Evening journal., 1908-08-01
Mr.. HUKILL TELLS OF
A FIGHT OVER PEACHES
Letter No. 9.


a previous article engendered bad blood
between my father and the Tovnsends
and acted as a growing sore which had
to come to a head So in the spring Of 1913
my father rented a portion of Perry Ben
nets Farm adjoining his farm and farmed
it in conjunction with his own and put
1t in corn that year and there was a
number Of peach trees on the land rented
and included in the deal and when the
peaches got ripe. It appeared that Bennett
told the Townsends that the peaches were
his and made Some bargain with them
authorizing them to so upon this rented
land and gather the peaches. AS It hap
pened my father and we children went
into the field at the same time for the
same purpose, and while so engaged
father heard men talking in another part
of the field and went to see what it
meant and found Samuel Townsend and a
colored man by the name of William
Anderson picking peaches, Of whom my
father inquired: What are you doing
hereT Townsend answered. Getting
some peaches" To this my father said:
These are my peaches, and you get out
Of here" And he made for Townsend, ac.
cording as ! heard him tell 1t many times,
and Townsend began to back around the
tree. holering for John, who was sitting
in a gig I'm the road about hundred and
fifty yards away till John came running
and when John was near at hand Samuel
came TO a stand and John said: Give il
to him, Sam" and while father was en-
gagged with Sam in front John he said was
behind pummeling him on each side Of the
head.
The colored man, Anderson. ran and
they whipped him till he was helpless
for when / got to them my father had
managed to get to his feet and had fol-
lowed them to the road where the gig was,
and John was sitting on the gig declaring
that he had not been near them during
the fight and Sam was standing in the
road near by.
did not see the fght My father was
pitiable sight, very much bruised and
bleeding with his shirt torn of him to
the wais, and he could scarcely stand or
talk. The first thing / heard him say
was: "You know 1 can lick you both and
all 1 want is TO have you one at time
and 1 will see you again" My father was
a large bony, muscular man, six feet
high in his stocking feet He was very
hard TO handle in those days and had no
fear of any man. John Townsend was a
large bony man nearly as large as my
father and Samuel was large also. My
father said his first thought when he got
loose from them was to go across the
field to the house and get the gun and
head them off as they went back over
the new cut road home to Blackbird, but
he was so disabled from the beating that
he could scarcely walk. much less run
which he would have had to do to accom-
plsh his purpose. He dressed himself for
business a good many times and went to
Blackbird on Saturday afternoon to set
tie with them. but they always were on
the look out ar him, and when he went
in on the south side of the village they
went out on the north as they lived in
the brick house north of Blackbird where
Colen Ferguson now lives. He never got
any redress, only what he got in court
which was poor satisfaction.
The Townsends lived for about 30 years
afterwards. but my father died at about
1S years after the fight at the age Of AZ
He was "a when the fight occurred and the
men were about the same age. From that
day on I never thought Of the affair with
ont warming up a little, and for a long
time after l was grown 1 expected the
thing would come up but it never did
One day while 1 was collector I thought
the time had come, for I got into sharp
argument with Samuel Townsend about
my accepting road orders in payment for
taxes. He wanted me to take them but I
would not and was getting mad very fast
and had begun to assert my rights. He
quieted down and the thing ended with
out any more trouble. Samuel Townsend
was a pretty determined man and liked
TO have his way about things, was very
ambitious and had considerable influence
in the Democratic party in his district
They used to tell story about him hav-
ing a tilt with Thomas Hawkins who was
then freight conductor during peach
time. 1t was something about making up
the peach train. and Hawkins told Town.
send to go somewhere where he would
not have needed his overcoat, at that
time of the year, at least, and Townsend
reported him to headquarters and the
authorities rather enjoyed telling Haw.
l1ins that he would have to go back I'd
Mr. Townsend and apologize. GAN right
says Hawkins II will" And when the
opportunity offered he called on Mr.
Townsend, saying, 'Mr. Townsend. you
reported me-" "Yes, yes" says Townsend
"Well, they told me must come back and
apologize" "Ah" says Mr.. Townsend
''They say I told you to 90 to the bad
place. Well, now 1 tell you you needn't
60"
William Andrew Hukill
July %. zoos.