Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1860-05-17
Snteresting STORY.
A TRAGIC REMINISENCE.
BY ELLIS AMMONETTE.

At the close of the Greek War, wher
the treaty of peace threw open Georgia
Alabama and Mississippi to emigrants
the tide that set in from the other States
was, considering the difficulties to be over
come, and the dangers to be encountered
from still half hostile foe, most aston
ishingly great.
These emgrants, like all who pioneer
the way to new States, were a motley
crew. Occasionally there might be found
man of good family with numerous
slaves, who, lured by the fertility of the
virgin soil, transported his household
goods to these great wilds, but more fire.
quently of the farming community it was
the humble possessors of one or two ne
groes, or the browny athletos, who wa
tered the fields they titled with the sweat
from their own brows, who took the
road for "Georgy, Alabamy, or the Mis-
sissippi."
These, however, were unfortunately not
the preponderating element among the
incoming settlers. That numerous class
who come under the comprehensive head
of "adventurers" composed the ma jor-
ity. Refugees from the sentence of the
law, men banned from social intercourse
spectators, gamblers, cut-throats and
villains of every variety, were the most
numerous inhabitants of the villages
which sprang up wherever Land offices
and Indian agencies were established by
the Government.
Of all the localities to which they
thronged, nowhere did they muster in
larger force than in the northern counties
of the now fourishing State of Missis'
sippi.
AS a matter of course, among such an
assemblage of Ishmaelites, bloody duels,
street fights and murders were of daily
occurrence, and in the tangled web OF
their intercourse, tragedies, were frequent,
ly enacted more Wholesale in their destruc
ton of human life than any ever put or
histronic boards.
l was then young M. D., who follow
ing the adventurous bent of my nature
had wandered thus far from civilization
and finally located in village in the fer
tile valley of the Yallabusha then {
"boundess contiguity of shade" bu
now far spreading series of magniliceu
plantations, familiar with the rush of the
iron-horse, and made a neighbor even to
this great metropolis by the mystic cur
rent of the telegraph wire.
Here occurrences came under my OBJ
servation, some SO appalling, and some
SO thrilling, that they have never been
erased from the tables of memory.
After having been there a sufficient
length of time to become familiar witt
the general reputation and position, both
social and political, of every one in the
place, | found that the person OF mos
popularity was man by the name o
Louis Percival. Strange as it may seen
at the first glance, the man who swayec
and controlled almost with autocratit
power this turbulent settlement, was {
slight, pale, and physically weak, though
the fact is not without numerous prece
dents in cases where tact, intelligence
INSCRIPTIONS conscience, and courage
that never quailed before man or devil
has been found combined in one person
Why such an individual had ever made
his way to such place, it was puzzlinl
to surmise. Dress, manners, converse
tion and style of life, all betokened hin
to have once moved among the eleganciei
and refnements of the most polished so
ciety. A person of so plausible and in
sinuating manners. l had never seen
though in the beginning of our acquaint
ance / had for him feeling of distrust
which amounted almost to dislike. Ihi
may possibly have arisen from the fac
that floating on the wings of rumor, cam'
vague story of a deserted wife, wh'
broken hearted sleeps in self-sough
grave in distant State; but whether i
had truth for its foundation none knew
and none would have dared hint or ques
tion him to whom it was attached. If |
retrospective glance ever wrapt his sou
in gloom, it hung no cloud upon his brow
II remorse ever gnawed, its ravages wer'
not external, for more smooth and smi
ling face and apparently more equabl'
temper is seldom met with.
As matter Of course, in place Sc