The times., 1900-12-23
ENDING AN OLD VENDETTA.
Death Takes the Last Participant in
Kansas Feud.
Trom the Kansas CITY Times J


By the death of Charles Vaughn fifteen
miles south of Cedarvale. Kan, in the
Usage reservation, the last survivor of a
feud which was fought along the border
with all the fierceness of Corsican ven-
delta for months was wiped ont. The
participants were on the one hand Jim
and Charles Vaughn, cowboys, who were
cousins, and Tom wilber and Dennis
Amos, who ran Joint" in Caney Kan,
in 1879 and 1880, and the feud began in
this joint in August, 1880, when Tom Amos
in game of poker beat Jim Vaughn
out of $40.
Vaughn was by accident unarmed at the
time, but left swearing that he would re-
turn in three days and kill all the Amoses.
Accordingly Vaughn returned 10 the ranch
en- which he was working in the Territory,
procured a brace OF six-shooters and on
the appointed day went back to Caney The
Amoses, barricaded in their joint and
armed with three double-barreled shot
guns, were waiting for him. Vaughn
hitched his horse and, pulling his six
shooters, began firing and walking to-
ward the Amos Joint. The Amoses replied
with a broadside from their shotguns and
when the smoke had cleared away Vaughn
lay in the street with his body full Of
buckshot and Tom Amos lay on the floor
with his jaw shattered by bullet. Blood
poison set in and four weeks late Amos
was buried. On the other hand, Vaughn,
who was thought to have been mortally
wounded, recovered and in TWO months
was able to go TO work again.
Vaughn was a crack shot and the
Amoses lived in constant terror OF him.
and after they found that he had gotten
well they swore out a warrant for his ar
rest-which was an unusual proceeding in
those days deputy sheriff, who was
f,fa of al
Vaughn and put the Amoses and one of
their friends on the force to guard him
the night after the arrest. During the
night while the deputy slept the Amoses
shot and killed Vaughn. They claimed
that he had tried to escape. However,
three OF the five shots which had pierced
the dead mans body were fired after he
had fallen-so the direction of the bullets
courses indicated.
The Amoses at that time did not know
OF the existence of Charles VaughI-who
was employed on a ranch in Texas-and,
after they had killed Jim, settled down
to quiet life. WILDER remained in Caney
and Dennis Amos, with his young wife and
child, located on a farm Just east of
CeGarville. A friend of Jim Vaughn in
the mean time notified Charles Vaughn OF
the manner in which his cousin had been
killed, and Charles thereupon boarded the
ntAt lIdlu anu went 70 AHHey. he re-
manned quiet a day and by enquiry learned
of the whereabouts of the Amoses. On
the second day after his arrival he met
Wilber Amos in drug store, and walking
up to him, informed him that he was there
for the purpose of killing him. Amos
reached for his gun, but Vaughn was too
quick for him and sent .45-calibre
bullet through his brain. The dead man
had hardly struck the floor before Vaughn
was on his horse riding at a breakneck
speed toward town.
Dennis Amos was eating dinner when
Vaughn reached his house, and without
introducing himself the Texan opened fire
and sent one bullet through Dennis
breast and another through his head.
The infuriated cowboy then picked up the
child and dashed its brains out against
the floor. He also fired a shot at the
woman, but she escaped into the bed
room, and Vaughn, thinking his pursuers
were close upon him. mounted his horse
and rode away. Although a posse pur-
sued him for two days, ne was not over
taken, and his whereabouts had never
been known from that day TO the day
of his death. Yesterday, when. after 4
six weeks struggle with the fever, ne
found that he had to die, he told his at
tendants that he was Charles Vaughn and |
narrated the above story, which the older |
residents of this town know to be true