Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-13

4 AUTED behind the sln-bleached clap
M board walls Of Old Lum Cr1Itchfields
W. cabin in the Laurel Branch foothills.
Ma Crutchfield's grievin' is like the sighin'
Of the dust-laden wind onight
The shootin is all over There amt a-goin'
TO be no more feudin' between the Crutchfields
Of Yellow Creeks Clear Fork and the CAROLS
faint no more need OF H. because Lum
Crutchfied is dead and SOS hot-headed Joe
Carroll his step-son-in-law
The narrer gate" atween their properties
is a-swingin in the wind and weeds are
creepin' already over the later patch in front
Of Lums cabin
And in the cabin numbed by the "worstest
tragedy OF those Kentucky hills Sary wSlo IL
Ma Crutchfeld and Bertha her daughter. are
trying TO adjust themselves 10 the bewilder-
ment Of new widowhood and 10 "figger out"
what's 20 become Of the seventeen young-uns
Of the two families
There are relatives scattered about in Ken
lucky and Tennessee. too but as Ma CrutCh-
field matriarch OF the Crtchdelds has
agreed with her daughter Bertha there amt
a-gon 20 be no more feudin.' 'Tain't no need"
The sheriff who listened 10 Sary made no
attempt TO conceal his relief as she told him
this He spat expertly into the center of the
later patch with much satisfaction. said he
would go report TO the authorities and took his
parture. He had been sent from Middleboro
v1r hard miles away, 10 make sure that no
more guns were going 10 be banging around
Laurel Branch
Only a couple Of days before on a Sunday
afternoon. the sheriff had been TO Lums cabin.
There he had found Lum dead on the porch
with a load OF buckshot in his chest And
there on the rim OF the later patch was Joe
Carroll dying in his 37th year because three
As bullets from Lum's old pistol were inter-
fering with his breathing. His breathing
stopped altogether a few hours later.
The double and almost simultaneous shoot
ing left more than heritage OF grief and I'M
certainty for the two widows and the seven
teen orphans. II blasted for Sary Crutchficld
and FOR Old Lum. too, dream OF several
years that was TO have been realized in few
weeks when they were "a-gOin' daown 10 see
tothcr side OF Kaintucky. where Mas dotter
Oney had moved TO with her man 4"
"Tother side Of Kaintucky" means, TO the
Crutchfieds, Hartman, Tennessee, which
Oney's husband had written was Jest about
the purtiest bit OF country you ever did see"
And that "narrer gate" that Lum had
built was the cause Of it all. It was the mar
rerest' gate anybody could ever find that side
OF Brushy mountain. There had been hard
feelin's between Old Lum and Joe Carroll for
many weeks Just because OF that gate-and
the later patch
married Bertha, Ma Critchfieds daughter by
a previous marriage and Lum had been good
friends and cooperative neighbors.
Admon Crutchfield Lum's son. had lived
with the CAROLS Being equally poor, the
CAROLS and the Crutchfields did all they
could TO help each other out.
That was why Lum Crutchfield had let
Joe Carroll plant that tater patch right smack
<pn the Crutchheld land
y The first argument between the two men
Name when Lum built the gate between the
two plots of ground when he decided for
some reason known only 20 himself to fence
off his land from that OF his son-in-law.
There had been no trouble about the fence,
but Lum ran short of lumber when he got
around to constructing the gate. He had
acquired enough lumber in the first place. but
.he had given some Of IL g. Carroll who was
building an clubhouse n little farther up the