The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-01

| "They was another feller died last
| week. too, but you wouldn't jes' call
| that a KILN. He got shot up some a
| week ago Saturday in a little scrap at
! Slough landin,' but he didn't die none
! till Wednesday, so l dunno as you'd
call it KILN
Further inquiry added to this list the
murder of a negro by a white man to
whom he had been impudent. 1t is hard
! to get Kentucky Pointers to go into
| ancient history, but all admitted there
| had been two lynchings during the
| year, one of a negro for robbing a ped
| der, the other for no cause any one
| could remember When the Civil War
came the Confederate Army seized
| New Madrid and Island No. 10 and for
| titled them, and Commodore Foote
spent long campaign getting his YES
| seis through Bayou st. John and the
neighboring woods to cut them off
At the close of the war, when peace
! came to the rest of the country, feud
| came to Kentucky Point. Gen DarnelI
| settled on the Tennessee side of the
Inc, on the west of the Point, and
! Robert L. Watson-"Old Bob" Watson
On the Kentucky side. Families of
! Lanes and Donaldsons settled along
| the east side. A feud which originated
| in quarrel between women soon set
! the Darnell- WatsQns against the
| L2ne-Donaldsons, and war broke out
| Gen. Darnell was a Confederate and
! capt. Lane was a Union veteran, but
| North and South were forgotten in the
| arminE and organization of rival forces
| In short time each had from seventy
| t. eighty men under arms and keeping
! them within call, and for long time
neither ventured away from home
without his force.
| Meetings We're frequent and always
| fatal Both sides formed ambushes.
| reSOrted to every kind of treachery
and Viilainy to ATTAIN their ends, and
at last the end was reached when
the last Lane and the last Donaldson
We're dead and when Gen. Darnen and
all but one of his sons were killed.
| This last SON Dick" Darnen, was shot
| this year, and with him dies his side
! of the Darnell- Watson clan. OF the
| Watsons, odd Bob" is dead and none
| Of his sons live on the point except
| Y Dung Bob" who has tried to keep
| out of the feud and who is today it's
| sole survivor. He goes heavily armed
| to day and is preparing to move to
! Texas, where he may hide himself be-
/ yond the finding of any relative of the
| warning factions. This is not fear
| with him. for few would dare insinuate
/ covardice of any son Of "Old Bob"
| Watson.
1t was in this feud that the OAR
! nell-Watson faction ambushed the
+ Lanes at Slough landing one day and
/ killed many of them. A steamer going
| down stream touched at the Darnell
! landing and band of armed men
| boarded it and hid among the cotton
| bales. Capt. Lane and some of his
/ boys were on the landing on their side
ready to put freight aboard the boat
as it came in. They were advancing
toward the plank when the ambushed
men rose without warning and fired
volley after voley at them, killing or
Wcunding all in sight Gen. Darnell
disclaimed responsibility for this and
rOdc UP a the close to "scold" his
boys but the sheriff was forced to take
( cOgnizance of it and arrested him The
trial was well Under way and most of
the evidence was in, when in the mid
| die of the afternoon tHe Darnell army,
/ numbering then some thirty armed
! men filed into the court and covered
! judge, jury and spectators with shot
| guns and rifles
Come along pap, we've heard
enough of fthis,' said Dick Darnen,
and the old man marched out and was
| taken home. The Judge and prosecu-
ting attorney escaped in the melee that
followed, secured a skiff and rowed
forty miles up stream and did not re-
| turn to that vicinity for a long time