Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1915-12-24
A Mountain Tragedy

hS ioiio"iiS uetoiiS vi VIZ
shooting of kenna Elliot by Nor
man Wilfong, a border tragedy, is
tai en- from the Pocahontas Times
and will be of interest to Recorder
readers, more especially because
the dead man Was native OF this
county and lived in Eastern High.
land until manhood.
Last Thursday on lonely noun
tain path two farmers met and
quarreled and fought it out to the
death, and~one lies buried, and the
other is in Jail, the most repentant
poor man who ever suffered remorse
whose dearest wish now is that it had
been himself who had been killed
in the fight.
Wilfoug is a man forty-nine
years Of age who has a wife and
ten childr' living on a farm worth
about $4,000 which he has acquired
by lifetime of hard work and
saving.
Elliott was also a farmer. not
quite so prCspt rous as Wilfong,
with a wife ard children, Lying
sere miles away.
Both of the Iren stood well in
the community in which thew liv-
ed.
On the day of the4kitling, Will
Tong left bis house to salt his sheep
on Buffalo Mountain, in the Green
Bank county. He took his gun
with him He had not carried a
gun for two years, but he says that
the last time he sailed his flock Of
sheep that fox closely pursued by
hounds ran in and out among the
sheep, passing bin so closely that
he could have shot it, and this put
it into bis head to take a shot gun
loaded with number 4 shot with
him.
As he went up the mountain by
a little used path by wire fence
he met Keuna Elliot coming down
The path On his way to a shoemak-
er's for some shoes that he was
having repaired for his children
The men had not met for sons
time and in the meantime Wilfong
had placed in the hands of a con-
stable claim of 81 against Elliot,
and Elliot stopped to talk about it
The account that is given here
is necessarily the statement that
the prisoner makes, but the ficiers
say that the marks on the ground
bear him out in many important
details.
Elliott said to Wilfong that he
would pay that seven dollars when
Wilfong paid for S27 worth of
sheep that his dog had killed. The
men lost their tenp;r and Viii org
says that Elliot said to him that
he would kill him just as he had kill
edfhis dog, and that they clinched
and fought, and worked down the
mountain over about fifty feet of
steep mountain side. That at this
point Elliott had him down but
that he got loose and ran as he
could up the moutain in the direc-
ti>n that he was going wen he me
Elliott. Elliott's hat was found
where Wilfong said that they were
down, and Elliott's glove and Will
longs mitten were found lying to-
gether at the point where Wilfong,
says they first olinohed.
Wilfong says that as he ran up the
bill that Elliott threw two sticks at
him and be, Wilfong, grabbed his
gun and turned to see what Elliott
was doing. That Elliott threw a
a stone which was lodged, and
Elliott came on and Wilfong re-
treated up the mountain, in all
perhaps seventy FIVE feet. At this
point, Wilfong says that he had
become exhausted running up the
steep mountain and turned and
sh' t just as Elliott was in the act
of throwing again. The shot took
effect in Elliott's left shoulder and
face, one shot being directly in the
forehead between the eyes, and
other shot back of the shoulder.
The position of throwing is one
that would admit of the placing of
the shot. Elliott must have ex-
pired instantly. Wilfong seems to
have broken the weapon, a single
barrelled shotgun, but did not re-
load it. He dropped the gun near
the body and ran to the nearest
house and told them what he had
done and asked that some one 60
to the body at once. He then
phoned he was ready to surrender
to the constable.
Within a few minutes Sheriff
Cochran, Prosecuting Attorney
Sharp, Squire Marrhall and DR.. c.
M. Young were on their way from