USA > Kentucky > Garrard County > A history of the feud between the Hill and Evans parties of Garrard County, Ky. The most exciting tragedy ever enacted on the bloody grounds of Kentucky > Part 5
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father with the awful tidings. The Doctor received the intelligence during the following night, and set out without delay. According to an agreement of his friends, he arrived at the house of George Hackley, the constable, about ten o'clock the next night, placed himself under his care, as guard, went to Lancaster and demanded a trial. A strong guard was. placed over the Doctor, not to prevent him from running away, but to afford protection against the Hills. His lawyers asked : " Who will you be tried before ? "
" Before the two smartest judges that can be found in the county - two who know most about the law."
: " Letcher and Campbell are the best judges, but we fear that Letcher is prejudiced against you."
" He has no cause for prejudice, and if he has any, I want to know it. I want to know who will act upon the principles of justice. I will take him at any rate, for this may not be the. final trial."
, " He went into a thorough trial before the above named judges, which lasted two or three days, and resulted in his acquittal.
The Doctor displayed considerable judgment in these maneu- vers. Had he stood a trial immediately after killing Hill, he certainly would have been hanged, for the whole country was enraged against him, and the people would have had little repugnance in sacrificing him to restore peace. Peace, or war, depended upon his life. Had he been killed, his sons would
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THE HILL AND EVANS FEUD.
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scarcely have carried on the war, and the number of friends permitted to enlist in the cause was too small to prosecute it without the granite energy of their old general to stimulate them to action. But now the scales of fate turned in his favor. Every one cried out bitter anathemas against the Hills, and bade the Doctor, God speed in a cause, which excited such sympathy and intense interest in their bosoms, on account of the atrocious Lancaster fight -- which will be treated of in the next chapter. Now, he could go with perfect safety into a trial, which would have formerly proven his death. This fluctuation in public sentiment affords a profound study of human nature, a study by which we may all profit. By contemplating what has past, and the causes that produced the events, we have a standard or guide by which we may act to create certain desirable effects, and avoid others that would be deleterious. The mind that can trace out its course in the dim future by these beacon lights, displays the true genins.
After this trial, the Hills attempted at every court to get the grand jury to indict Dr. Evans ; but they passed it over in. silence. The citizens then tried to restore peace, and made a proposition for the two parties to go into negotiation. The Hills pledged their word and honor that they would quit fighting if the opposite party would. The Doctor told them all they had to do was to quit - if they would let him alone he would extend the same favor to them - but that he could have faith in neither their word nor their honor, since they had so unscrupulously violated every principle of honor and veracity.
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But for the sake of restoring peace, he agreed to visit only one half of Lancaster if they would confine themselves to the other side of town - to give half the road when they chanced to meet, and to use every means to prevent a collision between the two parties. These stipulations were equally binding upon both parties, and strictly adhered to by Dr. Evans. The future will tell how faithfully the Hills observed them.
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THE LANCASTER FIGHT.
CHAPTER VIII.
Samuel and Thomas Evans go to Lancaster - Hills attack Tom, and knock him senseless - Sam runs to his succor - Hills cut Tom to pieces with bowie- knives, and one of them places a pistol against his head - Sam fires upon them and tumbles one into the cellar -- Fred Hill runs up with a bowie-knife, and Sam shoots him down - Hills rush at Sam and compel him to retreat - Sam shoots Rus Hill and makes the party retreat - Sam shoots Henry Sagracy, and defeats the whole crowd - Sam gets into a sick man s room. and sends him on an errand to his lawyer - Old John Hill's monkey pranks - Sam's trial and acquittal - Grand Jury indict the Hills - Tom's wounds - Public sentiment changed - Sam greeted with applausc.
HAD it been expedient to record events as they transpired, · with respect to time, this scene would have come in during the Doctor's absence. But for the sake of unity, I thought it better to serve the Doctor first. The kind reader will, there- fore, permit me to retrace a short period of time.
This tragical scene was acted during the Doctor's absence, in May, 1850. Sam and Tom Evans, who were respectively 18 and 16 years of age, went to town to procure some necessaries for the family, and among other things, a saddle for themselves. As they were bound under such heavy pecuniary penalties to keep the peace, they believed that the Hills were honor bound not to molest them. But notwithstanding this, they carried some of their small arms. Several of the Hill party were in the shop when the boys bargained for the saddle. In the evening, when they were ready to return home, Sam told Tom to lead the horses across the square, to the shop, while he went up stairs to get the saddle. As he approached the shop he saw a crowd of Hills standing on either side of the door, but went up without saying a word to them. Tom, leading the horses, soon followed. When he arrived at the door and saw that Sam had not come down, he thought he would hitch the horses and go up into the shop too. As he was in the act of throwing the bridles around the tree, which stood on the edge of the side- walk, the Hills rushed at him. He instantly snatched his pistol
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THE HILL AND EVANS FEUD.
to shoot, but at that moment two or three of them fired at him, and one struck him in the forehead with a rock, which knocked him senseless. As he fell, he hollooed - " Oh Sam! Oh Sam !! " When Sam heard this and the report of the pistols, he was a few feet from the head of the stairs with the saddle on his arm - he dropped the saddle, drew a small revolver and ran down to the foot of the stairs. He saw Tom, about six feet distant to the right, with a crowd of Hills around, cutting him to pieces - some would hold while the others cut. Another group was standing on the pavement in front of the stair-way door. Just as Sam arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he saw one of the party run up to Tom and put a pistol against his head. At that instant Sam fired, struck the fellow in the right shoulder, and tumbled him, together with his pistol, into a cellar. The next moment Fred Hill run up with a bowie-knife, and was about to plunge it into Tom's breast, when Sam drove a ball into his back, and stretched him on the ground. Isaiah Hill attempted to pull Tom a little from the wall that he might have fairer hacking. Sam fired at his breast and struck the handle of a pistol in the right side of his coat, which so frightened him that he ran away.
The crowd before the door was placed there to shoot Sam as he came down, while the others were to do the work for Tem. At the last shot, Sam's pistol ceased to revolve, being impeded by the fragment of an exploded cap. As soon as those before the door saw this, they rushed at him, and ran up the stairs with up-raised bowie-knives, ready for a butchery. He retreated up the stairs, and by this time succeeded in getting his pistol to revolve. Rus Ilill was in front, and when Sam pointed the pistol at him, he turned, tucked down his head and ran back, receiving the ball in his right shoulder. That made them scamper and clear the stair-way in double-quick time. Sam dropped the revolver on the floor, drew two single barrels. and with one in each hand, ran down to his former stand. When he got down, he saw Henry Sagracy leveling a pistol at him. At that instant Sam threw up his - Sagracy wheeled and received the ball in his right shoulder. The pistol which he held in the other hand went off and lodged its ball in the door steps. He kept pointing the empty pistol at Elijah Duggins, but found it
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THE LANCASTER FIGHT.
would not fire --- Duggins wheeled and ran off. He kept pointing the empty pistol at them till they all ran away. It is an extraordinary fact that they were all shot in the right shoulder. It can be accounted for only by accident, for Sam certainly did not have so much consideration and mercy as to shoot them in the right shoulder when a ball in the left side would have proven fatal. He might have aimed at the heart, but perhaps the pistol was defective, and did not throw the ball where he intended.
Sam shot two balls which he cannot account for, but John Hill confessed that one grazed his face and the other cut his hand. There were several men in the shop when the fight began, but the fear of finding a bloody grave there, forced them out of a back window and made them jump to the ground from the roof of a lofty shed-room, which seriously injured some of them. When Sam had scared all of the Hill party away, he got out at the same window, walked on the shed a little distance, raised another window and went into a room. He found there a sick young man who appeared to be very much frightened, and started to run down.
" Stop sir !" said Sam, "you must not go down yet - help me to load my pistols. Then you must go down and tell Joshua Burdett, my lawyer, to come here ; but you must not let any one else know where I am."
The young man helped to load the pistols, and being very much agitated filled the barrels about half full of powder ; then went down through the little trap-door and did as directed. Sam had never been in the room before, nor did he know where he was; but it happened to be a very safe place. Rus Hill was carried into the room beneath him. Sam looked at him through the cracks of the floor and could have shot him, but the groans and wailings of the wounded man touched his heart with pity. Tom was yet lying on the pavement, weltering in his inspissated gore. The Hills, after they ran away from Sam's empty pistol, went over to Yantis's drug store and got their rifles, where they had previously deposited them. They then returned and searched for Sam. and would have put an end to Tom's suffering had they not been prevented. The citizens then interposed and carried away the wounded to the different taverns.
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THE HILL AND EVANS FEUD.
While they were making such sad havoc with Tom, old John Hill stood near by and looked on ; but as soon as he saw Sam begin to shoot them down, he cried out:
: " Lord amessy, aint there no body to stop it !"
'. Johnny, you had better go and stop it," observed Mr. Miller.
" Lord, I can't do nothing -- I can't do nothing," replied Johnny.
And when his men began to flee before an empty pistol, he cried out :
" Lord Jesus, don't let him get away like his father did !"
' The squad placed in front of the door to shoot Sam, fired about thirty balls at him, but not a single one touched even his clothes - they lodged in the door facings, and in the ceiling of the shop. This is an extraordinary fact, for it can scarcely be conceived how every one of such a shower of balls could miss him. Some people believe that the balls did hit him, but that he had on a shield or breast-plate, which preserved him unwounded. To this I cannot answer; but the fact of his clothes not being touched, is evidence enough that the balls would not have harmed him notwithstanding the shield. Sam thought, and said, that they were only snapping at him ; but one of the party replied to this report, " Whoever said that, told a d-n lie, for I shot at him six times myself."
Burdett soon went up to where Sam was, and asked what he wanted. Sam replied :
"I want something to eat. Bring me something to eat, then prepare for my trial."
Burdett brought him some victuals - he eat composedly, then went down, delivered himself to the sheriff, and had his trial that same evening.
When the citizens interfered, the Hills swore out a writ against Sam and Robert Collier - swearing that they did the shooting. But when they found that Collier could prove that he was in a store on the opposite side of the square during the fight, they dismissed him and prosecuted Sam's trial. The two justices of the peace before whom he was tried, found no fault with his conduct, only that he did not do quite enough shooting, but, considering that he was a mere boy, thought it would do pretty well.
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... THE LANCASTER FIGHT.
Nothing was done with the Hills; they roamed about the country unmolested, till the next court. The grand jury then indicted eleven of the party for malicious shooting and intent to kill. A portion of them came up and gave bail for their ap -. pearance at court, and were afterward tried and acquitted. The others were at perfect liberty, and cared nothing for either in- dictment or trial. One of the party could not give bail, but the officers did not trouble themselves about taking him. If he was thus freed from punishment by the delinquent officers of the just laws of his country, Providence had prepared a pun- ishment for him. Soon after the fight, he was blowing rock out : of a well : a blast caught before he was ready and blew him. high into the air ; put out his eyes, and blew his hands nearly all to pieces, rendering him perfectly helpless.
The first physician called to see Tom, said there no use in dressing his wounds, for he would be a corpse in a few minutes, and went about dressing the wounds of the more hopeful cases. Tom was most shockingly mutilated. He had four heavy cuts on the top of his head that cut through the covering of the brain, and several lighter ones on his forehead. He had received a very severe cut on the side of the head, cutting through his ear and taking off a piece of his cheek bone. One cut made a gash, immediately beneath his nose, larger than the aperture of his mouth ; another severed the bone of his lower jaw. Be- sides several lighter cuts, he received. one on his neck, which carne near entirely severing the windpipe. He was indeed in a critical situation. Death seemed eager to wrap him in his cold shroud. Fate struggled against fate. The balance of human life rose and fell as if unable to decide between the weight of life and death. He was perfectly paralyzed and speechless for ten days. His spirit lingeringly hung around him, as if debating whether still to dwell in the mutilated body, or to seek an abode in brighter realms above. Four long weeks counted their weary minutes before he could be conveyed to his home. The Hills, who fell on the battle field, were confined only three or four weeks. Tom is the only one of the Evans family who received a wound during the whole war. He alone seemed to be des- tined to atone for all their sins. This is extraordinary, and not to be accounted for by reason ; for others of the Evans family
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THE HILL AND EVANS FEUD.
were placed in as critical circumstances, yet came forth untouched:
This battle completely changed public sentiment with respect to the two parties. Before it was in favor of the Hills, on ac- \ count of Jesse Hill's death ; but now, as the boys were attacked while under bail to keep the peace, the tide of public feeling. reversed its course. And then the attack was so ably and bravely resisted by Sam, that he could not fail to receive the applause of a people so chivalrous as Kentuckians. He was greeted with acclamation and praise wherever met ; and as tes- timony of the high appreciation of such rare valor, public dinners were given to him in different parts of the State. The admira- tion of the fair daughters of oll Garrard was told in more silent. but expressive strains. Every one was in a fervor of excite- ment to see the youthful hero -- be who had vanquished a ten- fold foe, and gained the fiell with unparalleled triumph. This battle and his valorous actions were the sweetest theme of their conversation ; and to enjoy his presence was a pleasure the richest and most highly prized.
Reader, you may well imagine the feelings of a bashful and retiring boy, while these praises and commendations were float. ing on every breeze. It doubtless afforded him a heart-felt plea- sure to see his deeds thus meet the approbation of his fellow- men; but he shrank with the timidity of a guileless maiden from such enthusiastic applause.
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THE ARMISTICE.
in
CHAPTER IX.
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The short Armistice and policy of the Hills - Hills violate the treaty - Sam's parley with two of the Hills - Hills attempt to shoot the Doctor --- 'Old John Hill's death - Dr. Hill assumes command of the Hill party - Dr. Evans accidentally shoots his own hand -- Rus Hill attacks the Doctor and Sam - The Doctor's challenge refused by Dr. Hill - Sellars and the Hills - Dr. Evans crosses the river to see a patient - Hills waylay the ferry - The ferryman runs away - The Doctor could not recross the river - Esquire Bruner sends a guard with the Doctor.
THE scenes of this chapter transpired while the people be- fieved the two parties to be under a truce, according to the stipulations agreed upon soon after the Doctor's return and trial.
After the treaty, everything seemed to be quiet for a consid- erable length of time. The Hills had many good reasons for desiring this armistice. As public sentiment was now so much against them, they sought every means to regain the lost good will, and for this reason made pretense that they wished to put an end to hostilities entirely and forever. But the Doctor could better fathom the depths of their dark designs. He knew that their object was to gain public favor and get a better chance to accomplish their darling wish - to take his life. They made loud promises to the public, yet violated the stipulations without remorse of conscience upon every occasion. Of these agreements and the small public favor gained by readily entering into them, they made an ample curtain behind which to begin again their sly and underhand work. They even frequently Went in gangs, with loaded rifles as in former days, "and when any of the opposite party were seen, made unmis- ; takable show of hostilities. They caught the Doctor in town several times, and started toward him with their pistols half drawn, but when he threw his piercing eye upon them, their weak courage failed, they turned and walked off in some other direction.
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THE HILL AND EVANS FEUD.
The Doctor chanced to be in town one day, and Jessa Baker called on him to go a short distance into the country to sce his sick wife. Several of the IIills were in town also, and had mounted their horses to return home, but they saw Baker on the corner waiting for the Doctor, and asked :
" What are you waiting for?"; :
" For Dr. Evans ; he is going home with me.
." Well then, we shall not go yet !" 'at the same time dis- mounting and taking a stand on the corner where they knew . the Doctor would have to pass.
Baker knew their design, and ran up the street to meet the . Doctor.
" You must not go this way, Doctor, for if you do the Hills will kill you. There is a crowd of them on the next corner, . and they will shoot at you as you pass. Please don't go that way-go around the square and avoid them."
" Well, I am not afraid of them ; if they shoot, I can return a more destructive fire ; but they will not shoot so long as'I "have an eye on them."
Thus saying, he put his horse into a brisk trot, and passed them without a fire. They made several belligerent signs, and had their pistols more than half drawn ; but they could not withstand the Doctor's glance. It is a curious fact that none of the Hills could shoot at the Doctor while they could see his eye .. Conscience is a powerful element in human nature-it stays in public the hand that would strike in secret.
: . A few days after this incident, Sam was on the creek alone, driving a herd of cattle. He saw two men not far distant down the road, apparently adjusting their pistols for a shooting exploit. As he drew nearer, he found one of them to be Rus Hill. When he came within pistol shot, they made signs of . shooting, but he instantly dismounted, stood behind his horse . and spoke to them : ?
. " Take your hands out of your pockets, or go to shooting !. " (They took their hands out of their pockets.) " Rus, who is . that you have with you - I see he is to do all the shooting ? "
." It is Wesley Beaumont," replied Hill. - But Sam soon saw his faco, which proved him to be Isaiah Hill.
" Why don't you go along ?" asked Sam.
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THE ARMISTICE. ' "
" G-d'd-n you, why don't you go along ?"
" I am afraid to pass, without you get out of the road."
" D-n you, did 'nt you shoot me in the Lancaster fight ?" observed Rus.
" If I did, you know it, and I can do it again. I can kill you both, but I do not wish to do so."
" Well, G-d d-n you, get out of the road yourself, then."
" I will, if you will keep your hands out of your pockets till I get to that log ;" pointing to a log about thirty yards from the road side.
They kept their hands out of their pockets till Sam got to the log. When they moved on and arrived opposite to Sam, Rus said :
" You are going to shoot !"
" You know that is a lie - I promised you I would not, and you know I will not break my word."
" Why don't you take your hands out of your pockets, then ?" " Because I did not promise you to do it."
They passed on without shooting, and Sam resumed the driving of his cattle. Thus it may be seen the Hills did not observe the treaty - according to which, they would have given half the road, and avoided any show of hostilities.
Subsequent to the above adventure, the Doctor met four of the party in a road. Night was just spreading her dusky mantle over the earth, as if to conceal the dark decds of pending perfidy from mortal eye. The first whom he discovered was Henry Sagracy, on his horse a few feet from the road, raising his rifle to shoot. The Doctor knowing it to be too far to shoot with a pistol, and too close to run from a rifle, jerked · his pistol from the holster, and rushed his horse directly toward him. When Sagracy saw that the Doctor could shoot first, he dropped his rifle and concealed his head and shoulders behind the horse's neck. Knowing that Hill would not shoot, the Doctor saved his load, thinking he might need it to pepper some of the others. He dashed on by them with his pistol halt pulled off - they tucked their heads and turned their backs to the Doctor. The road was so narrow that his knee grazed them as he passed. Perhaps the reader has not discovered the ingenious reason of the Hills for turning their backs. When
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THE HILL AND EVANS FEUD.
there was any prospect of being shot, they would invariably turn their backs toward the danger ; for had they been shot in that relative position, they could have had a pretext to swear before a court that they were retreating and had no hostile design against the opposite party - thus securing the favor of the law. And this would have given them an apparently plausible pretext to spread reports that the Evans party had broken the treaty instead of themselves, and thus secure more of public favor. But the Doctor had sagacity enough to interpret their untold motives. He did not desire to kill them anyhow, for he knew that the majority of them were poor, .ignorant hirelings - hired by men who apparently had little to do with the feud. These incidents serve to show the character of the many similar occurrences that frequently happened till the Doctor accidently got his hand shot. But notwithstanding their bold threats and cowardly attempts, the Doctor gave his sons orders strictly to observe the treaty and their bonds to keep the peace, and not to shoot if there was any possible way of avoiding it. These orders were implicitly obeyed during the seeming armistice. To make amends for past losses, the Doctor continued the practice of his profession, and kept the boys busy on the farm.
In the fall of 1851, old John Hill, the general of the Hill party, died. Rumor says that the old man charged his son, Dr. Hill, with the crime of poisoning him, or, of giving him medicine to hasten his death, in order to come into the inheritance of his property sooner. On this account he was dismissed from the practice in his father's family, and sent home with his wife, late one night. When Dr. Hill went home to Lancaster, he told Judge Letcher what had happened, and that he was accused of poisoning his father. The Judge tried to console him by telling him that the old man was certainly deranged, or he could have no such opinion. Hill replied that .he was not deranged, nor was that the only time he had been accused of the crime. Drs. Pierce and Hutson were then called . to treat old John's case. Under their treatment he decidedly improved. But Dr. Hill returned soon and told the two doc- tors that he thought he ought to have the right of attending to his own father. Though Dr. Pierce was by no means friendly
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