Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1885-01-01

"Old fellow, if you amt careful, you'll
get widened OUT | never ordered him
10 widen the road. WemeC every day
or so after that; L spoke to him AS l q
ways had; ne would not answer or -
ply To me after that day. Atterwdrd |
was talking TO Mr. Barrett, a teacher In
LUydsvI.Ie, proudly month afLer~ ard.
Mr. g. came along aud | spoke 30 him,
and after | had passed, | turned and
,angned, and H. - heeied Ills horse and
asked me w1.j are y.u laughing al be
sad Il don't speak 10 sucu 'oin nert cuSs
IS as you. lac ptXt aiieicdtIun was III
reference % tne Old mare. James
Matthews told me about the old mare
business. The next time we met, Mr.
Hoover and l were walking up street
one evening; Mr. G. came along, and
said to him, How are you, COlonel2"
He turned around and said, How you,
king Tom?' l said, you are Cd
.d-u lying s. of b." After that /
was arrested and taken before Squire
Westley, for threats, made to John
Matthews. Afterward he drew re-
vOlver on me; had understood that he
was willing to make up, and l sent word
to him,iiI had done anything wrong am
willing to apologize. | met him on road
afterward. and spoke to him as pleasant
ly as | could, and he said, Il don't want
you to molest me-" He drew revolver
and said he would blow my brains out
if | ever mUleSted him on the road. In
passing and repaSsIng we would both
look each other IN the eyes and pass Oh.
The next disturbance was when l was
coming from John Welty's sale; l met
hin in front of Lopers gate;it was dark
and raining, and had an umbrella, and
| came on him without knowing it, and
said, Hello" be hirled and drew re-
Volver, and called me hard names, and
said he never wanted me to speak to
hin. The next trouble was in front of
postoffice. in Loydsville. He passed
along and eyed me, and whirled around
putting his hand behind him, saying,
'Old fellow, I'm ready for you any time"
At another time, in drug store, Mr. G.
came in ard drew his cane and said,
Don't you grit your teeth. at me-" l
may have said something outside when
was drinking; talked great deal of
idle talk. The same evening, afterward,
| went up to DR.. Estep's, and said | had
taken as much of that as | could, and
that l would kill him if he called me
those names again; never drew my re-
yolver on him. Fer over a year before
this homicide, there had been no angry
words between G. and myself. In a talk
with DR. Parks, he told me to refrain
from talking about Griffith, and l said
that l would do so. / think this was
conveyed to G. one night, and he said
that would all do very well until got
drunk. After that never saluted him
in any way. sent word by several par
| ties that there would be no future CONT
| munication or trouble, and that want
| ed him to quit cycling me. first owned
revolver five years ago; don't know how
many owned at different times, as l was
constantly trading; never owned a revolver
| until a month after this trouble. Up to the
| time he called nae the name IN Louisville,
| never made any threats against g. The night
| of the 1st of Sept. Mr. billiter came and want
ed me to go to Bruce station after a load of
brick:.I went and returned home. My father
has some wood land along the route where
stopped and loaded up with wood; this was
about II o'clock at Dight; ] hauled this up
| the road past Grifith's; passing there one of
my horses slipped and fell in rut in the
middle of the road. Next morning about 81
o'clock took my plow and plowed off lit
tie furrow; didn't plOw q furrow any place
where there was no IUt On other side of road;
got down to field to work abont 10 o'clock,
and before l went around broke the double
tree. Went out to work after dinner, and
worked until a O'Clock, blowing. On that
afternoon ran to corner of gate to get away
from some yellow jackets. g.. was working
in a field near by. When l first noticed him
he was as far as pavement from me. He said
10 me, What did you plow that furrow of by
the gate for? L will settle you for that, old
fellow is that so?' Yes, he said. that is
so; l am prepared for you Afterward / no.
ticed him standing looking at me. l went
home and put horses in stable and fed them;
ate supper and went back to work. In the
daytime l did not have the revolver; when
went home to supper l got 1t and put it in
my pants pocket. l expected to pillow until
finished, probably until midnight. Didn't
know that G.. was going to Louisville that
night. When [ started back to the field /
was sitting sideways on my mare, the right
leg thrown across, the left leg hanging down.
One of my horses was travelling ahead; when
l first saw q. he came out of the gate and
got on his horse; he went TO where the fuTrow
was and came back. We met nearly in front
of the gate, as ! recollect. When we met he
was on horseback; had not changed my po>
sition; kept toward Hawthornes fence. AS
he got opposite me he said, You ornery
brute, | will beat your brains out He pulled
in toward me; had me against fence; he drew
cane over my head, and made the remark -;
| lodged the blow and fell backward on the
horse; the horse went on. When got of my
revolver had fallen on the ground, and
gathered it up as soon l could. He put his
cane in his left hand, and threw his hand to
his pocket, when l shot, l said, Now you
get out of this, or I'll hurt you; l ran round
in front; he wheeled his horse, when shot,
the first time his horse was directly south. l
saw he was still reaching for his revolver, l
shot the second time. watched him closely;
after he fell from his horse l went to my
fathers, and halleeed at my father; got in
side gate before father came ! went down
to where G. was, with my father. went
back to house and dressed, making an entire
change of clothing; had half dollar in my
pocket; then went away. l had no expects~
ton of meeting Charles Griffith when | START
ed to work that evening, and no purpose OF
killing him.
The examination in chief of the prisoner was
concluded at II :O5 a.. m.
At the conclusion of the examination in chief
of the defendant, Mr.. Shannon, of counsel for
the State, subjected him to a rigid cross ex-
animation. but elected little new matter. The
witness >demeaned himself remarkably well,
and rather strengthened the defense. He was
on the stand for over four hours. During the
cross examination, when the witness was por-
traying the murderous scene, Mrs. Griffith, the
widow of the dead man was overcome and
burst into tears, and was assisted from the
court room.
The remainder of the day was occupied by
the testimony of David Mitchell and wife, the
father and mother of defendant, and jeremiah
Bryant. An abstract of their testimony will
appear in our next issue.