The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1915-01-14
CHAPTER III.

In days when the Indian held the
Dark and Bloody Grounds pioneer.
telling oak and poplar logs for the
home he meant TO establish on the
banks of a purIing vatercourse. let his
az slip, and the cutting edge gashed
his ankle. Since to the discovered be-
longs the christening. that vatercourse
became Crppleshin, and so it is today
set down on atlas pages A few miles
away, as the crow flies, but many
weary leagues as a man must travel,
brother settler, racked with rheuma-
tism. gave TO his creek the name OF
Misery. The two pioneers had come
together from Virginia, as their anoes-
tors had come before them from Scot
land Together they had found one
of the two gaps through the mountain
wall, which for more than hundred
miles has no other passable rift To-
gether, and as comrades, they had
made their homes and founded their
race. What original grievance had
sprung up between their descendants
none of the present generation knew
perhaps it was farm line or disputed
title to pig. The primary incident
was lost in the limbo of the past: but
for fifty years, with occasional inter
walls of truce, lives had been sn1ffed
out in the fercely burning hate OF
these men whose ancestors had been
comrades.
Old Spieer South and his nephew
Samson were the direct lineal deseen-
dants OF the manner of Misery Their
kinsmen dwelt about them; the Souths,.
the Jaspers. the Spicers, the Wileys,.
the Millers and McCagers. Other fam
lilies, related only by marriage and
close association, were. in feud align
ment. none the less ~Souths." And
over beyond the ridge, where the
springs and brooks flowed the other
way to feed Crippleshin. dwelt the
Hoilmans, the Purvises, the Asberries.
the Hollises and the Daltons-men
equally strong in their vindictiye
fealty to the code OF the vendetta
BY mountain standards old Spicer
South was rich His lands had been
claimed when tracts could be had for
the taking. and, though he had TO make
his cross mark when there was a con-
tract TO be signed, his instructive mind
was shrewd and far seeing. The tiEkie
Of his cowbells was heard for long
distance along the creek bottoms. His
hillside fields were the richest and his
,oves the most fertile in that country.
Some day. when railroad should bur
row through his section, bringing thu
development of coal and timber at the
head Of the rails, a sleeping fortune
would yawn and awake TO enrich him.
There were black outcroppings along
he cliffs, which he knew ran deep in.
Teins of bituminous wealth. But to
hat time he looked with foreboding.
Tor he had been raised TO the stand
srds of his forefathers and saw in the
coming of new regime a curtsilment,
# personal liberty. For new-fangfed
IDEAS he held only the aversion OF
prejudice. He hoped that
lie might I've out his days and pass
,efore the foreigner held his land and
he law became a power stronger than
he individual or the clan The law
vas his enemy. because it said to him.
Thou shalt not" when he sought 10
axe the yellow corn which bruisinS
abor had coaxed from scattered rock-
trewn fields 10 his own mash vat and
till 1t meant. also. = tyrannous
over usually seized and administered
y enemies. which undertook to forbid
be personal settlement Of PERSONAL
Continued on page 81