The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1902-01-23
THE BOURBON RIOT
A Participants Recollection Of an Affair
of Fifty.Odd Years ago.

sketches, as connected with the earlier
times, / desire to make mention of a
riot that occurred at Bourbon during
the Fremont campaign of 1856. There
was double meeting at Bourbon dur
ing that year, at which the late Hon.
Schuyler Colfax, who was the republic
can candidate for congress in what
was then called the 'Bloody Ninth"
district, and man by the name of q.
L. Stuart, of Logansport, who was the
democratic candidate for the same
position, were the speakers. Just at
present | cannot remember whether
it was joint debate, or meeting of
both parties to hear their respective
leaders. When Mr.. Colfax was first
elected to congress KosciuSkO county
was in the district represented by
him, and he was exceedingly well
known and popular here. The legisia-
ture had, however, eliminated Koscius-
ko and placed it in the ''old Tenth
district, :" which included every coun-
ty In the northeast corner of the
state, with Elkhart and KosciuSko for
it's western border, Whitley and Allen
its southern, and the state lines its
eastern and northern borders. In
1856 d. a. Shinn, a very active, warm
hearted republican, lived at Etna
Green. He took very prominent
part In the organization of the re-
publican party, and when the big
meeting to which / have alluded was
held, he had organized big process
sion, with wagons, flags and banners,
to 90 to Bourbon on that day which
included many people from the entire
western part of the county. who join
ed in the big representation from Etna
township. Several of us young men
from Warsaw, including the late S.
r. Gordon, whose name has already
appeared in these sketches several
times, Elijah Tusing, Dick Howe and
myself All of us in those days car
rieu at least single-barreled pistol:
but "Rig Gordon. the name by which
he was best known, owned and took
along an old-faShiOned Allen revolver.
1t should be remembered that the
Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad was
in course of construction and many
laborers were employed all along the
line, composed principally of Irish.
The meeting had passed on without
any special disturbance, although
Stuart, the democratic candidate, was
exceedingly abusive in his remarks,
while on the contrary, COlfax was over
and above most speakers, gentleman
ly and pleasant, as ar orator. The
procession from Etna Green was very
large, covering over fourth of the
four-mile distance to Bourbon. The
meeting had ended, and we who were
from Warsaw had noticed that an in
tensely bitter feeling prevailed among
the Irish laborers on the railroad and
hence were not so greaf surprised
when an attack on the Etna Gieen de-
legation was made with clubs, stones
and missiles OF all kinds. ID. a.
Shinn, who was acting as marshal of
the delegation, directed all the wag-
ons to pull out on the road home, but
quite large body he kept near him
in order to stem the attack, if possible.
There were many women and some
children in the wagons, and the
assault was of very vicious order,
and, so far as those in the procession
were concerned, complete surprise.
Rig Gordon and his comrades from
Warsaw, all four of us armed, as
already stated, kept together. d. A.
Shinn had already been knocked from
his horse and was badly beaten with
clubs. The same party that did this
came on with howl rather than a
cheer. The Warsaw crowd was re-
treating along with all others who
were on foot. Discovering that the
party would be overtaken, Gordon
wheeled around and emptied his re-
volver right into the advancing crowd,
and these were followed by the shots
from the three single-barreled pistols.
The flying bullets stopped the pursuit
right there; but had the attackers
only remembered that every one of
the firearms had been discharged, tn n
was their time to act before we could
reload, the result might have been
different. AS it was, the pursuit, SO
far as the party with which the War
saw representatives acted, ended right
there. d. A. Shinn was seriously
hurt, and was laid up for several
weeks. The story came from Bour-
bon the next day that some of the
Irish were wounded, and that there
had been at least one funeral,
perhaps more, among them. never
believed this story, although it was re-