The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-02-02
QUARRELED 10 THE LAST.

QUARRELED TO THE LAST.
A Brothers Feud That Was Continued
for Yeas with Never a Truce.
"You will take the road to the right,
over the hill, at brothers Feud," said
the iveryman. The bridge on the
lower road was washed away in the
storm"
Brothers Feud3" said I. Where
is tha50"
Aren't you acquainted in this coun-
try4 No! Well, you can't be. Every
one within a hundred miles, 1 suppose,
knows about Brothers Feud. The
ways of it was, when old man Ellaeot
died he gave his farm undivided to his
two sons. They had no other relatives
living. But they couldn't get along
together, and one of them brought
suit for partition. The place is very
billy and isn't worth much in the first
place and the lawyer fees didn't make
it any more valuable. But they finally
got the matter through court and the
surveyors came.out to survey the place.
They asked him who was to pay him,
and he said they would each pay half
the expense Of partition. TheyIagreed,
and he went ahead.
lone of them paid and the other
didn't. That was nObody's loss but
the surveyors, but it made the paying
brother SO mad to think his brother
had done less than himself that he
took up the dividing line stakes and
set them over NO rods in his brothers
land. That made his brother mad
them two rods beyond the line. So
they began quarreling over that four
rods OF hill land that wasn't worth ten
dollars an acre, But the timber was
fine, and when the buyers came along
and offered twenty dOllors a thousand
for stave timber Jim and Joe began
quarreling in earnest.
Each one hired gang of choppers,
and the choppers took up the fight, for
it did seem the likeliest timber grew
in the disputed strip. Why, those chop
per5 had regular battles there, and the
sheriff had to go out with a posse.
Three men were killed-just chopped
to death with axes. We have had
more criminal cases from that four
rods of sand and gravel than from all
the rest of the county. We finally
had to get out a company of militia,
when the buyers run up the price to
twenty-five dollars a thousand. 1t was
worth sOmeI hing then. But each fell
low spent all he made from his trees
defending his suits, and when the
timber was finally gone and the price
fell there stood about the only good
walnut in the county. That is worth
a good deal of money now. All the
rest of the walnut was sold years ago,
and it i5 worth near it's weight In
silver.
"Well, if you go by there today
you will most likely sec two gray
haired old men sitting one on each
side of that strip of timber, each one
with a rifle beside him, and waiting to
kill the other if he steps on the strip.
They both swear they will stay right
there il lthey die. Issuprosa they will,
but if either of them gets reckless and
ventures on the strip his brother will
shoot him sure. You see the ground
Is worth a good deal now. The men
were so busy fighting in the timber time
that they didn't have time to cut.
Goodby. Take the right-hand road
when you come to the hill. The bridge
is gone on the other one"
l found the Brothers Feud without
any trouble, and looked with great
interest for the two insane brothers.
They had been so devoted to their
quarrel that they had never married,
and they lived all alone, each in a
little caOin their father had given
them. AS I drove along I saw a group
Of neighoOrs about one Of the houses.
At the door of the other sat a trembling,
palsied old man, with a rife across his
unsteady Knees. 1 went up to the
crowd and found that Jim was dead.
"Been dead two or three days when
We found him, " said the neighbor.
"What more does his brother wanti'
I asked. He still seems to be on
guard"
well, he is so deaf he can't hear
when we hOller over and tell him, and
he Is so blind he couldn't see when his
brother fell down by the log and died.
Besides, he has lost his reason. He
will know that the brothers
feud is ended. "-ChicGgO Herald.