a trial, to which request Judge Stuart made
4:13:09
answer that he would not hold a bogus trial and refused to try the case.
4:13:16
Logan, Pigman, and ap perry, in danger of their lives,
4:13:22
yet burning with indignation, entered into a solemn compact to effect the rest and
4:13:28
trial of all the parties engaged in the murder of the Logan Boys. A
4:13:33
resolution made by such men as Boon Logan and his friends meant something more than
4:13:39
mere words. They too were men of action. They went to work in
4:13:46
the preparation of their plan with coolness and circumspection. Caution was needed. Indeed,
4:13:54
they first attached to their cause a number of men upon whom they could
4:13:58
rely. Meetings were held at secret places. Boon Logan was at once chosen
4:14:07
as the leader of the enterprise. In the prime of manhood, of fine
4:14:11
physique and intelligent he was just the man to place at the head of such
4:14:16
a hazardous undertaking. Combining indomitable courage with prudence, sagacity and coolness, he
4:14:26
was also a man of unflinching determination. Such was the man with whom the
4:14:31
Tollivers now had to deal. Educated, a lawyer of prominence and a polished,
4:14:39
quiet gentleman, one would scarcely have picked him out as the man to
4:14:43
oppose the outlaws, to attack them in their very stronghold, and give them
4:14:48
battle, Logan and Pigman avoided being seen in each other's company. Yet the
4:14:56
Tollivers, by some means, had learned of the secret means, and,
4:15:01
growing suspicious, began hunting them high and low. To relate the many narrow
4:15:07
escapes these two men had from death would fill pages. Every road was patrolled
4:15:13
by the Tollivers, Passing trains were searched, inquiries made everywhere, and insulting
4:15:22
messages sent to Logan's family. Shrewdly, he avoided any encounter, but with
4:15:28
dogged determination, continued his preparations. On the sixteenth day of June boone,
4:15:35
Logan eluded the vigilance of the Tollivers and succeeded in reaching Frankfort, Kentucky,
4:15:43
where he asked for and was accorded an interview with Governor not to him.
4:15:50
Logan related the existing conditions in Rowan County, the despotism exercised by Craig Tolliver
4:15:56
and his associates and crime, the horrible murder of the Logan boys, for
4:16:03
which no one had as yet been molested, and asked for troops to effect
4:16:07
the capture of the outlaws. The Governor listened attentively to mister Logan's representations,
4:16:15
but replied that he had already sent soldiers to Moorhead at the cost of many
4:16:21
thousands of dollars to the state, with no other result than aiding courts and
4:16:26
committing travesties of justice, that under the circumstances he could not see his way
4:16:33
clear to repeat his experiences with that county. He then asked Logan what percent
4:16:38
of the population was actually engaged in the trouble, and, on receiving reply,
4:16:45
answered that the good citizens, being so largely in the majority, they
4:16:49
should be able to themselves put down lawlessness. Logan admitted that he could find
4:16:56
a number of citizens who would be willing to aid him arresting the outlaws if
4:17:02
they could secure the necessary arms. He asked the governor for the loan of
4:17:07
a few guns from the arsenal at Frankfort, offering to give satisfactory security for
4:17:14
their safe return. The governor explained that such a course was unwarranted and a
4:17:19
matter beyond his control. Logan's face turned almost livid for a moment. He
4:17:27
did not blame the governor, who acted under the law, but he became
4:17:32
exasperated at the thought that a band of murderers were under the law permitted to
4:17:37
remain in undisputed possession of his county, his home. While the governor seemed
4:17:42
without authority to come to the rescue of order and to maintain the dignity of
4:17:48
the law. Courts had refused to do their duty. Officers championed openly the
4:17:56
cause of the murderers. Peaceable citizens had been driven from their homes, anarchy
4:18:02
reigned supreme. These thoughts filled his brain. Before his mind's eye appeared the
4:18:11
mangled remains of his cousins. He feared for his wife and children at Moorhead.
4:18:18
His home might at this moment be reduced to ashes, and its inmates
4:18:22
burned or shot. The young man's eyes gleamed with a dangerous fire, His
4:18:30
lips quivered, while the strong heart beat almost audibly with excitement, indignation,
4:18:37
and utter disgust. At last, he spoke slowly, firmly, every word
4:18:44
full of meaning. It was then he made his famous reply, so often
4:18:49
repeated and commented upon Governor. He said, I have but one home and
4:18:56
but one hearth. From this I have been driven by these outlaws and their
4:19:02
friends. They have foully murdered my kinsmen. I have not before engaged in
4:19:08
any of their difficulties. But now I propose to take a hand and retake
4:19:15
my fireside, or die in the effort. Future events proved that these words
4:19:22
were uttered for a purpose other than mere dramatic effect. The flashing eye told
4:19:27
plainly of the passions that had been kindled in his heart, and the governor
4:19:33
could not but admire the man's just indignation and determination to do what the highest
4:19:38
authorities in the state could not do. The action of governor not in refusing
4:19:45
to send troops to Rowan County, has been criticized by those ignorant of the
4:19:51
law and the powers of the governor. In such cases, the law lays
4:19:56
down the scope of his authority. The power of the county had not been
4:20:00
exhausted in bringing about or attempting the apprehension of the criminals. He had already
4:20:07
responded with troops to protect the court, only to find that the authority showed
4:20:14
the white feather, that compromises with criminals had been entered into, that juries
4:20:19
and officers were corrupt, and when trials had occurred, had proved a farce.
4:20:26
No doubt in his heart he wished for Logan's success. The man had
4:20:33
made futile attempts to live peaceably. Now he intended to act in self defense.
4:20:40
The government cannot help him. He must therefore help himself. A man's
4:20:47
home, no matter how humble it may be, is sacred as the king's
4:20:52
palace in the eyes of the ancient common law. To defend it from intrusion
4:20:57
and attack his man's god given right his duty boone Logan set about to retake
4:21:06
his fireside final Battle of Moorhead June twenty second, eighteen eighty seven. After
4:21:15
leaving Frankfort, Logan hastened to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he purchased several hundred
4:21:22
dollars worth of Winchester rifles, pistols, shotguns, and an ample supply of
4:21:27
ammunition. These were boxed and shipped as sawmill fixtures and consigned to a small
4:21:34
station Gates in Rowan County, some miles from Moorhead. Immediately upon his return
4:21:41
to Rowan County, Logan summoned his friends. They responded with a will.
4:21:48
Many came from the neighboring counties, except Elliott County, which section sympathized strongly
4:21:55
with the Tollivers, whose relatives were strong there. Sheriff Hogg was placed in
4:22:02
possession of the warrants against Craig Tolliver and his confederates, charging them with the
4:22:07
recent murders of the Logan boys. On June seventh, it was definitely and
4:22:12
explicitly agreed upon and arranged that the Sheriff should demand the surrender of the Tollivers,
4:22:19
and only in case of their refusal to comply, were the citizens to
4:22:23
take a hand. This, of course, was a mere matter of form.
4:22:30
It was easy to predict to a certainty that the Tollivers would not obey
4:22:33
the demand of surrender by the officers. That had been tried too often before.
4:22:41
Yet the Logan faction desired to exhaust all lawful means before resorting to bloodshed
4:22:48
Sheriff Hogg was instructed to demand the surrender, and upon its refusal to retreat,
4:22:55
in order to ensure his personal safety and to give the forces under Boone
4:23:00
Logan an opportunity to enforce the demand. Thus far all went well. When
4:23:07
the morning of June twenty second came bright and beautiful, everything was in readiness
4:23:12
for the coming struggle. Logan, with some of his men, was stationed
4:23:18
near the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway depot just across at the business place of Vinton
4:23:26
and Pigman. Hiram Pignan, with six or seven men, stood in readiness
4:23:32
to act in concert with Logan. On the opposite side of the town,
4:23:37
another detachment was carefully posted in concealment. The Tollivers were completely surrounded. Strange
4:23:45
to say, with all their vigilance, they had remained in utter ignorance of
4:23:49
Logan's final preparations. Logan was despised by them. His frequent absences from home
4:23:57
had been attributed to fear of his visit to Frankfort and his purchase of arms
4:24:03
at Cincinnati. They knew nothing. It was late in the morning of the
4:24:10
twenty second when an accident revealed to them their danger, though the knowledge came
4:24:15
too late to enable their escape. The wife of a railroad man was visiting
4:24:21
friends at Moorhead. Her husband had noticed bodies of armed men closing in upon
4:24:27
the town. He also knew of the large shipment of arms to gate Station.
4:24:33
Anxious for the safety of his wife. After his suspicions had been aroused,
4:24:40
he telegraphed her to leave Moorhead at once, that a battle was impending.
4:24:45
Without doubt, this information was conveyed to the Tollivers, who immediately prepared
4:24:52
for the attack. Thus it happened that when the battle commenced, Logan and
4:24:57
his men were put upon the offensive instead of the offensive as they had anticipated.
4:25:04
The Logan forces awaited the appearance of the sheriff to demand the surrender of
4:25:10
the Tollivers. He failed to arrive. The sheriff afterward testified that he had
4:25:17
been prevented by armed men from entering the town. Be that as it may,
4:25:22
the fight opened without him, and during the battle neither he nor his
4:25:26
son participated. Logan, unaware that his plans had been betrayed to the Tollivers,
4:25:33
attempted to communicate with his friend Pigman at the latter's store. He dispatched
4:25:40
a young man, William Bryant, with a note. To his surprise,
4:25:45
the Tollivers suddenly appeared, armed to the teeth and opened fire upon Bryant.
4:25:52
The boy fled for life and escaped without a wound. Logan and Pigman,
4:25:57
finding their plans discovered and the sheriff, having failed to put in his appearance,
4:26:03
now commenced the work they had cut out for themselves and their friends to
4:26:07
perform. Firing began from every direction. Every man fought independently as best he
4:26:15
could. Each part of the town became a separate battlefield. The non combatants
4:26:22
sought safety in flight or in the shelter of their homes. Black clouds of
4:26:29
smoke hung over the ill fated town. The air was stifling with the smell
4:26:34
of sulfur. The grim monster of civil war raged in all its fury.
4:26:41
Well, might we say, with chalmers, oh the miseries of war.
4:26:47
We recoil with horror at the destruction of a single individual by some deed of
4:26:52
violence. When we see a man in the prime of health suddenly struck down
4:26:57
by some deadly aim. The sight of the lifeless body haunts us for days
4:27:03
and weeks, and the shock experienced only time can wear away. The scene
4:27:10
stands before us in daytime, is the subject of our dreams, and spreads
4:27:15
a gloom which time can only disperse. It is painful to dwell on the
4:27:22
distressing picture of one individual, but multiply it and think of the agonies of
4:27:29
dying men. As goaded by pain, they grasp the cold ground with convulsive
4:27:34
energy, or another faint with the loss of blood, his pulse ebbs low
4:27:41
and the gathering paleness spreads itself over his countenance, or wrapping himself round in
4:27:48
despair, he can only mark by a few feeble quiverings that life still lurks
4:27:53
and lingers in his lacerated body, or lifting up a faded eye, he
4:28:00
casts a look of imploring helplessness for that sucker which no sympathy can yield.
4:28:07
The moment the battle opened, Logan became the target for many guns from the
4:28:11
concealed Tollivers. The balls fell all around him, plowed up the ground at
4:28:18
his feet, and hissed by his ears. Craig Tolliver and his confederates instinctively
4:28:25
singled him out as their most dangerous adversary and made every effort to kill him.
4:28:32
The details of the battle are authentically recorded in the report of Ernest Macpherson,
4:28:37
captain of a detachment of the Louisville Legion, to the Adjutant General of
4:28:42
Kentucky, Sam E. Hill, which report was transmitted to the Governor and
4:28:48
reported to the legislature. As the Tollivers were coming back Boone, Logan commenced
4:28:56
firing. He was at once deserted by the men with him, but continued
4:29:00
the fire, which was returned by the two Tollivers, Craig and Jay,
4:29:07
until their Winchester rifles and pistols were empty. They ran from the depot to
4:29:12
the American House, Craig Tolliver's hotel, and, obtaining a fresh supply of
4:29:18
ammunition, were joined by Bud, Andy, Cal and Kate, Tolliver,
4:29:25
Cooper and others. All then started on the run for the Central Hotel.
4:29:32
Andy was the first to reach that building by going through alleys and backways.
4:29:38
Bud, Tolliver, Cooper and the rest went by way of Railroad Street,
4:29:44
under constant fire from the bushes. Halting near the drug store, they fired
4:29:49
upon the concealed enemies and wounded one Madden. Bud Tolliver was here shot in
4:29:57
the thigh, and Kate, who were mere boys, assisted Bud up the
4:30:03
lane and secreted him in the weeds back of Johnson's store. Then they rejoined
4:30:11
their comrades. Cooper presently emerged from the Central Hotel and fired upon some of
4:30:18
the Logan men, but was himself shot through the breast. He retreated into
4:30:25
the hotel and secreted himself in a wardrobe upstairs, and in this place of
4:30:30
fancied security, was again hit by a bullet and killed. The central hotel
4:30:37
was surrounded. A cessation of firing ordered, and Logan called upon the Tollivers
4:30:44
to come out and they should not be hurt. A message of the same
4:30:49
purport was delivered to the Tollivers by a woman. She returned with Kate Tolliver,
4:30:56
a boy fifteen years of age, who was disarmed and allowed to go
4:31:00
unmolested the others in the house. Refusing to surrender. Logan restored to the
4:31:07
tactics employed by the Tollivers against his cousins and directed his men to fire the
4:31:12
building. The Tollivers broke cover and started for the bushes. Before leaving the
4:31:19
house, Craig Tolliver coolly pulled off his boots, saying that it had always
4:31:26
been prophesied he would die with his boots on, and that he intended to
4:31:30
disappoint the prophets. He emerged in his stocking feet. J Tolliver got out
4:31:38
the rearway, ran about fifty feet, was shot three times and fell dead.
4:31:45
Craig and Andy broke from the hotel on the south side and were greeted
4:31:51
with a hail of bullets. Andy was wounded twice, but not seriously,
4:31:57
and under cover of the smoke, succeeded in reaching the woods. Craig Tolliver's
4:32:03
former good luck at last deserted him. He ran, firing at his enemies,
4:32:10
down a lane which leads from the hotel to the railroad track. At
4:32:15
the corner of the drug store. Already spoken of Pigman, Aperson, Perry
4:32:21
and three others were posted. They instantly opened fire on Tolliver. The score
4:32:29
or more still at the hotel, also continuing their fusillade. Upon the fleeing
4:32:33
outlaw, Craig Tolliver ran a few steps beyond the corner of the store,
4:32:40
fell, rose again, and running toward the switch, sank to the ground.
4:32:45
To rise no more. He was riddled with balls and buckshot. To
4:32:52
the great regret of the Logan men, the man whose death they most desired
4:32:57
was not injured. This man was bunk mannin the town marshal, who so
4:33:03
brutally maltreated the dead bodies of the two Logan boys. There were undoubtedly some
4:33:11
bad men in this fight against the Tollivers, to whom may be ascribed some
4:33:17
excesses which occurred on that memorable day, but they do not appear to have
4:33:22
been actually connected with the Logans. One of these men admitted that he fired
4:33:27
three shots into the body of j. Tolliver after he was down. This
4:33:33
same man afterwards became a willing witness for the prosecution against the slayers of the
4:33:37
Tollivers. It was this band of guerrillas that shot Cooper while secreted in the
4:33:45
hotel, dying from a wound in the breast. After completing their inhuman butchery,
4:33:52
this same guerrilla band sacked the American Hotel and committed other outrages. The
4:34:00
firing was continuous for two hours, except when the Logans made proposals to the
4:34:06
Tollivers to come out and surrender. Over fifteen hundred shots were fired. There
4:34:14
was a general sense of relief among the inhabitants. When the battle was over
4:34:18
and the dreaded Tollivers were wiped out, a public meeting was held and largely
4:34:25
attended. A party styling itself the Law and Order League took possession of the
4:34:32
town and held it until the arrival of troops. Boon Logan had faithfully kept
4:34:37
his word and retaken his fireside. The sinking sun witnessed his return to the
4:34:45
home from which he had been banished. His enemies had crossed over the Great
4:34:51
Divide. For the first time in many months, the town was quiet.
4:34:57
The yells and defiant curses of the drunken desperadoes were heard no more. The
4:35:04
lips that had uttered them were still. Peace entered Morehead once more it had
4:35:11
been purchased at the price of much blood. The Battle of June twenty second,
4:35:17
eighteen eighty seven was the last bloody clash between the various factions of Rowan
4:35:22
County. The Tollivers, deprived of their leader, gave the town a wide
4:35:30
berth. After this, it soon resumed its former appearance of thrift and prosperity.
4:35:37
Many of those who had removed from the county now returned and took possession
4:35:41
of their abandoned property. Business houses closed for many months were reopened, the
4:35:49
illegal saloons closed tight, and law and order have been reasonably well maintained in
4:35:56
the county ever since. Several of the Logomen were indicted for murder. Hiram
4:36:03
M. Pigman, who had been Logan's right hand man and of whom the
4:36:07
latter spoke as the bravest and most circumspect man on the field that day,
4:36:14
was indicted jointly with Apperson Perry. They were tried by a jury of Fleming
4:36:19
County and promptly acquitted. Logan was never tried. The court was held under
4:36:27
the protection of state troops. The trial lasted for seven days. Pigman and
4:36:33
Perry were shown to be men of excellent character. Neither of them had been
4:36:38
parties to previous killings in Rowan County. The evidence being concluded, the court
4:36:45
instructed the jury briefly summarized these instructions, were convict these defendants. The jury,
4:36:56
however, were really good men and true, and to the evidence surprise
4:37:00
of the court and the chagrin of the prosecuting attorney, returned a verdict of
4:37:06
not guilty. These jurymen had been summoned from the adjoining county of Fleming.
4:37:11
Their names deserve the thanks of all good citizens of the Commonwealth. Obedience to
4:37:18
the law and protection from the law are reciprocal rights and duties. And this
4:37:25
jury really decided that where those to whom it is delegated to administer the laws
4:37:30
and to protect the lives, liberty, and property of the citizens, wilfully
4:37:36
disregard or timidly refrain from discharging their duties. The citizen has the right to
4:37:41
protect and defend himself Captain Macpherson's Report Documents eighteen eighty seven, number twenty three.
4:37:52
The glaring partiality of the court and corruption of most of its officers,
4:37:57
he illustrates in the following language. Not infrequently a witness would apply to an
4:38:04
attorney the epithet of liar, and when questioned relative to some crime charged against
4:38:11
him, a witness would defend his credibility on the ground that his questioner was
4:38:17
guilty of offenses similar in character, which he would proceed to enumerate. Even
4:38:23
the court would express his opinion in words of abuse, and very plainly exhibited
4:38:29
his partiality or prejudice. Indeed, when the case of the Commonwealth against John
4:38:37
Keaton was called for trial, and the affidavit of the defendant and two reputable
4:38:41
housekeepers, asserting the belief that the presiding judge would not afford the defendant a
4:38:48
fair and impartial trial, was by the defendant handed to the judge. He
4:38:53
remarked, after reading the instrument aloud, that he was not surprised that John
4:39:00
Keaton would swear anything, that he had sworn to so many lies already,
4:39:07
that it was not astonishing that he the judge would not give him a fair
4:39:11
trial. This observation of his honor was delivered in the presence of the jury
4:39:18
selected to try John Keaton. Reverting to the excesses committed by the guerrillas during
4:39:25
the battle and afterwards, Adjutant General Hill says Document Kentucky, eighteen eighty seven.
4:39:34
Almost everyone with whom I talked heartily approved the day's work, barring some
4:39:41
excesses which were committed, such as the killing of the two wounded men after
4:39:47
the fight was over, and the disposition on the part of certain members of
4:39:51
the posse to abuse their victory by manifesting some disregard of property rights. Conduct
4:40:00
was bitterly lamented by the more conservative members of the posse, notably Boone Logan
4:40:06
himself. The victors of the twenty second of June were in the main singularly
4:40:12
moderate and forbearing, and it is denied by none of the people there that
4:40:18
they rendered a most valuable service to the county in overthrowing the outlaws who had
4:40:25
so long terrorized the community. During circuit court, the commanding officers of the
4:40:32
troops noticed one of the sheriffs and several Tolliver sympathizers in secret consultations, so
4:40:40
suspicious were their actions that they were watched in the afternoon. These parties disappeared
4:40:48
from Moorehead. The next afternoon they brought a box of Springfield rifles caliber fifty
4:40:56
by train. One thousand rounds of M T initition accompanied the guns. Colonel
4:41:03
McKee promptly seized the arms over the vigorous protest of the Tolliver faction. The
4:41:10
Court had directed their shipment for the purpose of securing peace and quiet and preventing
4:41:15
a fight among citizens of this community. Another order of the Court declared arms
4:41:22
and weapons are kept or hidden or concealed with the intent and purpose of being
4:41:29
used by partisans of the factional war or strife now disturbing the peace, quiet
4:41:36
and good order of said County of Rowan, or being delivered to said partisans,
4:41:41
et cetera, and directed the seizure of all arms. The officers complied,
4:41:48
collecting all arms discovered in the possession of the Logan faction, and of
4:41:55
course, retaining the box of Springfields consigned to White, a Tolliver sympathizer then
4:42:03
strange to say. On August twenty fourth, an order was issued by the
4:42:08
Circuit Court directing the Colonel commanding the troops or rather the Adjutant General to immediately
4:42:17
deliver to the Sheriff the box of springfields and ammunition to arm a posse of
4:42:22
citizens of Rowan County, to make an arrest, and demanding a reply in
4:42:29
writing should the officer refuse to comply with this strange order. The Adjutant General
4:42:36
replied that he could not comply with the order for the reason that the arms
4:42:41
could not be released except under direction from the governor. The effect of obedience
4:42:48
to this order would have been to restore the arms to the Tolliver faction,
4:42:52
while retaining those of the Logan party, and to arm a posse, perhaps
4:42:59
to be guided by Deputy Sheriff hog with its recent infamous history still in mind,
4:43:04
would scarcely have been consistent with the duty of an officer sent to Rowan
4:43:10
County to preserve peace. A day or two afterwards, the court severely censured
4:43:17
the Governor for not permitting his honor to arm such sheriff's posse as he might
4:43:22
select. Before departure from Rowan, the officer commanding restored the guns and pistols
4:43:30
taken from private individuals during the term of court. The box of Springfield rifles
4:43:37
was retained and loaded upon the cars for shipment to Frankfort. The tollivers were
4:43:45
incensed. Deputy Sheriff Hog and Andy White sauntered through town, breathing threats and
4:43:52
dire vengeance if the guns were not left behind. The soldiers loading them,
4:44:00
however, were not disturbed, and the guns were deposited in the arsenal at
4:44:04
Frankfort. The presiding Circuit judge was soon afterwards the following January brought before the
4:44:14
legislature on impeachment proceedings. During the long drawn out investigation, many witnesses were
4:44:22
examined, whose testimony fills an entire volume. The result of the investigation was
4:44:29
censure, a quasi whitewash, and a recommendation to abolish the county and attach
4:44:36
it to another. But this would have meant nothing more nor less than to
4:44:41
saddle upon innocent people the settlement of a controversy. To have transferred the county
4:44:48
to another district would have resulted in involving other sections hitherto not affected by the
4:44:55
trouble. To have abolished the county would have been and open acknowledgment of the
4:45:00
weakness of the state to execute its laws and to cope with crime. It
4:45:07
was this confidence of the law breakers that their crimes would never be punished,
4:45:14
and the belief of many good citizens that the machinery of the law was set
4:45:18
in motion only in the interests of certain parties that was responsible for the long,
4:45:25
continued, shameful disorders in Rowan County. The scene of this war was
4:45:32
Perry County, Kentucky, one of the most mountainous sections of all southeastern Kentucky.
4:45:37
Hazard, the county seat, was then a small but very thrifty and
4:45:44
enterprising village. It was called a town, rightfully it ought not to have
4:45:49
aspired to that title. It is situated on the north fork of the Kentucky
4:45:55
River and was built in scattered fashion between abrupt hills in the rear and the
4:46:02
river, with but a single street running through it. Here at Hazard was
4:46:07
the cradle of the feud, which for years filled newspaper columns and furnished most
4:46:14
sensational reading. Many of the stories which have gone out to the world had,
4:46:18
however, no other foundation than a lively imagination of newspaper writers who were
4:46:25
anxious to fill space and to please the readers that loved the sensational. In
4:46:30
this purpose, they have succeeded admirably here at hazard resided the chieftains of this
4:46:37
war, Joseph C. Eversol and Benjamin Fulton French, both were men of
4:46:45
fine business abilities, successfully engaged in the mercantile business. Both were prominent,
4:46:52
able lawyers of the Perry courts. Both were in easy financial circumstances. Eversoul
4:47:00
was extensively related in Perry and adjoining counties. French had originally come from the
4:47:07
state of Tennessee, but had married a Kentuckian, and by marriage had become
4:47:11
related to influential families of brethet Leslie and other counties. Prior to the difficulties
4:47:18
which eventually arrayed them against each other, ever, Soul and French had been
4:47:23
apparently close friends. A misunderstanding over a rather trivial matter furnished the basis of
4:47:32
their future enmity, an enmity to the death. The bird on the snowy
4:47:37
alpine slope starts an insignificant slide. It increases as it rolls downward and becomes
4:47:45
an avalanche, thundering into the valley below, carrying everything before it and leaving
4:47:52
a path of desolation, destruction, and death behind it. So a trivial
4:47:59
difference over a business transaction opened graves for many brave and generous men, desolated
4:48:07
happy homes, and for a long time heaped shame upon the name of Perry
4:48:11
County and the state at large. French and eversoul disagreed and quarreled. At
4:48:19
each subsequent meeting, the quarrel was renewed with ever increasing bitterness. Menacing threats
4:48:26
were freely indulged in until the vials of hate became filled to overflowing a theretofore
4:48:33
existing sharp business rivalry materially assisted the estrangement from the start. As stated,
4:48:41
both were engaged in the mercantile business, in which each tried to outdo the
4:48:47
other, often at a material loss. Serious trouble might yet have been averted
4:48:53
through the interference of honest friends, but for an unfortunate circumstance which involved them
4:49:00
to such an extent that the breach became irreparable. The circumstance referred to might,
4:49:07
however, never have had serious consequences had it not been for the pernicious
4:49:12
activity of the slanderous tail teller in this feud, perhaps more so than in
4:49:21
any of the Internocene strifes which during the eighties added to the significance of the
4:49:26
title the dark and bloody ground, and intensified the crimson hue of its history.
4:49:33
We find those who shunned battle, feared to oppose their breasts to the
4:49:37
shock of bullet, but gloried and pouring oil upon the flames, without danger
4:49:44
to themselves. In such a struggle, the tail bearer is more dangerous than
4:49:49
powder and shot, morally and legally. He who instigates a murder, even
4:49:56
by indirection, is as much a murder murderer as the man who fires the
4:50:00
gun and accomplishes the bloody deed with the countenance of the saint. Such a
4:50:07
man will seek the confidence of both sides. He loves to pose as a
4:50:12
peacemaker. He preaches brotherly love, Yet when the trouble is about to abate,
4:50:19
he seems to regret it. For then he seizes upon every chance,
4:50:25
uses every opportune moment to convey some confidential intelligence to the party or parties for
4:50:32
whose ears it had been least intended. The strife is renewed, passions are
4:50:37
rekindled. Yet while men welter in their heart's blood, widows mourn and orphans
4:50:45
cry, the trader, the tale teller, the scandal peddler maintains his saintly
4:50:52
countenance and bewails the fate of the unfortunates. Yet it is not always the
4:50:59
spoken slam under the spoken tale that hurts. The old adage that silence is
4:51:04
golden is not to be applied in all cases. Silence is often even more
4:51:11
dangerous than spoken words. Silence may become a greater liar than the tongue.
4:51:18
We often hear the expression if you cannot speak good of anyone, say nothing.
4:51:25
Yet silence is the most bitter, poisonous, insidious traducer. Silence may
4:51:32
convey contempt more completely than a torrent of spoken words. Silence is most treacherous
4:51:40
because it places the burden of its interpretation upon the other side. That interpretation
4:51:47
may be wrong, but the silent slanderer does not correct it. Silence is
4:51:52
also many sided. It may mean consent, it may mean denial. It
4:52:00
does incalculable harm without being in the least responsible or actionable. One cannot horsewhip
4:52:07
one for injury to character through silence. Silence and innuendo are closely related.
4:52:15
Both are the most dangerous weapons of the moral coward. Spoken lies are soon
4:52:22
forgotten. They rile the blood, but that passes spoken. Lies are tangible,
4:52:30
as it were, and may be met. Silence and innuendo are like
4:52:36
enemies in invisible ambush. One cannot attack an invisible foe. What we have
4:52:42
reference to might best be illustrated by the following dialog. The writer once overheard,
4:52:49
AY, tell me truly, did he make that charge against me?
4:52:55
B turns away and refuses to answer. A. I heard he had made
4:53:02
that charge against me to you and threatened my life. Is that true?
4:53:07
No answer A. I may then presume by your silence that it is true
4:53:14
what I have asked you about. No reply. Result of silence a homicide
4:53:22
and the destruction of two families. Asked later why he did not nip the
4:53:29
trouble in its incipiency by resorting to a white lie, B answered with asperity
4:53:36
that A had put his own construction upon his silence and refusal to have anything
4:53:41
whatever to say in their controversy. On the stand, B admitted that the
4:53:48
third party in question had not told him what A had inquired about. Ergo,
4:53:55
B was morally responsible for the homicide as much so as the man that
4:54:00
pulled the trigger. Reverting to the circumstance which completed the breach between French and
4:54:07
Eversoul, a certain friend of French conveyed information to Eversoul that he French sought
4:54:12
his life. This informant was a clerk in the store of French and known
4:54:19
to be in his confidence. Naturally, under such circumstances, Eversoul gave the
4:54:26
report credence. Why not we are ever ready to believe and accept as true
4:54:32
anything that is spoken of an enemy, and French and Eversoul had already become
4:54:37
such in their hearts, if not outwardly. The tale bearer who shall be
4:54:42
nameless, related how French had planned to rid himself of his business rival and
4:54:49
thus make for himself a clear field for mercantile operations. That French expected to
4:54:56
accomplish his purpose with the aid of trustee hired assassins, and that one part
4:55:03
of the plan, the employment of reliable murderers, had been entrusted to him.
4:55:08
The informant, who had been promised any amount of money necessary for this
4:55:14
purpose, and a partnership with French in the business as a further reward for
4:55:18
his services, whether for real or imaginary causes. This tale bearer had become
4:55:26
intensely jealous of French over a woman, he sought consolation in revenge. One
4:55:33
of the first steps toward the consummation of his desire to ruin his rival in
4:55:38
love had been the bearing of the tale referred to to Eversoul. Ever,
4:55:45
Soul, after weighing carefully the statement, seemed to have entertained some doubt of
4:55:49
its truth, and requested a sworn affidavit containing the statements made this the tail
4:55:57
teller readily prepared with such clearness of detail as to cause Eversoul to dismiss all
4:56:03
doubt of the truth of the revelations, and at once prepared to meet his
4:56:08
enemy well. French saw the ominous gathering of the Eversoul clan fully armed,
4:56:15
and surrounded himself with an equally strong force. Both of the belligerents kept busy
4:56:22
recruiting among their friends and kindred in perry and even adjoining counties. Man after
4:56:30
man was added to the clans, some joining them bound by the strong ties
4:56:34
of relationship or friendship. The most, however, were attracted by promises of
4:56:41
good, steady pay and an opportunity to violate the law on a grander scale
4:56:47
than they would have dared to do single handed. The first murder occurred shortly
4:56:52
after the gathering of the clans. One of French's stancious friends, one Silas
4:56:59
gayheart Art, was shot and killed from ambush. This mode of warfare was
4:57:06
resorted to in this feud, perhaps more generally than in any of the others.
4:57:11
It must not be attributed altogether to cowardice, this murdering from ambush.
4:57:18
It has many advantages. Of course, killing an enemy from ambush puts the
4:57:22
slayers out of danger. That is one consideration. But the chiefest one is
4:57:30
that it is almost impossible to fasten the guilt of the crime upon the proper
4:57:33
person. When men are banded together for the purpose of committing crime, the
4:57:41
sanctity of an oath is easily laid aside when an alibi becomes necessary. The
4:57:48
entire population of the county may know the assassins, point them out to you
4:57:52
as they stock proudly along. Yet when it comes to trials by jury,
4:57:59
the evident seems to signally fail to connect them, the very men that might
4:58:04
have told you in confidence. The most damaging circumstances connecting the accused with crime
4:58:11
will on the stand disclaim all knowledge, or so softened down their statements that
4:58:18
no jury could, under their oaths, find a verdict of guilty. In
4:58:22
this murder of gay Heart. At least a dozen white men and some negroes
4:58:27
participated. It is unfortunate that circumstances do not permit us to give the names
4:58:33
of them. They should be preserved for posterity and added to the list of
4:58:38
feud heroes. As no one was ever indicted for that cowardly assassination, although
4:58:45
its perpetrators were well known throughout the county, history must necessarily remain silent insofar
4:58:53
as the publication of their names is concerned. It has been stated and content
4:59:00
that the killing of Gayheart was an affair entirely disconnected with the French ever sole
4:59:04
controversy, that the man had fallen as a victim of a quarrel with persons
4:59:11
not members of the clan. This may be true and it may not.
4:59:17
It is difficult in such social upheavals to get at the unvarnished truth. When
4:59:22
crimes are committed under cover of black night from well secreted places, suspicion might
4:59:30
point in the wrong direction and accuse the innocent. For this reason, it
4:59:34
is best to abstain from charges not definitely established beyond any sort of doubt.
4:59:41
The result of the Gayhart murder, however, was the same as if he
4:59:47
had been publicly assassinated by the Eversole clan. For French believed that Gayhart lost
4:59:52
his life because of his friendship. For him, French sent out more recruiting
4:59:59
officers. The increase of his army forced the Eversouls to do likewise. How
5:00:06
similar is this to the struggle of nations to maintain superior armies and navies.
5:00:12
It is not strange. After all, communities stand relatively in the same attitude
5:00:18
as do nations. A community is a miniature state, nothing more. The
5:00:26
little village of Hazard, with its one hundred inhabitants, was now thrown into
5:00:33
a state of perpetual excitement, which continued uninterrupted through the summer, fall,
5:00:38
and winter of eighteen eighty seven. That no battle was fought was due to
5:00:45
the extreme caution with which the clans watched each others every move. Then,
5:00:51
early one morning, the Eversol faction learned to their astonishment that French and his
5:00:57
army had evacuated the town during the night. Many theories were advanced in explanation
5:01:03
of this singular action. Some attributed it to fear. Those better acquainted with
5:01:11
the temper and make up of the French clan scouted that idea and suggested that
5:01:17
French was seeking reinforcement in the country, and that at an opportune moment he
5:01:22
would sweep down upon the village, trap the hemmed in Eversouls and annihilate them
5:01:30
with overwhelming forces. This seemed a rational conclusion. With French gone from town,
5:01:37
Eversoul declined to be caught in such a trap, as trap it would
5:01:41
have been, and to prevent the execution of French's plan, the Eversouls themselves
5:01:48
retreated to a section of the country peopled with their sympathizers. However, Eversoul
5:01:56
did not leave hazard open to undisputed occupation. He left a bait there,
5:02:02
a small force. If French should learn of the weakness of the garrison,
5:02:07
he would be tempted to sweep down upon it. In doing so, he
5:02:11
would find Eversoul striking in his rear. French himself was shrewd and refused to
5:02:18
fall into the trap. Ever, Soul scouted everywhere frequently on the trail of
5:02:25
French during the month of June, in the dark of night, the latter
5:02:30
re entered. Hazard took possession of his fortified places, where most of his
5:02:36
men remained secreted, while the more daring of them walked the streets the next
5:02:41
morning bantering the Ever Souls that had been left in town. Their leader was
5:02:48
at once notified by messenger to the country of the state of affairs. He
5:02:52
had but few men with him at that time, but with these started for
5:02:57
town. Seven or eight men, fortunately for him, joined his ranks on
5:03:03
the way. It was late in the day when Hazard was reached, but
5:03:10
the lateness of the hour did not defer attack. From well selected positions,
5:03:15
the Ever Souls opened a plunging fire upon the housed up frenchmen. These replied
5:03:22
to the fusillade with equal spirit. Hundreds of shots were fired at a great
5:03:27
expenditure of ammunition, and without appreciable result. Only one man was seriously wounded
5:03:34
on the side of French. No casualties were admitted by the Ever Souls.
5:03:41
The darkness of the night brought the engagement to a close. French withdrew from
5:03:47
town. This kind of almost bloodless warfare continued throughout the summer with no decisive
5:03:55
result. Both clans grew weary great expense had been incurred in keeping a large
5:04:03
paid army. The leaders were threatened with bankruptcy. So when the friends of
5:04:08
both sides interceded, French and Eversoul seemed more than willing to appoint and send
5:04:15
representatives to a conference which was held on Big Creek in Perry County. It
5:04:22
was attended by prominent citizens of both Perry and Leslie Counties who were anxious to
5:04:27
bring about a settlement of the war. Articles of agreement were finally drawn up
5:04:33
in which the belligerents agreed to return to their homes, to disband their armies,
5:04:40
and to surrender their arms and ammunition. This agreement was duly signed by
5:04:45
the representatives of the clans and duly witnessed. In accordance with this agreement,
5:04:52
French surrendered his arms to the county Judge of Leslie County, while Eversoul placed
5:04:59
his guns in yards of Josiah Holmes, County Judge of Perry County. The
5:05:04
clans disbanded. Still, there were but few who promised themselves lasting results from
5:05:11
the Big Creek Treaty of peace. It was nothing more than a scrap of
5:05:17
paper. The compromise had not been prompted by any desire for friendship. Its
5:05:23
underlying motive was mercenary. The chieftains sought merely to avoid financial outlay the welfare
5:05:32
of the country, respect for the law. These were the considerations of secondary
5:05:37
importance. Only if taken into account at all. This may be fairly deducted
5:05:44
from the fact that the old distrust of each other never vanished. The grudge
5:05:48
was there, it rankled still. Indeed, it was but a short time
5:05:53
after the conclusion of the treaty that French claimed to have unquestionable authority for the
5:06:00
charge that Eversoul had violated the stipulations by repossessing himself of the guns. These,
5:06:07
as we have seen, had been turned over to Judge Josiah Holmes,
5:06:12
who, by the way, was the father in law of Joe Eversoul.
5:06:18
When Eversoul was confronted with this breach of a solemn treaty, he attempted to
5:06:22
justify it by declaring that at no time had ever been observed by French,
5:06:27
who he maintained, had never in fact disbanded his army, and that the
5:06:33
surrender of arms had only been partial. A blind Whether these reports had been
5:06:41
actually brought to the ears of the chieftains, or had been invented by them
5:06:45
in order to manufacture some sort of pretext upon which to renew hostilities. Must
5:06:52
ever remain in doubt. Future events seemed to prove rather clearly that neither of
5:06:57
the parties was in very good faith toward keeping the peace. Both French and
5:07:03
Eversoul appeared singularly well prepared to re enter the war. The ink had hardly
5:07:11
dried on the treaty when Perry County was again thrown into turmoil and strife.
5:07:17
What had the authorities been doing during this period of quasi warfare? We find
5:07:22
absolutely no record of any sort of any attempt to maintain the dignity of the
5:07:27
law. As in Rowan County, many of the court officers were rank partisans
5:07:34
who used their power to protect an outlawry their own particular friends and kindred.
5:07:41
Those not in their favour had little cause to appeal to the law had they
5:07:47
been inclined to do so, which they were not. It seemed to suit
5:07:52
both sides perfectly to let justice sheath her sword and stand idle and blind as
5:08:00
usual. On the fifteenth of September eighteen eighty seven, Joe Eversoul and Bill
5:08:07
Gambriel, a French sympathizer, met in the streets of Hazard when a quarrel
5:08:12
ensued. This was followed by a most sanguinary duel, in which Gambrielle was
5:08:18
killed. Gambriel was a minister of the Gospel, a typical mountaineer, tall,
5:08:26
powerful and game. He would fight at the drop of a hat,
5:08:30
and drop the hat himself. It was said of him that he considered moonshine
5:08:37
whiskey of much benefit for the stomach, and a game at cards an agreeable
5:08:42
diversion from the cares and toils of life. It was said of him,
5:08:48
too, that he carried a testament in one pocket, a deck of cards,
5:08:52
a bottle of liquor, and a pistol in the others. This had
5:08:57
been told in a but straightway. This description of him was accepted as a
5:09:03
fact, and was widely published in the papers at the time. The truth
5:09:10
of the matter is that he was a man who entertained rather singular, independent
5:09:15
and free ideas of the duties of a preacher. He was a good man
5:09:19
and had a wide circle of friends. Joe Eversoul was physically a small man
5:09:26
of slight stature, but quick and agile, as a boy. Certainly he
5:09:32
was fearless. When such men engage in combat, blood is sure to flow.
5:09:38
As to who began the difficulty, there is but little doubt. Official
5:09:44
reports to the Governor, which will be found later on, placed the blame
5:09:48
upon Eversoul. After a short exchange of blows between the men, Gambrielle was
5:09:56
fired upon by secreted friends of Eversoul. Attempting to escape by running around a
5:10:03
house, Gambriel was fired upon from another quarter and fatally wounded. Staggering and
5:10:10
reeling, he turned upon Eversaul, who fired into his head, instantly killing
5:10:15
him. Several parties were indicted for the murder, but only one was tried.
5:10:22
The trial resulted in a hung jury the first time, and in an
5:10:27
acquittal on the second trial. It has always been an open secret about town
5:10:33
that the man who fired upon Gambriel while he attempted to escape death has never
5:10:38
been indicted, and that he was an officer at that time. The killing
5:10:45
created intense feeling. Gambriel had many friends, he was a staunch French adherent,
5:10:52
and it is well within the course of reason for French to regard the
5:10:56
killing of the man as a challenge The Eversuls themselves believed that Gambriel's friends would
5:11:04
not pass lightly over the homicide, and prepared to meet all danger. The
5:11:11
clans disbanded, but a short time before reassembled, and for several months roamed
5:11:18
the ill fated county at will, terrorizing its inhabitants and defying the law.
5:11:25
But little fighting was done. It seems that they contented themselves with maneuvering,
5:11:30
marching and counter marching. In such warfare, if warfare it was, the
5:11:37
innocent were made to suffer more than the warriors. Such an armed vagabondage was
5:11:45
as useless as it was silly. It furnished material for the sensational newspaper,
5:11:52
but even these failed to discover anything of the heroic about this campaign. The
5:11:57
leaders must have felt something of that themselves, for during the winter the armies
5:12:03
were again disbanded. Permanent restoration of peace, however, was not to come
5:12:10
to Perry County yet for a time. The apparent calm through the winter was
5:12:15
suddenly disturbed in the following April, when the news of the brutal assassination of
5:12:22
Joseph C. Eversoul and Nick Comb's excited and horrified hazard on the morning of
5:12:29
April fifteen, eighteen eighty eight, the Valley of Big Creek, Perry County,
5:12:36
became the scene of a tragedy which might well cause one's blood to run
5:12:40
cold with horror, one's cheeks to blush with shame. On the Sabbath day,
5:12:47
when human hearts should turn to God in prayer, when nature even seems
5:12:52
to bow in reverence, the birds of the forest sing his praises with more
5:12:57
than usual sweetness. Two lives were hurled into eternity without warning, murdered butchered
5:13:06
from ambush. When a man resents an insult, when passion clouds all reason,
5:13:14
and in momentary frenzy, under the impulse of hot red blood, he
5:13:18
shoots his fellow man, there is yet some excuse. But when men with
5:13:25
a savage instinct of beasts of prey fall upon their unsuspecting victims from ambush,
5:13:32
like a tiger that glides noiselessly through the thick jungle and suddenly springs upon its
5:13:37
prey, then the word man becomes a mock, and devil is the proper
5:13:44
epithet. Nowhere in the Valley of Big Creek could a more suitable spot have
5:13:49
been selected from which to accomplish such a hellish crime as was committed on that
5:13:55
fatal Sunday morning than the one chosen by the red handed demon. The valley
5:14:02
is narrow, the hills enclosing it are steep, rugged, and covered with
5:14:07
dense forest. The spot where the murderers were in hiding commanded an uninterrupted view
5:14:15
of the road up and down the valley. Nothing short of a lynx's eyes
5:14:19
could have penetrated the leafy, thicket grown murderer's retreat. On the day of
5:14:26
the murder, Joe Eversol, in company of his father in law, Judge
5:14:30
Josiah Combs, and the latter's youthful nephew, Nick Combs, bade a last
5:14:37
farewell to his family and the host of friends at Hazard, and started for
5:14:41
Hayden, where the regular term of the Circuit Court was scheduled to begin the
5:14:47
following morning. This court Eversoul and Judge Combs had always attended, having been
5:14:53
practicing members of the bar there for years. Of this fact, the ass
5:15:00
as had been well informed. They seemed to have feared that their intended victims
5:15:06
might possibly leave for Heyden a day or two in advance of court, which
5:15:11
they had done on several occasions. In the past. So the murderers prepared
5:15:17
for such an exigency and stationed themselves at the ambush for at least a day
5:15:22
before that memorable Sunday. Their patient waiting was rewarded on Sunday morning by the
5:15:30
appearance of the victims. On the way, the three travelers were joined by
5:15:34
one Tom Hollyfield, an officer who was conveying a prisoner, Mary Jones,
5:15:41
to Heyden. Judge Combs rode by the side of the officer well in advance
5:15:48
of Eversoul and young Nick Combs. They had passed the ambush some forty yards
5:15:55
or more when suddenly the roar of rapidly fired guns echoed and re echoed through
5:16:00
the valley. At the sound of the shots, Judge Combs turned and saw
5:16:07
to his horror that the messengers of death had accomplished their cruel mission. Saw
5:16:14
Joe Eversol and Nick Combs fall from their rearing and plunging horses, saw them
5:16:19
struggle in their blood, and then lay still, paralyzed with horror and agony.
5:16:26
He gazed upon the scene. He had no sense or realization of his
5:16:32
own danger, for in danger he had been. It was purely accident that
5:16:37
he had ridden in advance of his kinsman. One of the assassins climbed down
5:16:44
the steep hillside and approached the body of Nick Combs, who was then in
5:16:48
his death throes. He had fainted, but upon the approach of the assassin
5:16:55
opened his eyes. The murderer, finding life still lingering in the mangled,
5:17:02
bleeding body, raised his rifle to finish the bloody work. The youth begged
5:17:07
piteously to shoot him no more, that death would claim him in a few
5:17:12
moments. Mountains might have been moved by his pleadings, but not the heart
5:17:18
of the cowardly assassin. Dead Men tell no tales, he exclaimed, with
5:17:25
a smile of derision upon his lips. Slowly he raised the Winchester rifle,
5:17:32
placed the muzzle against the boy's head, and fired, dropping the eyeballs from
5:17:37
their sockets. The murderer then calmly rifled the pockets of ever soul of their
5:17:44
contents, and retreated, thus adding the crime of robbery to that of murder.
5:17:51
Judge Combs brought to himself, spurred his horse to utmost exertion, and
5:17:56
dashed like a maniac into hEidin to bring the news the scene of the crime.
5:18:03
Was within about three hundred yards of a house. Shortly after the shooting,
5:18:08
One Fields, the owner of the house or cabin, and one Campbell
5:18:15
proceeded to the scene of the tragedy. They found the dead in a pool
5:18:19
of blood, lying within a few feet of each other. They discovered Eversul's
5:18:26
pockets turned inside out. Nick Combs's horse was found shot in a little meadow
5:18:33
by the side of the road, while Eversoul's horse was afterwards caught some miles
5:18:38
further down the stream. The news of the tragedy aroused the people to instant
5:18:45
action. A force of men was assembled who started upon the trail of the
5:18:51
murderers. The place of ambush was found. It was located exactly sixty one
5:18:57
feet from the point where the body had been found, in a dense spruce
5:19:03
pine thicket. Several of the pine bushes had been bent over and the tops
5:19:08
tied together, thus forming a complete scream and shelter. Behind this blind or
5:19:15
scream, they found a considerable depression in the earth, a natural rifle pit.
5:19:22
This had been filled with leaves and appeared packed and trodden into the ground.
5:19:30
Numerous footprints were plainly visible. Remnants of meals were also found. Everything
5:19:37
tended to confirm the theory that the assassins had been there for at least two
5:19:41
days before the killing. From the screen, the trail was followed up the
5:19:48
hill until it divided. One of the trails led to the top of a
5:19:53
high ridge, one turned to the right, another to the left. This
5:20:00
discovery proved that there had been at least three assassins. When this fact became
5:20:07
known, the pursuers retreated, seemingly afraid of an ambush. They reasoned that
5:20:14
three or more men so desperate as to commit a cold blood of double murder
5:20:18
in the broad open light of day, almost in sight of human habitation,
5:20:25
would and could, in this wild mountain region successfully fight an even larger force
5:20:32
than was at the command of the pursuers. The bodies of ever sullen combs
5:20:37
were conveyed to Hazard in the afternoon and consigned to their graves amid a great
5:20:42
concourse of sorrowing people. Thus the bloody drama ends, The somber curtain of
5:20:49
mourning falls, the story of the brutal assassination is finished. Justice hides her
5:20:56
head in shame, for no one has ever been punished for it. The
5:21:02
French faction was at once openly charged with responsibility for the outrage. French himself
5:21:08
was indicted. So boldly and undisguised were these accusations circulated that French feared for
5:21:17
his safety and again surrounded himself with men. He almost immediately withdrew from town
5:21:23
and scouted through the country. If those who committed the murder of Eversoul or
5:21:30
their accessories had hoped to thereby crush the enemy, they found themselves sadly mistaken.
5:21:37
The vacancy created by the death of Joe Eversol was quickly and ably filled
5:21:42
by John Campbell, a man of acknowledged bravery as well as caution, and
5:21:48
well fitted as a leader in such a struggle. He surrounded the town with
5:21:53
guards. Squads of men patrolled the streets. His force made repeated scouts into
5:22:00
the neighboring hills. No man not in possession of the password could enter town.
5:22:07
An unauthorized attempt to do so drew upon the rash won the fire of
5:22:12
many guns. Campbell had been for days in hourly expectation of an attack by
5:22:19
French. He therefore believed it wise to resort to military methods and discipline.
5:22:26
The rigid order to shoot anyone who dared to pass into town without first giving
5:22:30
the password resulted in his own death. He was returning one night from his
5:22:37
usual rounds, when, on approaching a sentry, he found him asleep.
5:22:42
He ordered him harshly to arise. When the man, half asleep and dazed,
5:22:48
threw the gun to his shoulder and fired, Campbell uttered a groan and
5:22:53
fell heavily to the ground. The sentry, on perceiving his mistake, gave
5:23:00
the alarm. The wounded chieftain was carried to his home, where an examination
5:23:06
of his wound by the surgeons disclosed the fact that he had been fatally wounded.
5:23:11
He lingered, however, for more than thirty days in intense agony,
5:23:15
before he died, the victim of his own precautions. During Campbell's leadership,
5:23:22
one Shade Combs conceived the grand idea that he was the man who might summarily
5:23:30
and the war by killing off certain obnoxious members of the French faction. He
5:23:36
communicated his plans to Campbell, who furnished him the required men. But by
5:23:41
some means, Combs's intended victims had gotten wind of his scheme and forestalled it
5:23:48
in such manner that the hunter now became the hunted. One fine morning,
5:23:55
while saddling his horse, a well directed shot from ambush and his Such were
5:24:02
conditions in Perry County during the summer and fall of eighteen eighty eight. People
5:24:07
who had continued entirely neutral grew exceedingly nervous. One never knew when his turn
5:24:15
would come next to die from a shot from the bushes. The law had
5:24:19
utterly failed to give the citizens the protection to which they were entitled. The
5:24:26
state and county government enforced the collection of taxes, but seemed unable to enforce
5:24:32
the law. Had the people of Perry County withheld their hands from their purse
5:24:37
strings and refused to pay taxes, we honestly believed that the high authorities would
5:24:44
very quickly have found or invented a remedy for the lawlessness which was depriving the
5:24:49
state of revenue. The citizens of Perry County would have been justified in a
5:24:55
rebellion against taxation unless the government protected them in their rights. When people are
5:25:02
taxed, they in turn are supposed to have their lives and property protected.
5:25:07
When one consideration of a contract fails, the other may be avoided. On
5:25:15
the ninth of October eighteen eighty eight, the news of another assassination increased the
5:25:21
terror of the people. Elijah Morgan, a French adherent, a man of
5:25:26
courage and unswerving determination, was shot and killed within less than two miles of
5:25:33
hazard shot from ambush. On the morning of his death, he and one
5:25:40
Frank Grace were on their way to town in pursuance of an agreement that had
5:25:44
been entered into by him with members of the Ever Soul faction. Morgan was
5:25:49
the son in law of Judge Combs, but in spite of all efforts from
5:25:55
that direction to throw his influence with the Ever Souls, he had continued to
5:26:00
remain loyal to French, and for this he was promptly slain. His death
5:26:06
had been decreed some time before this, but his shrewdness and knowledge of the
5:26:11
tactics of his enemies had made him a very slippery proposition. A ruse was
5:26:18
therefore resorted to. For a short time. Previous to his death, Morgan
5:26:23
had frequently expressed his desire for peace, an earnest wish to lay down his
5:26:29
arms and to be permitted to return to peaceful pursuits. This commendable desire on
5:26:36
his part assisted his enemies in the formulation of plans for his destruction. They
5:26:42
assured him, with every pledge of sincerity, that he should not be molested,
5:26:48
that he might freely come to town whenever he wished, that on a
5:26:52
certain day, the day of the murder, if he would meet them at
5:26:56
hazard, they would all renew the friendship that had existed until the feud tore
5:27:00
them asunder. Morgan promised to attend the proposed piece jubilee. Little did he
5:27:08
dream that the pretended friends were cold blooded, calculating enemies seeking his life under
5:27:15
the miserable mask of friendship. That to be certain of success, to avoid
5:27:21
any possible miscarriage of the plot, every avenue of escape had been carefully considered
5:27:26
and guarded against Assassins were placed at various points along the road and at convenient
5:27:34
spots in town. The actors in the tragedy were all at their posts when
5:27:41
Morgan stepped upon the scene, unknowingly playing the chief role. Within less than
5:27:48
two miles in fact, but little more than a mile from town, at
5:27:52
a spot where the road is flanked by large overhanging cliffs on one side and
5:27:59
the steep river bank on the other, Morgan was fired upon with a bullet
5:28:04
in his back, he sank to the ground. A number of shots followed
5:28:10
the first one. Grace was driven to cover Morgan in his death struggle rolled
5:28:17
over the river bank, where a small tree arrested further descent. Grace,
5:28:22
not daring to abandon his place of comparative safety, remained a helpless spectator of
5:28:29
the agonies of his dying friend. Country people traveling toward town at last came
5:28:37
to Morgan's relief, but he died within a few hours. As soon as
5:28:42
the alarm had been given. A posse of his friends started in pursuit of
5:28:47
the murderers, but nothing came of it. The French faction openly charged the
5:28:52
Ever Souls with the murder. The Ever Souls expressed indignation at the imputation.
5:28:59
They had no right to complain. On other occasions, they had themselves preferred
5:29:04
similar charges against French upon no better authority than suspicions based upon suspicious circumstances.
5:29:14
The murder of Morgan had followed closely upon the heel of the assassination of Shade
5:29:18
Combs, for which the Ever Souls held the French faction responsible. Certainly,
5:29:25
there were some well grounded suspicions that the slaying of Morgan was an act of
5:29:30
retaliation on the part of the ever Souls. Now the state government and the
5:29:36
Circuit Judge began to take a hand in the matter. It was time Circuit
5:29:41
Judge Lilly, a gentleman of the highest type, an able jurist, had
5:29:48
somehow or other seemed unable to inspire the district with respect for his courts.
5:29:55
This district embraced the counties of brethet Lecher, Perry, Not and others.
5:30:02
In each of those lawlessness had spread to such an extent that the Judge found
5:30:07
himself defied on every hand, and felt himself compelled to request the state to
5:30:12
furnish troops for his courts. This led to the following spirited correspondence between the
5:30:19
Governor and Judge Lilly, Hazard, Kentucky, November thirteenth, eighteen eighty eight
5:30:29
to the Governor of Kentucky, Sir Captain Sohan has succeeded in organizing a company
5:30:36
of about forty five State guards in Perry County. He informs me that he
5:30:41
has no orders and does not know whether he will be ordered back to Louisville
5:30:47
or to go with me. To Whitesburg, thence to Hindman, and thence
5:30:52
to Breathett. But in any event expects to be ordered away from here very
5:30:57
soon. B. F. French is here with fifteen or perhaps more men,
5:31:04
well armed, and the people are so much alarmed, fearing that they
5:31:10
will be left to the mercy of these men, that I have decided that
5:31:14
I will take the responsibility upon myself to order the Perry guards on duty,
5:31:19
hoping that you will approve my action and order them on duty, and let
5:31:25
their pay begin on the seventeenth instant. I will not attempt to hold courts
5:31:30
at lecture Not or Breathitt unless you send guards along. No good can be
5:31:37
accomplished by holding courts in any of those counties without a guard. If a
5:31:42
sufficient guard is present, I think that much good will be accomplished in and
5:31:48
by the moral effect it will have on the people by showing them that you
5:31:52
are determined to have the courts held and the laws enforced, and to give
5:31:56
protection to the good citizens. Please write me and send by way of Manchester,
5:32:03
as I shall return that way. And if I do not receive your
5:32:07
letter here can get it on the road. If you order the guard to
5:32:12
go with me. I will go and hold the courts, if not provincially
5:32:17
hindered. I remain yours truly, H. C. Lilly, the Governor
5:32:25
answered, in rather caustic manner. Governor Buckner's Reply, Executive Department, Frankfort,
5:32:33
November twenty seventh, eighteen eighty eight, Honorable H. C. Lily,
5:32:40
Judge Irvine, Kentucky. Dear Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge
5:32:45
the receipt of your communication of the thirteenth instant from Hazzard, Perry County,
5:32:51
in which you say, mister B. F. French is here with fifteen
5:32:56
or perhaps more men well armed, and the peer people are so much alarmed,
5:33:00
fearing that they will be left to the mercy of those men, that
5:33:04
I have decided that I will take the responsibility upon myself to order the Perry
5:33:10
Guards on duty, hoping that you will approve my action and order them on
5:33:15
duty and let their pay begin. On the seventeenth instant. At the time
5:33:21
I received your communication, I was in communication with the Sheriff of Perry County.
5:33:26
I inferred from his statements that there was no immediate danger of an outbreak
5:33:30
or opposition to the civil authorities, and second that but slight effort had been
5:33:37
made by him to arrest violators of the law. Your own statement does not
5:33:42
inform me of anything more than a vague apprehension in the public mind, and
5:33:48
does not advise me that the civil authorities cannot suppress any attempts at disturbance by
5:33:53
employing the usual force of civil government. I assume that, if had been
5:34:00
imminent, both you and the sheriff would have remained on the ground. The
5:34:06
object of furnishing troops on your application was to protect the court in the discharge
5:34:11
of its duties, and not to supersede the civil authorities by a military force.
5:34:18
Under the circumstances, I do not feel authorized to call the local militia
5:34:22
into active service. Respectfully, your obedient servant, S. B. Buckner.
5:34:30
The letter of Judge Lily is significant as an admission of the cowardice of
5:34:34
the entire population. He says, mister B. F. French is here
5:34:40
with fifteen or perhaps more men well armed, and the people are so much
5:34:45
alarmed, fearing that they will be left to the mercy of those men,
5:34:48
and so on. Had Judge Lily been correctly informed, If so, what
5:34:55
had become of the boasted bravery of Kentucky mountaineers, that the manhood of an
5:35:00
entire county containing many thousand inhabitants should shiver and tremble like frightened sheep and tamely
5:35:08
submit to the intimidations of a band of fifteen or perhaps more men. Was
5:35:15
it possible in this land of the free and the brave The proportion of brave
5:35:21
men stood fifteen to one thousand cowards. Oh No, The authorities had simply
5:35:27
never put the law abiding, the true citizen element, in a position to
5:35:33
show its medal. It had never been given a proper test. The attempt
5:35:38
to restore order had not been made at all. If it had, it
5:35:42
would have succeeded. No outlaw band, however strong, can or will long
5:35:48
defy the law when a firm and determined move is made to enforce it.
5:35:55
Why is it that one courageous bluecoat policeman can scatter a crowd. It is
5:36:00
not his bulk, his figure, but the uniform he wears, the badge
5:36:06
of authority, the law. If he is a credit to that uniform,
5:36:11
he may single handed disperse a mob. The consciousness of having the law behind
5:36:18
him makes him dauntless. The thought of duty steals his nerves. If those
5:36:25
entrusted with the execution of the law in Perry County had made one firm,
5:36:30
unflinching effort to upload its dignity, the period of assassinations would have ended then
5:36:36
and there. The history of lawlessness in Perry County furnishes ample lessons to other
5:36:42
counties and to other states, for that matter. Governor Buckner aptly expressed his
5:36:49
opinion of the situation when he terms the fears and alarms of the people as
5:36:56
anything more than a vague apprehension in the public mind. Judge Lilly probably accepted
5:37:03
the trembling cowardice of a few as the criterion by which to measure the manhood
5:37:07
of an entire county. However, on the twenty ninth of October, the
5:37:14
Governor notified the Adjutant General to forward troops to Hazard. His report to the
5:37:21
Governor later on furnishes interesting reading, as does the report of the commander of
5:37:26
the expedition, Captain J. M. Sohan, Adjutant General's Office, Frankfort,
5:37:33
Kentucky, November fourteenth, eighteen eighty eight, to his excellency, Governor
5:37:41
S. B. Buckner, Dear Sir Pursuant to executive order bearing the date
5:37:48
the twenty ninth Ault. I left Frankfort on thirty first and proceeded to Hazard,
5:37:52
the county seat of Perry County, arriving there noon of Sunday the fourteenth,
5:37:59
instant where I remained till Thursday the eighth, when I left on my
5:38:03
return at ten o'clock a m. Arriving here Saturday morning. Hazard contains nearly
5:38:11
one hundred inhabitants when they are all at home, but I was told that
5:38:15
not more than about thirty five people were at home when I reached there,
5:38:19
the rest of the population having refugeed in consequence of the French and Eversoul feud,
5:38:26
which has distracted the people of the town and county for more than two
5:38:30
years, and during which some ten men have died by violence as a result
5:38:36
thereof Many of the refugees returned before I left there, a number having joined
5:38:42
the troops en route and returned under their protection to Hazard, arriving there on
5:38:48
the afternoon of Sunday the fourth, while others return Sunday night, and others
5:38:55
as late as Wednesday night. Among those who had sought safety in flight were
5:39:00
George Eversoll, County judge and brother to Joe Eversoll, the leader of the
5:39:07
faction of that name, Ira Davidson, Circuit and County Court clerk, a
5:39:12
sympathizer with that faction. Josiah Combs, late county judge and father in law
5:39:19
of Joseph Eversol and his son Blank Combs, who is an officer of the
5:39:26
Circuit Court. And Fulton French, the leader of the French faction, together
5:39:32
with the families of each except Davidson, who is a single man. These
5:39:37
all returned, except the elder Combs, either with the troops or after their
5:39:42
arrival and before I left. The killings above referred to were mostly assassinations from
5:39:52
ambush, which seems to have been the favorite method of warfare adopted by both
5:39:56
factions for ridding the community of the present of persons who, from causes real
5:40:03
or supposed, had made themselves obnoxious to the slayers. Though one killing,
5:40:10
that of mister Gambriel, was committed in the town of Hazard in broad daylight
5:40:15
by two ever Souls and two of his henchmen, and was witnessed by a
5:40:19
number of people, was committed without anything like adequate provocation, but for which
5:40:26
no indictment had ever been found grand juries, and witnesses seem either to have
5:40:33
sympathized with the lawbreakers or to have been intimidated by them. But it is
5:40:38
not improbable that both of these causes have operated to paralyze the administration of the
5:40:44
law and to correspondingly stimulate crime. As is usual in such cases, I
5:40:52
found that the county authorities failed to act with any degree of promptness and vigor
5:40:56
at the inception of the difficulties, and the result was the inevitable one.
5:41:02
The troubles soon grew beyond their control. Josiah Combs, the father in law
5:41:08
of Joe Eversoul, was county judge at the beginning of the feud, and
5:41:14
Eversoul and his friends were evidently the aggressors, at least, were first to
5:41:18
resort to violence, and when the county judge was appealed to by outsiders to
5:41:25
issue warrants for their arrest, positively declined to do so, saying that Eversoul
5:41:30
had done nothing to be arrested for, and that French ought to be driven
5:41:34
away from town. Thus, the inaction of the authorities stimulated the friends of
5:41:41
each faction, and each sought safety in arming such persons. As would take
5:41:47
service with them and setting at defiance the law instead of looking to it as
5:41:52
their best protection. Finally, one Sunday morning last April, Joe Eversoul,
5:41:59
in company with Nick Combs, his brother in law, and Josiah Combs started
5:42:04
from Hazard to Hayden to Circuit Court, and when about five miles out from
5:42:10
Hazard, they were fired upon from ambush and Eversol and young Combs were instantly
5:42:17
killed. Fulton French was indicted for that killing, and while he may have
5:42:22
instigated it, he certainly did not participate in the shooting. The killing of
5:42:29
Joe Eversoul seems to have demoralized his friends, the most prominent of whom soon
5:42:33
after left Hazard. The last assassination was that of Elijah Morgan, who was
5:42:41
shot from ambush near Hazard on the ninth of last month. His only crime
5:42:48
appears to have been that he sympathized with French. Morgan was also a son
5:42:53
in law of Josiah Combs and brother in law of ever Soul. Now perhaps
5:43:00
you are ready to ask what it was all about. Well, I cannot
5:43:04
say. Although I very naturally sought to learn the cause, some of whom
5:43:10
I inquired thought it was business. Rivalry, while others said there was a
5:43:15
woman in the case, and I think it attributable in part to both these
5:43:19
causes. French and Eversoul were both merchants and lawyers, and I was told
5:43:26
that some three years ago a man who was clerking for French accused French of
5:43:32
deflouring his wife and quit French and took service with Eversoul, and told the
5:43:38
latter that the former had offered him five hundred dollars to murder him. And
5:43:44
soon afterwards Silas Gayhart, who was a friend of French, was murdered,
5:43:49
and it is charged by Eversoul and his friends. And from that time on
5:43:55
the troubles have grown, and assassinations multiplied, the victims being first from one
5:44:02
side and then from the other. I thought it advisable to call out forty
5:44:07
four of the reserve militia all that I had arms for, and selected these
5:44:12
from the best nonpartisan people that I could. The list was not complete when
5:44:18
I left, but I authorized Captain Sohan, whom I found to be an
5:44:23
excellent officer, to muster them in, and gave him similar instructions to those
5:44:30
you gave me on the subject. Judge Lilly is very anxious that the troops
5:44:34
go with him to not an electure counties. But I heard of no organized
5:44:41
band of outlaws in those counties too strong for the civil authorities. If the
5:44:45
latter will do their duty. The troops, officers and men comprising the detail
5:44:52
conducted themselves in a soldierly and appropriate manner, and I apprehend that they will
5:44:59
have no trouble in protecting the court from violence, should any be offered,
5:45:03
which I think improbable. Very respectfully, Sam E. Hill, Adjutant General,
5:45:11
Captain Sohan's report contains additional facts of interest, the difficulty in reaching the
5:45:18
remote mountainous section, and facts connected with the conduct of the Court. Headquarters,
5:45:25
Louisville, Legion, First Regiment, Kentucky State Guard, Adjutant's Office,
5:45:32
Louisville, Kentucky, November twenty seventh, eighteen eighty nine, to the Adjutant
5:45:37
General, Frankfort, Kentucky, Sir, under instructions contained in your letter of
5:45:44
March eighth, eighteen eighty eight, handed me at Hazard, Perry County,
5:45:48
Kentucky, I have the honor to submit the following report pursuant to General Orders
5:45:55
Numbers thirty eight and thirty nine issued from Regimental Headquarters and authorized by executive orders.
5:46:03
I left Louisville October thirtieth at eight o five pm with a detail of
5:46:07
four commissioned officers and sixty three non commissioned officers and privates, and one gatling
5:46:14
gun, under instructions to report to Honorable H. C. Lilly, Judge
5:46:19
of the nineteenth Judicial District, at Hazzard, Perry County, Kentucky. The
5:46:26
detail occupied two passenger coaches and one baggage car, which were attached to the
5:46:32
regular eight o five p m train on the Knoxville branch of the L and
5:46:37
N Railroad. We arrived at London, Kentucky about two o'clock, and there
5:46:42
our cars were sidetracked and the command occupied them until daylight, when we disembarked,
5:46:49
had breakfast, and started for Hazard, which is about seventy five miles
5:46:55
distant. We traveled in wagons which had been provided by LU Lieutenant J.
5:47:00
H. Mansur, acting Quartermaster, who had preceded the command to London for
5:47:06
that purpose. To transport the command were required fourteen wagons and teams, and
5:47:11
one team for gatling gun. The officers were mounted. Owing to the condition
5:47:18
of the road in places almost impassable, The march was very tedious. The
5:47:25
men had frequently to dismount and help the teams up the hills or over rough
5:47:30
places. About four o'clock we went into camp for the night and resumed the
5:47:36
march next morning at good daylight. We continued the march in this manner from
5:47:41
day to day, going into camp between three and four o'clock and resuming the
5:47:45
march between six and seven. We reached Hazard at three o'clock Sunday afternoon,
5:47:52
November third, eighteen eighty eight, it being the fifth day out from London.
5:47:59
On the second day of the march, we were joined by Judge Lilly
5:48:03
when about twenty five miles from London. He remained with or near the command
5:48:07
until we reached Hazard. At various points along the route we were met by
5:48:12
the officials of the Perry Circuit Court. The Circuit Court Clerk, Sheriff and
5:48:18
deputy Sheriffs, all of whom were awaiting escort and who accompanied the troops into
5:48:23
town. Arrived at our destination. I found the courthouse unsuitable for a campground,
5:48:32
and selected for that purpose a hill in rear of the courthouse and about
5:48:37
two hundred yards distant. It proved an admirable sight, being dry, easily
5:48:42
picketed in a manner secluded, and affording good opportunity to command the town in
5:48:48
case of difficulty. We were comfortably encamped before dark and entered at once upon
5:48:55
the routine of camp life, the full particulars of which had been made known
5:49:00
to you in my daily reports. I reported for duty to Judge Lily at
5:49:04
the courthouse on Monday, the fifth Instant at nine o'clock a m He instructed
5:49:11
me that he would not require a guard at the courthouse or town just then,
5:49:15
not deeming it necessary, as but few people were in, and that
5:49:21
in any case, he did not intend to try to do anything until after
5:49:25
the election, which occurred on the sixth, and that when he wanted a
5:49:29
guard, he would let me know. I returned to camp, and the
5:49:33
judge adjourned court until Wednesday the seventh. Upon resuming Wednesday, the town being
5:49:40
well filled with people, the judge required a guard in the courtroom as a
5:49:45
precautionary measure, and entered formally upon the business of the term. I noticed
5:49:51
that in charging the grand jury he dwelt at considerable length upon the crimes of
5:49:56
illegal selling of liquor and gaming but pasted murder with the remark that it was
5:50:02
necessary for him to call the attention of the jury to the fact that murder
5:50:07
was a crime. And also when one of the attorneys at the barb wanted
5:50:11
to introduce emotion to reorganize the grand jury in order to get a jury that
5:50:17
would indict certain persons for murder, the judge informed him that he would overrule
5:50:22
any motion to that effect, that if commenced, there would be no end
5:50:27
to it that the jury was carefully selected and was as good as could be
5:50:33
had in the county. The business of the court proceeded slowly, the great
5:50:38
majority of the cases having to be passed owing to the absence of the accused
5:50:44
or of important witnesses whose attendants it seemed impossible to secure. A few convictions
5:50:52
from minor offenses were secured, the penalty inflicted generally being the lowest prescribed by
5:50:59
law. Besides these, but one important case was decided, one man being
5:51:04
sent to the state prison for one year for shooting and wounding, receiving the
5:51:08
lowest penalty. The judge, in finally dismissing the jury, reprimanded them for
5:51:15
their leniency and called attention to the light sentence imposed as indicative of the state
5:51:21
of feeling throughout the community. As far as I could judge, the court
5:51:26
officials used every endeavor to promote the ends of justice, but were effectually hampered
5:51:33
by their inability to make arrests and secure the attendance of witnesses and get juries
5:51:38
to convict. About the third or fourth day of the court, B F.
5:51:44
French, one of the principles in the French Eversoul feud, was brought
5:51:48
into town by the Sheriff of Brethet County. He was surrounded by a posse
5:51:53
of about twenty men who rode in good order in columns of twos, he
5:51:59
each man holding his rifle at an advance. They went at once to French
5:52:04
his residence, where they remained during the court. I believe French was nominally
5:52:11
surrendered to the Sheriff of Perry County, but was permitted to remain in his
5:52:15
house, and was constantly surrounded by the Breathat County posse, which was made
5:52:21
up of his friends and followers, and which was represented to me as containing
5:52:25
some of the worst men in Breathitt County. So threatening was their appearance that
5:52:30
the judge commanded them to surrender their arms to me. They at first refused,
5:52:37
but finally brought nine rifles into camp, and I suppose hid the balance,
5:52:42
as they did not appear anymore under arms. The rifles surrendered to me
5:52:48
were the fifty caliber Springfield, exactly the same gun as the State Guard was
5:52:53
formally armed with. I returned them to the posse on an order from the
5:52:59
judge. When they left town, French, although under arrest, went constantly
5:53:06
armed and seemed to be under no restraint. A day or so after his
5:53:11
arrest, he went into court, gave bond for himself and several of his
5:53:15
followers, and was released from arrest, but remained in town until near the
5:53:21
end of the term, when he left for Brethet County, surrounded by an
5:53:26
armed guard similar to that which brought him in. Perhaps the most important event
5:53:32
of the trip was the formation of a military company at Hazard, the organization
5:53:37
of which was commenced by yourself during your stay there, and completed by me
5:53:44
acting under your instructions. I have made full reports of this event to your
5:53:48
office, with roster of company and report of election of officers. I respectfully
5:53:56
recommend that this company be encouraged in every way possible, as in my opinion,
5:54:00
it will have a quieting effect upon the turbulent element in Perry County.
5:54:07
The company is largely made up of the men selected by yourself and who are
5:54:11
as near as possible, unbiased in the feuds of the county. The officers
5:54:18
appear to be good men for the positions to which they were elected, and
5:54:22
enjoy the respect of the community. As the end of the term approached,
5:54:26
and being without orders to govern my further movements, I dispatched Lieutenant Gray,
5:54:33
who volunteered for the service, to London on Saturday the ninth instant with a
5:54:38
telegram to your office asking for instructions. I waited until the last day,
5:54:45
knowing Judge Lilly had asked the governor for troops over his entire circuit. You
5:54:51
had instructed me that definite orders would be sent me in time to act.
5:54:56
The order did arrive Monday afternoon, having been delayed two days in the mail,
5:55:02
and was to return to Louisville. I immediately made arrangements to break camp,
5:55:07
and Lieutenant Gray, having returned Tuesday night with telegram confirming the above order,
5:55:14
the command left Hazard Wednesday, the twentieth. Judge Lily remained in Hazard,
5:55:21
awaiting action of the governor in regard to his application for troops, and
5:55:25
his request for these being refused, he decided not to go any farther on
5:55:30
his circuit and left Hazard with us. He parted with us finally the next
5:55:36
day, a few miles out from Hazard, and I believe returned to his
5:55:41
home. I desire to express my thanks to Judge Lily for the uniform kindness
5:55:47
and courtesy of his bearing toward myself and my command. The return trip was
5:55:52
made in the same manner as the outward one, and by the same means,
5:55:57
but was even more trying the command, as the weather was colder and
5:56:03
the roads worse. We reached London Sunday twenty seventh, about three o'clock PM.
5:56:10
We found cars ready for us, and at once occupied them. They
5:56:15
were attached to the one o'clock a m Train and arrived at Louisville Monday morning
5:56:21
the twenty eighth Instant, where the command, having disembarked, were marched to
5:56:26
the armory and disbanded. This ended a service somewhat unique even in the varied
5:56:33
experience in the Kentucky State Guard, that it was productive of good. There
5:56:37
can be no doubt it impressed the people of the community that the state was
5:56:42
determined to assert her power and majesty, and that they would no longer defy
5:56:48
the law with impunity. The officials of the Court and residents of the town
5:56:52
and county were unanimous in the assertion, which was made to me repeatedly,
5:56:59
that the term or of the Court could not have been held without bloodshed except
5:57:03
for the presence of the troops, and I believe this to be true.
5:57:08
On the day of the national election there was not the slightest disturbance, although
5:57:15
several murders and a phrase were reported from adjoining counties in Hazard, a thing
5:57:21
almost unprecedented in its history. We had here the same experience that the state
5:57:26
troops have always had on similar service. That is, the police power of
5:57:32
the state is universally feared and respected. That there will be more bloodshed before
5:57:37
this feud is settled was the opinion of all to whom I spoke on the
5:57:42
subject. The men engaged in it were vindictive and daring, and will use
5:57:48
any means to escape punishment or gratify their revenge. That the people really believe
5:57:55
this is shown by the fact that many of them had left the town permanently.
5:58:00
The circuit clerk and county judge, both residents, left when we did,
5:58:07
with the intention of not returning. Half the houses in town were unoccupied,
5:58:12
and one of the citizens lamented to me the fact that whereas they formerly
5:58:18
had one hundred and fifty inhabitants, they now had but seventy. The moral
5:58:23
condition of many of the people of this section is indeed deplorable. There is
5:58:29
not a church of any kind in the county, but few schools, and
5:58:33
they of the most primitive sort. Not half of the murders committed are ever
5:58:38
made known to the public. Many of the people live in the most squalid
5:58:44
poverty and social degradation. Incest of the vilest sort is frequently practiced, and
5:58:51
the marriage ceremony is constantly ignored. I have counted as many as fifteen children
5:58:57
who with their parents occupied a small cabin containing one room. It is from
5:59:04
such conditions that the disordered state of the community arises, and in my opinion,
5:59:11
they cannot be fully removed until advancing civilization and development bring new people and
5:59:17
new incentive to labor. This state of affairs renders it very difficult for the
5:59:22
civil officers to perform the duties satisfactorily, as a majority of the people seem
5:59:27
to have sunk into a kind of apathy regarding crime and hold aloof from any
5:59:33
effort to enforce the laws. The fear of secret assassination or bushwhacking hangs like
5:59:41
a pall over the entire section, so that those who would otherwise aid in
5:59:47
enforcing order do not care to risk their lives in the attempt. I will
5:59:52
state an instance showing how widespread this fear is. Several of the men in
5:59:57
French's body go Guard were wanted in not County, and the warrants for their
6:00:03
arrest were brought to Hazard by a woman. Neither is this fear groundless,
6:00:10
as is shown by the fact that more than twenty men have been killed in
6:00:14
the French Ever Soul feud, most of them being shot from ambush. This
6:00:18
is the secret of all the troubles. The people are held in terror by
6:00:23
a few desperadoes. The peaceable and respectable citizens largely predominate in the county,
6:00:30
and could they be assured of protection, would soon put an end to the
6:00:34
disorders. In closing this report, it gives me great pleasure to refer to
6:00:41
the conduct of the detail under my command. Perhaps no part of the State
6:00:45
Guard has ever passed through more severe test of discipline and endurance. Certainly none
6:00:52
have ever responded more gallantly and faithfully to the demands made upon them. The
6:00:59
march from Life Louisville to Hazard and back was particularly trying. The camp each
6:01:04
night being but temporary, the men could not make themselves comfortable and suffered severely
6:01:11
from the cold. The road is simply indescribable, being so rough that most
6:01:18
of the command preferred walking to riding in the wagons provided we frequently marched for
6:01:23
hours in the water, the natural bed of the creeks being the only available
6:01:27
way through the hills, and this was generally the best part of the road.
6:01:33
At other times it took all hands to help the teams up the hills
6:01:37
or keep them from falling over precipices. Through it all, the men were
6:01:42
cheerful and uncomplaining, and though allowed every possible liberty, there was not a
6:01:48
single serious breach of discipline, and but few even of a trivial sort.
6:01:56
This, I think speaks well for the training and reliability of the command from
6:02:00
which the detail was taken. The health of the detail very respectfully your obedient
6:02:07
Servant J. M. Sohan, Captain Commanding. With the departure of the
6:02:15
troops, returned the same chaotic conditions which had characterized the county previous to the
6:02:21
term of court, which they had been sent to protect. During the spring
6:02:26
term, however, a number of indictments were found against law violators. This
6:02:32
would of course bring the accused, their friends, and many witnesses to court
6:02:37
at the following November term. Judge Lilly refused to share the belief of the
6:02:42
Governor that the Home Guards would be able to suppress disorders and properly protect the
6:02:48
court. He failed to appear. An election for Special Judge resulted in the
6:02:56
acceding of Honorable W. L. Hurst as Judge pro tem. The Battle
6:03:03
of Hazard November seventh and eighth, eighteen eighty nine. Court had proceeded with
6:03:10
unimportant business until the fourth day of the term. Considerable disorder had occurred on
6:03:15
the night of the third day of court, but actual hostilities did not open
6:03:21
until the following morning. During the forenoon, a heavy volley of shots suddenly
6:03:26
rang clear and sharp in the cold November air and echoed through the valley.
6:03:33
There was a momentary silence in the crowded courtroom, every man looked at his
6:03:37
neighbor questioningly and uncertain. Then with one impulse, judge, lawyers, jurors,
6:03:45
officers and bystanders sprang to their feet, rushed for exits, and into
6:03:51
the street. There the crowd scattered like sheep in all directions, some to
6:03:57
seek the protection of the walls of building, others to depart from town without
6:04:03
the ceremony of a good bye. Not until after the first stampede had somewhat
6:04:08
abated was it that the factions began to take cognizance of the situation and prepare
6:04:15
plans for concerted action. When the first volley fired, no one about the
6:04:21
court house knew what had really happened. No one took the time to ask.
6:04:26
It was instinctively assumed that it was the beginning of the long expected general
6:04:30
battle between the French and Eversoul forces. The shooting had been done by the
6:04:37
owner of a glorious jag, and if cooler heads had prevailed, a battle
6:04:41
might have been averted. But once the factions had reached their arms and assembled,
6:04:47
peace was out of the question. The instigator of the trouble, one
6:04:52
Campbell, had been engaged with several others of his friends in a game of
6:04:57
cards on a hill overlook the village. The hill is known as the Graveyard
6:05:03
Hill. In a spirit of excessive hilarity produced by over indulgence in fire water,
6:05:11
he had stepped to the side of a tree and fired his pistol.
6:05:15
At the upper end of town One Davidson kept a store. At the reports
6:05:21
of the pistol, Davidson looked out of a rear window of his place of
6:05:26
business. He saw Campbell standing on the hill waving his still smoking gun.
6:05:33
Davidson procured his Winchester rifle, took deliberate aim, then fired Campbell sank dead
6:05:41
to the ground. As soon as the panic stricken crowd had left the courthouse,
6:05:47
the Eversols rushed into it and took possession of it. Two Frenchmen,
6:05:52
Jesse Fields and Bob Prophet, found themselves isolated in a jury room on the
6:05:57
second floor, while the court room proper was already occupied by their enemies,
6:06:03
the ever Souls. The two were in a precarious situation and thoroughly realized it.
6:06:11
There seemed but one chance for escape open to them, a leap through
6:06:15
the windows into the yard below. They saw themselves outnumbered twenty to one.
6:06:22
Resistance would have been folly, and surrender did not appeal to them. Neither
6:06:27
side had thus far in the war exhibited much respect for principles of civilized warfare.
6:06:36
The moment the ever Souls took possession of the room beyond Fields and Profit
6:06:41
locked the door of their room, and as noiselessly as possible, hoisted one
6:06:45
of the windows. On. Looking into the yard below, they hesitated.
6:06:52
It was a high jump, with many chances in favor of their breaking their
6:06:56
necks or at least a limb or two. But when the enemy attempted to
6:07:02
break through the door, all hesitation vanished. Both leaped and landed on the
6:07:07
ground below without sustaining injury. This daring leap had been perceived by the ever
6:07:15
Sols. The two men were fired upon as they ran for life toward and
6:07:21
into the jailer's residence for cover. This building, as well as the court
6:07:26
house, was of brick. The two structures stood within fifteen feet of each
6:07:32
other and fronted the same street. The ever Soles now passed their time in
6:07:37
ventilating the thin brick walls of the little building. Fields and Profit began to
6:07:42
feel uncomfortably warm, but held the fort. They had an ample supply of
6:07:48
ammunition, and continued to pour volley upon volley into the windows and through the
6:07:55
walls of the court house all through the long afternoon. Un the guns roared,
6:08:02
clouds of smoke hung low and heavy over the unfortunate town. Constant was
6:08:07
the clatter of firearms. The incessant hiss of leaden missiles was interspersed with shouts
6:08:15
and defiant curses, while the silent terror of women and children was pitiful to
6:08:21
behold. The whole presented a scene not easily forgotten by those who were compelled
6:08:26
to witness it. Thus far the battle had proved bloodless. Notwithstanding the tremendous
6:08:33
expenditure of ammunition. Neither of the belligerent armies had dared an open attack.
6:08:41
They fought now as they had practically always fought during the war, from well
6:08:45
secreted places. Fortified in their quarters, they took care not to expose their
6:08:52
persons. It was no senseless caution, for upon the appearance of an object
6:08:57
anywhere, behind, in or under which a human being might be suspected,
6:09:03
it became at once the target of many guns, and received very close attention.
6:09:10
Indeed, with the approach of night, Fields and his comrade felt that
6:09:15
they must evacuate the premises or succumb to an attack by superior forces under cover
6:09:21
of darkness. But to join their friends some distance away, they must necessarily
6:09:27
run a dangerous gauntlet. However, they preferred dying in the open to being
6:09:33
caught like rats in a trap. It was dark when the two desperate men
6:09:38
started on their perilous journey. With heads bent down upon their breasts like men
6:09:45
facing a beating hail, they ran for their lives. Every gun of the
6:09:52
enemy was trained upon them and fired presently. Defiant yells from the French position
6:09:59
announced the crestfallen Ever Souls that their prey had escaped them. When the battle
6:10:04
started, French was absent from town. He arrived during the night. All
6:10:11
night long, the battle continued with scarcely an intermission in the firing. During
6:10:17
the night, Tom Smith and Jesse Fields succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the
6:10:22
Ever Souls and occupied the graveyard hill. When the first ray of dawn approached,
6:10:29
Fields and Smith opened a terrific fire upon the Ever Souls in the courthouse,
6:10:34
the balls crashing through the windows driving the occupants to seek safety by throwing
6:10:41
themselves upon the floor. During the early morning hours, two of the Eversol
6:10:47
men attempted to cross a street near the courthouse when Fields and Smith opened fire
6:10:52
upon them. One of the men, j mcnight, was instantly killed,
6:10:59
while wile his companion escaped. Smith and Fields used a sunken grave as a
6:11:04
rifle pit, and from a tombstone. Smith took the rest for the shot
6:11:10
that killed mcnight. The strategic advantage of French's men perplexed the Eversols, who
6:11:18
penned up in the courthouse were rendered practically helpless. The fusillade was so continuous
6:11:25
that an attempt to return the fire from the windows would have meant certain death.
6:11:30
The balls crashed through the windows, tearing the wood casings to splinters,
6:11:36
and the shutters were completely shot away. The furniture in the courtroom was thrown
6:11:41
about and knocked into atoms. The building, from which the Eversols had expected
6:11:48
so much as a point of vantage, proved a death trap. To retire
6:11:53
from it, the Eversols appeared as anxious as they had been to take possession
6:11:57
of it. Retreat to the river bank was effected in safety but to prevent
6:12:03
attack. While crossing the River Green, Morris and a companion remained concealed under
6:12:11
the banks of the river. Fields and Smith on the Graveyard Hill were the
6:12:15
first to see the Eversouls in retreat and started in pursuit. Approaching the hiding
6:12:22
place of Morris. The latter fired, wounding Fields severely in the arm and
6:12:29
thus effectually checked further pursuit. If Smith and Fields had reached the river unharmed,
6:12:37
the record of the fight might present an increased list of casualties, as
6:12:41
both were men of great courage and good marksmanship. On the records of the
6:12:48
Perry Circuit Court appears in order of Special Judge Hurst giving his reason for the
6:12:53
unceremonious adjournment of court. It is an interesting document, certainly Judge Hurst's reason
6:13:02
for adjournment seems a valid one. Perry Circuit Court, fourth day of November
6:13:08
Term eighteen eighty nine. At this term of the court there were two armed
6:13:15
factions in the town of Hazard, the French and Eversoul factions, antagonistic to
6:13:21
each other. On the second night of the court, the acting Judge was
6:13:26
shot but not wounded, in the French end of the town. French not
6:13:30
being in the town at the time, but some of his men were,
6:13:34
and the next evening at dusk, a dynamite or other cartridge with burning fuse
6:13:41
attached was thrown over the judge's room or house in which he stayed, and
6:13:47
exploded heavily on the other side of the house. Court continued till the evening
6:13:52
of the fourth day, when the two factions began heavy cross firing at each
6:13:57
other in Earnest about out and near the court house, which completely corralled the
6:14:03
court, the jury, the officers and people in court for some time,
6:14:08
and before the firing abated. The judge, plainly, seeing that it was
6:14:14
not intended that court should be further held, and it being impossible to further
6:14:18
progress with the business and live, the court, ordered the clerk to adjourn
6:14:23
the court and the non combatants to save themselves as best they could. They
6:14:30
did so, but one shot was fired at them from the Eversole quarters as
6:14:34
they left. The fighting continued through the next night and until about nine o'clock
6:14:41
the next day, excepting some intervals of rest. The French side received reinforcement
6:14:48
from Breathat County. During this fight, two men friends of Eversouls were killed
6:14:56
in the battle, and it was rumored that one of the French party was
6:14:59
build badly wounded and perhaps killed, and another one wounded. The Eversoul party
6:15:07
claimed that they were destitute of ammunition next morning and retired from town without being
6:15:12
injured. Thereby, the clerk left with his keys the jury left. The
6:15:18
judge remained till the next morning in the town, and after the retreat of
6:15:22
the Eversoul party, when he received news as coming from the French side,
6:15:29
that he and the women and children could leave the town unmolested, provided he
6:15:33
did not go back to the courthouse. Whereupon the court and some of the
6:15:38
women and Commonwealth Attorney quietly marched away, and in pursuance of the Court's orders,
6:15:45
this court is hereby adjourned in course. This order was signed at the
6:15:52
August Special term of the Court eighteen ninety and on the eleventh day of August
6:15:59
eighteen ninety. Immediately after the battle, the factions scattered through the neighboring counties,
6:16:06
scouting in small detachments and continually shifting quarters. A special term of the
6:16:12
Perry Circuit Court was called for August eighteen ninety. On the night of July
6:16:18
fourth, However, a deed was perpetrated, which was intended to and did
6:16:23
block the business of the court. The town was awakened by the shrill cry
6:16:30
of fire, the crackling and crashing of burning and falling timbers. The court
6:16:36
house was a seething mass of fire, and the people could only look on
6:16:41
as the structure succumbed to the consuming element. There was never any question as
6:16:47
to the origin of the fire. It was the work of incendiaries. Fortunately,
6:16:52
most of the records were saved. Many of the feudists now began to
6:16:59
tire of the constant scouting. There was not enough real fighting to make it
6:17:03
interesting. Occasional ambuscades had lost their charm. Many longed for peace and home.
6:17:12
Among these was Robin Cornett, an ever soul man. Pretending friends encouraged
6:17:18
him to return to his home. He did so, and as day after
6:17:23
day passed without the least mishap, he often visiting hazard in apparent safety.
6:17:30
He relaxed his vigilance and fell a victim of relentless assassins. One morning,
6:17:37
July eighteen ninety, Cornet, in company of his little brother, started to
6:17:44
field to cut oats, Finding the grain not ripe enough, He abandoned the
6:17:49
field work and proceeded to the woods to peel logs. A tree which he
6:17:55
had cut fell across a narrow ravine, elevating portion of the trunk several feet
6:18:00
above the ground. He leaped upon it, acts in hand, when shots
6:18:07
from the near bushes accomplished another foul assassination. Cornet sank dead upon the log,
6:18:14
while his little brother ran for life and escaped. There can be no
6:18:19
doubt that Cornet's doom had been sealed the instant he returned home. The murder
6:18:26
had been planned and was executed with cruel cunning and occupies a front rank among
6:18:32
the many infamous assassinations which have given this feud such notoriety. At the special
6:18:38
term of the Circuit Court, Judge Lily appeared, accompanied by a detachment of
6:18:45
state guards commanded by Adjutant General Gathers of Louisville, Kentucky. The court house
6:18:52
had not been rebuilt, and a large tent served the purpose. It soon
6:18:56
became evident that the court meant business. A large number of deputy sheriffs were
6:19:03
sworn in to supplant the inefficient home guards. These were at once disbanded and
6:19:10
ordered to return the accruitments they had received, but the few articles turned over
6:19:15
were hardly worth the shipping expenses, many of the guns being broken within a
6:19:22
few days after court had begun, Prisoners were brought into court as fast as
6:19:27
indictments were found. The jail became so crowded that many prisoners were kept in
6:19:34
a strongly guarded tent. As rapidly as the cases were called up and the
6:19:40
accused were presented in court, they were transferred to the Clark County Circuit Court
6:19:45
for trial. It was a wise and necessary step. Indeed, not only
6:19:52
would it have been impossible to secure qualified jurors in Perry County, but the
6:19:57
attendants of the accused, their friends and witnesses would most probably have been inviting
6:20:03
a clash between the contending factions. The last days of the term of court,
6:20:11
commonly called the blanket Court, had come and gone without the least disturbance,
6:20:17
and the removal of the prisoners to the Winchester Jail was also effected without
6:20:22
mishap. The backbone of the war was at last broken. A strange but
6:20:29
welcome calm succeeded turbulence, bloodshed and anarchy. A great change had come over
6:20:37
the caged warriors, disarmed and crowded in the narrow confines of a prison,
6:20:42
they faced each other. But the deadly Winchesters were no longer in reach.
6:20:48
Fast in the clutches of the law, the law which for so long they
6:20:52
had disregarded, evaded shamefully violated, they now had ample opportunity for reflection and
6:21:00
sober reasoning. The absorbing and very pertinent question how to escape the punishment of
6:21:07
the law worried them. It was a knotty problem. Indeed, the lions
6:21:15
made captives were now tame and submissive. For the first few days after these
6:21:21
foes met in prison, hatred and bitter feeling found vent in abusive epithets and
6:21:27
phistic encounters. But the realization of helplessness reminded them of the need of making
6:21:33
friends out of enemies. They realized their power to destroy each other in the
6:21:40
courts, but would not the destroyer himself be destroyed. Revenge could only open
6:21:45
more cell doors or furnish culprits for the gallows. It was this prospect of
6:21:52
conviction of punishment which effected at last what bloodshed could never have accomplished. It
6:22:00
reconciled in a measure the enemies of old, some of them actually becoming friends,
6:22:07
and thus again effectually clogging the legal machinery. The necessity of self preservation
6:22:15
brought matters around in such shape that we find men who had opposed each other
6:22:19
in deadly combat fighting side by side the legal battles in court. None of
6:22:26
the prisoners was allowed bail, but after removal to Clark County, one after
6:22:33
another of the accused demanded examining trials, and upon being allowed bail, readily
6:22:40
executed bonds and returned to their homes and families, which many of them had
6:22:45
not seen for months. With the removal of French Judge Combs and others of
6:22:51
the feudists returned an era of peace which continued uninterrupted until eighteen ninety four,
6:22:59
with the exception of a street fight in the town of Hazard between some of
6:23:03
the Eversol faction and Jesse Fields, a French follower. In this battle,
6:23:10
some of the ever Souls and Fields were wounded, and a Colored bystander was
6:23:14
killed by a stray bullet. In eighteen ninety four occurred the last assassination,
6:23:21
as the direct outcome of the feud. Tired with a life that now separated
6:23:26
old Judge Combs from his family and friends. He determined to and did,
6:23:33
return to Hazard to round out the declining years of his life. He might
6:23:38
have lived in perfect peace and security elsewhere, but the humble mountain home in
6:23:44
the village of Hazard, so dear to him through the associations of his youth
6:23:48
and manhood, now attracted him more than any other spot on earth. He
6:23:53
could not bring himself to desert it once and for all in the chilly winter
6:23:59
of old age, notwithstanding his faults, and his record during the feud shows
6:24:06
him to have been at fault on more than one occasion. He had a
6:24:10
host of friends, and these tried hard to dissuade him from his purpose,
6:24:15
but he had formed his resolve and refused to be guided by well meant advice.
6:24:22
There is something very pathetic in this old man's attachment for a home which
6:24:27
for years had offered him danger instead of peace, sorrow instead of happiness.
6:24:34
He had visited his home surreptitiously on several occasions since his removal therefrom. On
6:24:41
one of these visits he had narrowly escaped death by assassination. This attempt upon
6:24:48
his life should have convinced him that his doom was sealed, that his death
6:24:53
had been decreed. Yet, notwithstanding all this, Judge Combe's return to Hazard
6:25:00
to reside. But a little while afterwards he succumbed to the assassin's bullets.
6:25:07
The murder was committed in broad open daylight, in plain view of many townspeople,
6:25:14
and also from ambush. At the moment the fatal shot was fired,
6:25:19
the old man was engaged with several of his friends and neighbors in commonplace conversation.
6:25:26
Within a few feet of the group of men stood a fence enclosing a
6:25:30
lot planted with corn, which, together with the thick and tall growth of
6:25:37
weeds and bushes, offered the assassin's admirable opportunity to approach their victim to within
6:25:44
a few feet without danger of discovery. No one noticed the slight rustling of
6:25:49
the corn blades. No one saw the hand that parted them skillfully to make
6:25:56
way for the gun, which accomplished its deadly work. There was a puff
6:26:00
of smoke, a loud report, and Judge Combs reeled suddenly. He straightened
6:26:07
himself up, stood, apparently undecided for a moment, then walked across the
6:26:12
street toward home. At its threshold, he sank to the ground and expired
6:26:19
without a groan. The murderers had evidently been determined to guard against any possible
6:26:26
blunders, which had on former occasions saved the old man's life, for from
6:26:33
the moment the shot was fired, up to the time the old man fell
6:26:37
dead, the murderous gun continually covered him, ready for instant service should it
6:26:42
appear that the first shot had not been fatal. After the victim had fallen
6:26:48
to the ground, the principle of the assassins deliberately walked to the rear of
6:26:53
the lot. Here he was joined by one of his confederates. A third
6:27:00
party had already opened fire and continued a fusillade from across the river for the
6:27:06
evident purpose of pretending the presence of a large force, and thus by intimidation
6:27:11
to prevent pursuit. The three confederates then proceeded calmly down the river. Their
6:27:19
retreat was deliberate. At no time did they exhibit the slightest apprehension of danger
6:27:26
or fear of pursuers. The utter recklessness and boldness with which the crime had
6:27:33
been committed completely stupefied the townspeople. Intelligent prompt action was out of the question
6:27:41
for a time. Not until the murderers had had a long start did it
6:27:45
become possible to organize a posse. At last, the fugitives were sighted by
6:27:52
the pursuers. A general exchange of shots followed. One of the outlaws was
6:27:57
wounded. He continued his flight with difficulty. A running fight was now kept
6:28:04
up for a great distance. Then the fugitives disappeared in the dense mountain forests
6:28:11
and the chase was given up, but one member of the posse was wounded.
6:28:18
Several of the eye witnesses of the tragedy and members of the pursuing posse
6:28:23
had recognized Joe Adkins, Jesse Fields, and one Boon Fraser as the fugitives.
6:28:32
Joe Adkins was the man who had fired the fatal shot which took the
6:28:37
life of the old man Combs. The three parties mentioned were in due time
6:28:42
indicted. Adkins and Fields were arrested. Fraser was never caught. The cases
6:28:51
against Adkins and Fields were transferred to another district in Kentucky for trial. The
6:28:56
best legal talent of the state participated in the famous trial. Honorable W.
6:29:03
C. P. Breckinridge, a lawyer and orator of national fame had been
6:29:10
retained as counsel for the defense. Fields and Adkins had been Frenchmen all through
6:29:15
the feud, in fact, had been among his most trusted lieutenants since its
6:29:22
commencement. Rumour therefore quickly associated the name of French with the murder of Judge
6:29:29
Combs. French stoutly denied any complicity in this affair. Then, like a
6:29:37
thunderbolt from a clear sky, came the startling intelligence that Tom Smith, another
6:29:42
French warrior, had given out a confession which seriously compromised French. Smith was
6:29:51
then under sentence of death at Jackson Breathett County for the murderer of doctor John
6:29:56
E. Rader. As is usual with doomed felons, he became converted and
6:30:03
sought to wash his sustained soul whiter than snow by a confession. It set
6:30:10
forth that he had been present at the home of Jesse Fields on Buckhorn Creek
6:30:15
Brethet County at a time when French, Adkins and Field discussed and perfected plans
6:30:22
for the assassination of Judge Colmes. That he Smith would have assisted in the
6:30:29
dastardly murder but for a wound which he had a short time before received an
6:30:34
a pistol duel with town Marshal Man on the streets of Jackson. This confession
6:30:41
resulted in French also being indicted. The confession itself was of no importance from
6:30:48
a legal standpoint. It, however, materially assisted and strengthened the prosecution by
6:30:56
uncovering certain circumstances of which might otherwise have remained in ignorance. The friends of
6:31:03
the murdered judge pointed out with emphasis and logic that Smith had always been a
6:31:10
French confederate, had fought for him, taken life for him, that he
6:31:15
had told the truth about his participation in the murders of Joe Eversol, Nick
6:31:19
Combs, Shade Combs, Cornett mc knight, and doctor Rader. Was there
6:31:26
any reason, they asked, why Smith should have lied in regard to French's
6:31:33
complicity in the murderer of Judge Combs, yet had told the truth concerning all
6:31:37
things else. Why, they argued, should Smith desire the ruin of his
6:31:44
friend, his companion in arms, his chieftain, and accomplish it by false
6:31:49
statements when the truth would save him. French was indicted, tried, and
6:31:56
acquitted on the first trial of Adkins and Fields both received life sentences. The
6:32:04
cases were taken to the Court of Appeals and there in an exhaustive opinion reversed.
6:32:12
The second trial resulted in a life sentence for Adkins and the acquittal of
6:32:18
Jesse Fields. Adkins, however, has been a free man again. Low
6:32:23
these many years. A life sentence in Kentucky is not what it seems.
6:32:32
Thus ended the last act of the bloody drama, the assassination of Judge Combs.
6:32:37
He was murdered because he had espoused the cause of Joe Eversou at the
6:32:42
breaking out of the war. Joe was his kinsman. As has been said,
6:32:48
Judge Combs undoubtedly contributed to the state of anarchy which continued for so long
6:32:55
in Perry County and disgraced American civilization. As a sworn officer, he had
6:33:03
no right to permit love for his kinsman, his friendship and affection forever soul
6:33:08
to swerve him from plain duty. Judge Combs's partiality in the discharge of his
6:33:15
duties as a judge of the county doubtlessly hastened the conflict, for while it
6:33:21
protected one faction, it furnished good and sufficient reasons to the other side to
6:33:26
place no confidence in his administration of the law, and roused them to savage
6:33:33
retaliatory crimes. Notwithstanding all this, this last assassination was cowardly, as all
6:33:41
the others. For that matter, if Judge Combs deserved death, we may
6:33:48
well ask how many of the other participants in this feud ought to have shared
6:33:52
a similar fate at the hands of the law. Several bloody feuds in new
6:34:00
ureable assassination's demoralized courts, the purchase with money of slayers, anarchy in its
6:34:07
most atrocious and hideous forms. Such has been the history of Breathitt County since
6:34:12
the days of the Civil War. Brethatt County is not a remote section out
6:34:18
of touch with civilization where ignorance might be pleaded in extenuation of the shameful lawlessness.
6:34:26
Brethett County has furnished men of brains, of power, and of the
6:34:30
highest integrity. In Brethet County, as well as in all the other feud
6:34:36
ridden sections, the good citizens are in the majority. Yet, there,
6:34:41
as in the other lawless communities of which this history treats, the good element
6:34:47
suffered itself to become intimidated to such an extent as to eliminate it as a
6:34:52
factor to be employed and relied upon in restoring order. It may also be
6:34:57
stated that Breathitt's te chief feudists, murderers, conspirators, and perjurers have counted
6:35:04
men of brains among them, who, however, delegated their work of bloody
6:35:10
revenge for real or fancied injuries to persons of a lower degree of mentality.
6:35:17
Ignorant half savage tools serve better. The murder lust has been rampant there for
6:35:23
many years, and it is there. Yet the outside world has heard only
6:35:30
of the most important tragedies, that is, tragedies which involved men of brains
6:35:34
and power. The little fellow is murdered without much attention being paid to it.
6:35:41
Within eleven months during the years nineteen oh one and nineteen o two,
6:35:47
nearly forty men had been slain in cold blood, and for which crimes not
6:35:52
one has suffered the extreme penalty of the law. Why is it, then,
6:35:59
that, since the good citizens are in the majority, they are willing
6:36:02
to submit to terrorization by a few. Why do they stand idly by instead
6:36:08
of rising in their might and punish? Will the reader answer another question?
6:36:15
Why is it that an entire trainload of men will tremble and shake in their
6:36:18
shoes, throw up their hands, and allow one or two bandits to take
6:36:23
possession of their property. It has happened in a few instances that bandits have
6:36:30
come to grief through the intrepidity of an individual who acted in spite of any
6:36:36
fear of impending death. We remember an incident of that kind. During a
6:36:41
hold up on a western road a few years back. The engineer, fireman,
6:36:48
conductor, and brakesmen were lined up and held under the guns of one
6:36:52
of the bandits. Two of his confederates went through the coaches. The engineer,
6:36:59
a small but determined man, watched his chance, made a sudden lurch
6:37:04
forward with his head, butted the bandit in the stomach, crumpled him up,
6:37:10
and put him out of commission. The train crew then possessed itself of
6:37:15
the guns and started for the coaches, firing a few shots as they went.
6:37:21
This disconcerted the robbers within. They made for the doors to see what
6:37:26
the shooting outside meant. It was their finish. Several of the passengers who
6:37:33
had been standing trembling with their hands in the air, believing help had come,
6:37:38
regained their courage sprang upon the outlaws, disarmed and securely tied them.
6:37:45
No one was hurt. It is the fear of the bushwhacker that prevents concerted
6:37:52
action of the law abiding element in a community where assassinations from ambush are the
6:37:57
common methods employed to rid oneself of an enemy, and it is no idle
6:38:03
fear for one man to set himself up as the champion of law and order
6:38:10
and to defy the outlaws to do their worst is equivalent to signing his own
6:38:15
death warrant. He is liable to be picked off as an undesirable citizen.
6:38:22
Assassinations from ambush are always difficult to prove, and alibis are manufactured at small
6:38:30
cost. Perjury, too, is common. It is the favorite weapon of
6:38:34
the defense In such cases. Then the successful assassin is shrewd enough to conduct
6:38:41
himself, usually though not always, in such manner as to have friends among
6:38:48
all classes of people, even among the best. Many of the worst men
6:38:52
have used the cloak of religion or church membership to hide their black hearts.
6:39:00
The Masonic Lodge has been prostituted by such men of shrewd deceit. It is
6:39:06
no assurance of a man's goodness to find him sitting in a church pew on
6:39:11
a Sunday with the Bible in his hand. For even within the holy sanctum
6:39:15
of the Lord, the foulest conspiracies and crimes have been hatched in the brains
6:39:21
of men. This does not apply to brethat county or Kentucky alone. Some
6:39:27
of the most noted feudists never fired a gun themselves, but in their daily
6:39:33
intercourse, kept themselves unspotted before the world, and used willing, paid tools
6:39:41
to accomplish their bloody ends. Such men always indignantly deny any imputation of wrongdoing.
6:39:49
They have been known to condemn in the loudest and the most emphatic terms,
6:39:55
outrages against the peace and dignity of the state the result of their own
6:40:00
planning. The writer once pointed out to a gentleman from another state a certain
6:40:06
chieftain of murderers. He shook his head. That man a murderer, He
6:40:11
said, why, he is the most amiable person with whom I have come
6:40:15
in contact with in a long time. That man has brains, he has
6:40:22
education. That man is wrongfully accused. I know no red handed murderer could
6:40:29
look you in the eye like that, or counterfeit the innocence imprinted upon his
6:40:34
countenance. The truth was, this particular outlaw had never murdered anyone with his
6:40:41
own hands, but he had been the directing, managing spirit of foul conspiracies
6:40:48
and of wholesale assassinations. This adoption of the mask of deceit serves another purpose.
6:40:56
Since you can never tell by a man's looks what in his heart,
6:41:00
citizens grow suspicious of one another and fear to express their opinions that this vastly
6:41:08
increases the difficulty of concerted action. Looking toward the eradication of crime as apparent,
6:41:15
reverting again to the murder lust, what is its origin? What keeps
6:41:22
it aflame? What inspires it? Is it that the savage of the Stone
6:41:27
Age is not yet dead, That the veneer of civilization has, in all
6:41:33
those thousands of years, not become thick enough to prevent its wearing off so
6:41:37
readily. Perhaps at least it seems so. Let us quote a recent example
6:41:45
of this fearful blood lust, Jackson, Kentucky, August twenty ninth, nineteen
6:41:52
sixteen. Don't you want to see a nigger die? Witnesses report were the
6:41:59
introductive remarks offered by Breck Liddle, who Sunday shot and killed Henry Crawford,
6:42:06
colored seventeen years old, on Old Buck Creek in Breathat County. The shots
6:42:11
were fired from a barn door which Crawford was passing while going up the road,
6:42:18
and the victim fell dead in the road. This illustrates the lust for
6:42:22
blood. Don't you want to see a man killed? If you do,
6:42:29
say so, and you may be accommodated. We have pointed out heretofore in
6:42:34
a former history, that there is much similarity between the old Scottish feuds and
6:42:40
those of Kentucky, that the clan spirit is yet alive, that Kentucky feuds
6:42:47
are nothing more nor less than transplanted Scottish feuds. This view has been adopted
6:42:53
by other writers and sociologists as furnishing the solution of the riddle, what is
6:43:00
the cause of these feuds? But can such incidents as the one sided above
6:43:07
be attributed to the clannishness of the people. No, Such individual acts of
6:43:12
savage ferocity can have but one source, an inborn natal craving for blood.
6:43:21
This, and this alone can furnish us any sort of explanation why men slay
6:43:26
without provocation or purpose. Bad Tom Smith of Perry County feud Fame, slew
6:43:34
to satisfy this craving for blood. According to his own admission, it had
6:43:40
made itself felt when he was a mere youth. He was a degenerate,
6:43:45
pure and simple. His last murder, that of doctor Rader, was committed
6:43:51
without any motive whatever. I just raised up and killed him while he was
6:43:56
asleep. That was the only statement he ever make concerning that bloody deed.
6:44:03
Environment has, of course much to do with it. Yet if we look
6:44:07
about us, we find that counties in the very midst of fewd ridden sections
6:44:12
have remained free of the murder craze. Many years ago, Brethett, along
6:44:18
with practically all the other mountain counties of the state, decided to abolish the
6:44:25
saloon. Local option has been enforced there now. For years it was hoped
6:44:32
that the elimination of the legalized liquor traffic would eradicate crime, or at least
6:44:37
enormously diminish it. Prohibition is supposed to exist in Jackson and the county at
6:44:45
large. It will not do to say that, notwithstanding the local option laws
6:44:51
is in operation, liquor is still at the root of the evil. We
6:44:56
must presume that the prohibition of the sale of liquor is in forced. To
6:45:00
presume otherwise would be to acknowledge the inefficacy of prohibition laws. Doubtless, the
6:45:08
local option law is enforced in Breathet as much so as anywhere else where similar
6:45:15
laws prevail, or, better said, the laws in this respect are enforced
6:45:21
as far as is possible, with interstate shipment of whiskey into local option territory
6:45:26
remaining unobstructed. The liquor argument is no solution of the sociological question in hand.
6:45:37
During all those years that prohibition has existed in Breathet, ostensibly so at
6:45:41
least without apparent diminution of crime, without any receding of the murder wave.
6:45:48
Other counties neighbors to it, we might say, have rejected local option laws
6:45:55
and permitted saloons without any apparent increase in the crime rate, reverting again to
6:46:02
the spirit of the Scottish Highlander as responsible in part for the murder lust.
6:46:08
Nearly all of southeastern Kentucky is peopled by the same stock. Jackson and Laurel
6:46:15
Counties have never been contaminated with the feuds which have raged on their very borders.
6:46:22
Jackson County, in all its history, has not seen as many murders
6:46:26
committed as have stained the soil of Breathet in less than one year. Jackson
6:46:33
County has never had a feud. Its chief lawlessness has been the promiscuous sale
6:46:38
of whisky illicitly. Of course, the argument has been advanced that the lawlessness
6:46:45
which has disgraced Brethet and other Mountain counties is directly traceable to the contempt for
6:46:52
law instilled in the growing up generations during the period immediately following the Civil War.
6:47:00
It doubtless furnished the foundation for the deadly feuds which have in times passed
6:47:07
ravaged the border counties of Bell and Harlan. These counties were frequently subjected to
6:47:14
invasion by rebel and Union troops with their attendant elements of lawless camp followers,
6:47:21
deserters, and guerrillas. Kentucky attempted to remain neutral at the outbreak of the
6:47:26
war, but the people divided sharply. The State guards and Home Guards frequently
6:47:33
clashed. They ravaged the country without regard to military properties or discipline. The
6:47:41
civil authorities had been superseded by military courts, which often dealt more harshly than
6:47:48
wisely with the people they attempted to govern. In Harlan and Bell Counties,
6:47:55
bad blood was caused by these retaliatory invasions of rebels and home guards. Many
6:48:02
men took advantage of the opportunity to wreak vengeance upon an enemy they had feared
6:48:07
to attack single handed, and did so under the protection of the mass.
6:48:14
Crimes went unpunished because committed under the guise of military operations. But in Breathitt
6:48:21
County there did not exist a border war. After all, the matter sifts
6:48:26
itself down to what has been pointed out in the introduction. Lawlessness can exist
6:48:33
only so long as the good element of a community refuses to rise up against
6:48:38
it and suffers itself to be intimidated. It should be needless to say that
6:48:45
in a republic the people must rule supreme. By their formation of republican form
6:48:52
of government, they have declared themselves capable and willing to govern themselves and to
6:48:59
enforce the law they have themselves made. If a people fails to discharge the
6:49:04
duty of properly governing themselves, they forfeit their right of citizenship. If a
6:49:11
community persists in its refusal to avail itself of the right of self government.
6:49:18
That right should be abrogated until such time as it shall be able to guarantee
6:49:23
not only willingness, but capability for self government. Where anarchy exists, government
6:49:30
has fled. Where a people supinely lay upon their backs and permit anarchy,
6:49:37
are they longer entitled to the citizenship of a great state and of a greater
6:49:42
nation. The people of Breathatt County, by their long years of inaction and
6:49:49
submission to terrorization by a few, have shown that they do not or did
6:49:55
not, consider themselves longer the most potent factor in the conservation of order in
6:50:00
society. Public sentiment had lost its health. The people of Brethatt County owe
6:50:07
it to their manhood, their county, their state, to the nation to
6:50:12
redeem themselves for the horrors of strife There have been published broadcast to the world.
6:50:22
Breathat has become synonymous with blood, murder, anarchy the world over.
6:50:27
We have read of it in foreign newspapers. The United States only recently demanded
6:50:33
of Mexico that the disorders there, especially along the borders, must cease.
6:50:41
The federal government threatened that republic with war even unless citizens of this country and
6:50:48
their property are protected. Government might have found as good grounds for intervention and
6:50:53
breathet during the past and may, Yet if the murder mills there do not
6:51:00
some of these days shut up shop American demands of foreign governments protection of the
6:51:07
lives and property of our citizens. Yet, owing to the complexity of our
6:51:14
government structure, it may not extend that protection to its citizens within her own
6:51:18
territory. The outlawry along the Mexican border within the last three years has not
6:51:26
been as great in proportion to the size of territory and population involved as has
6:51:32
been the destruction of lives in Breathat County at intervals for years. Yet with
6:51:37
regard to Mexico, this government has seen fit to say that conditions along the
6:51:42
border had become intolerant and must cease, even at the risk of war.
6:51:48
The people of Breathat County are citizens of the United States as well as of
6:51:53
their state and county. As such, they ought to hasten to restore the
6:51:59
good name and the honor of the country to which they belong and of which
6:52:03
they should be proud. The murderous, lawless Mexican bandit is no more a
6:52:11
knave than the American guilty of similar atrocities. There did come a few years
6:52:17
ago a wave of reaction, an upheaval, which brought into the limelight of
6:52:22
publicity the fearful state of affairs existing there. Murders in the streets of the
6:52:29
county seat and throughout the county had occurred with such frequency and boldness as to
6:52:36
at last attract the attention of the press of the entire country. At last,
6:52:41
a man of wide prominence in the state was struck down. This man
6:52:48
was J. B. Markham, a United States commissioner and a trustee of
6:52:52
Kentucky State College, as well as lawyer of prominence and a leading Republican.
6:53:00
The circumstances attending this murder and the prominence of the man slain, aroused at
6:53:06
last a storm of indignation throughout the land. Newspapers of other states condemned Kentucky
6:53:14
so severely that public sentiment within the state itself became aroused and forced the investigations
6:53:22
which revealed breathatt County's history of blood and crime, in spite of the most
6:53:27
strenuous efforts from certain quarters to hush the matter up and to block investigations of
6:53:34
the damnable plots and murderous conspiracies by men entrusted with the enforcement of the law.
6:53:41
The public was at last made acquainted with conditions of affairs in brethet County,
6:53:48
which presented a picture so harrowing and degrading that the civilized world stood against
6:53:53
and for a time refused to believe. Breathet is a beautiful mountain county along
6:54:00
the Kentucky River, scarcely forty miles distant from Lexington, the metropolis of the
6:54:07
Kentucky Bluegrass, famous the world over for the refinement of her people. Jackson
6:54:12
is the county seat, a small but thriving town on the Kentucky River,
6:54:18
built upon numerous hills, which give it an irregular, though by no means
6:54:23
displeasing appearance. Commercially, Jackson is prosperous, surprisingly so under the circumstances.
6:54:32
How much more rapid and greater might have been its progress, But for the
6:54:36
deplorable epidemics of murder, none can tell. Jackson is also the terminus of
6:54:42
three railroads. The town has good schools and several churches, but church going,
6:54:49
schools and trading were sadly interrupted and at times completely stopped during the reign
6:54:56
of terror. Which held breathet in its bloody clutches during the first decade of
6:55:02
the present century. It is impossible, in a limited space to give more
6:55:07
than passing notice to all of the feudal wars which have been fought from time
6:55:11
to time in Breathitt County. To do so would fill a volume. What
6:55:18
the reader finds detailed in this chapter relates principally to the Hargus Cockrell, Markham
6:55:25
Callahan Vendetta. It is the most recent feud. What transpired during it is
6:55:32
but a repetition of what had occurred in others. The first widespread feud in
6:55:37
Breathitt County originated immediately after the Civil War. In that national conflict, the
6:55:44
county furnished soldiers to the South and to the Union. John Amos and William
6:55:51
bill Strong raised a company for the Federal cause. It became a part of
6:55:56
the so called Greasy fourteenth and was commanded by Colonel H. C. Little.
6:56:03
It was in this regiment that the noted amis Strong feud arose. It
6:56:08
was the first of a bloody interniscene strifes in that county. The hatred engendered
6:56:15
during the amis Strong feud was more bitter than the sectional strife between the armies
6:56:19
of the North and the South. A feud between the two factions was not
6:56:25
recognized to have existed, however, until about eighteen seventy eight. In that
6:56:30
year, open and serious hostilities were precipitated by a fight during Circuit Court.
6:56:37
In the battle, Bob Little, a nephew of Captain Strong, was killed
6:56:42
and an Amis seriously wounded. From that time on, fights grew more,
6:56:48
numerous charges and counter charges were made on both sides. The county was in
6:56:56
a ferment. Finally, nearly every family became involved in one way or another.
6:57:03
How many men were killed in this feud will perhaps never be known,
6:57:07
but many graves were filled in this connection. It may be well to state
6:57:12
that the county has rarely had a coroner, and no records were kept of
6:57:17
deaths. It is thus an impossibility to ascertain the number of violent deaths which
6:57:22
have occurred in the past. John Amas himself, the head of the faction
6:57:27
of that name, was killed in eighteen seventy three. The feud finally burned
6:57:33
itself out. A few years after the termination of this one, another started
6:57:41
under the name of the Strong Callahan feud. Some of the members of the
6:57:45
factions in the strong Amus Feud also participated in this one. In this war,
6:57:52
Captain Bill Strong headed his faction. Wilson Callahan, the father of Ed
6:57:59
Callahan, who figure so prominently in the Hargus Cockrel feud, commanded the opposing
6:58:04
forces. A number of men were killed off before Wilson Callahan's death by assassination
6:58:11
put an end to it. The jet Little Feud next stained the history of
6:58:17
Breathat County. It was brought to a close about fifteen years ago, and
6:58:22
after the principal participants therein had all been killed off. As bad as conditions
6:58:29
had been prior to eighteen seventy eight, they grew decidedly worse in that year
6:58:34
when Judge William Randall, the presiding judge of the Criminal Court of the district,
6:58:40
was compelled to desert the bench in the midst of a court session to
6:58:44
seek safety in flight. The county was in a state of revolution, brought
6:58:49
about by the assassination of Judge John Burnett, then the county judge. This
6:58:56
crime was laid at the door of the Gambles and last the uprising of the
6:59:02
factions was precipitated by Judge Randall's declaration that his court would see to it that
6:59:08
the criminals were punished. Judge Randall never returned to Breathett County during his term
6:59:15
of office. During the latter part of the eighties, another reign of terror
6:59:21
was initiated and continued until the close of the decade. Lest we might be
6:59:26
accused of exaggeration and sensationalism, we insert here the acrimonious, bitter correspondence between
6:59:34
Governor Buckner and Judge Lilly, the presiding judge of the criminal Court of the
6:59:40
district which included Breathett. The letters are a matter of public record and are
6:59:45
instructive, interesting, and will no doubt materially aid the reader to understand the
6:59:51
nature of frequent clashes between state, district and county authorities. Judge Lilly to
6:59:57
Governor Buckner, Frankfort, Kentucky, December fifth, eighteen eighty eight, to
7:00:04
his Excellency, the Governor of Kentucky, Dear Sir, from a full investigation
7:00:11
and inquiry into the condition of the affairs in Breathat County, I am fully
7:00:17
satisfied that the civil authorities cannot hold a circuit court in that county and enforce
7:00:22
the law without the aid of the State Guard, that the people are divided
7:00:29
to such an extent that a sheriff's posse will not be sufficient. Several murders
7:00:33
have been committed in the county since the last term, and the offenders are
7:00:38
not yet indicted and cannot be unless the witnesses can be protected. Charges are
7:00:45
made against a brother of the sheriff and the son in law of the jailer,
7:00:49
and the witnesses cannot be induced to go before the grand jury unless they
7:00:55
have assurance of protection. There is a number of felony cases in the court
7:01:00
which I think will be ready for trial. Governor Buckner's reply, Honorable H.
7:01:07
C. Lilly, Judge, nineteenth Judicial District, Irvine, Kentucky.
7:01:14
Dear Sir, I have fully considered your letter of the fifth Instant in reference
7:01:19
to the condition of affairs in Breathitt County, in which communication you say that
7:01:25
you are fully satisfied that the civil authorities cannot hold a circuit court in that
7:01:30
county and enforce the law without the aid of the State Guard. That the
7:01:36
people are divided to such extent that a sheriff's posse will not be sufficient.
7:01:41
Several murders have been committed in the county since the last term, and the
7:01:45
offenders are not yet indicted and cannot be unless the witnesses can be protected.
7:01:52
Charges are made against a brother of the sheriff and the son in law of
7:01:56
the jailer, and the witnesses cannot be induced to go before the grand jury
7:02:02
unless they have assurance of protection. And you further say, I, as
7:02:07
Judge of the breath at Circuit Court, call upon you to furnish fifty of
7:02:11
the State Guard properly officered and equipped to aid the civil authorities in holding said
7:02:18
court and in enforcing the law. It is needless for me to say that
7:02:25
in a republic of the employment of the military arm in enforcing the law is
7:02:30
of rare necessity, and the occasion for its use should not be of doubtful
7:02:34
propriety. The law invests the civil authorities with ample powers to enforce the observance
7:02:41
of law, and expect those officers to exert their authority with reasonable diligence.
7:02:48
When this is done. There is seldom an occasion when the military arm can
7:02:52
be employed without detriment to the public interests and without bringing the civil authorities into
7:03:00
discredit. When a people are taught that they are not themselves the most important
7:03:04
factor in the conservation of order in society, and that they must depend upon
7:03:11
the exertion of extraneous forces to preserve order among themselves. They have lost their
7:03:17
title to self government and are fit subjects to a military despotism. I do
7:03:22
not believe that any portion of this commonwealth has reached that degree of political degradation
7:03:30
as far as Breathatt County is concerned. While there have been acts of individual
7:03:34
lawlessness, I do not find in your statement, or from any other source,
7:03:41
an evidence of any organized opposition to the civil authorities. On the contrary,
7:03:47
I am convinced that a reasonable exertion of their legitimate power would cause the
7:03:52
masses of the people to rally to their support more effectually than could be done
7:03:56
in the presence of the military force. The latter, whatever their numbers,
7:04:03
could not influence, and ought not to influence, the character of the testimony
7:04:07
of a single witness before the grand jury. But their presence would be a
7:04:12
confession of weakness on the part of the civil authorities before they had made any
7:04:17
attempt to discharge their duties, and to this extent, would lessen respect for
7:04:22
their authority and render the subsequent discharge of their duties more difficult. A healthy
7:04:30
public sentiment, and not the presence of an armed force, is the best
7:04:33
support of government. And the powers conferred upon a circuit judge, both as
7:04:40
a judge and as a conservator of the public peace, are so unlimited that
7:04:45
a firm and judicious discharge of his duties will almost invariably mold public sentiment and
7:04:52
support of his judicial actions. Under all the circumstances, I do not believe
7:04:59
that the presence of troops in Breathitt County is necessary to maintain the laws with
7:05:04
every purpose to support the judicial tribunals in the effect of discharge of their duties.
7:05:11
I feel constrained to decline the request which you make to order a detachment
7:05:15
of the State Guard to Brethett County. But if my own presence will be
7:05:21
of any service to you, I will take pleasure in accompanying you to the
7:05:25
breath At Circuit Court if you conclude on reconsideration to hold it. In your
7:05:32
letter November thirteenth, you say I will not attempt to hold courts at Lecture
7:05:37
Not or Breathitt unless you send guards along. This is a matter in which
7:05:42
the executive can take no action. It is for the Legislative Department of the
7:05:48
Government to judge of the facts which will justify an official in thus abdicating the
7:05:53
duties imposed upon him by law. But on this subject I trust you will
7:06:00
permit me, without obtruding on your consideration any views of my own, to
7:06:06
invite your attention to an Act passed by the General Assembly at its last session
7:06:11
and approved March ninth, eighteen eighty eight. Amongst other things, this Act
7:06:18
provides that if at any term of Circuit Court, the presiding judge thereof shall
7:06:23
be absent, it shall be lawful for any other circuit judge of this Commonwealth
7:06:30
to attend and hold such term of court, and while so engaged, he
7:06:34
shall have and exercise all the powers and authority of the regular judge of such
7:06:41
court. I am informed that under authority of this Act, some circuit judges
7:06:47
have already interchanged courts. And if there are any reasons why you prefer not
7:06:52
to hold the court in breathit, I have no doubt that many of the
7:06:56
circuit judges would be willing to interchange with you. I happen to know that
7:07:02
Honorable Lucius P. Little is willing to hold the breath at Circuit Court for
7:07:07
you, if you will hold them acclaim Circuit Court for him, Your obedient
7:07:11
servant, S. B. Buckner, Judge Lilly to Governor Buckner, Irvine,
7:07:19
Kentucky, February fourth, eighteen eighty nine, Governor S. B.
7:07:25
Buckner, Dear Sir, your letter, dated fourteenth December and postmarked on the
7:07:33
eighteenth, was received by me on the night of the twenty fifth at Jackson,
7:07:37
Breathitt County. On the third page, you propose to accompany me to
7:07:42
Jackson in the following words. But if my own presence will be of any
7:07:48
service to you, I will take pleasure in accompanying you to breathet Court if
7:07:52
you conclude on reconsideration to hold it. You were advised that the breath at
7:07:59
court would begin on the seventeenth, and I suppose your adjutant General had informed
7:08:04
you that I had decided to go and hold court if I could do so.
7:08:10
I told him on the morning of the eighth that I would go to
7:08:12
breath at court. You must have believed that I would leave Irvine for Jackson
7:08:18
as early as the morning in the fourteenth and before you wrote your letter.
7:08:23
Why did you make such a proposition to me at the time you did.
7:08:27
I fear you will have a little trouble in making people believe that you made
7:08:33
the offer in good faith. On page four of your letter, you say,
7:08:37
I happen to know that Honorable Lucius P. Little is willing to hold
7:08:42
the breath At Circuit Court for you if you will hold them mac Claim Circuit
7:08:47
Court for him. I thank Judge Little for his kind offer, and believe
7:08:52
he made it in good faith. But why did you withhold the information from
7:08:56
me until it was too late for me to confer with it. He lives
7:09:00
in the western part of the state. You must have known that I had
7:09:04
no time to make any arrangements with him. You must have known that the
7:09:08
offer was feudle and that it could not be carried into effect. Can you
7:09:15
make the public believe that you were acting in good faith? In speaking of
7:09:19
the application made to you on the fifth of December, you failed to make
7:09:23
any reference to the papers filed with it. Why did you conceal from the
7:09:29
public the fact that a majority of the attorneys who practice at the Breathitt Circuit
7:09:33
Court and diverse other prominent men had requested you to send a guard and gave
7:09:40
it as their opinion that the court could not be held without a guard.
7:09:45
I am at a loss to know why you sought to throw the whole responsibility
7:09:49
upon me. That the public may know something about the condition of Breathat County
7:09:56
at the time, it is only necessary to say that between the first day
7:10:00
of August and the fifth day of December eighteen eighty eight, the following men
7:10:04
were killed to wit Lewis Tolby, James Shockey, David Barnett, and Isaac
7:10:11
Combs shooting Ike, and the following men were shot and wounded Viz. Crane,
7:10:18
Flincham, John Smith, Jeff Smith, Marion Lawson, Curtis Spicer,
7:10:25
Luther Abner, John Campbell, Jack Barnett, Pearl Strong, William Francis,
7:10:33
and Breck Miller. There were also a large number of other felonies committed in
7:10:37
the county, and all this in addition to the old docket, which shows
7:10:42
a large number of felony cases knowing their system of combining their strength to help
7:10:49
one another to prevent any one being punished by the law. I submit to
7:10:55
you if it would not have been better if you had sent a guard there
7:10:59
to encourage the good citizens to attend court. I held court there three weeks
7:11:04
and there was no outbreak. That is true, and it is also true
7:11:08
that we got no verdicts in important cases. We tried four murder cases and
7:11:15
had hung juries in each case except those required to be in attendance, the
7:11:22
good citizens of the county were not there. Why were they absent? I
7:11:27
think it was because they thought it unsafe to be there. For the same
7:11:33
reason, nearly all the attorneys who practice at that bar failed to attend the
7:11:37
court. Theories look well on paper, but when you come to put them
7:11:42
in practice, they often fail to work well. What do murderers and outlaws
7:11:48
care for theories? I hope you will not think I put it too strong
7:11:52
when I say that your course has given comfort, if not aid, to
7:11:56
those who are charged with crime. They feel that they are able to prevent
7:12:02
the civil authorities from enforcing the law, and, in view of your letter,
7:12:07
feel that no help will be given the civil officers, and hence they
7:12:11
will do as they please. Judge W. H. Randall, Judge Robert
7:12:18
Riddle, Judge Cole, and Judge Jackson, and other judges have thought it
7:12:22
advisable to have a guard. Judge Finley failed to attend his courts in Lecture
7:12:30
Perry, and not for several terms before his term of office expired. They,
7:12:37
like myself, had better opportunities of knowing the real status of affairs in
7:12:41
their counties than people who live far away and do not understand the people.
7:12:48
It has been published in the newspapers of the state that a certain judge of
7:12:52
the state held his courts in Breathat County and had no trouble. That judge,
7:12:57
previous to his election, had been employed as counsel for nearly everyone charged
7:13:03
with high crime in that county, and as a consequence, did not have
7:13:08
to try them. On the contrary, he was doing all he could to
7:13:14
prevent their conviction and to prevent the laws being enforced upon them. He is
7:13:19
yet the employed counsel of six persons charged with murder and other high crimes in
7:13:25
that court. Of course, he had no trouble. Who can say whether
7:13:30
if he had tried to bring them to justice he would have gotten along so
7:13:34
easily. As the papers, pretty generally throughout the state, have published your
7:13:40
letter to me, I hope they will do me the favor to publish this
7:13:45
my answer, hoping you will find it easy to answer the interrogations propounded to
7:13:51
you in this letter. I remain yours, respectfully, H. C.
7:13:56
Lilly. Governor Buckner's Reply, Commonwealth of Kentucky, Executive Office, February eighth,
7:14:04
eighteen eighty nine, Honorable H. C. Lilly, Judge, nineteenth
7:14:11
Judicial District, Irvine, Kentucky. Dear Sir, your letter of the fourth
7:14:18
Instant reached me yesterday. You seem to impute want of good faith on my
7:14:22
part in offering to attend you to the breath at Circuit Court. This charge
7:14:29
on your part is based on the erroneous and gratuitous assumption that the Adjutant General
7:14:33
had doubtless informed me that it was your intention to hold the breath at Circuit
7:14:38
Court on the regular day. The Adjutant General informs me today that he did
7:14:45
not himself know that it was your determination to hold the court, and that
7:14:48
the remark you made to him on the subject left him in the belief that
7:14:52
you had not reached a determination as to what you would do. In the
7:14:56
premises you wrote me that you would not hold court. In not or lecture
7:15:03
and in your conversation with me, gave me no ground to believe that you
7:15:07
had concluded to hold the court in breath it. My conclusion was therefore logical
7:15:12
and necessary that you would not hold the court. Your assumption that I knew
7:15:18
that you would hold it is therefore entirely erroneous, and the decision you reach
7:15:23
in consequence of this assumption is fallacious. You asked me a number of questions
7:15:29
in your letter, but as you proceed to make replies to suit yourself and
7:15:33
to reach conclusions favorable to your own views, you spare me the necessity of
7:15:38
giving them any response. I limit myself to stating what alone is relevant to
7:15:45
this question, that, having concluded that there was no necessity of sending troops
7:15:49
at great expense to the state, I offered to accompany you, so that
7:15:55
if my views should have proved erroneous, I would have been in the ground
7:15:59
to have your aide such assistance as may have been needed. As the session
7:16:04
of Court was to continue during three weeks, and as you could have taken
7:16:08
your seat on the bench at any time during the term, there was ample
7:16:12
time after writing my letter for you to have reconsidered your determination. If you
7:16:18
had been at Irvine, where I supposed you were, and to which place
7:16:23
I addressed my letter to you, and to have gone afterwards to Breathitt,
7:16:27
long before the term of court should have closed. So far from knowing that
7:16:33
it was your purpose to hold court, I had not the slightest idea that
7:16:37
you would do so until I learned after the adjournment of the court that you
7:16:41
had held it. I am gratified that you did so, for it was
7:16:47
a demonstration that troops were not necessary for your protection. In like manner,
7:16:52
there would have been time for you to have made an interchange with Judge Little
7:16:56
by telegraphic correspondents, if such had been your desire. You seem to charge
7:17:03
that I have aided and abetted criminal classes by declining to place troops at your
7:17:08
disposal in Brethet County, and attribute to their absence the non conviction of criminals.
7:17:15
If their absence produced such a result in Breathitt County, their presence at
7:17:22
your court in Perry County should have produced, according to your logic, a
7:17:26
large number of convictions. But I am advised that the result was the same
7:17:32
in both counties. We must therefore look for some other reason than the presence
7:17:38
or absence of the military to account for such uniformity of results. I believe
7:17:45
myself that the Court is and ought to be, an important factor in the
7:17:48
administration of justice, and that the presence or absence of the military should have
7:17:55
no weight in its decisions and ought not to influence its actions. You ask
7:18:00
why I throw the whole responsibility of making an application for troops upon you.
7:18:07
It was because you were the judge who made the application, who demanded protection,
7:18:12
and averred you would not hold court unless I sent guards along. There
7:18:18
was no one else with whom the responsibility could be divided, And as you
7:18:22
must have acted from your convictions of duty, I do not see why you
7:18:26
should seek to avoid the responsibility or desire me to place it where it does
7:18:32
not belong. I have no criticisms to make in reference to other judges who
7:18:37
have asked for troops, or in reference to Judge Finley, who you say
7:18:42
failed to attend certain courts. These were occurrences under former administrations and were doubtless
7:18:51
considered by the executives of the time in light of facts which I do not
7:18:55
pretend to know. Much less will I offer my comment upon the grave charges
7:19:00
you insinuate against another judicial officer in connection with the breath at court. But
7:19:07
I cannot refrain from expressing regret at what seems to be the manifestation of feeling
7:19:12
on your part which does not impress me as strictly judicial. But notwithstanding this,
7:19:19
I beg you to rest assured of my desire to support your authority in
7:19:23
every way that the executive can do consistent with the public welfare. I have
7:19:30
no objection to your giving the fullest publicity to your letter, Respectfully, Yours,
7:19:37
S. B. Buckner. The last feud in Breathat County, during
7:19:41
which the most horrible assassinations were committed was the Hargus Cockrel Markham Callahan Vendetta.
7:19:51
The Harguses and the Cockrells claimed that the name is a misnomer, that no
7:19:55
feud existed. Capulus once said, the Montague's are furnishing all the trouble,
7:20:02
and we are only innocent slaughtered. Montague said, the Capulets are making the
7:20:07
war, we are only defending our lives and property, an apt quotation here.
7:20:15
A political race first engendered the bitterness which led to the murders narrated later
7:20:21
on. In this race, the Democratic candidates were elected, at least declared
7:20:26
to have been elected. Their ticket was headed by James Hargus for county judge
7:20:33
and Ed Callahan for sheriff. The Fusion ticket, which was defeated in Toto,
7:20:40
contested the election alleging fraud. At that time one J. B.
7:20:45
Markham and O. H. Pollard were partners in the practice of the law.
7:20:52
Markham had accepted a fee for the contestants, the Fusionists, and Pollard
7:20:56
for the Democratic contestees. Markham and Hargus were said to have had a difficulty
7:21:03
about a year prior to this contest, but the breach between them seemed to
7:21:07
have been healed. Markham had been attorney for the Hargases for a number of
7:21:12
years. It appears that during the taking of depositions in the contest case,
7:21:18
the first open rupture occurred. What actually transpired has been told in conflicting stories.
7:21:26
It seems that Markham, Pollard, James Hargas, and Ed Callahan were
7:21:32
in Markham's law office. They differed in regard to some testimony of certain witnesses
7:21:38
and nearly came to blows. Pistols were drawn by some of the men,
7:21:45
and Markham ordered each and all from his office. Police Judge Cardwell issued warrants.
7:21:52
Markham at once surrendered and paid his fine, Hargus declared his refusal to
7:21:59
appear before Judge Cardwell, whom he regarded as an enemy and had so considered
7:22:03
him for years. He therefore surrendered to Magistrate Edwards, a personal friend.
7:22:11
A controversy arose as to Justice Edwards's jurisdiction in the matter. The dispute threatened
7:22:18
to create still further trouble, to allay which mister Markham moved the case against
7:22:23
Judge Hargus to be dismissed, which was done. Here starts the war.
7:22:30
In making the arrest of Judge Hargas, the town Marshal Tom Cockrell, assisted
7:22:37
by James Cockrell his brother, were said to have drawn guns on Hargus,
7:22:41
and that only the intervention of Sheriff Callahan prevented the two from killing Hargus.
7:22:48
This the Cockrels indignantly denied. They asserted that in making the arrest of Judge
7:22:55
Hargus, they had used no more force than was necessary. Hargus swore they
7:23:00
would pay for their audacity in drawing a gun upon his person, and he
7:23:04
made good his threats, that is, others did make it good for him.
7:23:11
Numerous unsavory charges now began to be made first on one side and then
7:23:17
the other. Markham at one time charged Ed Callahan with assassinating his Markham's uncle,
7:23:25
Captain Bill Strong, who was shot from ambush in front of his home
7:23:30
in either eighteen ninety eight or eighteen ninety nine. Callahan in turn charged Markham's
7:23:37
uncle, the deceased Captain Bill Strong, with the assassination of Wilson Callahan,
7:23:44
the father of Sheriff Callahan. Each faction charged the other side with the murder
7:23:49
of some one. Shortly after this occurred a pistol duel between Tom Cockrell and
7:23:56
Ben Hargas, in which the latter was shot and killed on the spot.
7:24:02
The two had met at a Blind Tiger saloon in Jackson and quarreled, with
7:24:07
the result that both drew their pistols and fired upon each other. Before Hargus
7:24:14
sank dying to the floor. He had succeeded in seriously wounding his antagonist.
7:24:19
The Hargases at once began an active prosecution of Cockrel and kept it up.
7:24:26
Doctor Cox had married a kinswoman of the Cockrel boys, and had also become
7:24:32
their guardian, both of them being under age. The Cockrels were also related
7:24:37
to Markham, who had volunteered in Tom Cockrell's defense for the killing of Ben
7:24:42
Hargas. Markham also was an intimate friend of doctor Cox, who practiced in
7:24:49
Jackson in Vicinity. Not long after the killing of Ben Hargas, another brother
7:24:56
of Judge Hargas met his death at the hands of a man charge by the
7:25:00
Hargus clan as being a Cockrell man. John Hargus was the man slain.
7:25:07
Tige was his nickname. He was killed by Jerry Cardwell. Hargas had boarded
7:25:14
the train at Jackson on his way to Beattyville. Cardwell was the train detective.
7:25:21
It is claimed that Hargas had been drinking and became disorderly. The conductor
7:25:26
in charge of the train asked Cardwell to preserve the peace. As soon as
7:25:32
Cardwell entered the car, Hargas sprang to his feet and drew his gun.
7:25:37
Cardwell and he fired simultaneously. Cardwell was wounded. Hargus shot through the heart.
7:25:45
The Hargus clan always claimed that the killing of John Hargas was the issue
7:25:49
of a well laid conspiracy with the Cockrells at the bottom of it. They
7:25:56
attempted to connect them with the shooting, but nothing ever came of it.
7:26:00
Doctor Cox, guardian and kinsman of the Cockrel Boys, and J. B.
7:26:06
Markham, their cousin, were intimate friends and frequently discussed the foreboding aspect
7:26:12
the community was taking on. Rumors came to them frequently now that they were
7:26:18
marked for assassination. At first, neither doctor Cox nor Markham gave them much
7:26:25
credence. Finally, about the first of April nineteen o one, Markham went
7:26:30
to Washington on business. While there, doctor Cox was assassinated. Markham was
7:26:38
convinced that he too was marked for death. The proof in the case shows
7:26:44
that doctor Cox had left his home about eight o'clock one night to make a
7:26:48
professional call. The conspirators had for many nights been watching his movements. He
7:26:56
had almost reached the corner of the street diagonally across from the courthouse and directly
7:27:02
opposite Judge Hargas's stable, when he was fired on and he fell dead,
7:27:07
riddled with small shot. After he had fallen to the ground, the assassins
7:27:14
fired another volley into his body and easily escaped. There was persistent rumor at
7:27:19
the time of the killing that the shots had been fired from Hargus's stable,
7:27:25
but witnesses were afraid to swear positively about anything. Indictments against parties for the
7:27:32
murder were not returned until some time afterwards. It has been told that Judge
7:27:37
Hargas had been heard to laughingly say, after the fall of doctor Cox,
7:27:44
Great Scott, didn't he bellow like a bull when that shot hit him?
7:27:49
While people in town entertained their own opinions as to the guilty parties, but
7:27:55
refused to express them, the Cockrels openly charged Hargus with implicity and of having
7:28:00
hired the assassins that committed the cowardly murder, and maintained, seemingly with good
7:28:07
reasons, that doctor Coxe's only offense had been his friendly relation with the Cockrels
7:28:14
and his interest in the defense of Tom Cockrell on the charge of the murder
7:28:18
of Ben Hargas. The next victim of the assassin's bullets was Jim Cockrel.
7:28:26
He was murdered in nineteen twelve in broad day from the court house. Jim
7:28:33
had been active in collecting evidence for his brother in his coming trial for the
7:28:37
Ben Hargas murder. Rumors had come to him that he would be killed if
7:28:41
he did not desist. He continued, however, and ignored the warning.
7:28:48
By this time, the Cockrels, Markham, and many other residents of the
7:28:52
town kept closely within doors at night. No one traveled the streets without a
7:28:59
lantern. This might have been some protection for absolute neutrals, but must have
7:29:04
been only an increasing source of danger to those who had grounds to fear for
7:29:08
their lives. Confinement at home was therefore the best and the only reasonably safe
7:29:15
policy. Cockrel was shot at noon July twenty eighth, nineteen o two from
7:29:22
the second floor of the court House. He was standing on the opposite side
7:29:27
of the Temple of Justice talking to friends when the shots were fired that took
7:29:33
his young life. He was not dead when taken from the street. He
7:29:38
was hurriedly removed to a hospital at Lexington the same afternoon, where he died
7:29:44
on the following morning. Cockrel was the town marshal at the time of his
7:29:48
death. Curtis Jet was later on indicted for the murder together with others,
7:29:55
and convicted, but not until after the death of Markham was it that these
7:30:00
prosecutions were set on foot. Markham had repeatedly declared before his death that he
7:30:07
had ample evidence to prove that Jet and two others fired the shots that killed
7:30:12
Cockrel, and that the assassins had remained concealed in the courthouse the remainder of
7:30:18
the day and made their escape at nightfall. Jet and Cockrell had been enemies
7:30:25
for some time prior to the murder. The week before, the two had
7:30:30
fought a pistol duel in the Arlington Hotel's dining room. Neither was wounded,
7:30:36
friends interfered and the affair ended without arrests being made. Curtis Jet was a
7:30:41
deputy sheriff under ed Callahan. Captain John Patrick, a fugitive from injustice,
7:30:49
as he put it, went to Lexington and there gave out a statement to
7:30:55
the effect that he, one Macintosh and others had seen and recognized the Cockrell
7:31:00
murderers. Patrick then left the country, but offered to return and testify if
7:31:07
sufficient protection was afforded him. He did return and testified in the succeeding trials,
7:31:14
although he dodged the officers sent after him for some time. Macintosh was
7:31:19
taken before the Grand jury but refused to testify. He was remanded to jail
7:31:26
for contempt of court and remained there for four days, when finally he made
7:31:32
up his mind to talk. He testified that he knew nothing whatever of the
7:31:36
matter. In the meantime, Jim Cockrell's brother Tom had secured a change of
7:31:42
venue to Wolfe County to be tried there for the murder of Ben Hargis.
7:31:48
The trial was to take place at Campton. Cockrel was taken there under an
7:31:53
armed guard of twelve men. He was himself given a gun for defense.
7:32:00
When the trial was about to begin, Judge Hargas refused to have anything further
7:32:06
to do with the prosecution of the case, alleging that the transfer to Campton
7:32:11
was but a scheme to assassinate him on the road thither. In the meantime,
7:32:18
Markham had become a voluntary prisoner at his home. Clients that wished to
7:32:22
see or consult him went to his house to do so. He appeared on
7:32:27
the streets of the town, but few times his fears were laughed at by
7:32:33
some. The Hargess faction, including Callahan, pronounced him a coward. His
7:32:40
end proved the correctness of his judgment, and how well founded had been his
7:32:45
fears. The story of plots and conspiracies against his life. His many marvelous
7:32:52
escapes from assassination were graphically told by himself, but a short time before his
7:32:57
death. The interview occurred in Lexington on November fourteenth. He told the same
7:33:04
story to the writer with whom he had been on intimate terms of friendship.
7:33:10
The story told to the Lexington reporters and given out in the press was as
7:33:15
follows. I will begin my story with last March nineteen o two, when
7:33:22
persistent rumors had it that doctor Cox and I were slated to be assassinated.
7:33:27
Doctor Cox and I discussed these rumors frequently, and I finally came to the
7:33:33
conclusion that they were groundless. I went to Washington and stayed a month.
7:33:38
While I was there, doctor Cox was assassinated. I was attorney for Mose
7:33:45
Feltner. On the night of March thirtieth, he came to my home in
7:33:49
Jackson and stated that he had entered into an agreement with certain parties, naming
7:33:55
them, to kill me, and that his accomplices were to be three men
7:34:00
whom he also named. He said that their plan was to entice me to
7:34:06
the office that night, when they would kill me. He said he had
7:34:10
been provided with a shotgun and thirty five dollars to get me. He displayed
7:34:15
the gun, which was a new one had never been shot, and also
7:34:19
exhibited to me the money I know he did not previously have the money.
7:34:26
A few mornings later, Feltner took me to the woods near by and showed
7:34:30
me four Winchester rifles concealed there, and stated that he and three companions had
7:34:37
been leaving them there in the daytime and carrying them about at night to kill
7:34:41
me with. Of course, he did not intend to kill me, but
7:34:45
by pretending that he would assassinate me certain persons he said would guarantee him his
7:34:52
acquittal in the coming trial for the killing of Jesse Fields. He continually led
7:34:57
them on in this belief to secure his own protection and immunity in the Field's
7:35:03
murder case against him. At the same time, he continually warned me of
7:35:08
the vicious plans perfected to kill me. On the following morning, after Feltner
7:35:15
first warned me of any danger, I sent my wife and little boy by
7:35:18
way of a deep ravine two hundred yards from my house in good rifle range.
7:35:26
This was the only place where assassins could conceal themselves and kill me at
7:35:30
my house, for by this time I had ceased visiting my office and their
7:35:34
only chance was to kill me at my house. It was early in the
7:35:40
morning when my wife and little boy arrived at the ravine. They saw four
7:35:45
men carrying guns run away. My son recognized two of them, but did
7:35:51
not recognize the other two. One of the latter, Feltner told me afterwards
7:35:56
was himself. Finally, I decided to leave Jackson. In the early evening,
7:36:02
I went to the Arlington hotel with my wife and made arrangements to be
7:36:07
rowed across the river to the tunnel early the next morning and board the train
7:36:11
unobserved. Later in the day, Feltner came to my room and stated that
7:36:17
the party I had seen had told them that I was preparing to leave town,
7:36:22
and that thereupon certain high officials of the county placed four men at the
7:36:26
depot, two men at the tunnel, and two men at the railway station
7:36:32
to kill me. I took his word and did not attempt to leave town.
7:36:37
I sent the next morning for my wife and baby, and carried the
7:36:41
baby in my arms to my office, and at noon from there to my
7:36:45
home. I was later informed by Feldner that a party was waiting in the
7:36:52
upper rooms of a store to kill me. He wanted to shoot me with
7:36:56
a rifle, but others insisted that he use a shotgun, saying that doctor
7:37:00
Cox had been killed with a shotgun. After I passed by, they asked
7:37:06
the man with a shotgun why he didn't shoot, and he answered that with
7:37:11
a shotgun he would have killed the baby, but if they had let him
7:37:15
have his way and he had been given a rifle, he would have shot
7:37:18
me through the head without endangering the baby. The night previous to my decision
7:37:25
to leave Jackson, my sister came to me and warned me that another plan
7:37:30
had been formulated to kill me. Her informant was Mose Feldner, who was
7:37:34
engaged until at a late hour in discussing the best plan. When this meeting
7:37:41
had adjourned, it was then too late to come to my house, so
7:37:45
he went to my sister's house in his sock feet and told her. I
7:37:51
was awakened a daybreak Sunday morning, June fifteenth by a messenger who had ridden
7:37:56
eighteen miles that night to bring me in a note from a friend who was
7:38:00
also a friend of my enemies and who was in their councils. The note
7:38:06
stated that two men would come to town the following Tuesday morning that court would
7:38:11
adjourn at noon, and that an attempt would then be made to assassinate me
7:38:15
in the afternoon. I knew the men had been out of town, but
7:38:21
was inclined to disbelieve their statement because I had not heard that court would adjourn
7:38:26
on Tuesday. In fact, I had every reason to believe that it would
7:38:30
not adjourn until Saturday. I asked every member of the bar in regard to
7:38:37
this, and their unanimous opinion was that court would not adjourn until Friday evening
7:38:42
or Saturday morning. This also was the opinion of the Circuit Court clerk.
7:38:49
Tuesday morning, I sent my friends ahead and slipped out to day Brother's store
7:38:55
near the court house, they having reported that the coast was clear. Then
7:39:00
I found out that the men selected to kill me had sure enough arrived in
7:39:03
town. I returned home at ten o'clock, for it was then getting too
7:39:10
close to my funeral time. If reports I had were true, court adjourned
7:39:15
just as the clock struck twelve on Tuesday. I did not mean to cast
7:39:22
any reflections upon the judge. You can explain it to suit yourself, but
7:39:26
I assure you I kept to my room that day. On another occasion,
7:39:33
I slipped away to visit my sister's house. On the way I met a
7:39:37
sympathizer of those whose enmity I had incurred. I decided not to return and
7:39:42
sent my two sisters and wife ahead. They passed a ravine on the way
7:39:48
and there saw two men with guns. Later, after they had turned out
7:39:53
their lights, they observed one man take his station in front of my house,
7:39:59
and the other all heavily armed and dressed as women, below my window
7:40:03
in an adjoining garden. Last Sunday morning, a messenger came to my house
7:40:10
at daylight. He had been sent by a neutral party who did not want
7:40:15
me killed. He told me that two men had arrived the night before and
7:40:19
were to have taken a front room in a house near by, and from
7:40:23
there ambushed me. The next morning, I observed the window raised about four
7:40:29
inches and the curtain drawn in which position the curtain and the window have remained
7:40:34
since. The men occupy rooms in that house, and I suppose the front
7:40:40
rooms. I have not been even on the porch since I received that message.
7:40:47
Markham, at one time had succeeded in escaping from Jackson. He remained
7:40:52
away for some time, but when the leading officials of the county laughed at
7:40:56
the idea that he would be in the least danger. A few returned he
7:41:00
believed them. Lured by the reports that he would not be molested, and
7:41:06
having considerable interests at stake, he returned home and went to his death.
7:41:12
Both Judge Hargus and Callahan gave out statements to the press to the effect that
7:41:18
Markham would be as safe at Jackson as anywhere. In the light of what
7:41:22
occurred, this statement may have been true. The statements were ambiguous, susceptible
7:41:30
of various constructions. He may have been as safe at Jackson as elsewhere,
7:41:34
for it is quite possible that assassins were at his heels wherever he went.
7:41:41
On Monday morning, a messenger from a distant part of the county rode hot
7:41:45
haste to Jackson to warn him of renewed attempts upon his life. The messenger
7:41:52
did not reach him in time. When he found him, the bloody work
7:41:56
had been accomplished. Markham was dead. The story of the assassination is horrible
7:42:03
and pathetic. As has been said, despite all warnings, Markham had begun
7:42:10
to feel safe again and resumed his interrupted law practice. He had business at
7:42:17
the courthouse in connection with the reopening of the contest cases. At eight o'clock
7:42:22
Monday morning, May fourth, nineteen o three, he proceeded to the courthouse
7:42:29
with affidavits for filing from the clerk's office. He walked to the front door
7:42:33
of the courthouse and facing the street, engaged in conversation with his friend,
7:42:40
Captain B. J. Ewen. The corridors stretching out at his back were
7:42:45
full of men. Markham was leaning on Ewan's shoulder. The two men had
7:42:52
been conversing for possibly three minutes when at eight thirty a m. A shot
7:42:57
rang out in the rear of the corps. Markham staggered, and as he
7:43:03
sank to the floor, another shot fired. The first shot entered his back
7:43:08
and the ball came out through the breast. The next shot passed through the
7:43:15
top of his head and was doubtlessly aimed. As he reeled. Just before
7:43:19
the shots were fired, one Tom White passed Markham at the door and gazed
7:43:26
into his face in a manner calculated to draw Markham's attention. As White had
7:43:32
passed, Markham turned to Ewan and said, that's a bad man, and
7:43:37
I am afraid of him. The body of Markham lay where it had fallen
7:43:42
for at least fifteen minutes before any of his friends dared approach it. Markham's
7:43:48
wife, on hearing of the murder of her husband, rushed to the courthouse,
7:43:53
knelt by the side of the body, and in the blood and brains
7:43:57
that had spattered the floor or drenched her handkerchief. What sort of a vow
7:44:03
she made then may be imagined. We shall draw the curtain over the scene
7:44:08
of sorrow and grief at the home of the murdered man. He left a
7:44:12
wife and five children. Markham had been a practicing lawyer for seventeen years.
7:44:21
He was, at the time of his death, a trustee of the Kentucky
7:44:25
State College, a United States Commissioner, and represented the Lexington and Eastern Railway
7:44:30
Company, as well as other large corporations in a legal capacity. The reign
7:44:37
of terror immediately after the assassination of Markham, and for a long time afterwards,
7:44:45
conditions at Jackson were terrible. There was consternation among all who had,
7:44:51
in the least degree incurred the enmity of the tyrants who now controlled both county
7:44:56
and town. Judge Hargus appeared in the newspapers with a lengthy accusation against the
7:45:03
dead man Markham, practically declaring that the assassination was a good deed and deserved
7:45:10
Many relatives of Markham, the cockrels and their sympathizers left town and sought refuge
7:45:17
elsewhere. No one dared travel the streets of Jackson at night who was not
7:45:22
sure of the protection of those who held it in their grasp. Churches were
7:45:27
deserted for many months, no services were held. It was with the utmost
7:45:33
difficulty that any person could be brought to even speak of the matter in any
7:45:38
way. Everybody was suspicious of everybody else. In the meantime, the murderers
7:45:45
were still at large. No earnest effort had been made by the authorities to
7:45:52
apprehend them. It would not have been difficult to have done so, for
7:45:56
it was an open secret as to who they were. The difficulty lay in
7:46:00
getting witnesses to talk. Some of these left town and placed themselves beyond the
7:46:07
jurisdiction of the court and absolutely refused to return unless protected by troops. B
7:46:15
j Ewen, who was with Markham at the time of the murder, had
7:46:21
at first declared that he did not know who the assassins were Judge Hargus and
7:46:26
Sheriff Callahan admitted that they saw the slayer in the court house corridor, but
7:46:32
had failed to recognize him. Then, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky,
7:46:37
came the announcement that Captain Ewen had decided to tell the facts as he
7:46:42
knew them, even at the risk of his life. He did so,
7:46:48
charging Jet with the actual shooting of Markham and Tom White as an accessory.
7:46:55
The Hargus faction laughed at this declaration, hinted broadly at perjury, pointing to
7:47:00
the fact that Captain Ewan had already stated he did not know the assassins,
7:47:04
and that therefore his declaration was not entitled to belief. Ewan explained his change
7:47:11
of attitude in the matter by saying that at first he had decided to keep
7:47:18
his knowledge to himself for his own protection, but that since then he had
7:47:22
come to the conclusion that it was the duty of a citizen who respected the
7:47:27
law to tell what he knew, even if he risked his life in doing
7:47:33
so. He told the story time and again without a tremor outwardly. At
7:47:38
least, Jet was arrested at Winchester without a struggle and taken to Jackson.
7:47:45
The governor at once forwarded troops to the ill fated town, and martial law
7:47:52
continued there for several months. The presence of the troops somewhat reassured the citizens.
7:47:59
Many of those who had departed returned. The grand jury assembled and jointly
7:48:04
indicted Curtis Jet and Tom White, who had also been arrested. Many exciting
7:48:11
events took place during the presence of the troops at Jackson, but order was
7:48:17
gradually restored and people took heart. Services at the churches were resumed after months
7:48:23
of suspension. In the midst of one of the trials, Captain Ewen,
7:48:30
who lived in camp with the troops, not daring to return to his own
7:48:33
fireside, saw his house, his home, the fruit of many years of
7:48:40
labor and saving, go up in flames. It was not accident. It
7:48:45
was the reward for his fidelity to good citizenship and his willingness to tell the
7:48:51
truth. Ewen also declared that bribery had been attempted by certain parties. Later
7:48:57
on, the matter was in the courts, but nothing ever came of it.
7:49:03
Ewan removed from Jackson after the trials. No one acquainted with a situation,
7:49:10
and breathet at that time doubted for a moment that Jed and White were
7:49:14
but the tools of men higher up. It is not our province to make
7:49:19
charges based upon mere rumor. But this may be said, without fear of
7:49:25
contradiction, that the testimony brought out at the various trials which followed established utter
7:49:32
corruption on the part of those whose duty it was to see that the guilty
7:49:36
parties were brought to justice. These officers stood idly by permitting men to be
7:49:42
shot down while calmly watching the proceedings, and made no attempt whatever to arrest
7:49:48
them. When outside pressure and extraneous influence and help at last forced investigations and
7:49:56
the criminals were apprehended and brought to the bar of justice. These officers visited
7:50:03
the murderers in jail, supplied them with delicate food, money, and counsel,
7:50:08
consulted witnesses, hunted up persons willing to serve as defense witnesses for a
7:50:14
consideration, drilled them, tutored them, and through intimidation and threats of death,
7:50:22
forced men to commit the crime of perjury to save the next of the
7:50:26
assassins. Let us cite an example a young man of previously good repute,
7:50:33
a school teacher, was indicted at the Harrison Circuit Court at Cynthiana, where
7:50:38
the trials of Jed and White occurred, for having sworn falsely as a witness
7:50:44
for the defendants. He was found guilty as charged. When the judge pronounced
7:50:51
sentence, the convicted man broke down completely and admitted his guilt, but pleaded
7:50:57
in extenuation of his crime, that high officials of Breathat County, enemies of
7:51:03
Markham and Cockrel, had coerced him into becoming a witness for the defense,
7:51:08
and had drilled him for hours so he would make no blunders in the prepared
7:51:12
testimony. His story had the true ring about it. So pathetic was the
7:51:19
story told by the young man that both judge and state's attorney instantly released the
7:51:26
man on his own recognizance, although he asked to be sent to the penitentiary
7:51:32
where he might be reasonably safe from assassination. Let us see where the County
7:51:37
Judge Hargus and Sheriff Callahan were at the time of the Markham assassination. Let
7:51:44
us examine their actions. They speak louder than words. The reader may draw
7:51:49
his own conclusions and arrive at them without assistance. Both the county Judge Hargus
7:51:57
and Sheriff Callahan hated Markham and had been his sworn enemies for a long time.
7:52:04
The statements of Feltner, made by him to Markham from time to time
7:52:10
implicated both these officials as the chief conspirators. Although mister Markham, at the
7:52:15
time he gave out his statement to the press refrained from quoting their names,
7:52:22
he had, however, done so to the writer on several occasions. At
7:52:26
the time of Markham's assassination, Judge James Hargas and Sheriff Callahan were seated comfortably
7:52:34
in front of the Hargest's store. Probably the seats had been reserved in advance
7:52:40
so as to be certain of not missing any scene or act of the tragedy.
7:52:45
They had an unobstructed view of the court house door, were bound to
7:52:49
have seen what occurred there, yet continued to sit unmoved, and never made
7:52:56
the least effort to locate or ascertain the assassins. They appeared not in the
7:53:02
least disturbed, certainly exhibited no surprise. Why should they. The conclusion was
7:53:08
irresistible, but we shall let the reader drow it Captain Ewan testified that he
7:53:15
was standing at the side of Markham when he was killed. Markham was leaning
7:53:21
heavily upon his shoulder. Just before the shots were fired, Tom White passed
7:53:26
by the two men, turned and gazed into Markham's face. Markham said,
7:53:33
that's a bad man, and I'm afraid of him. The next moment the
7:53:37
shots were fired. As White passed Markham, the latter turned his back to
7:53:44
the rear of the corridor, and the witness, Ewan, turned with him.
7:53:48
This put his face to the rear of Markham, and he recognized Curtis
7:53:53
Jet and saw him standing there with a pistol in each hand. Markham having
7:54:00
fallen to the floor, Captain Ewen stepped out of doors to save his own
7:54:06
life. The position of Jet and of his gun made Ewan believe that he
7:54:11
would be shot next. A few moments later, Jet appeared at the side
7:54:17
door of the court house, looked out, then walked calmly down the steps
7:54:22
and mingled with the crowd. Tom White, so the testimony of other witnesses
7:54:27
shows, was standing in front of day Brother's store just before the murder.
7:54:33
An acquaintance invited him to take a drink. He refused, saying he had
7:54:38
not time that he was looking for a man he caught sight of Curtis.
7:54:45
Jet motioned to him, and the two entered the side door of the court
7:54:48
house. White then passed on through the corridor to the front door, and
7:54:55
in the manner detailed, attracted Markham's attention while Jet took his position behind him.
7:55:02
White immediately turned to the side of the front door to escape the bullets
7:55:07
he knew would be coming. After the murder, Jet and White came immediately
7:55:12
together again at or near the jail and walked down the street unmolested. Tom
7:55:19
White had come to Jackson several days before the murder, ostensibly to secure work,
7:55:26
but only one man was introduced to prove that he made any sort of
7:55:30
attempt to obtain employment. Jet and White were seen together before the shooting and
7:55:37
immediately afterwards. It was the contention of the Commonwealth that the defendants had been
7:55:44
hired to do the murder. One need only read the statement of Markham to
7:55:48
see with what hellish coolness and deliberation these plots had been arranged. The defense
7:55:55
was precluded, of course, under the circumstances, from relying upon the plea
7:56:00
of self defense so it proceeded at once to hatch up an alibi. This,
7:56:07
however, proved so transparent a fabrication that the jury ignored it altogether and
7:56:12
promptly returned a verdict of guilty against both of the accused. The sentence was
7:56:19
for confinement in the penitentiary for life, but for the persistency of one juror
7:56:26
who refused to join in a death verdict, they would have been hanged.
7:56:30
Perhaps. Curtis Jet was a sworn officer of the county at the time of
7:56:37
the murder of Markham, a deputy under Sheriff Callahan. He was proven guilty
7:56:42
also of the assassination of Cockrel by shooting him from the courthouse. The temple
7:56:48
of Justice prostituted and turned over to the service of murderers by those in control
7:56:55
of it. Jet's record previous to these assassins nations was bad twice. He
7:57:02
had been accused of rape, had repeatedly been confined in jail on various other
7:57:07
charges for shooting at persons with intent to kill, for malicious shooting and wounding,
7:57:15
and had been indicted for the ruin of a young girl. He was
7:57:18
a moral degenerate. His very appearance proclaimed to the physiognomist the cruel, heartless
7:57:26
nature of the man. His chin was short and receding, the cheekbones prominent,
7:57:34
the hair bristly, red, eyes deep set, and countenance scowling and
7:57:41
bad. Jet had been for a time confined in the Louisville jail until his
7:57:47
triolets in Theana. While in prison, he had given the jail officials no
7:57:53
end of trouble. On account of his violent disposition toward the other prisoners,
7:57:59
one and all feared him. After his removal to the penitentiary, he pursued
7:58:06
similar tactics for a time, but there they broke him. He is still
7:58:11
confined and is now said to have become a model prisoner. It is said
7:58:17
he intends to preach after his release. It must be remembered that a life
7:58:22
sentence in Kentucky does not mean confinement for life. Judge Hargas and Callahan were
7:58:30
in due time arraigned for various murders in connection with the feud. Although Curtis
7:58:36
Jett, John Abner, John Smith, and Mose Feldner, who figure so
7:58:41
prominently in the Markham statement, confessed in one way or another that the accused
7:58:48
were the leaders in the assassinations of doctor Cox, Cockrell and Markham, the
7:58:52
chief conspirators for whose benefit the murders were done, and who had furnished the
7:58:59
sinew of war, money and ammunition. They were acquitted. The widow of
7:59:06
James B. Markham, regardless of the verdicts of acquittal rendered in the various
7:59:11
murder trials of Hargus and Callahan, brought suit in the civil courts and secured
7:59:18
a judgment against them for several thousand dollars for having been the instigators of the
7:59:22
murder of her husband. The judgment was paid without appeal retribution. He that
7:59:32
sheddeth man's blood by man, shall his blood be shed. This threat was
7:59:37
fulfilled to the letter in the cases of both Judge Hargus and Sheriff Callahan.
7:59:44
Both men died with their boots on. Judge Hargus was shot and killed at
7:59:49
his store in Jackson in the winter of nineteen o eight by his own son,
7:59:55
Beach Hargus. The young man was indicted for murder February eighteenth, nineteen
8:00:00
o eight, tried and found guilty. He escaped the death penalty and received
8:00:07
a life sentence, but is already at large, having been paroled in nineteen
8:00:12
sixteen. The judgment of the court was appealed from, and strenuous efforts were
8:00:18
made by the widow of the slain man to secure a new trial and save
8:00:23
her son from conviction for the murder of her husband. Hers was indeed a
8:00:30
pathetic situation. Missus Hargus employed the best counsel obtainable. Senator William O.
8:00:37
Bradley, a lawyer of national fame, argued the case exhaustively before the Court
8:00:44
of Appeals. The judgment of the lower court was affirmed. The case was
8:00:49
one of widespread interest. The facts and circumstances attending the murder appears at length
8:00:56
and are commented upon in an opinion of the Court of All Appeals written by
8:01:00
Judge Hobson and reported in one hundred and thirty five Kentucky Reports. Judge Hobson,
8:01:07
in his statement of the case, says, the proof for the Commonwealth
8:01:12
and the trial shows in brief these facts. On the night before the homicide,
8:01:19
Beech Hargus had gone to his father's store and asked one of the clerks
8:01:23
for a pistol. The clerk declined to give him a pistol out of the
8:01:29
stock, but told him that his father's pistol was there in the drawer of
8:01:33
his desk, and he could take that. The defendant secured the pistol,
8:01:37
but said nothing to his father, although he was then in the store.
8:01:42
The next morning, between nine and ten o'clock, the defendant was sitting in
8:01:47
the barber shop. His face was swollen. He told the barber that his
8:01:52
father had hit him in the mouth and hurt him. There, a man
8:01:56
who looked like his father passed. He raised up the chair, threw his
8:02:02
hand back and said, I thought that was the old man. About an
8:02:07
hour later he drank a bottle of Brown's bitters and said to a bystander,
8:02:14
did you hear about the old man mashing my mouth? And added that it
8:02:18
was hard to take. Some two hours later he appeared at a drug store
8:02:23
kept by his brother in law. Doctor Hogg. Drew his pistol and was
8:02:29
waving it about, pointing it in the direction of a bystander and his brother
8:02:33
in law. From this drug store, after a few minutes, he went
8:02:37
to his father's store. It was a double store room. His father was
8:02:42
in one room, and he entered the other and took a seat in a
8:02:47
chair not far from the front door. While he was sitting there in a
8:02:52
chair, a man in the other room asked his father where Beech was.
8:02:56
His father pointed him out to the man and said, there he sits.
8:03:00
I have done all I can for him, and I cannot go about him
8:03:04
or have anything to do with him. A few minutes later, his father
8:03:10
said to another man who was in the room, I don't know what to
8:03:14
do with Beech. He has got to be a perfect vagabond, and he
8:03:18
is destroying my business. And if doctor Hogg lets him stay there, he
8:03:22
will ruin his business. After saying this to the man, the father walked
8:03:29
in the direction of where the defendant was sitting. There were a number of
8:03:33
persons in the store. As his father approached, the defendant got out of
8:03:40
his chair and walked around behind a spool case that was setting in the end
8:03:44
of the counter. No words were spoken. The first sound that anybody heard
8:03:49
was the report of a pistol. His father was then about three feet from
8:03:55
him. A struggle ensued between them, during which the pistol was shot four
8:04:00
times more, all five of the shots taking effect in the father. Persons
8:04:07
in the store ran up, and when they got to them, the father
8:04:11
had the son down and had the pistol, which he handed to one of
8:04:15
them, saying he has shot me all to pieces. The father died in
8:04:21
a few minutes. The proof for the son was in substance that the father
8:04:26
came up to him, struck him in the face, and began choking him.
8:04:30
When he felt his eyes bulging out, he drew his pistol and shot
8:04:34
him, and his father continuing to choke him. He fired the other four
8:04:40
shots in the struggle, the last two being fired from the floor. The
8:04:45
proof of the defendant also showed that the father was drinking. Taking all the
8:04:52
evidence, we think it reasonably clear that the father was unarmed and that he
8:04:56
was shot by the son while he was approaching him him and before he had
8:05:02
touched him. Two witnesses who were on the outside of the store were looking
8:05:07
through the windows, and their testimony, as well as the testimony of persons
8:05:11
in the store, confirms this conclusion. We think it also reasonably clear that
8:05:18
the son was Maudlin drunk, and but for this the unfortunate homicide would not
8:05:23
have occurred. He showed that he was under the impression that his father had
8:05:30
left the store, and that he went there to meet an uncle, but
8:05:33
expecting no difficulty. He also showed that about a week before his father had
8:05:40
beat him unmercifully with a ramrod, that previous to this he had whipped him
8:05:45
with a rope, and on the last occasion had struck him in the mouth
8:05:49
with his fist and got upon him on the floor and churned his head against
8:05:55
the floor, That he had taken his pistol from him and had threatened a
8:05:59
shoot him with it, and had been prevented from doing this by the interference
8:06:03
of bystanders, and that he had then declared he would kill him. There
8:06:08
was also evidence that the son had said that the old man had beaten him
8:06:12
up, but that he would never get the chance to do it again.
8:06:18
Also that he had declared when his father had taken the pistol from him when
8:06:22
drunk, that every time he got drunk and was having a good time,
8:06:26
they had to do something to him, and that he aimed to kill his
8:06:30
father and certain other persons whom he named. The defendant offered to prove by
8:06:37
his grandmother and others that his father had taught him to carry a weapon,
8:06:41
encouraged him to drink whiskey, and had caused him to associate with disreputable men,
8:06:48
thus rearing him in a manner calculated to bring about the result which followed.
8:06:53
The Lower Court refused to permit this testimony, and the Court of Appeals
8:06:59
affirmed the ruling in this as in practically all other respects to the opinion of
8:07:04
the Court, Judges Barker and none dissented. Certain excerpts of Judge Barker's opinion
8:07:11
are of prime importance here and corroborate what has been said concerning Judge Hargas in
8:07:18
even stronger language than we have employed. This opinion says, in part,
8:07:26
James Hargas is shown in this record to have been a savage, cruel man,
8:07:30
that he had a high, vindictive temper, and allowed neither fear,
8:07:34
nor remorse nor pity to come between him and the objects of his passionate resentment.
8:07:41
James Hargas was a man of violence and blood. He had established in
8:07:48
the County of Breathet a reign of terror, under the influence of which the
8:07:52
law was paralyzed and its ministers overrun. He is pictured as a man of
8:07:57
gigantic frame, savage temper, and indomitable courage. He had surrounded himself with
8:08:06
armed mercenaries, whose minds he inflamed with drink, and who seemed to be
8:08:11
willing to do his bidding, even to the point of assassinating his enemies,
8:08:15
without fear of the consequences of their crimes, and without remorse or pity for
8:08:21
the result. He had not only broken down the law and terrorized its officers,
8:08:27
but he had made the temple of justice itself the rendezvous for assassins who
8:08:33
sheltered behind walls, reddened its portals with the blood of its votaries. He
8:08:41
literally engrafted upon the civilization of the twentieth century the savagery of the fifth and
8:08:48
introduced into a community of law and order the merciless ferocity of the Middle Ages.
8:08:56
Ed Callahan goes under the other leader of the Hargus faction. Ed Callahan
8:09:03
died as violently as did the victims which he has been accused of sending to
8:09:07
their deaths. The assassination took place Saturday, May twenty fourth, nineteen twelve,
8:09:15
in the middle of the forenoon at Crockettsville, a village some twenty miles
8:09:21
from Jackson. Some two years before, a similar attempt had miscarried. Although
8:09:27
Callahan was then seriously wounded. It has already been stated that Mose Feltner,
8:09:34
john Smith and others had, in their confessions implicated Ed Callahan and Judge Hargus
8:09:41
in various murders. After the confession, john Smith had been released from custody
8:09:48
on the murder charges against him, and he became the bitter, unrelenting enemy
8:09:52
of Callahan and Hargus. John Smith was accused with several others of shooting wounding
8:10:00
Callahan from ambush. Callahan escaped death then by a narrow margin. From that
8:10:07
time on, he felt that his end was near. He had been heard
8:10:12
to say on several occasions that his enemies would eventually get him, and they
8:10:18
did. After this attempt on his life, he fortified his home and yard
8:10:25
with a palisade. It was so arranged that he could pass from the store
8:10:30
to his home under the protection of this stockade. But just two years later,
8:10:36
even these precautions failed to save him. He was shot from an ambush
8:10:41
across the narrow valley while in his store. He stood practically on the same
8:10:47
spot when killed, as he had been standing two years and one day previous
8:10:52
when he was shot from the same place and seriously wounded. After the murder.
8:10:59
The Commonwealth found much difficulty in ferreting out the murderers or to secure proof
8:11:04
which would convict them in a court of law. Rumor readily pointed out the
8:11:10
guilty men, but the State could not rest its case on rumor alone.
8:11:15
It must have competent evidence in the difficult task of securing it. The Commonwealth
8:11:22
was ably assisted by a daughter of the murdered man. She in fact,
8:11:27
had taken the initiative in the matter. Rode fearlessly and untiringly night and day,
8:11:34
making inquiries, listening, watching, employing spies to assist her, until
8:11:41
at last a number of men were arrested and held in the toils of the
8:11:45
law. The men indicted were Fletchdaton, Dan Deaton, James Daton, Doc
8:11:52
Smith, Elisha Smith, As Barry Mackintosh, Andrew Johnson, Abe Johnson,
8:12:00
Billy Johnson, Abe's son, Willie Johnson, Johnson, Red, Tom Davidson,
8:12:08
John Clear, and Tom Deaton Billson. The story of the conspiracy which
8:12:15
resulted in Callahan's final removal from earthly activities is a long one. It reads
8:12:22
like a dime novel. The setting of the story is dramatic. The court's
8:12:29
opinion traces almost step by step, the various movements of the conspirators. There
8:12:36
are about seven principal places that figure in this tragedy, quoting in substance the
8:12:41
opinion. The home of Ed Callahan on Long's Creek, about one mile from
8:12:48
the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River. ABE Johnson's residence and the same river,
8:12:53
about three or four miles above the mouth of Long's Creek. The town
8:12:59
of Buckhorn on the Middle Fork River about two miles above Abe Johnson's home.
8:13:04
The home of John E. Deaton at the mouth of Caney on the north
8:13:10
Fork of the Kentucky River, James Deaton's home on Caney Creek about two miles
8:13:15
above its mouth, and the town of Jackson, the county seat of Breathett
8:13:21
County, located further down the North Fork, are the principal places referred to
8:13:27
Fletch. Deaton resided in Jackson. Callahan conducted a general store next to his
8:13:34
residence on Long's Creek, twenty miles from Jackson. Two years and one day
8:13:41
before the killing of Callahan, he had been shot and dangerously wounded by unknown
8:13:47
persons concealed on the hillside directly across the creek. From the store. The
8:13:53
palisade built after that extended from his residence to the rear of his store,
8:14:00
so that he could pass from one to the other without being seen from the
8:14:03
mountain across the creek. The murder occurred on Saturday, May fourth, nineteen
8:14:11
twelve, about the middle of the forenoon. On the Sunday before, he
8:14:15
went from his home in a gasoline boat in company with Clifton Gross, his
8:14:21
son in law, to Athel, a railroad station on the Middle Fork of
8:14:26
the Kentucky River, and thence. On the following Monday, he went to
8:14:30
Jackson, which was the home of Fletch Deaton and of his co defendants read
8:14:37
Tom Davidson and Govin Smith. Callahan was seen on the streets of Jackson on
8:14:42
that day by several people. He left Jackson on the train at two twenty
8:14:48
p m. For Louisville to buy a spring stock of goods for his store.
8:14:55
His presence in Jackson, as well as his departure for Louisville and the
8:15:00
the purpose of his visit, were well known in Jackson. Several of the
8:15:04
defendants who lived on the Middle Fork had gone down the stream on timber rafts,
8:15:11
and on their return by way of Jackson, saw Callahan at the railroad
8:15:15
station in Beattyville Junction on his way to Louisville. It was Callahan's habit to
8:15:22
ship his goods to Alcattawa on the Lexington and Eastern Railroad, where he would
8:15:27
place them on freight boats and take them up the river to the mouth of
8:15:32
Lungs Creek, thence on wagons to his home. He usually accompanied the goods
8:15:37
in person. Several years ago, Fletched Deaton's brother, James Deaton, was
8:15:45
killed at the mouth of Lung's Creek in a fight and ed. Callahan and
8:15:49
several other persons were jointly indicted for that killing, but with his usual luck,
8:15:56
escaped punishment. For he was acquitted. Fletch Deaton aided in the prosecution
8:16:03
of Callahan, and bad blood had existed between them since that time. Furthermore,
8:16:11
shortly before the killing of Callahan, in May nineteen twelve, John Davidson,
8:16:17
a nephew of Fletch Daton and a brother of Red Tom Davidson and Levi
8:16:22
Johnson, were killed at Buckhorn in Perry County. Four men were jointly indicted
8:16:30
for these murders. Fletch Deaton and several of the others indicted with him for
8:16:34
murdering. Callahan assisted and took an active part in the prosecution of the men
8:16:41
charged with the murder of Davidson and Johnson. Callahan was accused by them of
8:16:47
complicity in those murders and of aiding the defendants to escape punishment. Fletch Deaton
8:16:55
had been heard to say on various occasions that it would be impossible to secure
8:17:00
the conviction of the slayers of Davidson and Johnson so long as Callahan was alive,
8:17:06
and that he must be killed before those cases came up for trial again.
8:17:11
It developed in the proof that Jace Deaton Fletcheddaton's nephew and read Tom Davidson,
8:17:19
also accused of killing Callahan, were tried in the Bourbon Circuit Court on
8:17:25
the charge of killing John Abner in the town of Jackson several years before,
8:17:30
and that Callahan had been active in the prosecution against them, employing counsel and
8:17:37
supplying money. It further appears that Jace Deaton referred to above, had been
8:17:44
killed at the home of Ance White some while before the killing of Callahan by
8:17:49
Ance White. White was tried for this killing in the Montgomery Circuit Court and
8:17:56
also acquitted. This acquittal had been attributed to the activity in behalf of White
8:18:02
on the part of Ed Callahan. The proof on the trial of Fletch Deaton
8:18:07
and of Andrew Johnson showed that Callahan came to his death at the hands of
8:18:12
three men who had concealed themselves on the mountain side across the creek from Callahan's
8:18:18
store. One of the witnesses for the prosecution testified that he recognized Doc Smith
8:18:26
and Andrew Johnson as two of the assassins, that he saw a third but
8:18:33
failed to recognize him. Doc Smith himself testified that the third man was James
8:18:38
Deaton of Caney Creek, a son of Fletch Deaton. All the trials of
8:18:45
the men accused of the murder of Callahan were held at Winchester, Clark County.
8:18:51
In each of the cases, with the exception of the one against Red
8:18:55
Tom Davidson, the defense relied upon alibis, claiming that they were in Jackson
8:19:02
on the day of the killing. Doc Smith and Govin, at the critical
8:19:07
moment, realizing their situation, made a full and voluntary confession of all they
8:19:12
knew regarding the murder. Of Callahan. As heretofore stated, Callahan was shot
8:19:19
on Saturday afternoon. On the preceding Wednesday, about two o'clock pm, Doc
8:19:26
Smith met Andrew Johnson on the Middle Fork, just below the mouth of Gays
8:19:33
Creek. Johnson there told Doc Smith that James Daton wanted Doc and Andrew Johnson
8:19:40
to help kill Callahan and for Doc to go to Deaton's house that night.
8:19:47
Smith says that Johnson asked him if he had a gun, and he told
8:19:51
Johnson that his gun was at his father's. That Johnson then told him he
8:19:56
would go back home to Granville Johnson's and would meet Smith there that night.
8:20:03
That Smith went to his father's, got his gun, ate his supper,
8:20:07
and then went to the mouth of Orville's Branch, and there met Andrew Johnson,
8:20:12
Willie Johnson, Tom Deaton, and Billy Johnson. From that point Smith
8:20:21
and Andrew Johnson proceeded to the house of James Daton on Caney Creek, which
8:20:26
they reached late in the night, finding James and Dan Daton there. That
8:20:32
night, the four discussed the proposed killing of Callahan. James Daton told his
8:20:38
confederates that on the next morning he would go to his father's at Jackson and
8:20:44
learn from him Fletch Deaton what definite plans had been made about the killing of
8:20:49
Callahan and would get read Tom Davidson's savage rifle. The next morning, Thursday,
8:20:57
James Daton and Dan Deaton left James Deaton's house and went down Caney Creek
8:21:04
towards John E. Deaton's, Doc Smith and Andrew Johnson, remaining at James
8:21:11
Deaton's. Late on Thursday evening, James Daton came home from Jackson riding,
8:21:18
read Tom Davidson's mule, and brought along a gun, which he said belonged
8:21:22
to Red Tom. After supper, Smith, Johnson and James Daton left the
8:21:30
latter's residence, Doc Smith riding and carrying the gun Johnson and Daton on foot.
8:21:37
They proceeded to the home of John E. Deaton, where they met
8:21:42
Bob Daton, another of the accused. Here, Bob joined them in the
8:21:48
expedition. The four then went to Abe Johnson's on the Middle Fork, about
8:21:55
three miles above the mouth of Lung's Creek, arriving there after midnight on Friday
8:22:00
morning. Friday was spent around Abe Johnson's. At noon, they sent for
8:22:07
Dan Deaton, whom they had left at the home of James Daton on the
8:22:11
morning of Thursday. Dan responded and all of them again discussed plans for the
8:22:18
murder of Callahan. James Daton told Abe Johnson and Billy Johnson that his father,
8:22:26
Fletched Eaton wanted them to come to Jackson on the train Saturday morning so
8:22:32
they could be there as witnesses to prove the alibi, and that Willie Johnson
8:22:37
was to come with them. It was arranged that Doc Smith, Andrew Johnson,
8:22:42
Bob Daton, and Dan Daton were to go down to the Grand Sire
8:22:48
Rock on the Middle Fork below the mouth of Long's Creek to watch for Callahan
8:22:53
and Ants White, who were expected to come up on Callahan's boats on that
8:22:59
day. This arrangement was carried out Before starting, however, they procured two
8:23:07
courts of whiskey and drank about half of it before they left Abe Johnson's about
8:23:12
two o'clock on Saturday morning, Abe Johnson, Billy Johnson, and Willie Johnson
8:23:19
went to Jackson, and the other five men, Doc Smith, Andrew Johnson,
8:23:26
James Deaton, Dan Deaton, and Bob Daton went toward Long's Creek all
8:23:33
had guns. Before leaving Abe Johnson's, they procured a bucket of provisions and
8:23:41
went by the home of Granville Johnson, where they procured another bucket of provisions.
8:23:48
There they boarded Granville Johnson's boat and started down the river, but the
8:23:52
boat began to leak, and, being too small to carry them all,
8:23:57
they procured another boat at the mouth of Long's Creek. The boats were abandoned.
8:24:04
From there, they went to the home of Willie Deaton, son of
8:24:08
James Deaton, to inquire whether Callahan had returned home, and were told that
8:24:14
Callahan had left the boats and gone home the evening before. After borrowing a
8:24:21
gun from Willie Deaton, Dan and Bob Daton went to the Grand Sire Rock
8:24:26
for the purpose of watching for Callahan's boats and to kill Ants White, who
8:24:32
had remained in charge of them. In the meantime, Doc Smith, Andrew
8:24:37
Johnson, and James Deaton went to the hillside across the creek from Callahan's store,
8:24:45
arriving there shortly before daylight on Saturday morning. They placed themselves at a
8:24:51
point where they could see the front of Callahan's store. Two of them prepared
8:24:56
forks about eighteen inches long, which they drove in the ground to use as
8:25:02
rests and shooting, one of them piling up some rocks upon which to rest
8:25:07
his weapon. They watched for Callahan until between nine and ten o'clock without catching
8:25:14
sight of him. The front of Callahan's store contained a glass window, and
8:25:21
they could see the outline or form of a man passing behind the window on
8:25:26
the inside of the store. Concluding that the shadow thus cast must be that
8:25:32
of Callahan, they fired six shots through the window, three of them taking
8:25:37
effect and mortally wounding him. Then the assassins became panic stricken and left the
8:25:45
places of concealment hurriedly, going through the back woods to the home of Abe
8:25:49
Johnson, where they got their dinner. After dinner, Trigger I. Deaton
8:25:56
carried them across the Middle Fork River and from there to John E. Deaton's
8:26:02
home, where they arrived shortly after dark. By devious routes, the three
8:26:08
assassins reached Jackson and the home of Fletchdeaton shortly before daylight Sunday morning. There
8:26:17
they found a number of the men present who were to serve as witnesses to
8:26:21
establish an alibi for the slayers. The alibi was however, completely broken down
8:26:29
by witnesses for the Commonwealth, with the result that a number of the conspirators
8:26:33
are now doing time in the state penitentiary. This closes the chapter on the
8:26:41
Hargus, Cockrell Markham Callahan feud, one of blood terrorization, dark age savagery
8:26:48
in the twentieth century, in the very midst of our country, which prides
8:26:55
itself upon a civilization superior to that of other countries. But for the blunder
8:27:02
the despots committed in slaying Markham, whose prominence and the peculiarly atrocious circumstances of
8:27:08
his murder at last forced a thorough airing of conditions, they might have gone
8:27:15
on unmolested, continued the record of assassination, and have added many more pages
8:27:22
of blood to the county's history. The prosecution of the slayers of Markham,
8:27:27
doctor Cox, James Cockrell, Judge Hargus, and Ed Callahan was prompt and
8:27:34
energetic. It shows a return of a more healthy public sentiment. Yet murders
8:27:41
are entirely too frequent in Breathet and in Kentucky at large for that matter.
8:27:48
Breathet has been termed the plague spot of the Commonwealth. It cannot wipe out
8:27:55
the past. What has been done is done. But if may yet redeem
8:28:00
itself by making such horrors, if we have depicted here impossible in the future.
8:28:07
There is a fine citizenship in the county. It has suffered much and
8:28:12
deserve sympathy along with censure. It is up to the good people to see
8:28:18
that peace and order return and is maintained henceforth and forever. We trust they
8:28:26
will never more submit to unbridled crime and anarchy. It is up to them
8:28:33
to prove themselves American citizens by exerting true patriotism at home. Conclusion, it
8:28:41
would be erroneous to conclude that the history of Kentucky's famous or notorious feuds is
8:28:48
completed here. The material at hand has unfortunately not been exhausted by any means.
8:28:56
While the Hatfields and McCoy's fought to the death in Pike to Kentucky and
8:29:00
along the borders of West Virginia, a bloody drama was being enacted in Rowan
8:29:07
County, while the French Eversoul war raged in Perry County. Many other counties
8:29:12
suffered similarly during identically the same period. The eighties were a decade of blood
8:29:21
for during those years, Harlan was in the clutches of murderers, and anarchy
8:29:26
reigned Supreme Letcher Bell and not passed through. Like bloody experiences in Clay County,
8:29:34
feudal wars raged for years and never disappeared completely until the close of the
8:29:41
last century. The list of counties drenched with the blood of their citizens might
8:29:47
yet be extended to describe all the feuds in detail, would, however,
8:29:52
prove repetitive, even monotonous, and be only cumulative to Lengthen the list of
8:30:00
assassinations could serve no beneficent purpose. Some years ago we published an edition of
8:30:07
Kentucky's famous Feuds and Tragedies. We closed the volume in the belief that feuds
8:30:12
had ended once and for all times. But the worst period in all the
8:30:18
bloody history of Breathet was since then. At the time of the publication of
8:30:22
the first edition, from which some writers have quoted freely without giving us credit,
8:30:30
we were charged with defaming the state, although it was admitted that the
8:30:33
truth had been faithfully portrayed. It was not our intention then to malign the
8:30:40
state, nor is it now. We have simply compiled from facts a history
8:30:45
of past events. Of what use is any history but to record past events
8:30:52
that future generations might take lessons therefrom and be guided thereby. Ignorance of true
8:31:00
conditions does not, and never did, bring about correction of evils. The
8:31:06
crusade against commercialized vice, the liquor, traffic, and other body and soul
8:31:11
destroying evils can succeed only through full and complete publicity. This history furnishes a
8:31:18
study for the psychologists as well as for the criminologist. We cannot study crime
8:31:25
and its manifold phases, or point out remedies by studying the lives of saints.
8:31:32
To find the original causes of social and political diseases, we must go
8:31:37
where these have existed or still exist. It would be silly to attempt to
8:31:42
prove the result of the drink habit by the lives of teetotalers. There are
8:31:48
those who would be overcautious who believe in the policy enunciated by the proverb never
8:31:56
mention a rope in the home of a man that has been hanged. Had
8:32:00
this principle at all times been adhered to, reforms would have been few.
8:32:06
People will not rise to battle against evils until they are first made acquainted with
8:32:10
the fact that the evils exist. It was due to the publicity given by
8:32:16
the newspapers of conditions in Breathat County that a thorough clean up was inaugurated there.
8:32:23
If it be proper and right to publish nothing of a criminal or degrading
8:32:28
nature, then we must of necessity put the ban upon the Bible. What
8:32:34
was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ but a bloody tragedy. The Bible gives us
8:32:39
a detailed account of the awful, cruel, lawless conspiracy to do murder upon
8:32:45
an innocent being. Judas prepared the ambush as it were, he had the
8:32:52
decency to go and hang himself, although he had nothing to fear from the
8:32:57
authorities who had hired him to betray the master. The story of David and
8:33:01
Absalom is the bloody history of a family feud on a large scale. The
8:33:07
murder of Abel by his brother kan Is taught the children at Sunday School not
8:33:13
for the purpose of entertaining them with bloodshed, or to encourage them to go
8:33:17
and do likewise, but to make crime odious. The history of the Moabites
8:33:23
and other races and tribes is one long chapter of outrages, crimes of unnameable
8:33:31
character are recited at length in the Holy Book. The history of the Reformation
8:33:37
is one of blood and crime. To exclude secular or sacred history because they
8:33:44
narrate crimes and bloodshed and horrors would mean the withdrawal of the greatest weapons with
8:33:50
which modern progress fights its battles in shaping the minds of men. We may
8:33:55
gain invaluable lessons from this history if it be read with that intention. It
8:34:01
is an appeal to people everywhere to be true to their citizenship. That Kentucky
8:34:07
has furnished suitable material with which to illustrate and demonstrate the result of a weak,
8:34:14
unpatriotic, disloyal citizenship is not the fault of the historian. The facts
8:34:21
were at hand, they were apt, and were used. Just now there
8:34:27
is a nationwide appeal made for a true Americanism. The fact that the appeal
8:34:32
is being made seems to us an acknowledgment that true Americanism has deteriorated and needs
8:34:39
in grafting anew We join in this appeal and shall add that had true Americanism
8:34:46
prevailed in the feud cursed sections of Kentucky, this bloody history could never have
8:34:52
been written. There would have been a total absence of material for one.
8:34:57
What is true Americanism? It is not a place of birth. It is
8:35:01
nothing more but nothing less than undivided loyalty to country. What is loyalty?
8:35:10
When is a citizen loyal to his country? Waiving his country's flag and cheering
8:35:15
it on a fourth of July is but an outward demonstration of loyalty. A
8:35:22
citizen is never loyal until he becomes and is faithful to the law. When
8:35:29
he upholds and assists others in upholding the lawful authorities unswervingly, that is loyalty.
8:35:37
There is no other definition for the word. So the citizen who refuses
8:35:40
to obey the law himself in the first place, and makes no efforts to
8:35:45
assist others in its enforcement is not loyal to his country. When he has
8:35:51
ceased to be loyal, he becomes disloyal, and disloyalty is treason. The
8:35:58
true American there is loyal and has the courage to prove that loyalty. Whenever
8:36:04
occasion arises. One need not put on a uniform and fight battles against a
8:36:09
foreign enemy to prove his patriotism. The patriot, the truly loyal citizen serves
8:36:16
his country well by exercising that loyalty at home. Good citizenship carries with it
8:36:23
more than the simple right to vote. That right has obligations attached to it.
8:36:30
The chief obligation is loyalty. The moment loyalty weakens, a wedge of
8:36:37
social and political corruption enters. Once that wedge is driven deeper, government must
8:36:45
totter and fall, and anarchy steps in its place. During the Civil War,
8:36:51
hundreds of thousands of Americans gave up their lives that the nation might live.
8:36:57
The nation is an aggregation of state, the state a union of communities,
8:37:02
and communities are formed by families. To preserve a nation healthy that it
8:37:09
may live, The states must also be so. But a state cannot be
8:37:15
so if portions of it are diseased with social and political corruption. When a
8:37:21
sore spot appears, it ought to be cauterized at once, without waiting for
8:37:25
it to develop into an eating, destroying cancer. The spirit of loyalty must
8:37:32
be revived and kept alive in the minds and hearts of all citizens. Only
8:37:38
through it can the evil impulses of the criminally inclined be controlled. The citizen
8:37:45
who is loyal should always reflect when he begins to lose courage, that the
8:37:51
good citizens are in the majority, and that the vicious element is almost universally
8:37:57
cowardly. The criminal has the fear of the law, although he defies it
8:38:02
for a time. We have narrated at great length the stealthy preparations made by
8:38:08
the murderers of Callahan. The cool and apparently deliberate manner with which their plans
8:38:15
were executed would lead one to believe that they feared no law. Yet we
8:38:22
have seen how a moment after the crime had been committed and its perpetrators realized
8:38:27
that they were murderers. In fact, they stampeded. The proof shows they
8:38:32
trembled with fear though no one was on their tracks. Then their hearts turned
8:38:38
to water. What did they fear? Punishment? The bloody dictators of Breathett
8:38:45
County had abrogated the law as they believed, yet feared the law they pretended
8:38:52
to despise. This is clearly established by the methods with which they killed off
8:38:58
their enemies. They resorted to secret assassination in each case because it would make
8:39:05
discovery and punishment difficult, if not impossible. Each assassination had been shrewdly and
8:39:12
carefully planned. Notwithstanding their temporary power and supremacy, they lived in constant fear
8:39:20
and dread, believing that punishment would and must sooner or later overtake them.
8:39:27
This belief was strengthened by the fate of other criminals elsewhere. If then the
8:39:34
criminal fears the arm of the law, it requires very simple reasoning to come
8:39:38
to the conclusion that the criminally inclined can, by the sure guarantee of swift
8:39:45
condign punishment, be intimidated and forced into abstaining from following that inclination, and
8:39:52
be so put in fear that he will think twice before he gives his atavistic
8:39:58
tendencies free reign. This history was written to teach a moral The remedies suggested
8:40:06
here for lawlessness and contempt for the law may be applied with equal benefit.
8:40:10
Where mob spirit is rampant, the mobbist to coin a phrase that starts out
8:40:19
to do murder upon a defenseless prisoner is on a par with the bushwhacker,
8:40:23
even inferior to him in courage, For mobs are courageous only through mass numbers
8:40:31
or when under strong and aggressive leadership. Mobs have been known to slink away
8:40:37
ignominiously when confronted by one or two loyal citizens. Disloyalty has been at the
8:40:45
bottom of all great social disturbances. Let the spirit of true Americanism, which
8:40:51
is loyalty to country, return, and with it will come the courage to
8:40:57
uphold the law at whatever cost. Then, and not till then, is
8:41:02
our flag the true symbol of American liberty. Then, and not till then,
8:41:07
will the phrase American citizen cease to be a banality as it now is
8:41:14
with many, and become what it is intended to be, a badge of
8:41:19
honor, the most precious a man can wear on this earth. And of
8:41:23
Kentucky's famous Feuds and Tragedies by Charles G. Mutzelburgh