The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1867-01-29
From the Louisville Journal.l
A Tennessee vendetta--A Feud of
Twenty Years Ended--FOurteen
Men Killed During the Time--A
Chapter of Tragedies--Full De-
tails OF the Domestic War.

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Chapter of Tragedies--Full De.
tails OF the Domestic War.
A correspondent at Elizabethtoxn
Carroll County, Tennessee, gives us The
particulars of terrible feud that ha:
been raging for twenty years between two
families of that county, and which was
brought to an end by the bloody deaths
of the sole surviving males of the warring
tribes, in the streets Of Elizabethtown, or
the evening of the 9Th inst. The histo,
Try of the affair, as detailed by our cor
respondent, is as follows:
In the fall of 1916 a family named
Johnstone removed from the neighbor.
ing county of Wautauga, North Carolina,
into Carter County, East Tennessee, and
settled down in the neighborhood ofan.
other family named Rogers. Johnstone,
who appeared to be an energetic, indus.
trious man, immediately went to work at
clearing up little farm. He felled trees
Igrubbed up underground, burnt stumps,
andsplit rails to fence in the ground he,
reclaimed from the wilderness. In this
labor he was assisted by two sons-both
mere lads. While the three were engag-
ed in erecting fencing about their patch
of land, Rogers rode up to where they
were at work one day, and laid claim to
a pile of rails, about dozen in number.
This claim Johnstone disputed, and final
ly, on Rogers applying to him the cpl
thets of "liar" and i'thief," the North
Carolinian pulled him from his horse,
aud administered to him a severe chas-
tisement with his fsts. Rogers went off
vowing vengeance, and in the course of
an hour returned to the spot armed with
a rife, the contents of which he dis
charged into the body Of Johnstone, pro-
ducing fatal consequences. Rogers, who
was man ofsome wealth for those prim-
alive times, and was possessed Of consid-
cradle influence among his rough unlet-
tered neighbors, was acquitted of the
charge of murder by an examining jus
tice. This was the beginning of the ter
rible vendetta that has run through the
years that followed, cutting down the
males of the two families in the pride of
their strength and manhood.
The two Johnstone lads vowed ven-
geance upon the murderer. of their pa.
rent, and one of them, james, worked
night and day, with but one Object in
view-to accumulate the means to pur-
chase rife. At length he became the
owner Of one, and one Sabbath morning
with his gun upon his shoulder, he ap-
preached the house of Rogers. The lat
ter was sitting upon his porch, and as he
saw young Johnstone approaching, prob
ably divining his intention, arose hastily
and started toward the rack where his
own gun was suspended But the aven.
ger of blood was upon his path, and ere
he could reach his weapon he fell upon
the floor corpse his heart pierched by
the bullet of his foe. Rogers left behind
him wife and three children-one Of
whom was boy. Among the rough
backwoodsmen Of Carter County, young
Johnstone's crime was looked upon with
satisfaction, if not favor--the Indian law
of retaliation being looked upon by them
as the very cream of Justice After
ward Johnstone married, and as the years
passed by he became surrounded by an
interesting and numerous progeny.
The boy William Rogers, in the mean.
time, had almost reached manhood's es-
tate, when one morning, without diyulg-
ing his intentions to his mother or sisters,
he left the house with his fathers rife
upon his shoulder, as if he were going
out to hunt, and in less than an hour
grief stricken mother and children were
weeping over the corpse Of husband
and father. Young Rogers, in his turn,
had become an avenger, and Thomas
Johnstone fell beneath his hand.
In time the memory of these three
murders died away, and those who were
children grew up to be men and women.
William Rogers had taken to himself a
wife, and became the head of growing
| family. One morning he rode into Eliz-
abethtown, and as be did not return that
night.--a circumstance that had never
occurred before-his wife became very
uneasy, and in the morning induced her
brother to start to town in search of her
missing husband. About three miles
from the house he came upon the body OF
his brother-in. law, lying in the read.
stiff and cold in death. His brain had
been pierced by rife ball. Although
his murderer was never discovered, get
the community quietly accepted the be-
lief that Henry Johnstone, a son Of Tho
mas, who was slain by Rogers, was the
perpetrator of the deed. Some years af
terward, in drunken moment, in Eliza
bethtown, this young man acknowledged
he had slain Rogers, and gave as his rea
son that the latter had killed his father
Johnstone was young man. and few
months before the murder had been mar
ried to young girl in the neighhor-
hood
Again the chart Of time was unrolled
and at least ten years had been added to
the past, when a young lad, son of the
murdered Rogers, engaged in alteration
in the yard of the Courthouse at Eliz-
abcthtown, with Johnstone, who was then
a middle-aged man and inflicted such
wounds upon him with a knife thai ht
died on tie following morning.
Thus it went on for years, nov John
stone falling by the hands Of Rogers
and then Rogers falling beneath the
avenging hand of Johnstone, until the