The father pointed to the son. "There he is. I have done all I can for
him and I cannot go about him or have anything to do with him." Then
Judge Hargis repeated that Beach was destroying his business and would
do the same with Dr. Hogg's business if Evylee kept on harboring him.
Not a word was spoken between father and son. But as Jim Hargis walked
in his direction, Beach pulled himself up out of his chair, stepped
around behind the spool case that stood on the end of the counter,
leered at his father and moved toward him. Beach came within three feet
of his father. The next thing they were grappling.
Terrified bystanders and clerks heard the report of five pistol shots.
All five of the shots lodged in Jim Hargis's body. By this time the two
men were on the floor. The father holding the son down with one arm,
lifted in his right the smoking pistol. "He has shot me all to pieces,"
gasped Judge Hargis as he handed the pistol to a bystander. He died in a
few minutes.
Loyal to her unfortunate son, Louellen, the widow of Judge Hargis, set
about to get the ablest lawyers in the state to defend him. Will Young,
matchless orator of Rowan County, was not able to clear Beach on the
first trial. On the second, however, aided by the legal skill of
Governor William O. Bradley, D. B. Redwine, J. J. C. Bach, Sam H. Kash,
and Thomas L. Cope, Beach was sentenced to the penitentiary for life
instead of the gallows.
As the years went by the mother continued to plead for her son's
freedom. Time and again she made the journey to Frankfort to beg mercy
of the governor. Weary and sad she lingered outside the door of the
mansion. She hovered close to the entrance of the chief executive's
suite in the capitol, pleading by look, if word was denied her. Finally
the governor pardoned Beach Hargis, because, it was said, His Excellency
could no longer bear the sight of the heartbroken mother. Beach was
pardoned on promise of good behavior.
But scarcely was he back in Breathitt County when pistol shots were
heard again. He rode out to the farm of relatives a few miles from
Jackson and when the womenfolk spied him galloping up the lane they took
to the attic in terror. Beach, reeling drunk, staggered into the dining
room where the table was set for dinner. There was a platter of fried
chicken, another of hot biscuits. He shot all the biscuits off the
plate, threw the chicken out the door and didn't stop till he had
riddled every dish on the table.
The womenfolk up in the attic, with fingers to ears, stared white and
trembling at each other. Finally one of the girls reached out of the
small window up under the eaves and, with the aid of a branch from the
cherry tree close by, caught hold of the rope on the farm bell. Once the
rope was in her hand she pulled it quickly again and again. The clanging
of the bell brought the men from the fields but as they approached on
the run through the cornfield and potato patch, Beach threw a leg over
his horse and galloped away, shooting into the air.
He continued on the rampage. Out of one scrape into another.
His mother died of a broken heart. She had done all she could for her
son but Beach Hargis went his reckless way.
He was sent to prison a second time, for the safety of all concerned,
but he escaped about the time of the World War. No one has seen hide or
hair of him since then. There have been many conjectures as to his
whereabouts but no one really knows what has come of Judge Jim Hargis's
slayer.
There is a fine State College in Morehead, Rowan County, Kentucky, where
Judge Will Young, whose eloquence saved Beach from the gallows, lived
and died. On the college campus there is a Hargis Hall, named for Thomas
F. Hargis, a Democrat and captain in the Confederate Army, and a
relative of the reckless Beach.
As for Beach's cousin, Curt Jett, accused of murder, rape, and even the
betrayal of a pretty mountain girl, convicted of the slaying of J. B.
Marcum, he was pardoned from the penitentiary, got religion, and was,
the last heard from, preaching the gospel through the mountains of
Kentucky.
For all the shedding of blood of kith and kin in the Hargis-Cockrell
feud, when our country was plunged into the World War, Bloody Breathitt
had no draft quota because so many of her valiant sons hastened to
volunteer.
* * * * *
Although many of the feuds in the Blue Ridge grew out of elections, they
were not prompted by ambition, for the offices contested were not high
ones like that of senator or congressman. Frequently they were lesser
posts such as that of sheriff or jailer or school-board trustee. When
the strife finally led to assassination the motive usually was the
desire for safety. The one feared had to be removed by death.
One famous feud, however, was started over the possession of a wife's
kitchen apron.
Tom Dillam's wife left him and one day passing his farm she spied a
woman working in the field wearing one of her aprons. Mrs. Dillam flew
into a rage, climbed the rail fence, and deliberately snatched the apron
off the other woman. Tom went after her to the home of his
father-in-law, John Bohn, to recover the apron. He quarreled with his
wife and instantly killed Bohn who tried to interfere.
As the quarrels continued and the years went by, Dillam incited his
relatives and friends and armed them as well. He finally had behind him
a band of outlaws. In 1885, about the time the Martin-Tolliver feud in
Rowan County was at its height, Mrs. Dillam's brother William had a
dispute over timber with her estranged husband's brother George. Bohn
killed Dillam but as he ran for shelter he himself was slain by two
other brothers of Dillam, Sam and Curt.
As the feeling grew others were drawn into the fray. Brothers opposed
brothers. The Dillams' sister was married to Lem Buffum, and because of
Buffum's friendship with the Bohns he was hated by the Dillams.
There was a dance one Christmas night at which two of the Dillam band
were slain by Buffum. From then on Sam Dillam dogged the steps of Lem
Buffum who finally killed his tormentor. This so enraged the Dillam band
they started a reign of terror. They were openly out to get any Buffum
sympathizer. They riddled their homes with bullets, burned barns,
waylaid the sympathizers and shot them to death without warning. Once a
friend of the Buffums', Jack Smith, when the Buffum home was besieged,
rushed in and carried out the aged mother of Lem. He bore her down to
the river and leaping into a skiff rowed the old woman safely to the
other side. On his return the Dillams shot him to death from ambush.
In such a high-handed fashion did they carry on their warfare that they
made bold to seize Jake Kimbrell, a Buffum friend, at a dance. While
some of the Dillam band held their prisoner fast other members of the
crew shot him to death.
Their utter cruelty finally caused even some of their own faction to
withdraw from the feud. Tom Dillam's brother Ab said outright that if
they wanted to go on hunting Lem Buffum and terrorizing the country
they'd have to do it without him. Lem's sister was married to Ab's son
Jesse. One day in his absence they set upon Ab's house and shot it as
full of holes as a sieve.
Women and children were no longer safe and the citizens decided
something had to be done for protection. They asked the governor for
troops. His refusal was bolstered by the alibi that first it was the
duty of the sheriff of the county to attempt to capture the murderers.
Then the judge of the county called for fifty militiamen. Instead of
that number only fifteen came to restore law and order. But even before
they arrived on the scene a lad on horseback saw them coming and
galloped off to inform the outlaws who took to the woods.
With seven of the sheriff's men left to guard the home and family of
Jesse Dillam, Jesse and several others sought safety in a log house some
distance away. However, before they could reach the log house one of
their number was killed, one fled and the rest managed to escape into a
nearby thicket.
When circuit court convened soon afterward the Dillam brothers, Tom and
Curt, were arrested. Tom, having been released on a $5000 bail, was
going toward the courthouse one day with his lawyer. Following close
behind was Tom's lieutenant and another friend. On the way they passed
the house where their wounded victims were staying and when within range
of the place the outlaws drew their pistols. They did not know that Lem
Buffum and his friends had been warned and were waiting for this moment.
Suddenly a volley of bullets was poured upon the outlaws. Sixteen of the
well-aimed shots had pierced Tom Dillam's body.
Hatred and lust for murder had by this time gone deep into the heart of
Tom's son who became the leader of the band. If anyone opposed him in
anything, he knew but one way to take care of the opposition and that by
the gun. He gave one of the Dillam band twenty dollars and a gun to slay
a rival. Tom's brother Curt was finally released on bail but it was not
long until his bullet-torn body was found in the woods.
Fear on the part of those who had testified against the outlaw in his
trial impelled the removal for all time of the cause of fear. The
universe breathed easier after Tom's brother Curt was under the sod.