Hattiesburg daily progress. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 18??-1909, 1903-06-19
The Present One Fourth
in the County.
GOES BACK TO THE YEAR 1852
And the Record Shows that 1t Has
Been a Bloody One.
MANY MEN BEING ASSASSlNATED
The List of Men Shot and Murdered
is a Large One.

correspondent
The fourth feud in Breathitt county
was the one now being waged and
known as the Hargis Cockrell feud.
Both sides claim that the name is i'll
appropriate, and that no feud exists.
AS bad as are the conditions in
Breathitt county now with all its un-
punished list Of crimes, the state of
affairs cannot be more depolrable than
in 1878. when Judge William Randall,
the circuit judge of the district, de-
serted his bench in the midst of SEES
sion of court and fed to the country
to save his life from threatened rev.
olution. The revolution was brought
about by the assinatiOn of Judge John
Burnett, then county Judge. Both
Judge Burnett and his wife were as
sinatde in thier home enc night. The
crime was laid at the doors of the
CANDLES and the Littles, and the re-
volution was caused by rigid prose
cution promised by Judge Randall,
who later moved to London, where he
died. Judge Randall never again Wis
tied the district over which he presi-
ded, and from which he was compell-
ed to flee for his life.
GOES BACK TO 1852.
The record Of the Hargis- Cockrell
feud is long and bloody. 1t begins
with the marriage of Miss Virgie
Britton, of Virginia, to William
Sewall, of Jackson, KY, in 1885.
Four children were born Of the
marriage-Thomas j., Sarah A.,
William and Anna Sewall.
Sarah A. Sewall was married to
Hiram Jett. Curtis Jett, son of
this marriage, now under indictment
for killing two men, both adherents
of the Cockrell faction.
William Sewall died and Mrs Sew
all was married to John S. Hargis.
The Hargis brothers-H. A. Har
gis, James Hargis, John HargIs, lead
ers of the Hargis tactic n--were born
of this marriage.
Curtis Jett is thus related to the
Hargis brothers, whose mother is
Jett's grandmother.
The Sewall brothers also through
their mother S second marriage became
half brothres of the Hargis.
Therefore, through the family S
close connection, the fights and feuds
of the Sewall side were espoused by
the Hargis brothers.
Thomas J. Sewall precipitated the
feud The war was scarcely over
when he, then only boy, quarreled
with Buck Combs and shot him.
Combs recovered. Combs was a
nephew of Thomas Cockrell, head of
= the Cockrell family. Vengeance was
threatened by the Cockrells, but before
they could attack any of the Sewalls
Thomas shot and wounded Judge
Cardwell, also of the Cockrell family.
Cardwell was shot in the back.
Thomas went to Madison county and
on Muddy creek shot and killed an
other Cockrell-Thomas Dunbar
He was arrested, tried and sent to the
penitentiary for life. He served
twelve years and was then released
William Sewall, taking up his broth
er's cuase, shot Jerry South and Fill
more Brown, both of whom had beer
witnesses against Thomas Sewal
Both recovered. Sewall was not tried
The Hargises, growing to manhood
next appeared upon the scene.
Ebert Hargis shot and killed Henri.
Barnett, Cockrell adherent.
joni G. Hargis shot and kille
Sally Hayes, an eyewitness to tn
murder of Barnett.
For once at least the tables wer
reversed.
Jerry Cardwell, brother of Judg
Cardwell, shot Thomas Sewall, an
shot and killed John G.. Hargis.
Benjamin Hargis next shot an
wounded Charles Everett, Cockre
adherent. Everett recovered
Benjamin Hargis next shot an
wounded Samuel Letnzford, brother
in-law of Tom Cockrell.
Two weeks later Cockrells struck
staggering blow to the Hargises whe
Tom Cockrell decoyed to a saloon b
Benjamin Hargis, who had intende
to assassinate him, turned the tabl
and shot and killed Hargis. Cockre
was wounded.
A man named Smith, married in
the Cockre'l family, was shot /
James Hargis, county judge of Brea
HIT county.
James Marcum, a lawyer of Jacks,
and Cockrell factionist, filed pr
test contesting the election of Jud