Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-11-02
FEUD AND VENDETTA.
FAMILY WARS THAT HAVE CON-
TlNUED FOR GENERATIONS.

Conflicts in Kentucky Which Involved
Whole Counties-They Are Rapidly by
ing Out Before Civilizations Advance.
Records of Some Families.
Relics of antiquity are always highly
priced, and it is doubtless for that rea-
son that we cherish an interest in the
few family feuds that linger on in civil
HZation's track as reminders of the bar
barism of our distant forefathers. They
are unique now and worthy of the
newspaper readers especial attention,
because of their rarity, though there
was atime when they were so common
that except where the station of the par
Elephants was high, as in the case Of the
Marmion-Douglas row, or where there
was some frill of romance attached, as
in the Montague-Capulet quarrel, the
gossiping chroniclers of the day made
no more mention of them than news
papers nowadays does of plain mur-
der. That time was in the good days of
old when knights were bold, and a baron
differed from bandit only in the ex-
tent of his stealings from the people. So
far as they have existed in the United
States they have been most prevalent in
the mountains of Kentucky. !
The lurid glory of the Kentucky feud
has departed. The last echoes of the
old quarrels are dying away in the
haunts of the survivors, and new order
of things has come in eastern Kentucky,
so long scourged by these bloody and
brutal vendettas. The crack of the
Winchester is still heard, and fights con-
tinue more numerous than prayer meet
ings. There may be occasional out
breaks for years to come, but the day of
the full grown feud has vanished.
The unsympathetic law and the un-
congenial touch of civilization, with its
railroads, and its land syndicates, and its
town builders have dispelled the old
conditions that nurtured the feud. The
old leaders are dead, or in prison, or
living in peace. Craig Tolliver is dead
Boone Logan and the Youngs are prac-
ticing law. Andy johnson is capital
ist. The Yellow Creekers have become
land spectators OF gone west. Wills
Jennings and the Hatfields are in the
penitentiary. Joe Eversole has been
killed. A saw log dispatched Jerry Lit
tie. General" Sowders is a quiet citi-
zen, and his old enemy, Alvis Turner. is
slain.
Ten years ago Governor Knott treated
the feudsmen of Rowan county as bel
igerent nations, and invited the leaders
down to Louisville to make treaty of
peace under his benign auspices. To-
day the most powerful leader in any
mountain quarrel is held to answer be-
fore the Clark county circuit court for
his crimes, like any other ordinary law
breaker. The contrast represents the
changed attitude of the people toward
the feud.
There have been almost innumerable
feuds in Kentucky, but those which last
ed longest, involved the greatest num-
ber of people and claimed most victims,
becoming remarkable as anomalous out
breaks of crime for this period of civil
lization, were eight in number. They
were the Turner r-Sizemore feud, in Knott
county; the Strong and the Little feuds,
in Breathitt county; the Martin Tolliver
war, in Rowan county; the Turner-Sow-
ders feud, in Bell county; the Turner
Howard quarrel, in Hardin county; the
Hatfeld-McCoy feud, on the West Vir-
ginia border, in Pike county. and the
French-Eversole war, in Perry county.
There was no foolishness about any of
these affairs. They were not the simple
primitive forays of Bitter Greek terrors.
They were regular wars involving alto
gether many hundreds of men, and with
a death roll counting well up into the
hundreds. They terrorized entire coun-
ties, put stop to all business but that
of killing, drove scores of people per-
manently from their homes, held the
civil power at bay and required frequent
calls upon the military strength of the
state in order that courts might be held
at all. They have cost the state several
hundred thousands of dollars, and have
put an almost ineffaceable blot upon its
reputation.
When the lawless spirit in the Ken
lucky mountains had its beginning and
how would be difficult to say. Thou
sands of square miles of mountain re-
gion; with no settlements larger than
mere hamlets; with the nearest railroad
sometimes more than q hundred miles
away; with almost no communication
with the outside world, and with pop
ulation shut in by rugged mountains to
its own devices, offered IA favorable soil
for the termination of petty quarrels,
which soon grew into ugly feuds. Large
family connections are the rule in the
mountains, where the boys and girls
marry in their teens, and whom feuds-
man called his clan to battle they started,
up, like the men of Rhoderick Dhu, from
every bush and stump. There We're no
cares of business to distract attention
from the quarrels. Most of the people
are farmers, who need to work but little
on their hilly patches to raise the little
that they require, leaving them album
dant leisure for the serious business of
fighting.
Feuds probably existed before the war,
but we have heard little of them if they
did. The familiarity with scenes of
bloodshed which many thousand lnoun-
taineers acquired while serving against
the rebelliOn-fOr the section WIS over
whelmingly Union in sentiment -sloubt-
less had much to do with the sr sequent
fuller development of the fytii iuto
something unique in its line. They made
good soldiers, but they didn'tkuow whei.
to quit fighting. From sire To son the
passion for tumult and bloo,lsncd has
been transmitted, and some of the most
dangerous outlaws in the riouniaii
have been boys under twenty, while
most of the leaders in the greatest of tie
feuds have been under thirty years Of
age.-St. Louis Globe Democrat
Within three years the United States
have bought from the Indians about
S0,OOO,OOO acres of land, yet there re-
mains about five times that area.
Chinese Laundries in st. Louis.
No matter how many Cinnamon are /