The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-07-25
UNFORTUNATE AFFAIR.
Statement From Hon. J. Fl. Mcdowell
to the American Correspondent.

family in the trouble which has
brought them into such prominence
recently, and which has given them
great distress. Until the present
your correspondent has been una BILE
to get the full particulars of the
sad affair, but Mr.. Mcdowell came
into town Saturday morning the
first time since the occurrence and
related the particulars as follows:
Through cigarette smoking
Hugh, his son, 81 years of age,
few days ago suddenly lost his rea-
son and became dangerous. Mr..
Mcdowell was not at home at the
time, being in Union City. When
reason left its throne, the young
man secured large pistol of the
army size and number of car
tridges. Some two hundred yards
from Mr.. McDowell's lives a darby
named Will Pursley. Going to his
home Hugh began firing at him,
emptying three chambers of his re-
volver. None of the shots took eff
feet and the negro made his escape
by hasty flight. From Pursley's
Hugh went to his fathers house,
and finding the front door fastened,
broke the glass and sash out of a
window in one of the front rooms
and entered. Hugh's uncle, DR.. T.
H. Turner, an old gentleman whom
Hugh has always thought much of,
begged him to desist, when he told
his uncle that if he said another
word to him that he would shoot a
hole through him. Going to the
door of the parlor in which Mrs.
Mcdowell and her daughters had
locked themselves, he caught hold
of the bolt and tried to open the
door. Not succeeding, he hurried
upstairs to his room after more car
tridges. While he was gone the
other members of the family ran to
cornfield, where they remained
secreted some two hours until all
danger was past.
After securing the cartridges, the
young man went down the road
about half a mile, where he met a
driver of DR.. Parks with a wagon
load of thing. He began firing at
the driver, emptying three cham
bers of his gun, none of which took eff
feet, and the driver made his escape
by flight. The young man then
got into the wagon, threw out and
broke all the thing and drove the
wagon back to Pursley's. Here he
left the wagon and went down the
road about half mile to a bridge,
where he stopped beside tree.
Sheriff Finch and his deputy,
Josh Adams, who had been sum-
moned from town by DR.. Turner,
drove up and at them the demented
young man fired several times
without effect. The officers not
wishing to harm the unfortunate
man, drove back to DR.. Parks,
where they met Mr.. Mcdowell, the
young mans father, who was COM
ing from town with another son,
DR.. N. D. Mcdowell, of Rochester,
N. Y, who is here on a visit. The
officers told Mr.. Mcdowell that
they were afraid they could not
take the young man without having
to possibly kill him, as he was
heavily armed and very dangerous.
Mr. Mcdowell told the officers not
to kill his boy, but for them to stay
in the rear while he and his son,
Nathan, would try to slip up on
Hugh and capture him. Some one
handed Mr. Mcdowell a shotgun
loaded with bird shot, and told him
to take ut along as he might be
able to brighten the boy with it,
and make him surrender. He was
also given an extra shell.
When within a half a mile of
home the father suddenly ran upon
his son in a cornfeld near the road
side, about a hundred and fifty
yards in advance of the officers and
others, a number of neighbors hav-
ing come over. The young man
began running towards his father,
shooting as he advanced. Mr.. Nc
Dowell fired one shot over the head
of his son, who never stopped. The
father then turned and ran towards
the officers and others, and told
them to run and get out of the way.
The officers were in a buggy, and
did as asked, and Mr.. Mcdowell
ran into a woods and was lost from