Year: 1873

being present in the prosecution OF tne cl',ni'
nails. There had been no court held IN that
county since 1861, owing to the civli war; L
found everything in the worst confusion posi-
BILE. Men had been murdered in cold BLOOD
and nothing was done with them. Murder,
arson, robbery, and all the crimes in the cata'
Ioone had been committed with lmpunlty,
and the malefactors had gone unwhipped OF
Justice owing to the absence Of law. During
the war everything was in anarchy; there was va
neither safety to women nor innocent chill
dren-all suffered alike. When it was known
that there would. be circuit court held IN
that county, the news attracted very large
crowd ,oo- r


On Monday morning, November s, 1860, l
found large crowd in b, the county seat
Of o.. Men, women and children came !I,
some the distance of thirty miles. Guerrlllas
and bushwhackers came with their guns ana
pistols, as though they intended to overawe the
court, and determined that none OF their gang
should be indicted for the numerous murders
ofwhich they had been guilty. Court opened
and the sheriff returned his list Of grand
iury. The court instructed them as to their
duty they were sworn and sent to their room
I had determined in my own mind that every
person that had been guilty of felony or
misdemeanor in o. county should be reg
ularly indicted, if could, in any way, obtain
the evidence against them.


There was case that was shrouded in mys-
terry. A young man, who was the pride OF a
widowed mother, had suddenly disappeared
from the county about two years before, and
had never been heard from. His name was
Charles Belknap he was an only child; hand
some, finely educated, and as brave as llon
I made diligent inquiry. 1 had about one
hundred witnesses summoned. l examined
them closely, and when 1 dismissed them
warned them to tell no one what transpred IN
the grand Jury room In that way | hoped
to keep the real murderers in the dark as to
what I was doing.


could only gather the following circum-
stances in the case: That young Belknap
had left his home in June, 1868, and was RI
ding very fine horse, with $1,000 in his
possession. He failed to return at night, and
his mother became very uneasy about him.
and next morning set out to make inquiries
concerning him. She went to the house OF
Squire Mosely, who lived about five miles
from her, leading man in the county, tod
her story, and made inquiries concerning her
son. The Squire told her that her son was
at his house the day before, and left in the dl-
recton of the town Of B; that he lett
about 10 o'clock in the morning This was
all she could hear of him. No one else had
seen him, and she returned home a broken
hearted mother She made inquiries of every
person every stranger that passed was inter
roeated, but all in vain. She still kcp up the
search for her missing boy, and about twelve
months after he had SO mysteriously dlsap.
peared, she was returning home from one of
her searches and met Squire Mosely. The
'Suuire told her he had heard from her boy
that he was in Iowa. He had received let
ter from him, and that he would be at home
soon; that he had left the letter at home, DC.
Mrs. Belknap went directly to the 'Squlre's
house, without communicating her intention
to him, and inquired of the family for the
letter that the Squire had received from her
long lost boy. The family seemed surprised
and knew nothing about such letter having
been received.


This was all the evidence I could get as to
the probable fate Of her son. What was to
do? went to my room and studied over the
matter How could say that young Belknap
had been murdered? His body had not been
found and who would dare to accuse Squire
Mosely of such crime? lay in my bed
that night thinking over the circumstances,
and it was near four o'clock in the morning
when l fell asleep l slept until eight o'clock,
1 got up, washed and dressed myself, fully de-
termined to indict Squire Mosely for the
crime of murder. went to the grand jury
room, directly after eating a hearty breakfast.
told the foreman what my intentions were.
drew up the indictment, accusing Squire
NIosely of the crime of murder, committed as
follows, viz: The said Squire Mosely, on
the day of August, 1868, in the county of
o. did feloniouSly and with malice atore-
thought kill and murder Charles Belknap by
shooting him with gun loaded with leaden
bullet against the peace and dignity of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky. | presented
the Indictment to the grand jury, and they
indorsed it true bill. cautioned the men,
bers of the jury to say nothing about what we
had done, but to keep the whole thing secret,
and if before the court adjourned nothing
turned up to fix the crime on the Squire,
that we could destroy the indictment. The
grand jury found indictments against eighteen
persons for murder, and so secretly was 1t
managed, that the sheriff had them all in Jail
at once.


The indicting of so many persons naturally
produced great excitement among the citizens.
went to my room that night and double
locked my door, examined my pistol and put
itunderthe head ofmy bed. About IL o'clock
| had knock at my door; | demanded to
know who was there. A person answered, "a
friend" I got up, lit lamp, took my pistol
in my hand and opened the door. A stranger
stepped in closed the door and demanded
his business. He seemed very much frghten-
ed, and casting hasty glance around the
room to satisfy himself that there was no other
person in the room except myself, he told me
that his name was Colby, and stated that he
wanted to communicate very important TACT
to me concerning the fate of young Belkuap'
I told him to proceed. He wanted to know
whether he could turn States evidence or not
and save himself. l replied in the afirnla,
tive. He then told me that he Knew where
Young Belknap was buried, that Squire
MoseIy had killed him, had got 81, 800 from
his person, and had run Belknap's horse on
and sold him to some Confederate soldiers,
and that he had assisted Mosely in burylng
Belknap. l told Colby to keep his seat in
nv room, that he should not be hurt; and |
went out, hunted up the sheriff and told him
to oct eight or ten reliable men and bring
them to nv room. He did So | then took
the Sheriff and Colby into room, and made
Colby repeat his story over to that officer.
then directed the Shcriffto procure sack and
take Colby and the men he had brought with