The Asheville citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1885-1889, 1885-05-22
A sEXTUPLE DUEL.
DESTERA1E FIGHT At a FLORE
DA SUNDAY SCHOOL
AU of the Participants Killed or Mortally
Wounded Reuolrers Emptied and Bowie
knives Substituted.

Keiges Substituted
JACKSONVILLE, Fla, May 1S.-A family
feud in Madison county eliminated yes
terday in tragically fatal encounter be-
tween three brothers named West on
one side and three brothers named Lang
ford on the other. The scene of the con-
1ict was Hickory Grove Church, several
miles from the county seat. Sunday
school was in progress within the church
edifce when the fight was inaugurated.
Several of the combatants were teaching
Sunday school classes at the time.
The three L&ngford brothers were sit
ting in front of the building, beneath
tree. John and Eugene. West came
driving up in a buggy As they ap-
preached William LangfoTd got up and
walked toward them, as if to speak. A
moment later pistol shot was heard.
Which of the men shot is not known. At
the report another brother of the two
men in the buggy ran and joined them.
The other two Langford's rallied around
their kinsman, and in jify half a dozen
revolvers were belching forth their con-
tents.
The hundred or more people atte nd
ing the Sunday School rushed out to
learn the cause of the firing. AS they
emerged they saw Eugene West fall
from the buggy to the ground
IN A POOL OF BLOOD.
A bullet had entered his back near the
right shoulder and penetrated to the
right breast, where it lodged just be-
meath the skin, and was subsequently
extracted by a. doctor. Langford's left
shoulder was heWn open to the bone by
knife thrust, and he died on the green
sward of the church, while the conflict
was still in progress. Six gashes in his
clothing told of the lightning-like rapid
ity with which his assailant had piled
the knife after he had fallen to the
ground, where he succeeded in firing his
revolver until all the chambers were
emptied.
All the men were at close range and
the rapidity of the firing filed the air
with smoke so that those who rushed
from the church were unable to distin-
guish who was doing it or what particu-
lar part each of the participants was tax
children present became panic stricken
and fed in every direction. Four or
five men essayed to quell the trouble,
but personal safety made desistance i'm
perative. The maddened brothers fired
thirty or forty shots at close quarters,
and
WHEN THEIR WEAPONS WERE EMPTIED
drew knives and engaged in hand-tc-
blood and begrimed with powder, but
none of them finched and all stood side
by side and fought man against man with
tiger-like ferocity.
VIM. Langford fell to the ground from
the loss of blood, but continued siashing
away at his foes with his knife until seven
bullets had perforated his body and death
put him hor8 de combat.
Babe Langford fell by his side, with a
bullet hole through his bowels and kid
neys and another through the wrist of
his right arm. He was unconscious and
rapidly dying, but his sole surviving
brother stood up with his face to the foe
and fought till bullet lodged in his
brain, and he, too, fell to the ground un-
conscious and dying.
One of the West boys was, as has al
ready been stated, killed outright.
John West was mass of knife wounds
across the hips and stomach, his disem-
boweling having apparently been the
aim of his antagonist.
Abraham Vests back was literally
laid open by knife thrusts from his
shoulders to his hips. Each of these
last two, however, may survive their in
juries. The fatal fight was
THE RESULT OF A FEUD
which had been smouldering between
the two families for several years.
The fathers of the participants in yes
terday's fight owned adjoining planta
tions They quarreled over real estate
transaction, and ill-feeling was engend-
cred between the families Both men
died, but the vendetta lived and was in
tensifed last fall, during the political
campaign, by letters of very personal
character published in the Madison NeU
Era and the Madison Recorder, by John
w. West and VIM. M. Langford.
The friends of both sides thought that
the trouble had been amicably settled,
as the Vests and Langfords held a
friendly meeting in Thomasville, Ga,
after the election was over for the pur-
pose of arranging an honorable COM
promise.
The coroner was notified this morning
and left to hold an inquest. Both of the
families involved are among the oldest
and most prominent in the county, and
each has a very large circle of connec.
t1ons. Fears of further trouble are felt
in many quarters.