The Boy with the U.S. Census | Page 7

feud in Perry County," continued
the Kentuckian, reminiscently. "Ol' Joe Eversole was a merchant in a
town called Hazard, an' he helped Fulton French to start a little store. In
time French almos' drove Eversole out o' business. That was a strange
fight, because neither French nor Eversole ever got into the
shootin',--indeed they remained frien'ly even when their supporters
were most bitter."
"Who carried on the feud, then?" asked Hamilton in surprise, "if the
principals didn't?"
"Wa'al, I guess the worst was a minister, the Rev. Bill Gambrill. Ho ran
the French side an' kep' the trouble stirred up all the time."
"I think I've heard of the Turner war, too," said the boy. "Was that the
same as the Howard-Turner fighting?"
"All of them were mixed up in each other's feuds in that Turner
family," the Kentuckian replied, "but the 'Turner War' or the 'Hell's
Half-Acre' feud was in Bell County, an' it started over some question o'
water rights in Yellow Creek. It was a sayin' down in Bell County that
it couldn't rain often enough to keep Hell's Half-Acre free from stains o'
blood."
"It is a fearful record, Uncle Eli, when you put them together that way,"
the boy said.
"An' I haven't even mentioned the worst o' them, the Hargis-Cockrill
feud in Breathitt County. That lasted for generations, an' started over
some election for a county judge. I don' know that any one rightly
remembers the time when Breathitt County wasn't the scene of some
such goin's on."
"But they are all over now, aren't they?"
"I was jes' goin' to tell yo'. They're all over but one, an' that one is
sometimes called the Baker-Howard or the Garrard-White feud, for all
four families were mixed up in it. Not so very long ago I was talkin' to

the widow o' one o' the men slain in that fightin', an' sayin' to her how
good it was that the feelin' had all died out, an' she said--thar was a lot
of us thar at the time--'I have twelve sons. Each day I tell them who
shot their father. I'm not goin' to die till one o' them shoots him.' I'm
reckonin' to hear o' trouble in Clay County mos' any time, but I really
think that is the last o' them."
"What started that?"
"An argument over a twenty-five dollar note," was the response. "But
you don't want to think these were the real causes; they were usually
jes' firebrands that made things worse. Most o' these hyeh feuds date
back to enmities made in the Civil War an' in moonshinin'."
"But why the war?" asked Hamilton. "I thought nearly all the
mountaineers in Kentucky fought for the North--I know you were with
Lee, of course, but I thought that was exceptional."
"None o' them fought for the No'th!" exclaimed the old Confederate
soldier indignantly.
"Why, Uncle Eli!" said Hamilton, in surprise, "I was sure that most of
them went into the Union army."
"So they did, boy, so they did, but those who did it thought they were
fightin' for the nation, not for the No'th. An' the slavery question didn'
matter much hyeh. Don' yo' let any one tell yo' that the Union army was
made up o' abolitionists, because it wasn't. It was made up o' bigger
men than that. It was made up o' patriots. I thought them wrong then,--I
do yet; but thar ain't no denyin' that they were fightin' for what they
thought was right."
"But why did you join the South, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. "I can
understand father doing it, because he was a South Carolinian."
"I was workin' fo' peace," the mountaineer rejoined "When No'th and
South was talkin' war, Kentucky, as yo' will remember havin' read,
decided to remain neutral, an' organized the State Guards to preserve

that neutrality. I was willin' to let well enough alone, but when the
No'th come down an' tried to force the State Guards to join their cause,
I went with the rest to Dixie. I don' believe," added the old man
solemnly, "that thar ever was a war like that befo', where every man on
both sides fought for a principle, an' where there was no selfish motive
anywhere."
"The Howkles were with the Federals, weren't they?" prompted
Hamilton, fearing lest the old man should drift into war reminiscences,
when he wanted to hear about feuds.
"Ol' Isaac Howkle was," the mountaineer replied "an' that was how the
little trouble we had begun. At least, it had a good deal to do with it.
Isaac an' I had never got along, an' jes' befo' the war, we had some
words about the Kentucky State Guards. But I wasn't bearin' any
grudge, an' I never supposed Isaac was. However,