Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-12-06
nrx IN urs, swoRN srATEMENr

wears. At the last election was APP
pointed United States deputy mar
shall at the third ward poll. AS con-
Stable of the ward to which position
/ was elected in 1871, | had charge
If the ballot box. lived at Monroe
twelve miles from the polls. ! star
ted from home with The ballot box
at one o'clock in the morning for the
polls on horseback.
"When / got about two miles from
town I was halted at the end OF the
lane by two men. 1t was bright
moonlight night. These men asked
me where / was going. | told them
/ was going to Logtown with the
box. They said they had better see
Mr.. Head. They called him, ard
he answered. Two other young
men came up. lie asked me where
! was going. / made the same re-
ply that / had to the others. lie
said: you can't 60 yet awhile.
He asked what j had in the box.
| said | mad papers. He said: You
will have to go down to the head
quarters and have the box examin-
ed.' Head ordered the two young
men who were armed TO get on their
horses. They mounted and said to
me: Now let's go right off, After
we had gone a piece, some one hailed
me, and said, hold on A man
named Rills then came up and said:
Ben, IL amt worth while for you to
take pistol down there He ran his
hand round my body and took my
pistol, and said: i will hand it
back to you when you get back
said: sYes / would like to have it,
for am constable at the polls to-
day. He said: go ahead, that will
be all right We rode on about fif-
ty yards and were halted again, a
voice called out, halt! who comes
there? One OF the guards with me
replied, Scott One Of them went
ahead, and whispered to the man
who had halted us, who said, all
right; pass Through There were
two Of them and they were armed.
We rode on'.a short distance and
were again halted in similar man
ner and q similar response was made,
and short distance further on we
were a third time halted, and, after
the countersign Scott had been CIV
en- again, we were told to pass on.
In front of Joe Mitchell's house we
came upon
A LARGE BODY OF MEN.
We got Off in front of fire. Some
of the men were standing up some
were lying down, and all were with
arms. There were about seventy
nine or eighty in sight, around the
camp. They whispered around a
while, and one Of them rode off to-
wards Joe AIitchells house and left
Buck Nimms: standing with me.
Very soon Joe Mitchell and Bob En-
dom came up within about twenty
five feet Of me, and they talked to-
gethcr little while, and heard Joe
Mitchell say, All right! and Bob
Endoni rode off. Joe Mitchell said:
Boys, get en- your horses He
came up to me and said: 81 wish j
had a double-barreled gun, and then
marched on down The road. / said
shall ride or walk?' He replied,
You may ride or let your pony be
there | turned away from the fire
and got about ten steps. then
broke and ran, for / knew they were
going 10 kill me by this conversa-
ton. I started for the wood. They
then commenced shooting, and joe
Mitchell was right after me on q
horse, shooting pistol at me. j got
about thirty or forty feet from Col.
Pargoudi's fence, aud Joe fired his
gun at me and hit me In the right
arm. / don't know whether | was
shot before or not, there was so much
shooting. Joe Mitchell, who was
between the rest Of the company and
myself, was calling out to the men,
Don't shoot me! BE careful, l say'
| kept right on, and got over the
fence, but when / got to the ditch l
fell in it. ] crawled up on the other
side aud was so weak / could go no
father, and Joe was at the fence.
lie snid, Hold on, boys!
I'LL FIX HIM, DAMN HIM!
He climbed over and ran round me,
and placed his pistol between my
head and the ground and fired. i
became insensible then and did not
recover for some time, / don't know
how long. The ball had bounced
from my temple, but had made n
deep wound. Altogether, i have
five wounds, two in the arm, one in
the back of the head, one in the
temple, and one In the hip. When
| came to could see no one around,
and started away, but when 1 had
gone short distance tainted from
loss of blood and pain. The blood
from the wound in my temple ran
into my month and nearly strang,ed
me. laid there until daylight, in
a ditch.
At eight or nine o'clock i'm the
morning ! went back Of Col. Frank
I'argoltli s stable and called for Law.
renee Dunnore, II colored man. A
parcel Of women came out who
knew Inc. Frank Pargoudi came
out and asked me If knew who had
done it, told him | did. lie said