East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-10-11
DUSTY ARCHIVES OF POSTOFFICE
DEPARTMENT TELL STORY Of OLD CRIME

Washington, Oct 1.-THE dusty ar
chives of the office of the Chief In
spector of the Postoffice Department
now and then yield up fragmentary
narratives that give a qlpuant inter-
est to an otherwise sordid catalogue
OF crime and theft.
one of these, standing out alone
because of its tragic circumstances,
was unearthed the other day by a clerk
in searching for an old record.
1t contains a chapter in the life Of
Harrison Hatfield. the aged mmber
of the family of famous feudists of
that name that has heretofore escap-
ed the voracious chroniclers or been
overlooked by the authors Of the dime
novels.
Hatfield recently died at the
Moundsville penitentiary. Two years
ago the feud leader lived near Horse
pen, in the mountains of West Vir-
ginia. He had deposited s2,S54 in the
Guyan Valley bank, at Logan. I'm
able to write, he asked Alexander H.
Treat, postmaster at Horsepen. to
draw a check for the amount and di-
rected the bank to forward the money
by registered mail. Hatfield called
repeatedly for the registered letter,
but when it arrived, on April "a, 1907,
he was not present at the postoffice.
He had called about half an hour be-
fore the mail arrived, but having been
accompanied by an intoxicated friend
who required assistance to keep him |
on his mule, could not wait When |
he left the postoffice he requested the
postmaster to take the letter to his |
home for safe-keeping when it came.
Fearing that it would not be properly
protected from fire If left in the post
office, the postmaster assured him
that the letter would be placed in his
safe.
About two O'Clock on the morning
the building in which the
Dostoffice was located was burned, the
contents of the safe alone being saw
ID These were found to consist Of
stamps and money belonging to the
post office, to Treat. individually and
o outside persons. The letter address,
ID to Hatfield, however, could not be
ound. The postmaster said that it
lad been placed with the ordinary
nail in the post office.
On April 26th a postoffice inspector
vas notified of the burning of the
,ostoffice and the loss of the letter.
mother inspector was detailed to ac-
ompany him through the mountains
# Horsepen on horseback. ,
Meanwhile, Hatfield became i'll 6
rom worry over the loss of his money !
almost his entire savings. The !
ostoffice inspectors. however, did not =
ntirely accept Treats story that the s
money had been lost in the fire. and h
\ their Investigations found the
ostmaster and his father F. NJ, Treat r
ullty of other irregularities. They 7
9th confessed later and the post 7
laster produced from a jar hidden .
nder his barn the sum of S1,2S0. Q
his was turned over to Hatfield. 4
The postmaster was found guilty of Y
'aud and sentenced to prison. On Il
pril 1, 1908, he escaped, and is now
fugitive from justice. @
Hatfield's elation over the recov- 7
~ of his money drove him nearly in n
lne, and while suffering from a sud- h
en- mania he poisoned his wife, an c
1dian. For this crime he was sem "
need to life imprisonment. I,
Harrison Hatfield was one Of the old r
lmily of Hatfields so prominent few Il
ears ago in connection with the Nc "
oy-Hatfield feud, virtually civil war T
long the West Virginia and Ken
icky border, that disrupted several