Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-06-26
FRATRIGIDE IN MISSOURI.
A Shocking Fight Between Brothers
A Brave Young Girl.

a brave AouhS OlFi.
4 Kansas City Times reporter
visited Liberty, Mo-, few days
since, and while there interviewed
J Elisha r.. Cravens, the man who
I shot his two brothers, Thomas and
| Hood, the former fatally and the
latter seriously. He gives these
details
The old man Cravens had four
sons and one daughter. The boys
were Thomas Elisha. Hood and
James They were all married and
lived near each other, three Of them
on the home farm. Thomas had
eight children; Hood and Elisha
one each. They were all members
81 the Christian church except
! James. the youngest. The three
elder brothers We're moral, iem-
perate, peaceful. law-abiding citi-
zens.
They have not been ia the habit
Of quarreling with their neighbors,
out feud had arisen among them
| in regard to the division OF the
property, and some other business
matte 5. Hood and Elisha were
the mo. successful business men,
and had accumulated some proper
ty, while the Others had barely
kept even with the world. LII the
course of time it came about that
the brothers, Thomas, Hood and
James, all became hostile to Elisha,
and combined against him. And
this grew out of the fact, perhaps,
and he had been more successful
A few months since the court or
dered partition OF the property,
and Elisha bought 100 acres Of the.
farm and Hood 100 Elisha having
purchased the portion lying back
from the road, found IL necessary
TO buy an outlet in order to avoid
trouble. He therefore bought fif-
teen feet on the west side Of the
farm, with all the appurtenan-
ces,n for lane TO the main road.
On this fifteen feet WAS fence, and
| this was the immediate cause of
the difficulty. II ,od Cravens, as
sisted by his brothers Thomasand
James, were in the act of removing
the fence from the fifteen feet be-
longing to Elisha and putting the
rails on the west line fence of
| Hoods farm.
/ While they were In the act of
doing this Elisha came along on
horseback on his way to Liberty.
He went up where his brothers
were and demonstrated with Hood
stating that be would make him
pay for the rails. After quarreIing
for some time Elisha started offand
met James, the yougest brother, d
large powerful man. They had
some words and James called him
a thief. .r words to that effect, and
fight ensued between these two,
in which Elishago badly worsted
while Jim" was pummelling
''Lish," "Tom" came over and
told Jim" that he thought 'Lish'
had enough and took him off,
"Lish" went back home on foot,
his horse having escaped, washed
his bruised and battered counte-
nance, told his wife and daughter
what had happened, and requested
his daughter to get him his pistol,
as he was going to town. The
daughter Alice, young lady
about 10 years of age, handed him
his revolver. The hired man sug-
gested that as IL had been loaded
about four months X would prob
ably not Ego off, To which he
replied that it would scare jus, as
well.
His wife and daughter, knowing
| that he was excited, and thinking
there might be trouble, concluded
10 accompany him until he should
get beyond the point where his
brothers, Thomas, Hood, and jim,
were at work. Alice ran ahead
and expostulated with her uucles
for abusing her father, and implor-
ed them not to modest him again.
"Lish" soon came up, and after
few words the bloody fight began.
Thomas had part Of fence rail,
Hood grubbing hoe, Lish a re-
volver, and Alice was unarmed.
Elisha crossed the ravine, and
came near where Alice was talk
ing with Thomas and Hood /; Jim
had gone to Hoods to get a shot
gun and revolver and had not re-
turned. Elisha said to Ho0d that
he didn't want them to abuse him
any more. Whereupon Thomas
started towards him a half fence
rail down. Just before reaching
him Elisha fred. the ball passing
through his Thomas heart, and
al the same time Hood made
rush At him with grubbIng hoe.
But Alice was between him and
her father, and threw herself In his
way, not in time, however, to pre-