The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-01-26

from the Louisville Journal of the 9Th.
A. Tennessee Vendetta---A Feud of
Twenty Years EnGed-Fourteen Men
killed during the time-A Chapter of
Tragedies-Full Details of the DOmes-
tic War.
A correspondent at Elizal'ethtown,
Carter County, Tennessee, gives us the
particulars of u terrible teud that has
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 warning tribes, in the streets of
Elizabethtown. on the evening of the
5th instant. The history of the affair,
as detailed by our correspondent, is as
follows:
In the fall of ls46 a family named
Johnstone removed from the neighbor-
ing County of Wautauga, North-Car
olina, into Carter County, East Tennes-
see, and settled down in the neighbor-
mood of another family named Rogers.
Johnstone, who appeared to be an ener-
getic industrious man, Immediately
went to work at clearing up a little
farm He felled trees, grubbed up I'M
dergrowth, burned stumps, and split
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 engaged
in erecting fencing about their patch
ofland, Rogers rode up to where they
were at work, one day, ana laid claim
to pile of rails, about a dozen in num-
ber The claim Johnstone disputed,
and finally, on Rogers applying to him
the epithets of g liar" and "thief," the
North-Carolinian pulled him from his
horse, and administered to him severe
chastisement with his fists. Rogers
went off vowing vengeance, and in the
course of an hour returned armed with
rifle, the contents Of which he dis
charged into the body of Johnstone,
producing fatal consequence. Rogers,
who was man OF some wealth for those
primitive times and was possessed of
considerable influence among his rough,
uulettered neighbors, was acquitted of
the charge OF murder by an examining
Justice.-This was the beginning of the
terrible 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 rifle. AT length he became the
owner of one, and one Sabbath morning,
with his gun upon his shoulder he APP
preached the house of Rogers. The
latter was sitting upon his porch, and,
as he saw young Johnstone approach
ing, probably divining his intention,
arose hastily and started toward the
rack where his own gun was suspended.
But the avenger Of blood was upon his
path, and ere he could reach his weapon
he fell upon the floor a corpse, his heart
pierced by the bullet of his foe. Rog-
ers left behind him young wife and
three children-one OF whom was boy.
Among the rough backwoodsmen of
Carter County, Johnstone's crime was
looked upon with satisfaction, if not
favor-the Indian law of retaliation be-
ing looked upon by them as the very
cream ofjustice. Afterward Johnstone
married, and as the years passed by he
became surrounded by an interesting
and numerous progency.
The boy William Rogers, in the
meantime, had almost reached manhood's
estate, when one morning, without di-
vulging his intention to his mother or
sisters, he left the house with his fa-
theirs rifle upon his shoulders, as if he
were going out to hunt, and in less than
an hour a griefstricken mother and
children were weeping over the corpse
ola slain husband and father. Young
Rogers, in his turn had become an
avenger, and Thomas Johnstone fell
beneath his hand.
In time the memories of these three
murders died away, and those who were
children then grew up to be men and
women: William Rogers had taken to
himself wife, and become the head of
a growing family. One morning he
rode into Elizabethtown, and as he did
not return that night-a circumstance