The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-08-18
From the Memphis Ava1anche.
The End of Long and Bloody Feud.
PROBABLY THE LAST CHAPTER IN THE RE-
MARKABLE BoLToN-DICKENs QUARREL.

COL Thomas Dickens, well known to the
people of Shelby county, and whose name is
familiar to the readers of the Avalaache, was
waylaid on yesterday morning by some fend,
and his life destroyed, in daylight, on public
road The whole city was shocked and as
founded by the news. The manner in which
the terrible crime was done added to the hor-
ror that seized the public mind, and especially
because the victim was Colonel Thomas Dick
ems, whose feud with Wade 81. Bolton, and
whose acquittal for the killing of Wade H.
Bolton is still fresh in the memory of our read
erS.
Col Dickens had passed Friday night with
his neighbor, J. G. Bolton, who lives on Big
Creek, about six miles northeast Of Raleigh, in
this county. Yesterday morning he mounted
his horse and started for home a distance of
four miles, and while riding leisurely along, all
alone, about o. m., and not suspecting any
evil or harm, he was suddenly fired on by an
assassin concealed in the underground near the
public road. The fend discharged the con-
tents of double barreled shotgun into the
body of the old man, instantly killing him and
mangling his body dreadfully. The work was
deliberately done both barrels were fired
one after another, with an interval of few
seconds. At the first fire the old man was shot
off his horse, and after he fell to the ground
the second fire was heard. The gun was load
ed with buckshot, and the assassin was within
ten PAGES of Col. Dickens, the effect of the
balls was terrible, mangling and tearing the
body to pieces. The horse turned back and
was caught at Bottoms store by the young man
in charge of it. The shooting had been heard
plainly in the direction from which the horse
came and the blotches of blood on the saddle
and rump of the horse at once spoke of MUIR
der But the terrible catalogue OF crimes link
ed with the Bolton and Dickens families, in
stantly appeared to the minds of the people at
Bottoms store, and it was with difficulty that
any one or more could be found brave enough
to 90 to the scene of murder.
Who did the deed was the question asked
by every one, and answered by no one. The
deadly feud between Wade e. Bolton and
Thomas Dickens is involuntarily alluded to as
furnishing an explanation. But how is it pos
sible that this can be so when Wade Bolton is
dead? Who represents Wade Bolton?
In May 1857, Isaac l.. Bolton killed Ken
tuckian, named Mcmillan. This occurred at
ton street, near Howard Row. Memphis. The
offense of Mcmillan was the selling to Bolton
a negro boy brought from Kentucky, as slave
for life The boy was sold by Bolton to Thos.
B. Crenshaw, of this county, who learned that
the boy was by the terms of his Kentucky
master, to be made free if carried out Of the
State. The boy sued for his freedom and gain
ed it. Mcmillan was violently assailed by
Bolton for his conduct, and the quarrel ended
in Bolton's taking the life of Mcmillan.
The trial of /. L. Bolton was one of the eel
ebrated criminal cases of Tennessee. His inn
prisonment lasted one year, and his trial took
place in Covington, Upton county. He was
acquitted by jury, every one OF whom was
bribed.
The expenses incurred by this trial were
enormous. Lawyers fees, witness fees and
Jurors bribes absorbed at least one hundred
thousand dollars All of which was paid by
property said to belong to the firm of Bolton,
Dickens &. Co. This firm was composed Of
Isaac L. Bolton, Thomas Dickens, Wade ii.
Bolton and Washington Bolton.
The firm expired day or two after the kill
ing of NIcMillan and Thos. Dickens and
Washington Bolton refused to agree to share
any part of the loss or expenses of defending
Isaac, and demanded that the money of the
firm used for that purpose should be refunded
Wade sided with his brother, refused to settle,
and this began the deadly war.
The bitterness of the feud was silent during
the war, as Dickens was in Missouri and Wash
ington Bolton in Kentucky. In 1862 Wash
ington Bolton died at his residence near Shelby
Depot, in this county, and in 1864 Isaac Boil
ton died at his home on Big Creek. In 1865
Dickens returned from Missouri to Tennessee
and Immediately took steps to have the firm of
Bolton, Dickens & Co. settled. Wade H.
Bolton had charge of the books, and, as Dick
ems contended, of the property of the firm
But the expenses of the Mcmillan trial was
the great trouble, and no settlement could be
made, and the war began between Thomas
Dickens and Wade H. Bolton.
In January, 1869, attempts were made to
assassinate dickens at his residence, on his
farm, three miles northeast of Raleigh The
assassins failed. But in the spring of this
same year two murderers, Inman and Morgan
entered the kitchen of Dickens while he and
his friends were at supper, and begun the
work of slaughter. They wounded Dickens,
shooting him above the right eye, and in the
arm wounded ayoung man named Humphreys
in the arm, and killed negro named Wilson,
and negro girl named Nancy, who had been
a trusted family servant of Dickens for fifteen
years. Dickens naturally turned to his arch
enemy, Wade II. Bolton, as the author of this
bloody work.
Whether true or false he acted in its belief
Inman and Morgan we're outlaws of North
Alabama, whittier they returned after the as
sassination. They were pursued and gold
watch, taken from Dickens house on the night
of the attempt on his life, were found on the
person of Inman. Inman and Morgan were
hunted down Immediately by the citizens of
North Alabama, and destroyed like wild beasts.
They were concealed in one of the most mac
cessible caves of North Alabama, and in this
cave they were shot down.
Z. G. Patterson and Bob Thompson were
supposed to be connected in criminality with
these outlaws and murderers They were in
dictcd in this county, tried and acquitted.
The crisis came in June, 1869, when Col.
Dickens encountered Bolton in Court Square
and shot him. From his wounds Wade III.
Bolton died few weeks thereafter.
The feud, it was supposed, was now at an
end. The only surviving member of the firm
was Dickens, and there was no one strong
enough to continue the work of blood. All