Frankfort, Ky., Nov. 14, 1888.
To his Excellency, Governor S. B. Buckner.
Dear Sir:--Pursuant to Executive order, bearing date the 29th ult.,
I left Frankfort on 31st and proceeded to Hazard, the county seat
of Perry County, arriving there noon of Sunday, the 14th instant,
where I remained till Thursday, the 8th, when I left on my return,
at 10 o'clock A. M., arriving here Saturday morning. Hazard
contains near 100 inhabitants, when they are all at home, but I
was told that not more than about thirty-five people were at home
when I reached there, the rest of the population having refugeed in
consequence of the French and Eversole feud which has distracted
the people of the town and county for more than two years, and
during which some ten men have died by violence as the result
thereof. Many of the refugees returned before I left there, a
number having joined the troops en route, and returned under their
protection to Hazard, arriving there on the afternoon of Sunday,
the 4th, while others returned Sunday night and others as late as
Wednesday night.
Among those who had sought safety in flight were George Eversole,
county judge, and brother to Joe Eversole, the leader of the
faction of that name; Ira Davidson, circuit and county court
clerk, a sympathizer with that faction, Josiah Combs, late county
judge and father-in-law of Joseph Eversole, and his son ----
Combs, who is an officer of the circuit court, and Fulton French,
the leader of the French faction, together with the families of
each, except Davidson, who is a single man. These all returned,
except the elder Combs, either with the troops or after their
arrival, and before I left. The killings above referred to were
mostly assassinations from ambush, which seems to have been the
favorite method of warfare adopted by both factions for ridding
the community of the presence of persons who, from causes real or
supposed, had made themselves obnoxious to the slayers, though
one killing, that of Mr. Gambriel, was committed in the town
of Hazard, in broad daylight, by two Eversoles and two of his
henchmen, and was witnessed by a number of people; was committed
without anything like adequate provocation, but for which no
indictment had ever been found. Grand juries and witnesses seem
either to have sympathized with the law-breakers or to have been
intimidated by them; but it is not improbable that both of these
causes have operated to paralyze the administration of the law,
and to correspondingly stimulate crime. As is usual in such cases,
I found that the county authorities failed to act with any degree
of promptness and vigor at the inception of the difficulties and
the result was the inevitable one--the troubles soon grew beyond
their control. Josiah Combs, the father-in-law of Joe Eversole,
was county judge at the beginning of the feud and Eversole and
his friends were evidently the aggressors--at least were first to
resort to violence--and when the county judge was appealed to by
outsiders to issue warrants for their arrest, positively declined
to do so, saying that Eversole had done nothing to be arrested
for, and that French ought to be driven away from town. Thus the
inaction of the authorities stimulated the friends of each faction,
and each sought safety in arming such persons as would take service
with them, and setting at defiance the law instead of looking to it
as their best protection. Finally, one Sunday morning last April,
Joe Eversole, in company with Nick Combs, his brother-in-law, and
Josiah Combs, started from Hazard to Hyden to circuit court, and
when about five miles out from Hazard they were fired upon from
ambush and Eversole and young Combs were instantly killed.
Fulton French was indicted for that killing, and while he may have
instigated it, he certainly did not participate in the shooting.
The killing of Joe Eversole seems to have demoralized his friends,
the most prominent of whom soon after left Hazard.
The last assassination was that of Elijah Morgan, who was shot
from ambush, near Hazard, on the 9th of last month. His only crime
appears to have been that he sympathized with French. Morgan was
also a son-in-law of Josiah Combs and brother-in-law of Eversole.
And now, perhaps, you are ready to ask what it was all about?
Well, I cannot say, although I very naturally sought to learn the
cause. Some of whom I enquired thought it was business rivalry,
while others said there was a woman in the case, and I think it
attributable in part to both those causes. French and Eversole were
both merchants and lawyers, and I was told that some three years
ago a man who was clerking for French accused French of deflouring
his wife, and quit French and took service with Eversole, and told
the latter that the former had offered him five hundred dollars
to murder him, and soon afterwards Silas Gayheart, who was a
friend of French, was murdered, as it is charged, by Eversole and
his friends, and from that time on the troubles have grown and
assassinations multiplied, the victims being first from one side
and then from the other. I thought it advisable to call out 44 of
the reserve militia, all that I had arms for, and selected these
from the best, non-partisan people that I could.
The list was not complete when I left, but I authorized Capt.
Sohan, whom I found to be an excellent officer, to muster them
in, and gave him similar instructions to those you gave me on the
subject.
Judge Lilly is very anxious that the troops go with him to Knott
and Letcher Counties, but I heard of no organized band of outlaws
in those counties too strong for the civil authorities, if the
latter will do their duty. The troops, officers and men comprising
the detail, conducted themselves in a soldierly and appropriate
manner, and I apprehend that they will have no trouble in
protecting the court from violence should any be offered, which I
think improbable.
Very respectfully,
SAM E. HILL,
Adjutant-General.
Captain Sohan's report contains additional facts of interest; the
difficulty in reaching the remote, mountainous section, and facts
connected with the conduct of the court.