Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-01-27


with transit and chain, who began
running a tentative line through the
land that Jim Fletcher mad bought.
Anse Hayey watched them grimly
with folded arms, but said no word
until they reached the boundary Of his
own place.
There he met them at the border.
Boys" he said, we mustn't cross
that fence. This is my land, an | for
bids ye''
Their foreman argued
We only want to take the measure
ments necessary to complete our line,
Mr.. Havey. We won't work any in
jury"
Anse shook his head
Come in, boys, an eat with me an
make yourselves at home" he told
them, but leave your tools outside
Men from the house patrolled the
boundary with rifles and the young
men were forced to turn back
But later they drew near the house
of OLD Bob McGreegor. and he, steal
ing down to the place in the thicket of
rhododendrOn, saw them perilously
near the trucking stream which even
then bore on its surface little kernels
OF yellow corn. Deeply and violently
old Bob swore as he drank from his
little blue key, and when one day he
saw them again he asked counsel OF
no man. He went down and crept
close through the laurel, and when his
old rife spoke a schoolboy from the
Blue Grass fell dead among the rocks
of the water course
After that death, the first murder of
an innocent outsider, the war which
Anse Havey had so long foreseen
broke furiously and brought the or.
ders of upland and lowland to the
grip of bitter animosity.
Old McGreegor's victim had been
young Roy Calvin, the son of Judge
Calvin of Lexington, and the name OF
Calvin in central Kentucky was one
associated with the states best ira.
ditions.
1t had run in a strong, bright thread
through the pattern of Kentucky s
achievements, and when news of the
wanton assassination came home, the
state awoke to a shock of horror. The
infamy Of the hills was screamed iE
echo to the mourning, and the name
of Bad Anse Havey was once more
printed in large type.
The men whose capital sought to
wrest profit from the hills, and whose
employee had been slain, were quick
to take advantage Of this hue and cry
of calumny.
They hurled themselves into the
fight for gaining possession Of coveted
land and were not particular as to
methods
Jim Fletcher came and went con.
stantly between the lowlands and
highlands. He was all things to all
men, and in the hills he cursed the
lowlander, but in the Iowland he
cursed the hills. Milt and Jeb and
Anse rode constantly from cabin to
cabin in their efforts to circumvent
the adroit schemes of the mountain
Judas who had sold his soul to the
lowland syndicate.
Fletcher sought foothold for CAPT.
tai to pierce fields acquired at the
price of undeveloped land and then
to take the profit Of development.
Anse sought to hold title until the
sales could &c on a fairer basis and
so the issue was made up.
Capitalists, like Malcolm, who sat IN
directors rooms launching a Iegiti
mate enterprise, had no actual knowl.
edge of the instrumentalities being
employed on the real battlefield. Law
yers tried condemnation suits with in
different success, and then reached
out their hands for new weapon.
Back in the old days, when Ken
lucky was not state but county,
land patents had been granted by
Virginia to men who had never
claimed their property. For two hun
dred years other men who settled as
pioneers had held undisturbed posses
sion, they and their children's chill
dren. Now into the courts piled multi
tudinous suits Of eviction in the names
of plaintiffs whose eyes had never
seen the broken skyline of the Cum
berlands. Their purpose was deceit,
since it sought to drag through long
and costly litigation pauper landhold-
ers and to impose such a CALLING bur
den upon their property as should
drive them to terms Of surrender.
Men and women who owned, or
thought they owned, log shack and
fitting cornfield found themselves fac
ing new and bewildering crisis.