Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-10-24
St. Louis Republic.


Philosophers and people generally
agree that there is something aggrevat-
ing about a hog. Whether it is the
beasts filth, his gluttony, his lack OF
gratitude, or grunting, roofing, blum
dering stupidity, let veterinarians de-
eide if they can. 1t is we'll established
by tradition and fact that the hog has
been the cause CT more trouble to the
human race than any other animal,
not excepting the serpent. He is the
friend of no man but lawyer. Since
law was law and courts were courts,
statutes and records have teemed with
the wreakings of the hog. Many times
has he grunted his numbering way
from primary court through interme-
diate legal processes, attended by a
mob of lawyers and mass OF briefs,
up to big wig and gown, only to find
when all is settled that he, like the
Court of Chancery, has devoured every
thing on the weary journey and left an
empty platter and darkened home for
the people who first led him into court.
Every legal administrative unit has
had its hog case. Missouri, which
leads in most things, can boast of the
best of all-that is, best in the sense
that it was the worst and led to more
trouble, grief, woe and less profit lex
cept to lawyers) than any case on
record This is the law suit o. Winn
vs. Reed, which is still grinding along
in the Kansas City Court of Appeals,
with little prospect OF settlement until
the court of last resort, the Supreme
Court of the United States, passes
upon it. AS that event is necessarily
far away in the dim, distant future, it
is not unlikely that some of the young
er members of the Winn and Reed
families may cross into the great be-
yond to join the original litigants be-
fore the case is finally wiped from the
dockets. The hog whose disputed
ownership originated the suit has long
since gone the way of all pork, but his
rotund ghost lives to haunt two of the
best families in Missouri and gradual
ly ruin two large estates.
A few years ago J. Newton Winn and
Watson Reed were heads two Of the
pest families in Clinton county. Their
arge and highly improved farms adj
Joined, and the members of the two
families intermingled constantly in the
capacity of neighbor, host and guest.
Both were men in the prime of life,
good types of the country gentleman
and modern farmer. Each gas a per-
feet specimen of physical manhood, over
feet tall, big boned big framed and
with a proper avoirdupois Newt"
VIM and wat" Reed were men of
weight in the community, both on ac-
count of their personality and connec-
tions. Winn had married the daughter
of one of the oldest and wealthiest
citizens of Clinton county, and Reed
was related to some of the best people
in the northwestern part of the State
Each was in every sense a representa-
tive man.
The suit that sundered two fam
lilies, almost ruined two estates and
brought both Newton Winn and Wat
son Reed to untimely graves, was be-
gun in 1892 1t originated over a hog
That winter Winn lost a valuable
brooded hog, upon which he set high
value. After a prolonged search it
was found in one of the pastures on
the Reed farm. Winn claimed his
property, but Reed refused to give it
up, asserting his ownership to the hog
by virtue of having purchased it from
stock trader. They had some words
about the matter. and as a result VIM
decided to go to law to recover his
property. He replevined the hog be-
fore Justice of the Peace Thomas s.
Pearcy, before whom the first trial of
the cause was had. Winn won his
salt, but already so much bitterness
had been created that Reed announced
his determination to continue the
fight He felt that his veracity and to
a certain extent his honor were in
volved. So he took an appeal to the
Circlit Court of Clinton county.
III.