The Republican., 1901-01-10
END OF AN OLD FEUH.
The Last Participant in Kansas
Vendetta Removed by the
Grim Reaper.

BY the death of Charles Vaughn, IS
miles south of Cedarville, Kan. in the
Usage reservation recently, the last
survivor of feud which was fought
along the border with a.. the fierce
ness of a Corsican vendetta for
months was wiped out. The partici-
pants were on the one hand Jim and
Charles Vaughn, cowboys-who were
cousins-and Tom WILDER and Dennis
Amos, who ran a Joint in Caney,
Kan, in 1879 and 1880, and the feud
began in this joint in August, 1850,
when Tom Amos in game of poker
beat Jim Vaughn out of $40, relates
the Kansas City Times.
Vaughn was by accident unarmed
at the time. but left. swearing that he
would return in three days and kill
all the Amoses. Accordingly Vaughn
returned to the ranch on which he
was working in the territory, pro-
| cured a brace of siX-shooters and on
the appointed day went back to
Caney. The Amoses, barricaded in
| NilCll JOlht anu al lhCb VAIN III "
| double -barreled shotguns. were watt
ing for shim. Vaughn hitched his
| horse and pulling his siX-shooters be-
gan firing and walking toward the
Amos joint. The Amoses replied with
broadside from their shotguns and
when the smoke had cleared away
Vaughn lay in the street with his
/
| lay on the floor with his jaw shat
tered by bullet. Blood poison set in
and four weeks later Amos was
buried. On the other hand, Vaughn,
who was thought to have been NOR
| tally wounded, recovered, and in two
| Vaughn was 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 arrest-which was an
unusual proceeding in those days. A
! deputy sheriff, who was a warm friend
of the jointkeepers, arrested 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
Vaughn-who was employed on a
ranch in TeXas-and, after they had
killed Jim. settled down to quiet life.
WILDER remained in Caney and Dem
mis- Amos. with his young wife and
child, located on a farm Just east of
| Cedarville. A friend of Jim Vaughn
| in the meantime notified Charles
Vaughn of the manner in which his
| cousin had been killed. and Charles
| thereupon boarded the next train and
went to Caney. He remained quiet a
| day and by inquiry learned of the
whereabouts of the Amoses. On the
second day after his arrival he met
| WILDER Amos in a drug store, and,
walking up to him. informed him that
he was there for the purpose of kill
| ing him. Amos reached for his gun,
but Vaughn was too quick for him
and sent a 45-caliber bullet through
his brain. The dead man had hardly
struck the floor before Vaughn was
on his horse riding at 4 breakneck
speed toward town.
Dennis Amos was eating dinner
| when Vaughn reached his house, and
without introducing himself the Tex
an 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 pur-
suers were close upon him, mounted
his horse and rode away. Although a
| posse pursued him for two days he
was not overtaken and his where
abouts had never been known from
that day to the day of his death. One
day lately, when, after a six weeks
struggle with the fever, he found that
he had to die he told his attendants
| that he was Charles Vaughn and mar
rated the above story, which the old
err residents of Cedarville know to be
| true.