The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-05-14
A MARRIAGE BELL.
An Old Tennessee MOuntaineer
and MOOnshiner
WEEDS Girl of Seventeen Summers-Objec.
lions and a Mob are Raised-The Bride
is Whipped and Several Killed

lSpecialto TIE HERALD-Examiner DISPATCH
CHATTANOOGA, May 13.-Wolf's Creek is
little hamlet nesting in the midst of the
mountains On the border of North Carolina
and Tennessee. Its population is made up
of noun taineers of more than average in
telligence who are all more or less inter
ested in Illicit whisky. Old Man Bell has
for many years been the patriarch of this
community, the leader of many midnight
foray which left the dead body of United
States marshal as a warning to others who
the moonshiners' occupation. Bells wife
died March is. He seemed crazed with
grief then, but though he has passed three
score years and ten three weeks later he
led to the altar Mary Williams, a handsome
mountain lass of seventeen summers. His
family protested; his daughters ragged: mis-
sons fumed, but ''Old Man" Bell asserted
his right to do as he pleased. Last Tues
day few women induced Mary to go with
them into the woods in search Of straw
berries. When half mile from her house
Mary found herself surrounded by sixty
masked women and few men. A commit
tee disrobed her and tied her to tree.
Then the step daughters, the old mans
three girls, administered alternately one
hundred lashes Before the last
was given Mary had tainted
away and blood was flowing freely
from her msngled flesh. When she was car
ried home "Old Mans Bell was furious.
Among the men present at the whipping
was John Ballew, who gave Bell the names
of some of the women, and the old man
swore out warrant for their arrest, but
before the trial at the Justices Office, his
young wife died The mountaineers ap-
proved of the whipping and determined to
make an example of Ballew. Forty of
them went to Ballew's house. He heard
the drunken mob before it reached his
cabin and was prepared to meet 1t with his
Winchester. Johu Bell fell dead from Bal
LEWIS first shot. Bill Bell, Hiram Martin
and John johnson were mortally wounded
and several others were wounded before
the crowd retreated. Craig Miles, of the
Ducktown Reporter, wrote an account Of
the affair. Twenty or thirty OF the Bell
party, armed with Winchesters, rode into
Ducktown with the avowed purpose of kill
ing Miles, who was compelled to flee the
town. The Bell faction and their sympa-
thizers, to the number of several hundred,
have sworn to avenge the death of John
Bell, and have left their stills and fields
Armed with rifles and literally supplied
the region about VOLTS creek Ballew,
old Bell and their sympathizers are back in
the mountains, also armed, and a conflict
between the two factions is inevitable.
The coroner of Polk county is unable to
hold an inquest as no one is willing to
serve on the jury. The sheriff is organic
ing posse and expects to start for Wolf
Creek. Polk county is in the extreme
southeastern part of Tennessee, remote
from railroad and telegraph facilities. The
women who were said by Ballew to have
taken part in the whipping were ordered
committed to jail, but the constable was
warned not to attempt to take any of them
in charge under penalty Of death Bell
declares the murderers of his wife shall
pay the penalty of their crime, even
though his daughters go to the scaffold ::
and he vows that, if necessary, he will take
the law into his own hands. He expressed
no regrets at the killing of his son John
by Ballew, saying that it was the provi-
dence of God he should die for his miser
able conduct.
Bell for fifty years has been an active
member of the hard shell Baptist church.
He is man of wealth and influence and a
local preacher. His infatuation for Mary
Williams is said to have fastened his first
wife's death. 1t is now reported by people
opposing him that she did not die natural
death, but he and Mary Williams conspired
to poison her.