The Portland daily press., 1892-06-08

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"F3te, evsfy hour in the dag I'll prag
God TO damn the Co4efeddcy."
at the beginning of the war the
Widow Hurd and her family lived up in
the mountains about twenty miles south
east of Jacksboro and on little branch
of Clinch river, which tears through the
Cumberland range an hours march
away. The Widow Hurd was woman
of marked character. When child she
had lived for some years at Tazewell,
where she learned to read and write, ac-
complish1nents which in themselves
were sufficient to distinguish her among
her unlettered neighbors. Twenty years
before the war, her husband had been
killed in an election quarrel at Jacks
boro, leaving her three children-two
boys and girl, the latter being the
youngest and at this time in her twenty
first year. Mrs. Hurd, thrown on he1
own resources, cultivated her billy farm
with more success than her husband
had ever done. Her prosperity was in
marked contrast with that of her shift
less neighbors, all of whom declared
that s'the Widow Hurd was jist a-spilin
her young uns" when she sent them for
several years to school in the beautiful
mountain town where she had herself
: received her limited education.
Minny Hurd was the belle of the
mountains, and the admiration she ex-
cited in the breasts of the young men of
that region led to more than one en-.
counter. Jack Hurd and his brother,
Pike, were as near of an age as brothers
well could be who were not twins, and
the resemblance was quite as striking
as if they had been. They were tall,
athletic young fellows, with the keen
gray eyes and thick dark hair SO char
acteristic of the pure blooded mountain
men. 1t was through their mothers in
fuence and the memory of their fathers
sad ending that they avoided drink.
These brothers had slept together
since childhood, played together and
worked together, and so it came about
that they not only looked alike, but they
thought alike, and the neighbors often
jolringly said that s'the Hurd boys were
too doggone fond of each other ever to
git married" But when the first rum
blings Of the war went echoing through
the mountains a change came between
the brothers. Wiser men than the
young Hurds would be puzzled to give
a good reason for their sympathies and
prejudices, but the widow noticed that
pglyA ho,- 1cxy
Williams store a great deal, where a
Knoxville paper that favored secession
was taken and read by the proprietor to
the crowds of mountain men who now
made that place rendezvous.
Mrs. Hurd also noticed that there was
a cloud between the boys. They began
to work apart, and their relations be-
came more and more strained, though
never from first to last did harsh word
pass, nor was an angry look given.
Mrs. Hurd, from whose lips learned
most of this story, was strong Union
woman, but she avoided as much as
possible the discussion of the all absorb
ing question then agitating the land and
dividing her boys.
"Pike grows more and more in temper
like his pore father that's dead and
gone," said Mrs. Hurd one day to her
daughter, "and Pm powerfully skeert,
Minny, that he'll start off fust thing we
know and become sojer."
"He told me-" said Minny, SHAT he
thought he felt 'bleeged to go. Last
night he cleaned up his rife and fixed
his saddle, and noticed that he sot the
traps away when Jack, he showed up.
Hits mighty hard to think that them
two boys that's allus been so lovin is now
SO sot agin each other. The wah amt
a comm harno how, and can't see that
we uns is called on to bother"
Minny Hurd had good reason for this
belief. AS yet the war was far off. A
great battle had been foughtin Virginia,
and stories of slzirmishes in the noun
tains away to the north were told to the
anxious groups that now daily assembled
at Williams store and often remained
till far into the night discussing the stu
alton. But there was no elevation or
valley of the Cumberland range that
was to escape the contest, no family
among the scattered settlements that
was not to be drawn into the struggle.
Jack Hurd was quiet, undemonstra-
tive man, but like all such natures he
had strong feelings, and once he had
made up his mind it was impossible to
change him. TWAS known to his fam
lily and friends that "Jack Hurd was
powahfully sot agin the Confederacy, +"
and equally well known that ''Pike was
sot agin the Union" but this difference
between brothers was so common as to
excite no comment.
One moonlight night late in October,
Jack Hurd was coming home from the
store, where he had been to listen, when
on the narrow trail leading down to his
mothers farm he came face to face
with Pike, who had his rife on his
shoulder and was leading his saddled
horse.