B. turns away and refuses to answer.
A. "I heard he had made that charge against me to you and threatened my
life--is this true?"
No answer.
A. "I may then presume by your _silence_ that it is true what I have
asked you about?"
No reply.
Result of _silence_: A homicide, and the destruction of two families.
Asked later on why he did not nip the trouble in its incipiency by
resorting to a white lie, B. answered with asperity that A. had put
his _own construction_ upon his silence and refusal to have anything
whatever to say in their controversy. On the stand B. admitted that the
third party in question had not told him what A. had inquired about.
Ergo: B. was morally responsible for the homicide, as much so as the
man that pulled the trigger.
Reverting to the circumstance which completed the breach between French
and Eversole: A certain friend (?) of French conveyed information to
Eversole that he, French, sought his life.
This informant was a clerk in the store of French and known to be in
his confidence. Naturally, under such circumstances, Eversole gave the
report credence. Why not? We are ever ready to believe and accept as
true anything that is spoken of an enemy, and French and Eversole had
already become such in their hearts, if not outwardly.
The tale-bearer, who shall be nameless, related how French had planned
to rid himself of his business rival and thus make for himself a clear
field for mercantile operations; that French expected to accomplish his
purpose with the aid of trusty, hired assassins, and that one part of
the plan, the employment of reliable murderers, had been entrusted to
him, the informant, who had been promised any amount of money necessary
for this purpose, and a partnership with French in the business as a
further reward for his services.
Whether for real or imaginary causes, this tale-bearer had become
intensely jealous of French over a woman. He sought consolation in
revenge; one of the first steps toward the consummation of his desire
to ruin his "rival in love" had been the bearing of the tale referred
to to Eversole.
Eversole, after weighing carefully the statement, seemed to have
entertained some doubt of its truth, and requested a sworn affidavit
containing the statements made. This the tale-teller readily prepared
with such clearness of detail as to cause Eversole to dismiss all doubt
of the truth of the revelations and at once prepared to meet his enemy
well.
French saw the ominous gathering of the Eversole clan, fully armed, and
surrounded himself with an equally strong force.
Both of the belligerents kept busy recruiting among their friends
and kindred in Perry and even adjoining counties. Man after man was
added to the clans, some joining them bound by the strong ties of
relationship or friendship, the most, however, were attracted by
promises of good steady pay, and an opportunity to violate the law on a
grander scale than they would have dared to do single-handed.
The first murder occurred shortly after the gathering of the clans.
One of French's staunchest friends, one Silas Gayhart, was shot and
killed--from ambush.
This mode of warfare was resorted to in this feud perhaps more
generally than in any of the others. It must not be attributed
altogether to cowardice--this murdering from ambush. It has many
advantages. Of course, killing an enemy from ambush puts the slayers
out of danger. That is one consideration, but the chiefest one is
that it is almost impossible to fasten the guilt of the crime upon
the proper person. When men are banded together for the purpose of
committing crime, the sanctity of an oath is easily laid aside when an
alibi becomes necessary. The entire population of the county may _know_
the assassins, point them out to you as they stalk proudly along, yet,
when it comes to trials by jury, the evidence seems to signally fail
to connect them. The very men that might have told you in confidence
the most damaging circumstances connecting the accused with crime,
will, on the stand, disclaim all knowledge, or so soften down their
statements that no jury could, under their oaths, find a verdict of
guilty.
In this murder of Gayhart at least a dozen white men and some negroes
participated. It is unfortunate that circumstances do not permit us
to give the names of them. They should be preserved for posterity,
and added to the list of feud heroes. As no one was ever indicted for
that cowardly assassination, although its perpetrators were well-known
throughout the county, history must necessarily remain silent in so far
as the publication of their names is concerned.
It has been stated and contended that the killing of Gayhart was an
affair entirely disconnected with the French-Eversole controversy;
that the man had fallen as the victim of a quarrel with persons not
members of the clan. This may be true and it may not. It is difficult
in such social upheavals to get at the unvarnished truth. When crimes
are committed under cover of black night, from well-secreted places,
suspicion might point in the wrong direction and accuse the innocent.
For this reason it is best to abstain from charges not definitely
established beyond any sort of doubt. The result of the Gayhart murder,
however, was the same as if he had been publicly assassinated by the
Eversole clan, for French believed that Gayhart lost his life because
of his friendship for him.
French sent out more recruiting officers. The increase of his "army"
forced the Eversoles to do likewise. How similar is this to the
struggle of nations to maintain superior armies and navies. It is not
strange, after all. Communities stand relatively in the same attitude
as do nations. A community is a miniature state, nothing more.
The little village of Hazard, with its one hundred inhabitants, was
now thrown into a state of perpetual excitement which continued
uninterrupted through the summer, fall and winter of 1887.
That no battle was fought was due to the extreme caution with which the
clans watched each other's every move.
Then early one morning the Eversole faction learned to their
astonishment that French and his army had evacuated the town during the
night.
Many theories were advanced in explanation of this singular action.
Some attributed it to fear. Those better acquainted with the temper and
make-up of the French clan scouted that idea and suggested that French
was seeking reinforcement in the country, and that at an opportune
moment he would sweep down upon the village, trap the hemmed-in
Eversoles, and annihilate them with overwhelming forces.
This seemed a rational conclusion. With French gone from town, Eversole
declined to be caught in such a trap, as trap it would have been, and
to prevent the execution of French's plan the Eversoles themselves
retreated to a section of the country peopled with their sympathizers.
However, Eversole did not leave Hazard open to undisputed occupation.
He left a bait there, a small force. If French should learn of the
weakness of the garrison he would be tempted to sweep down upon it. In
doing so he would find Eversole striking in his rear. French himself
was shrewd and refused to fall into the trap.
Eversole scouted everywhere, frequently on the trail of French. During
the month of June, in the dark of night, the latter reentered Hazard,
took possession of his fortified places where most of his men remained
secreted, while the more daring of them walked the streets the next
morning, bantering the Eversoles that had been left in town. Their
leader was at once notified by messenger to the country of the state
of affairs. He had but few men with him at that time, but with these
started for town. Seven or eight men, fortunately for him, joined his
ranks on the way.
It was late in the day when Hazard was reached, but the lateness
of the hour did not defer attack. From well selected positions the
Eversoles opened a plunging fire upon the housed-up French men. These
replied to the fusilade with equal spirit. Hundreds of shots were fired
at a great expenditure of ammunition and without appreciable result.
Only one man was seriously wounded on the side of French. No casualties
were admitted by the Eversoles.
The darkness of the night brought the engagement to a close. French
withdrew from town.
This kind of almost bloodless warfare continued throughout the summer
with no decisive result. Both clans grew weary. Great expense had been
incurred in keeping a large, paid army. The leaders were threatened
with bankruptcy. So when the friends of both sides interceded,
French and Eversole seemed more than willing to appoint and send
representatives to a conference, which was held on Big Creek in Perry
County. It was attended by prominent citizens of both Perry and Leslie
counties, who were anxious to bring about a settlement of the war.
Articles of agreement were finally drawn up, in which the belligerents
agreed to return to their homes, to disband their armies, and to
surrender their arms and ammunition.
This agreement was duly signed by the representatives of the clans and
duly witnessed.
In accordance with this agreement, French surrendered his arms to the
county judge of Leslie County, while Eversole placed his guns in charge
of Josiah Combs, county judge of Perry County.
The clans disbanded. Still, there were but few who promised themselves
lasting results from the Big Creek Treaty of Peace. It was nothing more
_than a scrap of paper_. The compromise had not been prompted by any
desire for friendship.
Its underlying motive was mercenary. The chieftains sought merely to
avoid financial outlay. The welfare of the country, respect for the
law, these were considerations of secondary importance only, if taken
into account at all. This may be fairly deducted from the fact that the
old distrust of each other never vanished. _The grudge was there_, it
rankled still.
Indeed, it was but a short time after the conclusion of the treaty
that French claimed to have unquestionable authority for the charge
that Eversole had violated the stipulations by repossessing himself of
the guns. These, as we have seen, had been turned over to Judge Josiah
Combs, who, by the way, was the father-in-law of Joe Eversole.
When Eversole was confronted with this breach of a solemn treaty he
attempted to justify it by declaring that at no time had it ever been
observed by French, who, he maintained, had never in fact disbanded his
army, and that the surrender of arms had only been partial, a blind.
Whether these reports had been actually brought to the ears of the
chieftains, or had been invented by them in order to manufacture some
sort of pretext upon which to renew hostilities, must ever remain in
doubt. Future events seem to prove rather clearly that neither of the
parties was in very good faith toward keeping the peace. Both French
and Eversole appeared singularly well prepared to re-enter the war. The
ink had hardly dried on the treaty when Perry County was again thrown
into turmoil and strife.
What had the authorities been doing during this period of quasi
warfare? We find absolutely no record of any sort of any attempt to
maintain the dignity of the law.
As in Rowan County, many of the court officers were rank partisans, who
used their power to protect in outlawry their own particular friends
and kindred. Those not in their favor had little cause to appeal to the
law, had they been inclined to do so, which they were not. It seemed to
suit both sides perfectly to let justice sheath her sword and stand
idle, and--blind as usual.
On the 15th of September, 1887, Joe Eversole and Bill Gambriel, a
French sympathizer, met in the streets of Hazard, when a quarrel
ensued. This was followed by a most sanguinary duel in which Gambriel
was killed.
Gambriel was a minister of the gospel, a typical mountaineer, tall,
powerful and game. He would fight at the drop of a hat and drop the
hat himself. It was said of him that he considered moonshine whiskey
of much benefit for the stomach, and a game at cards an agreeable
diversion from the cares and toils of life. It was said of him, too,
that he carried a testament in one pocket, a deck of cards, a bottle
of liquor and a pistol in the others. This had been told in a joke;
but straightway this description of him was accepted as a fact and was
widely published in the papers at the time.
The truth of the matter is that he was a man who entertained rather
singular, independent and free ideas of the duties of a preacher. He
was a good man, and had a wide circle of friends.
Joe Eversole was physically a small man, of slight stature, but quick
and agile as a boy. Certainly he was fearless.
When such men engage in combat blood is sure to flow. As to who began
the difficulty there is but little doubt. Official reports to the
Governor, which will be found later on, place the blame upon Eversole.
After a short exchange of blows between the men, Gambriel was fired
upon by secreted friends of Eversole. Attempting to escape by running
around a house, Gambriel was fired upon from another quarter and
fatally wounded. Staggering and reeling, he turned upon Eversole, who
fired into his head, instantly killing him.
Several parties were indicted for the murder, but one only was tried.
The trial resulted in a hung jury the first time, and in an acquittal
on the second trial. It has always been an open secret about town that
the man who fired upon Gambriel while he attempted to escape death, has
never been indicted, and that he was an officer at that time.
The killing created intense feeling. Gambriel had many friends. He
was a staunch French adherent and it was well within the course of
reason for French to regard the killing of the man as a challenge.
The Eversoles themselves believed that Gambriel's friends would not
pass lightly over the homicide and prepared to meet all danger. The
clans, disbanded (?) but a short time before, reassembled and for
several months roamed the ill-fated county at will, terrorizing its
inhabitants and defying the law.
But little fighting was done. It seems that they contented themselves
with manoeering, marching and counter-marching. In such warfare, if
warfare it was, the innocent were made to suffer more than the warriors.
Such an armed vagabondage was as useless as it was silly. It furnished
material for the sensational newspaper, but even these failed to
discover anything of the heroic about this campaign.
The leaders must have felt something of that themselves, for during the
winter the armies were again disbanded. Permanent restoration of peace,
however, was not to come to Perry County yet for a time.
The apparent calm through the winter was suddenly disturbed in the
following April, when the news of the brutal assassination of Joseph C.
Eversole and Nick Combs excited and horrified Hazard.
On the morning of April 15th, 1888, the valley of Big Creek, Perry
County, became the scene of a tragedy which might well cause one's
blood to run cold with horror, one's cheek to blush with shame.
On the Sabbath day, when human hearts should turn to God in prayer,
when nature even seems to bow in reverence, the birds of the forests
sing His praises with more than usual sweetness, two lives were hurled
into eternity without warning, murdered, butchered from ambush.
When a man resents an insult, when passion clouds all reason, and in
momentary frenzy, under the impulse of hot, red blood, he shoots his
fellow man, there is yet some excuse. But when men with the savage
instinct of beasts of prey fall upon their unsuspecting victims from
ambush, like the tiger that glides noiselessly through the thick jungle
and suddenly springs upon its prey, then the word man becomes a mock
and devil is the proper epithet.
Nowhere in the valley of Big Creek could a more suitable spot have been
selected from which to accomplish such a hellish crime as was committed
on that fatal Sunday morning, than the one chosen by the red-handed
demons.
The valley is narrow, the hills enclosing it are steep, rugged and
covered with dense forest. The spot where the murderers were in hiding,
commanded an uninterrupted view of the road up and down the valley.
Nothing short of a lynx's eyes could have penetrated the leafy,
thicket-grown murderers' retreat.
On the day of the murder, Joe Eversole, in company of his father-in-law,
Judge Josiah Combs and the latter's youthful nephew, Nick Combs,
bade a last farewell to his family and the host of friends at Hazard
and started for Hyden where the regular term of the Circuit Court was
scheduled to begin the following morning. This court Eversole and Judge
Combs had always attended, having been practising members of the bar
there for years. Of this fact the assassins had been well informed.
They seemed to have feared that their intended victims might possibly
leave for Hyden a day or two in advance of court, which they had done
on several occasions in the past, so the murderers prepared for such
an exigency and stationed themselves at the ambush for at least a day
before that memorable Sunday.
Their patient waiting was rewarded on Sunday morning by the appearance
of the victims. On the way the three travelers were joined by one Tom
Hollifield, an officer, who was conveying a prisoner, Mary Jones, to
Hyden. Judge Combs rode by the side of the officer, well in advance of
Eversole and young Nick Combs.
They had passed the ambush some forty yards or more, when suddenly the
roar of rapidly fired guns echoed and re-echoed through the valley. At
the sound of the shots Judge Combs turned and saw, to his horror, that
the messengers of death had accomplished their cruel mission, saw Joe
Eversole and Nick Combs fall from their rearing and plunging horses,
saw them struggle in their blood and then lay still.
Paralyzed with horror and agony, he gazed upon the scene. He had no
sense or realization of his own danger, for in danger he had been. It
was purely accident that he had ridden in advance of his kinsmen.
One of the assassins climbed down the steep hillside and approached the
body of Nick Combs, who was then in his death-throes. He had fainted,
but upon the approach of the assassin, opened his eyes.
The murderer, finding life still lingering in the mangled, bleeding
body, raised his rifle to finish the bloody work. The youth begged
piteously to shoot him no more, that death would claim him in a few
moments. Mountains might have been moved by his pleadings, but not the
heart of the cowardly assassin. "Dead men tell no tales," he exclaimed,
with a smile of derision upon his lips. Slowly he raised the Winchester
rifle, placed the muzzle against the boy's head and fired, dropping the
eyeballs from their sockets.
The murderer then calmly rifled the pockets of Eversole of their
contents and retreated, thus adding the crime of robbery to that of
murder.
Judge Combs, brought to himself, spurred his horse to utmost exertion
and dashed like a maniac into Hyden to bring the news.
The scene of the crime was within about three hundred yards of a house.
Shortly after the shooting one Fields, the owner of the house or cabin,
and one Campbell proceeded to the scene of the tragedy.
They found the dead in a pool of blood, lying within a few feet of
each other. They discovered Eversole's pockets turned inside out. Nick
Combs' horse was found, shot, in a little meadow by the side of the
road, while Eversole's horse was afterwards caught some miles further
down the stream.
The news of the tragedy aroused the people to instant action. A force
of men was assembled, who started upon the trail of the murderers.
The place of ambush was found. It was located exactly sixty-one feet
from the point where the bodies had been found, in a dense spruce-pine
thicket. Several of the pine bushes had been bent over and the tops
tied together, thus forming a complete screen and shelter.
Behind this blind or screen they found a considerable depression in
the earth, a natural rifle pit. This had been filled with leaves
and appeared packed and trodden into the ground. Numerous footprints
were plainly visible. Remnants of meals were also found. Everything
tended to confirm the theory that the assassins had been there for
at least two days before the killing. From this screen the trail was
followed up the hill until it divided. One of the trails led to the top
of a high ridge, one turned to the right, another to the left. This
discovery proved that there had been at least three assassins. When
this fact became known the pursuers retreated, seemingly afraid of an
ambush. They reasoned that three or more men so desperate as to commit
a cold-blooded double murder in the broad-open light of day, almost
in sight of human habitation, would and could, in this wild mountain
region, successfully fight an even larger force than was at the command
of the pursuers.
The bodies of Eversole and Combs were conveyed to Hazard in the
afternoon and consigned to their graves amid a great concourse of
sorrowing people.
Thus the bloody drama ends. The sombre curtain of mourning falls. The
story of the brutal assassination is finished. Justice hides her head
in shame for no one has ever been punished for it.
The French faction was at once openly charged with responsibility for
the outrage. French himself was indicted. So boldly and undisguised
were these accusations circulated that French feared for his safety and
again surrounded himself with men. He almost immediately withdrew from
town and scouted through the country.
If those who committed the murder of Eversole, or their accessaries,
had hoped to thereby crush the enemy, they found themselves sadly
mistaken. The vacancy created by the death of Joe Eversole was quickly
and ably filled by John Campbell, a man of acknowledged bravery, as
well as caution, and well-fitted as a leader in such a struggle.
He surrounded the town with guards; squads of men patrolled the
streets; his force made repeated scouts into the neighboring hills. No
man not in possession of the password could enter town. An unauthorized
attempt to do so drew upon the rash one the fire of many guns. Campbell
had been for days in hourly expectation of an attack by French.
He, therefore, believed it wise to resort to military methods and
discipline. The rigid order to shoot any one who dared to pass into
town without first giving the pass-word resulted in his own death.
He was returning one night from his usual rounds when, on approaching a
sentry, he found him asleep. He ordered him harshly to arise, when the
man, half asleep, and dazed, threw the gun to his shoulder and fired.
Campbell uttered a groan and fell heavily to the ground.
The sentry, on perceiving his mistake, gave the alarm; the wounded
chieftain was carried to his home, where an examination of his wound by
the surgeons disclosed the fact that he had been fatally wounded. He
lingered, however, for more than thirty days in intense agony before he
died--the victim of his own precautions.
During Campbell's leadership one Shade Combs conceived the grand
idea that he was the man who might summarily end the war by killing
off certain obnoxious members of the French faction. He communicated
his plans to Campbell, who furnished him the required men. But by
some means Combs' intended victims had gotten wind of his scheme and
forestalled it in such manner that the hunter now became the hunted.
One fine morning, while saddling his horse, a well-directed shot from
ambush ended his life.
Such were conditions in Perry County during the summer and fall of
1888. People who had continued entirely neutral, grew exceedingly
nervous. One never knew when his turn would come next to die from a
shot from the bushes. The law had utterly failed to give the citizens
the protection to which they were entitled. The state and county
government enforced the collection of taxes but seemed unable to
enforce the law. Had the people of Perry County withheld their hands
from their purse-strings and refused to pay taxes, we honestly believe
that the high authorities would very quickly have found or invented a
remedy for the lawlessness which was depriving the State of revenue.
The citizens of Perry County would have been justified in a rebellion
against taxation, unless the government protected them in their rights.
When people are taxed, they in turn are supposed to have their lives
and property protected. When one consideration of a contract fails, the
other may be avoided.
On the 9th of October, 1888, the news of another assassination
increased the terror of the people. Elijah Morgan, a French adherent, a
man of courage and unswerving determination, was shot and killed within
less than two miles of Hazard--shot from ambush.
On the morning of his death he and one Frank Grace were on their way
to town in pursuance of an agreement that had been entered into by him
with members of the Eversole faction. Morgan was the son-in-law of
Judge Combs, but in spite of all efforts from that direction to throw
his influence with the Eversoles he had continued to remain loyal to
French and for this he was promptly slain.
His death had been decreed some time before this, but his shrewdness
and knowledge of the tactics of his enemies had made him a very
slippery proposition. A ruse was, therefore, resorted to. For a short
time previous to his death Morgan had frequently expressed his desire
for peace, an earnest wish to lay down his arms, and to be permitted
to return to peaceful pursuits. This commendable desire on his part
assisted his enemies in the formulation of plans for his destruction.
They assured him with every pledge of sincerity that he should not be
molested; that he might freely come to town whenever he wished; that on
a certain day (the day of the murder) if he would meet them at Hazard,
they would all renew the friendship that had existed until the feud
tore them asunder.
Morgan promised to attend the proposed peace jubilee. Little did
he dream that the pretended friends were cold-blooded, calculating
enemies, seeking his life under the miserable mask of friendship; that
to be certain of success, to avoid any possible miscarriage of the
plot, every avenue of escape had been carefully considered and guarded
against.
Assassins were placed at various points along the road and at
convenient spots in town.
The actors in the tragedy were all at their posts when Morgan stepped
upon the scene, unknowingly playing the chief role.
Within less than two miles, in fact, but little more than a mile from
town, at a spot where the road is flanked by large overhanging cliffs
on one side and the steep river bank on the other, Morgan was fired
upon. With a bullet in his back he sank to the ground. A number of
shots followed the first one. Grace was driven to cover. Morgan, in his
death struggle, rolled over the river bank where a small tree arrested
further descent. Grace, not daring to abandon his place of comparative
safety, remained a helpless spectator of the agonies of his dying
friend.
Country people, traveling toward town, at last came to Morgan's relief,
but he died within a few hours.
As soon as the alarm had been given, a posse of his friends started in
pursuit of the murderers, but nothing came of it.
The French faction openly charged the Eversoles with the murder. The
Eversoles expressed indignation at the imputation. They had no right
to complain. On other occasions they had themselves preferred similar
charges against French upon no better authority than suspicions based
upon suspicious circumstances. The murder of Morgan had followed
closely upon the heel of the assassination of Shade Combs for which the
Eversoles held the French faction responsible. Certainly there were
some well-grounded suspicions that the slaying of Morgan was an act of
retaliation on the part of the Eversoles.
Now the State government and the circuit judge began to take a hand
in the matter. It was time. Circuit Judge Lilly, a gentleman of the
highest type, an able jurist, had somehow or other seemed unable to
inspire the district with respects for his courts. This district
embraced the counties of Breathitt, Letcher, Perry, Knott and others.
In each of those lawlessness had spread to such an extent that the
judge found himself defied on every hand and felt himself compelled to
request the State to furnish troops for his courts.
This led to the following spirited correspondence between the Governor
and Judge Lilly:
Hazard, Ky., Nov. 13, 1888.
To the Governor of Kentucky:
Sir:--Captain Sohan has succeeded in organizing a company of
about 45 State Guards in Perry County. He informs me that he has
no orders and does not know whether he will be ordered back to
Louisville or to go with me to Whitesburg, thence to Hindman and
thence to Breathitt; but, in any event, expects to be ordered away
from here very soon. Mr. B. F. French is here with 15 or perhaps
more men, well armed, and the people are so much alarmed, fearing
that they will be left to the mercy of these men, that I have
decided that I will take the responsibility upon myself to order
the Perry Guards on duty, hoping that you will approve my action
and order them on duty, and let their pay begin on the 17th instant.
I will not attempt to hold courts at Letcher, Knott, or Breathitt
unless you send guards along. No good can be accomplished by
holding courts in any of those counties without a guard. If a
sufficient guard is present, I think that much good will be
accomplished in and by the moral effect it will have on the people
by showing them that you are determined to have the courts held and
the laws enforced, and to give protection to the good citizens.
Please write me and send by way of Manchester, as I shall return
that way, and if I do not receive your letter here, can get it on
the road. If you order the guard to go with me I will go and hold
the courts if not Providentially hindered.
I remain, Yours truly,
H. C. LILLY.
The Governor answered in rather caustic manner.
_Governor Buckner's Reply._