The Iola register., 1886-04-23
A MOUNTAIN TRAGEDY.
Crippled Bills Little Kate Dying
for a False Lover.

A party of United States Internal
Revenue officers, under command OF
Special Bailiif Tom Prather, lately
raided through Rowan and the adioin-
ing county of Morgan, Kentucky. AT
an abandoned still house on one of the
numerous headings of Yocum creek.
Morgan County, they found the dead
and partly decomposed body of Dick
Alfrcv. tie last of that famous family
OF moonshiners, who have for years
deiied the United States authorities.
The still house was a rude shanty of
unhewn logs. and, lying in one corner,
with his head among the dead embers
OF the stil! fire, was Alfrey's body. He
had evidently committed suicide, for
the muZzle OF his long squirrel rifle was
clenched between his fieshless laws.
The upper part of his skull was missing
and pieces Of the shattered bone were
found imbebbed in the dry bark of the
logs composing the shanty. His taking
off was the last act of most pathetic
tragedy. Two years ago Alfrey ran an
illicit still in the very house in which
he committed self-murder. His part
ner was old Bill Elliott. wellknown in
both Rowan and Morgan Counties as
Crippled Bill, he having been badly
wounded in one ofJohn Morgan's raids,
from the effects of which he never re-
covered. Bill Elliott made his appear
ance on Yocum creek Immediately after
the surrender at Appomattox and
bought small tract of rough land on
Squirrel Ridge. By dint of much labor
he cleared away the heavy timber and
thick underbruSh and erected a small
cabin, COW shelter and the other rude
,shanties that go to make up the build
ings of Ridge farmer. He might
have been a very sociable and COM
paniOnable man in his early manhood,
but his misfortunes seemed to have
soured his disposition and he made few
acquaintances and fewer friends.
His nearest neighbor was Squire Dink
Hanna, and one night, much to the
,Squire's indignation and every one
else's surprise, Crippled Bill and his
heishbor's youngest daughter, CapitOla,
mounted their horses and rode across
the country to the Ohio river, crossing
which stream they were made man and
wife by Squire Massie Beasley, at Aber-
deem, the Gretna Green of America.
They returned to Squirrel Ridge two
days afterward and began life quietly
and modestly in Crippled Bill's humble
cabin. Bill evidently loved his young
and pretty wife, and She was devotedly
attached to her homely husband.
Squire Dink Hanna never forgave his
daughter for her marriage and the two
families were estranged. About year
after the elopement daughter was
born TO the strangely matched couple,
and three days after the little one
opened its ewes the mother closed hers
in death. Crippled Bill mourned for
and when an unlettered mountain
preacher pronounced over her grave
the East rites that Christians give to
thei- dead, he threw himself upon the
mound and groaned in agony of spirit.
The rough but kindly neighbors led him
home. When he entered his cabin with
q sad and melancholy face his haggard
eyes fell upon the motherless babe Sleep
ing quietly in the homemade cradle
that the neighbor woman, who had
nursed Bills wife in her last sickness.
had drawn up before the blazing fire of
pine knots. The helplessness and in
nocence of the babe no doubt kindled
in his bosom new hope for the future,
for his face grew brighter and he turned
to the neighbors who had followed him
l.,
'.Naburs, the burryin's over. Tn
gwine ter make fresh start ter-mor-
row for her saker' and he pointed to
the sleeping child and, bending down,
kissed the little pink checks.
To eyerybody's surprise the child
lived. He called her Kate and as she
grew older the adjective '.little'' was
added to her name because of her fairy
like grace and delicacy of limb and fea-
ture, and when she was seven years old
everybody on Yocum knew Crippled
Bills Little Kate.
She loved her rough old father and he
lived only for her. About this time, or.
to be more precise, in 1874, Crippled
Bill fell in with the Alfrey boys and
they induced him to join them in run
&1lux mOOuSuluc BILL. 4uc pIOute VI
the3business were something enormous
u you didn't get caught-and Crippled
Bill became their partner. For up
wards of ten years they conducted
their illicit business and defied capture
YOcum creek is one of the most pecu-
liar streams in Mountain Kentucky. 1t
heads in Morgan County and empties
into the Licking, nearly opposite More
head. For distance of five miles il
runs through the Narrows of Yocum, a
deep and gloomy canyon. through
which trends rough wagon road. THIS
road crosses the little stream hundred
and fifty-seyen times and the gorge is
one of the most weirdly picturesque
spots in America. Cliffs, whose tops
tower hundreds of feet above the bed OF
the stream, wall it on either side. Their
faces are covered with thick growth Of
laurel bushes and tall frs and pines
overhang their SUBMITS. Professor
Henry of the Smithsonian Institution,
visited the narrOws once and made 8
careful examination of the cliffs on both
sides. He found behind the screen oi
laurel bushes roomy caves, and in the
depths of these caverns the bones of the
great cave bear the traces of that curl.
Ous prehistoric race, the cave dwellers.