The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-11-06

He was badly wounded in the arm and
shoulder. and the women dragged him in and
sent for Jesse.
Jesse was out in the forests and at once
fastened home. Just as he was G tering the
door one of three shots from the brush Gov
cred hillside opposite struck him In the
shoulder, and, passing through his left lung,
came out on the other side of his body. lie
tell across the doorsill, but the ready hands
OF the women dragged him in before another
shot could finish him. Then began a drama
unparalleled even in the history of these
mountain outrages. The Holbrook fiction
rose from their ambush and rushed yelling
to the door. Inside there were huddled a
dozen women and children, and on two corn
husk pallets the father and son were lying
m%ortally wounded. There was little to eat
or drink in the house. Around it the Hol-
brooks established a Gordon of s%entries, and
tor seventeen days the door was never open
ed, except that a shot warned the women to
close it speedily. On Sunday, four days after
Jesse was shot, the walls of the women in
side gave notice thit the man was dead; but
as they had before refused to allow any
doctor to go to the relief Of the wounded
man, so now to the besiegins party gave
notice that any man or woman, either In the
house or outside, who attempted to bury the
uSaA ILII nOlll uSCu ~ diIdiiSC " III vi
own funeral.
In this stress old George Underwood did
manage to get a message to the county Judge
at GraysOn, nineteen miles distant, asking
him for protection. That official ordered the
sheriff to take a posse, bury the dead, and
bring to GraysOn the women, children and
the one wounded survivor: but SO great was
the terrorism that the sheriff could induce
not a single man In the county to accompany
him. Then the Governor was te~legraphed
to for a company of militia, but without sue
cess.
On Sunday, October II, the four women,
a daughter, two %nieces, and the sister-in-
law of the old man, were keeping watch be
side his pallet. At a knock at the door the
wOomen peered out through a loophole and
saw a group of some twenty men with black
ened faces in the yard. They demanded adj
mittance, avering that Caleb White and John
Martin had been seen to enter the house.
They promised safety to the aid man and the
women if they were allowed to enter. The
old man consented, and they searched the
house without finding the men, but they
seized old Georges arsenal. 1t consisted Of
a sword. They laughed as they uncovered
Jesses corpse, and then asked the old man
to show his wounds.
Old George stopped over to take off the
.bandage. Lets bring this meeting to a
close" said the loader, as he raised his gun
and emptied a load of buckshot into the old
mans body. Another at the same moment
him through the head, and he fell for |
ward on his face dead. Through the wound
in his body a man's fist might be thrust.
Then the band went away.
The father of the Underwoods had, in
time past, befriended Frank McFarran,
- NJ iii
der Agnes McFarren went about among the
%neighbors begging for assistance to bury the
dead at Fort Underwood, but no one would
Then the girl and her father
started for the house alone. They expected
nothing short Of death, but happily found
that the besieging party, having finished
their work, had disappeared. The scene in
side the cabin cannot be described, but with
the help of the Underwood women the two
bodies were given decent burial, the cries of
the mourners echoing through the stiffness
OF the forest.