The Portland daily press., 1894-06-04
a CUMBERLAND VENDETTA.

DelOr0 Iu6 mast.
CUMBERLAND VENDETTA.
The Aiming of the Clans at the Outbreak
of the Feud lin the Mountains of Ken
lucky.
The peculiar family feuds of the South,
which rivals those of Corsica IN bitterness
and in the devotion with which they are
carried out for generations, have ofte n
played their part in fiction. John Fox, Jr
has begun story about "a Cumberland
Vendetta" in the June number of the Gen.
fury, which is not only full of stirring ad-
venture t1nged with romance, but has much
in the way of misunderstanding of the rug
ged and picturesque Tennessee mountain
GERS. Mr.. Fox gives the following account
of the feud and it's tragic growth:
When the feud began no one knew.
Even the original cause was forgotten
Both fam lies had come as friends from Vir-
glnia long ago. and had lived as enemies
nearly half century. There was hostility
shed. Through the hatred of change char
acterlst1c of mountaineer the world over,
the Lewallens We're for the Union. The
Stetsons owned few slaves and they
fought for them. Peace found both still
| neighbors and worse foes. The war armed
them, and brought back an ancestral con-
tage of lawlessness that for mutual protec-
ton made necessary the very means used
| by their feudal forefathers; personal hatred
supplanted It's dead issues, and with them
the war went on. The Stetsons had a good
strain of Anglo-Saxon blood, and owned
valley-landss; the, Jewellers. kepts store,
debtors and kindred and tenants were ar
| rayed with one or the other leader, and
gradually the retainers of both settled on
one or the other side of the river. In time
of hostility the Cumberland came to be the
boundary between life and death for the
jewellers on each shore. 1t was feudalism
'Above one of the spurs each family had
its home, the Stetsons, under the scared
| face of Thunderstruck Knob, the Lewell-
ems, just beneath the wooded rim of VOLTS
Head. The caves and chimney of each cab
in We're family visible from. the porch of the
other The first light touches the house of
the Stetsons; the last, the Jewellers cabin
So there were times when the one could
not turn to the sunrise nor the other to the
sunset but w1tha curse in his heart; for
his his eye must fall on the home of his enc
For years there had been peace, for so re-
lentlessly had the feud been waged that
only two were left in each of the families
capable of bearing arms. Then one of
the Stetsons opened rival store, and the
Lewellen drove him out of town. So once
more preparations were made for hostilities,
despite the fact that tender passion had
grown suddenly in the midst of the hatred
and suspicion ranking between the two
famileis-the love of a Stetson youth for the
daughter of old Lewellen
st was like the breaking of peace in
feudal days. The close kin of each leader
were already about him. and now the close
friends of each took sides. Each leader
trading in Hazlan had debtors scattered
through the mountains. and these rallied to
aid the man who had befriended them.
There was no grudge but served a pretext
for partizanship in the coming war. Polit
ical rivalry had wedged apart two strong
families, the MarcumS and Braytons. q
boundary line in dispute was a chain of
bitterness; suit in county court had
sown seeds of hatred Sometimes it was a
horse-trade, fence left down, or a gate
left open, and the trespassing of cattle; in
one instance, through spite neighbor had
locked the tail of a neighbours horse-had
"muled his critter", as the owner phrased
the soutrage. There was no old sore that
was not opened by the crafty leaders, no
slumbering bitterness that they did not
wake to life. Help US revenge, and we
will help you,' was the whispered promise.
So, had one man grudge against another.
he could set his foot on one or the other
shore, sure that his enemy would be fight
ing forsthe other.
''Others there were, friends of neither
leader, who, under stress of poverty or
hatred of work, would fight with either
for food and clothes; and others still, the
ne'er-do-wells and outlaws, who fought by
the day or month for hire. Even these
were secured by one or the other faction.
for Steve and old Jasper left no resource
untried, knowing well that the fight, if
there was one, would be fought to quick
and decisive end. The day for the leisurely
feud, for patient planning, and the slow
picking off of men from one side or the
other, was gone. The people in the Blue
Grass, who had no feuds in their own
country, were trying to stop them in the
mountains. Over in Breathitt, as every
body knew, soldiers had come from the set
tlements,' had arrested the leaders, and
had taken them to the Blue Grass for the
feared and hated ordeal of trial by a iury
of 'bigoted furriners''
ION the heels of the soldiers came a
young preacher up from the Jellico hills.
half citizen half 'furriner,' with long
black hair and a scar across his forehead
who was stirring up the people, it was said.
as though Satan was after them.' Over
there the spirit of the feud was broken.
and good effect was already perceptible
around Hazlan. In past days every pair
of lips was sealed with fear, and the non
combatants left crops and homes, and
moved down the river, when trouble began
Now only the timid considered this way
SoII l..
few men who refused to enter the fight
Several indeed, talked openly against the
renewal of the feud, and sombody, it was
said had dared to hint that he would send
to the governor for aid, il it should break
out again -