Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-12-06
around awhile, and one of
off towards Joe Mitchcll's
left Buck Mimms standin
Very soon Joe Mitchell an

| soou UC I'LL
dom came up within abou twenty.
five feet of me, and they tt. ed to.
: gcthcr little while, and heard Joe
Mitchell say, 'Ali right = and Bob En-.
dom rode Off. Joe Mitchell said
Boys, get on your horses He came
up to me and said: Il wish / had a
doublc-barrelcd gum and thev
marched on down the road. 1 said.
shall l ride or walk p He replied,
You may ride, or let your pony be
there turned away from the fire
and got about ten steps. i then
broke and ran, for knew they were
going to kill me by this conversation.
| started for the woods. They then
commenced shooting, and Joe Mitch
|ell was right after me on horse,
shooting pistol at me. got about
3O or 40 feet from Col. Pargoudi's
fence, and Joe fired his gun at me
ana hit me in the right arm. don't
know whether l was shot before or
not, ,--thcrc wa so much shooting.
Joe Mitchell. who was between the
company and myself, was calling out
TO the men, Don't shoot me ! BE care
fnl, ! say! kept right on, and got
ovcrthc fence, hut when l &c to the
ditch fell in it. l crawlca up on
the further side and was so weak
could 60 no farther, and Joe rs at
the fence. He said, Hold on. boys |!
I'll fix him, damn him!'
| lleclimbed over and ran round me
and pl4ccd his pistol between my
head and the ground and fired. be-
came inscnsible then and did not re-
cover for some time, l don't know
how long. The ball had glanced
from my temple, but had not made a
deep wound. Altogether, Ihaye five
wounds,-two in the arms, one in the
back Of the head, one in the temple.
and ono in the hip. When l came to
l could see no one around, and start
ed away, but when had gone short
distance tainted from the loss of
blood and pain. The blood from the
wound in my temple ran into nv
mouth and nearly straugicd me. /
lay there until daylight In q ditch.
At 8 ORG o'cl0ch in the morning /
went back to Col. Frank Pargoudi's
stable and called for Lawrence Dun
more colorcd man. A parcel of
women and children came out who
knew me. Frank Pargoudi came out
and asked me if | knew who had
done it. told him did. He said
he did not wish to know, but | had
better make affidavit TO it.
Col. Pargoudi is n very liberal.
kind, man and wouldn't allow any
bnlldozing on his place. lie ordered
Lawrence Dunmore to hitch up q cart
and take me home, which he did. /
have not seen my tilly or my pistol
since. The election at the Logwood
poll was not held, owing to the fact
thai was shot. Their object in at
tempting to kill me could have been
nothing else than desire to prevent
the election, rs ! had never done any
harm to any one of them. l was
known as q republican by whites and
blacks all over the parish, and had
taken some part in organizing the
party. had been an election officer
at that poll ut every election since
1868, and had generally distributed
republican tickets. The poll usually
gave about It's republican majority.
The men who attempted to kill me,
so far as knew, were all democrats.
There arc two roads from where |
live to the Logtown polls, and they
were both pickcted on the morning
of the election, There are several ri
ilc companies in the parish besides
the one which tried to kill me. These
companicsuscd to ride about day and
night, armed and visit the cabins of
coiorcd people and urge them to join
democratic clubs. They said there
were men going around melting the
colOred people not to do it, and they
had them spotted. That struck prct-
ty near me. Colored people told me
that they had to join democratic clubs
to save their lives. The election in
Ouachita parish was certainly not a
fair, and pcaceablc election.