The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1899-01-17
TWO AGAINST A MOB.
an OLD TIME MISSISSIPPI RIVER
SHOOTING SCRAPE.

A Trivial Incident That Led to the
WreckinG of the Old POstoHice, and
a Pitched Battle In Which Seven
Men Were Slain.
"One of the worst shooting scrapes
that ever happened along the Missis.
sippi river" began the man at the
| wheel, relaxing his hold on the tiller,
which had been hard down, and per-
mitting it to spin around with the
velocity of a top, "took place out there
| just above the mouth of the bayou,
| about 80 years ago, when they burned
| the old postoffice and the warehouse.
You can see where they Stood by the
| piles of bricks there on the bank"
All admitted the ruins were plainly
| visible, when he changed to the op-
| posite side of the wheel, and after a
| spirited effort made to counteract the
| effects of an impinging current that
| had caused the boat to swerve from her
| course he continued:
"The boat that l was op had got
| caught in the fog, and we tied up un-
| der the point there about 8 O'Clock in
| the afternoon, and a lot of US went on
| shore TO take little exercise. 1t was
| on Saturday, and good many people
| had come in from the country to do
their trading and get their mail. Some
of them were pitching quoits and others
shooting at mark when we first land
ed, but they quit when they saw the
man carry the mail bag we had brought
and went in and stood around waiting
| for the letters to be sorted. They had
J all been drinking and were pretty noisy.
When the postmaster said there were
only two letters and that they were
| both for Bud johnson, colored man,
a murmur Of disapproval went around,
and several of them insisted on new
| deal.
You can look for yourselves said
the postmaster, tossing them the bag,
but after searching and finding it empty
| they were in worse frame of mind
| than ever. Presently one of the num-
ber, local politician, got up and made
a speech derogatory to the administra-
tion. He insisted that the government
was prejudiced against white folks, and
that he had no use for the office any
how. Several of the others present ex-
pressed their approval of this senti-
ment, and general smashing up of ev-
erything at once followed. During the
row the coal oil lamp was broken, the
house set on fire and everything burned
up.
| "Colonel Bunch, who owned the
property, noticing the fire, came uI
from his plantation below and de.
nounced the perpetrators of the outrage
as vandals. The colonel was high
| spirited man and didn't stand any fool
ishness, but was getting along in years
now and couldn't do much but talk, &C
that when one of the men declared be
could whip any Bunch ON earth be
/ looked like he felt himself in pretty
close place, but the colonel stood his
| ground until at last, when the contend
ing parties were about to come to blows,
his son appeared upon the scene, and
learning the cause of the trouble, sprane
between the two, and, drawing his re-
volver, said, MY name is Bunch, an6
when my father gets to be too old te
defend himself can stand in his tracks
and take his part
cat this juncture the shooting com
menced, and l made for the boat. Ev
erybody seemed to take sides against
the Bunches, and you would have
thought them band of guerrillas from
the way they kept the fight up. Pres
emily 1 noticed the colonel roll dowr
the bank and stop just at the edge q
the water, and then his son came stag
gering down, too, and fell near his side
They were both deadl We wanted tt
| leave, but the men were afraid to go OF
shore to unite the lines, for the infuri
ated crowd was still calling for more
BuDches and the colored man who hat
got the letters, but he had climbed {
tree, and they didn't know where ht
was. An hour or SO later, when ths
crowd had dispersed, he slid down from
his hiding place, came aboard the boa
and we had him in the hold until W,
got away and he was over his fright
He said there were five men lying OF
the bank that the Bunches had killed
before they fell"
The boat at this juncture showing {
disposition to become fractions, tn,
pilot gave his undivided attention for /;
moment to the wheel, when he went on
"But there is not much shooting
along the river now, and you hardly
ever hear of feud. When there wer'
only about three families in a county
two of them were usually engaged il
an effort to exterminate the other OF
account of some imaginary wrong, ol
maybe prompted by jealousy. Since th'
country has been settled up they are al
right. 1 used to think myself" he wen
ON to say after a brief tussle with th'
tiller, "that what a man wanted wa
room, but 1 have found out my mis
take. What he stands most in need O
is plenty of good neighbors, and fine
that the thicker you put people the bet
ter they get along. 1t makes them NOR
human, and besides they come to know
something, which is not the case whel
they live alone. l have learned goot
deal myself by travelling around an(
seeing what is in the world, for l usu
ally go east every summer to swa]
malarias st. Louis Globe Democrat
Caused the First Goodness.
Mr.. Newlywed (reading) = Nobod,
| l. I