Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1867-02-01
aAissssllana.
A Striking History Of Crime and
sei,- Revenge.

n ~. =
Weshave already mentioned the fatal
ARRAY at Elizabethtown, Tenn, on the
9th. in which two men named tombstone
and Rogers, after family feud Of twenty
years, succeeded in killing each the other,
and thus both families have become ex-
tinct. How the feud commenced is thus
related by the Louisville Journal:
In the Fall of ls46 family named
tombstone removed ,om the neighboring
coun,y.of Wautauga, North Carolina, into
Cater county, East Tennessee, and set
tied down in the neighborhood of another
family named Rogers. tombstone, who
appeared to be an energetic, industrious
man, Immediately went to work at clear
ing up little farm. He felled trees,
grubbed up underbrush, burned stumps,
and split rails to fence in the ground he
reclaimed from the wilderness. In this
labor he was assisted b. two sons-both
mere lads. While the three were en-
gagged in erecting fence about their patch
of land, Rogers rode up to where they
were II, work, and laid claim to pile of
rails about a dozen in number. This
claim LONESOME disputed, and finally on
Rogers applying to him the epitLets of
liar" and /" thief" the North Carolinian
pulled him from his horse, and admins
tered to him severe chastisement with
his fists. Rogers wen, off vowing ven
geance, and in the course Of an hour re-
turned to the spot armed with rife, the
contents of which he discharged into the
body of tombstone, producing fatal conse-
quences. The two tombstone lads vowed
vengeance upon the murderer of their
parent, 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 on his porch, and, Ms he
saw young tombstone approaching, pro-
badly 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 pierced by
the bullet Of his foe.
The son of Rogers in time grew up
with the desire of vengeance, and finally
killed the murderer of his father, and was
in turn murdered by that mans son. And
SO the murderous feud went on for years,
till twelve persons had been killed, when
the war broke out and the feud seemed TO
have ended. But the cessation of HOSTILE
ties brought back the survivors of the
warning families, and the story of the last
encounter is thus told: q
The survivors consisted of Randall
Rogers and Robert tombstone, both battle-
SCARED veterans, and both unmarried men.
On the evening of the 9th instant these
two men met in a grocery at Elizabeth
town and soon became engaged in an alter
cation. Bystanders interfered, and for an
hour or two collision was avertcd. They
were separated by friends, and taken off in
opposite directions. This occurred about
noon. About three o'clock, as Rogers was
goingsup street, he saw tombstone coming
down. As they neared each other they drew
their revolvcrs and commenced simultane-
ously firing upon each other, continuing to
advance as they fred. Finally, and when
aboutsfou feet distant from tombstone,
Rogers sank TO the pavement, and, as be
lay, the last act of his life was to FIRE the
last charge in his pistol into the abdomen
of tombstone whose last bullet, fred on
the same instant, penetrated his antagon-
lists brain, causing instant death. john
stone, recled and fell across tile body of
his foe, and, when byssanders rushed to
where they lay, he, TOO, had passed beyond
all reach of mortal aid. Almost at the
same instant of time their two-blood guilty
souls had gone to join the CORY ghosts of
their ancestors. Thus ended feud that
has existed for twenty years, in the course
of which fourteen men have died violent
deaths. =
--"There is music in thy sole" as the
nice young man said TO his squeaking new
boot. s