I will tell you something about me and my father first  meeting each other.  I was thirty one years old.  I had herd for  fifteen years that he was dead and had given up ever getting to  see him.  I have spoken in a previous chapter of my father and  mother separating about three months before I was born, of his  going to Illinois and leaving her here in the Arkansas Territory  etc.

      I went with my mother to a camp meeting in the summer of  1848, there I met an old friend of mine.  He ask me if I had  heard any thing of my father of late.  I told him that I had not.  He then told me that he had a brother who had just moved in here from Ballard County Kentuckey, in four miles of Beandville and  that there was a Wyley Sams lived there.  He told me to go and  see his brother who would tell me all about him.  So I went with  a big heart and he told me that he had left Bladville about six  weeks before and that he knew my father well; that he was rich,  with land and negroes. It was the last of August when he told me  this and on October 1st I started to see my father for the first  time in life, and on the ninth day of said month, 1848 I met him  in Blandville, Kentuckey.

 When I got there I was no one that I had ever seen before.  I went to a tavern and, after hitching my horse close by, I went  in and sit down and studied what to do first.  I called for the  Land lord and when he come I told him I wanted a room as I wished  to change clothes.  He gave me the No. eight and I went and  changed clothers; then I come down and took a seat and after a  while I ask the clerk if he knew any one around there by the name  of Sams.  He said that he did not.  So I goes out and takes my  seat again, studying what to do next.

      I knew I was in the precincts of where my father lived for I  had stayed the night before with a man that knew him.  While  sitting there I saw and old Dutchman comeing along up the street  right to me, when he got to where I was he said, "Howdo" I  returned the compliment.  He then seated himself and says, "Sir  you seem to be a stranger here, what parts are you from." I told  him that I was from Arkansas.  He ask me how long I had lived in  Arkansas I told him that I had lived in Arkansas all my life.  He  then ask me to  tell him about the country.  I told and told till  I got tired.  At last he got done asking me questions.  I ask him  if he knew any body by the name of Sams.  He says "yes sir,  plenty of them".  I ask him if he could tell me any of their  names.

      He told me that he could, that one was Dave, and one was  Wyley and that there were several younger ones.  He said he was  acquainted with them well, that he had lived on Wyley Sams land  for sixteen years.

      I ask him if Wyley Sams was in town, then he told me not,  that he knowed of.  I told him that if he saw Wyley Sams to tell  him that I wanted to see him before I left town.  The Dutchman  said he would tell him, what I had said if he saw him.  I let on to the Dutchman to be in a hurry.

      In about an hour I saw some gentleman coming up the street  right on to where I was.  He spoke to me as he passed by and went  in to where there were several men standing talking, and  commenced to shaking hands with them.  I heard one of them say,  "Howdo, Mr. Sams".  He now sits down in a chair facing me staring me in the face, but said nothing.  When I got a straight look at  him I was satisfied that he was my father from the description my  mother had given me of him.  The Dutchman had seen hiim and told  him that there was a man at the tavern who wished to see him, and  that the man seemed to be in a hurry to go, but must see him before he went.  I had at that time forgotten about the Dutchman.  The Dutchman had told him that the man was from the "Arkansawy"  as he called it.

      So we sat there some time.  He was trying to make out who that man was, from the Arkansas that had business with him.  We  still set there eyeing each other.  I hated to approach him.  Finally I concluded that I would go to the other end of the  porch, pretending to look after my horse.  I picked up my sa??  riders and went on, passing by my father, and when I had passed  him he picked up his hat and started off to my left hand in re of me.  I all the time keeping my eye on him.    When I saw I had got him away from the crowd and saw that he was determined to know my business with him, I stopped and I  turned around facing him like as if I did not now he was there;  but I knew it all the same.  I was holding up a greateal at that  time.  I was wanting to get this load off, and when I turned, he  broke the silence by saying; "Sir, you seem to be travelling".  I  said, "Yea sir, I have been" I then said, "Do you live about  here". He said "Yes sir".  I could see his col come and go.  I  then put on all the politeness I could muster and said, "What  might be your name." He said. "My name is Sam Wyley Sams".  I  knew my name would be called for next, and sure enough he asked  my name.  I said, "My mother always told me that my name was Sams."  "What"? said he, "Jehoida Sams" I said, "Yea sir, and he  jumped at me and put his arms around my neck and exclaimed in a  loud voice, "Oh my God here is my lost son that I had given up   ever seeing in this world, oh my God it is not possible, oh my  son, my son" and I had to hold him to keep him from falling.

 At this time those who were at the other end of the porch  hollowed out what is the matter there, and here they came almost  running over each other, and wanting to know what was up Me being  a stranger they said they dident know but what I was killing the  old gentleman.  I made out to speak and tell them that this is my father, and this is the first time we ever saw each other.

 By this time my father got so he could speak and he says to  the crowd who had come to his rescue, "This is my son whom I had  given up for lost.  I had given him up forever.  I had not heard  of him for fifteen years, and had supposed that he had died or  gone to the far west and I never would see him in this world,  but, bless God here he is, and he took me by the shoulder and  commenced praising God with a loud voice.   I have thought I never heard such eloquence, before or  since.  There seemed to be a perfect commotion in the crowd, and  I saw some old, and some young men sheding tears, while my father  was praising God for his mercies.  He spoke of many of his past  troubles in life.  While he was talking there was not a word  spoken by any one until he got through. By this time there were  fifty or sixty men and women present, for circuit court was in  session and had been for three weeks.  By this time the crowd had  gathered to almost a multitude to see and hear of such a  curcumstance.

      Then my father told the by standers that him and my mother  separated three months before my birth and had never senn each  other since that time, and had not heard of each other for  sixteen years.  While he was still speaking the crowd continued  to gether till the porch and haslls were full of spectators to  see the monkey, myself.  At this time I heard a woman coming  through the hall, it was an old lady by the name of Jones.  She  was the mistress of the hotel.  She had a large carving knife in  her hand her sleeves rolled up and saying, "Uncle Wyley what is  the matter here.  Father says "oh, nothing only I have found my  lost son" "Oh yes"; said she, "Some of your raskality." "No," he  said, and then told her of the circumstance.  Aunt Polly then had to take a tanterum.  Her and my father was of long acquaintance,  and were neighbors.  Father and them were some of the first  settlers in the "Purchase".

      This all accurred in Blandville Kentuckey, on the 9th day of  October 1848.

      As soon as my father composed himself he said to me, "Is  your mother alive yet." I told him that she was when I left home,  for she had eaten breakfast at my house the morning I started  from home on White river, in Izard County Arkansas.  He says "if  God lets me and her live I will see her one time more in life".
Reader if you are tired, rest and try it again.

 Before I get off too far I had better tell of my own case of   mine and my fathers first meeting, if I can describe my feelings  at that time, but it would be vain and foolish for me to attempt  to describe them.  I had often thought I felt happy before, but I  had never felt as I then did.  The joys of my father and the joys  of his acquaintances and friends made me feel sorry that I had  not heard of my father sooner than this, and have met him, for I  knew that he had suffered so much trouble on my account.

      We stayed on in town about two hours and then went to my fathers house, and here there was another stir up with his  children and the negroes.

 The next morning the neighbors began to come in to see the  new comer and hear all about my fathers son coming to see him.  Father  had seven children at that time, four married and three  single.

      I stayed with him four weeks and then we started home to  Arkansas, On the way home there was nothing of importance  happened to state to the reader, only when we got to mother's on  White river in two miles of my house. I had often heard mother  say that she could tell my father as far as she could see him  plainly, riding or walking.  I told father about what she had  said. So after we forded the river and got near her house, I  stopped and concealed myself over the brow of the hill, and sent  him on.

 He rode up to the gate and spoke to my half brothers As he  went up there was a woman said, "aunt, yonder comes Jehoida  Sams".  Now they had not heard of me since I left home and four  weeks had passed off.

      Mother stepped to a window and saw my father riding up and   she said, "that is not Jehoida Sams" and they had some words  about it as people usually will have in their judgement. My  mother said, "that is not Jehoida, but I know who it is, is  Jehoida's father." By this time I made my appearance and mother  says to the woman "look, yonder comes Jehoida Sams" and then the  conversation stopped then and there, for the present.

  Now comes something like me and father meeting.  When I rode  up I introduced father to my half brothers and howdyd with them.  But this new Sams about fifty two years old.  They looked at him  and then at me with astonishment.  One of my half brothers turned  to me and said, "You found your father sure enough". I said,"that, I did, and brought him home with me too.   Then I looked and saw my mother standing in the door looking very solemn. We both went to the house and spoke to her.  She  spoke, and invited us in.  She said, "come in Wyley" Father says,  "do you know me", and she says, "sure I do", and we both stepped  in the house together.  Mother stepped back and sit down on a  bed.  I saw she could not stand it any longer and I commenced  with my foolishness until I got the crowd stird up, then I  commenced talking different.  I had got mother so she could talk,  but it was very slow for awhile.  Although I was going on with my  foolishness, it was only makelike, to get father and mother  reconsiled.

      And now my readers this was the second time my feelings were  stired up, with my father and mother.  I was thirty one years old  and this the first time in life I had ever been permitted to see  them and me together.

      As far telling or trying to tell my feelings, at that time,  would as I have said before, be vain and foolish.  I thought I  felt bad when I met my father for the first time in life four  weeks before, but this meeting hurt me worse than anything I had  ever experienced.  Imagine, for yourself, of meeting with your  father and mother for the first time under the same circumstances  which I met with mine. We passed a few hours at my mothers house,  and I told them that I was going home to see how they are doing  there.

 Mother told me that they were all well, that she had stayed there several nights while I was gone.  When I got ready to go  home I ask mother if she would go with me and father.  She said  that she could not go then as her saddle horse was not up, but  said that she would come next morning, which she did, grandmother  coming with her.

 Everything went on finely, and after a while dinner was  announced and we all seated ourselves around the table, but  grandmother, who was a very little eater and hardly ever went to  the table when the rest went. But I allowed to have her to the  table whether she eat anything or not; so I says to her to come along; to not act like a poor boy at a dance.  So she come on to  the table and sit down.  I waited on the table all round pretending to act very polite and after I was through helping  them I was full up to my neck. I looked over the table at my  father and mother my grandmother Jeffrey and my five children and  said, "grandmother I am full now; I can't eat any more.

      Grandmother said, "What is it".  I said, "here is a sight  that is worth speaking of that is my father and mother, the first  time I ever saw them eating together, and grandmother seeing the  moisture about my eyes, said, "Jehoida, I have prayed for this  sight a many a time, and my prayers have been answered at last."  I took my handkerchief and wiped my face and I looked at father  and mother and they were both shedding tears, but not a word was  spoken by them.

      Then my grandmother talked to me about being blest with this  sight of my father hear on earth if I had been raised here on  White river with the Indians and we all lost our dinner or nearly  so. I was sorry that I did not wait till dinner was over, but I  had spoken without thought.

      Father stayed with me two or three weeks.  Him and my mother  seemed to enjoy themselves very well under the circumstances.  Although, they had been so long separated, I could see they had  great respect for each other, for all that. One morning before my  father had got ready to start back home he said to me, "I want a talk with you before I go home." I told him to go on.  He says  what do you think of me and your mother marrying (my father was a  widower and my mother a widow at this time) I says to him, "this  is a hard questin for me to answer, and I think you should not  put that on me." He says, "I know you have some human horse sence." I says, "let me off from that answer if you please."  He says, No, I want your advise on this question right here." So  I had to answer him as I thought best, and I can truthfully say  that this was the hardest question of my life. I told him that it  would be a great blessing for me to see him and mother living  together in satisfaction, but my opinion must come, I will speak  it sure as I live, I says, "you are worth about twenty thousand  dollars and mother is worth about eight hundred dollars, and it  would be foolish for you to sacrifice that much and move here,  and you would not live on her farm; it is too small, and very  little improvements, and you well fixed.  You in your old age it  would look very simple in you to do so.

      Another reason is, you have three children, one daughter and  two sons at home, single yet, their ages from thirteen to  eighteen years old, and mother has four sons from twelve to  sixteen years old, and they were never put out to much work, and  your children have to work the same as your slaves, when  necessary.  And now for your children to work and mothers not  work, that would raise a muss, or likely to, and you two could  not agree when you was seventeen and her fifteen years old and  had no children, and both of you firey cats at that, and both of  you high strung.  So I will say do as you see proper; I will say  no more on this I have given you my views on the subject.

      Now my readers you have the case before you.  If I gave bad  advise it was of the head and not of the heart.  You must judge the case as you see proper, and say to yourselves "was not this a  hard case to decide?"

      I think my concience is clean on this subject.  My father  and mother have both long since departed this life.  They both  lived single the balance of their days.  I will speak of one  other thing. My father lost his wife on the 23rd of June 1846 and  my mother lost her husband on the 27th of June 1846, only four  days difference in their deaths.

 Father's wife died in Ballard county, Kentuckey and mother's husband died in Izard county, Arkansas, two hundred miles apart.

      Me and my wife kept on at work, farming and raising stock  and me working in the blacksmith shop.  We made money very fast  to have no capital; but money was plenty.  At last we bought us  two likely slaves and about that time I went to see my father the  second time and he gave me a negro woman and two children. This  was in 1858 the last time I ever saw him.

Chapter 16

 J.J. Sams War Days

      In 1858 I returned from Kentuckey, me and my oldest son,  Martin Q Sams, and times rolled on as common until the late war  begin to come up, and the excitement got very high.  I was a  strong cecessionist, if I could not get my rights.  For the  States to stay together was my principals in full.  In 1861 the  war days began to get hotter and the war dogs getting very mad  and recruiting volunteers, and in 1862 everything got mighty hot. Then comes 1863 and they guit fighting and a great many on both  sides began to charge widow women's corn cribs and smoke houses,  and killing old men and some boys, and burning men's feet to make  them tell where their money was, and some men they would shoot  down, one man I had known for years by the name of Judge Easley  who was on his death bed was robbed by a squad of Jayhawkers, who  come to his house and demanded his cash.

      They searched the house all over and, not finding any money,  they went to the bed where the old man was lying almost dead and  turned the bed over and found six hundred dollars in cash which  they took.  The old Judge died in a few days after.

      The few of us that were left at home begin to feel spotted  and began to fix up plans as how to do in these cases.  There was  an old lady lived in the settlement that we all knew had some  cash.  Durham was her name.  I told her son and her son-in-law to  take a pillow slip of small flint rocks and a certain night we  would black our selves.  But for them to post their mother, so  that she could have two or three young girls there and not let  them know anything about what was up and for her to let on to be  scared too.  So the night come on and myself and six others her  son and son-in-law was in the crowd, blacked ourselves and road  some eight miles after dark.  After we got there we hollowed at  the gate and Mrs. Durham come to the door.  I said, "is Mrs.  Durham at home".  She said, "Yes". I said "Can we get lodging  here tonight."  She said, "No".

      By this time we were down off our hourse and at the door,   and went in with out any invitation, and some of them sit down.  I said to Mrs. Durham.  "You have aright smart cash I have heard,  and we have come after it." She said, that she did not have any.  I told her that I knew better than that, and that we were going  to have it, or burn the house.  She still said she did not have  it.  I said, "boys, fire the house", and her son and son-in-law took a chund of fire and throwed it on the floor and under the  bed.

      I said, "I will give you one more chance to save your house  and in the mean time I pretended to be desperately mad and the  girls who she had got to stay with her seemed to be almost scared  to death.  The old lady pretended to give a groan and goes to the  foot of the bed where she had previously put the aforesaid pillow  slip of flints and comes back with it and hands it to me, saying,  "you gave got all my cash and me a poor widow woman, Old and not  able to work".

      I told the boys to put out the fire which they had  scattered, and they done so.  We went out to our horses, me shaking the flints desperatly, saying in a loud voice so the  girls in the house could hear me, "we will divide this tomorrow,"  and then I emptied the flints out on the ground and put the slip  back inside, and then we all went home.  Next morning the news  went, sure.  That Mrs. Durham was robbed by the Jayhawkers.

      This was done only as a blind to keep her from actually  being robbed, as it was generally known that she had money.

Chapter 17

 Feigned Robbing of Judge Sams

      Jayhawkers were very plenty here in 1863 and 4 on both sides  near the missouri and Arkansas line.  Each party would kill some  men and they kept up this business for some time.

      The Southern Jayhawkers were as bad as the Northern  Jayhawkers when they went into Misssouri they would rob and kill  some men before they got back, and in 1863 and 4 some of the  Missouri Jayhawkers would come in and take some of the neighbors'  horses and mules and beef cattle.  I ask some of the neighbors  why they did not get up a company and whip them Jayhawkers out,  and they would kill all them, for if this keeps on they will  starve you to death, and what's the difference in being starved  or killed out right.  But before I proceed further I will relate  a circumstance that happened or pretended to happen to me.

       I told Dr. Thos. Culp, my half brother, that something must  be done; that people was saying around that Judge Sams, (that  Judge part, was an empty title that I went by at that time and  still holds to me.)  has got ahalf bushel of money.  One of my  friends happened to be out one night and overheard two of the  Jayhawkers talking about me.   One of them said, "Old Judge Sams  has no less than ahalf bushel of gold and silver."  The man told
me that he had heard it.

      I went to Dr. Thos Culp and told him I had a job put up, on  myself.  I told him to go the next morning to Benbrook's mill and  tell that the old Judge was robbed the night before, that he had   seen him that morning and that he was in trouble, that the  Jayhawkers had been at this house the night before and took all  his money.  He told that there was ten of them and that they come  cursing and went off cursing.  This was told in a crowd at the mill, and the news spread like wild fire.  Every one I met would  have something to say to me about being robbed.

      I would appear to look very sad, and Tell them that I did  not know what to do, that I was broke up, cash all gone and my  negroes all set free.  This report scattered in every direction  about old Judge Sams being robbed.  After the war, when it was  found out that I had only feigned being robbed, men spoke of it  often and said, "that he no doubt saved you from being actually  robbed during the war." That was in 1864, and the Jayhawkers  coming in more and more, every day and a man was not safe if he  had a horse they could see.

Chapter 18

 The Cochran War

      The Jayhawkers continued to pour in here, doing all kinds of  devilment, stealing horses and mules, cattle and killing a man  now and then, etc., and what I intend writing and will write, I  do not intend any harm to the living or the dead, for I hope the  past is long since forgotten, and further I write it for the  benefit of those living and the rising generation and also, to  furnish a connecting link in its place, of my history of the  White river valley.

      There was a Captain Cochran, who had formerly lived when the   late war came up, in Baxter County Arkansas, in 1861 and 62.  Some of his family are still living there yet and are good  citizens as far as I know.  This man Cochran and his neighbors  fell out about their politics in general they being hot headed  and so was Cochran, and high strung with it.  One of the men's  name was Reams who was waylaid and shot off his porch in the  begining of the late war.  But who done the deed I never knew.

      Cochran went off in 1863 with the federals, but once and  awhile in the same year and also in 1864 he would come back with  a posse with him and take our stock and drive them off to  Missouri and other markets and sell them for what he could get.  The third raid he come in, he took from his old acquaintances and  drove out a large number of horses and mules.

      In 1864, in April, he came again and went round with his  men, black and white, and gathered up the stock again.  They took  all the horses, mules and cattle they could find, and then took  all the little mite of bread stuff and bacon and everything else  they could find that they wanted.  All the old men and widow  women had scarcely  anything left to live on or for their  children.  They just about starved us out and left no stock to  make any more with, which left us in a bad fix.
 

      They had run some four or five Southern Jayhawkers in a mile  or so of my house and they all got away but one, John McCoy, and  Cochran ran him about a mile below Calico Creek on White river,  and captured him and made him ride back with him to Bob Wolf's.  Wolf had just rode up on his mule, the only one he had.  Cochran
 said, "Wolf I must have that mule saddle and all."  Wolf was one  of his old acquaintances.

      Cochran took the mule, rigging and all.  This was two days  before the Cochran war.  He took his prisoner on with him that  evening and slept with him that night.  This McCoy told him that  night that he was a union man, and the reason he run from them,  was, that he thought they were Southern men.

      Cochran got all confidence in McCoy and at that time McCoy  had a letter from Lige McMahan to his brother John McMahan who  was holding fort at Yellville Arkansas at that time.  Lige  McMahan was a rebel and John McMahan was a federal Colonel.

      Cochran lets McCoy pass on to McMahan's headquarters at  Yellville and he commenced getting up all the corn and wheat they  could find and taking it to Daiels mill on White river and having  it ground to get ready to start off to Missouri.

      Some of us told those that they had run off that when  Cochran got down in a mile and a half of our roosting pole that  we would get him out of our range.  So we began to get  volunteers.  We collected up as fast as we could, men who we  could depend on, and camped out at a place that hardly any one  ever passed.  We camped about one mile South East of the Sugar  loaf mountain on White river.  We let only two men go out at a
time to get grub for us for three days before the war came up.

      We had two women for spies every day and they would go to Cochran's gang and find out everything they could, and at night two of our men would go to them and they would report to them what they knew.  We kept this up till the last night before they  started next morning.

      There was only twelve of them to contend with.  In camp we  counted fifteen of our side.  We had been in camp four days and  nights, and learned that they would start out the next morning.  We sent after Lige McMahan and Frank Russell his brother-in-law  and told them to recruit all they could.  It was about twelve  oclock when we sent for them and when they got there it was just  daylight, and Lige McMahan had seventeen men with him, and away  we went like a gang of boys going to a ball.

      We scattered along and got breakfast, and went on taking  every boy or man, on our way who could walk or ride, so the enemy  could get no news of us coming.  As we went on up the river we  saw Ben Reynolds and four or five men and boys running to get out  of the way of the Cochran gang.  They were on the opposite side of the river from us, and we made them come over to us.  We told  them to come over quick or we would shoot them, and here they  come in a hurry.  This was about seven miles before we got to the  battle ground. By the time we got to the battle ground we had  about seventy five recruits and prisoners.  When we got to Daiels mill the enemy had been gone from there about one hour, so the  lady that was standing in the yard told us, and away we went  after them.

      Directly we met a man who had just dodged them and he was  awfully scared when he saw us right on him.  He said he had  jumped out of the fat into the fire.  He told us that the enemy  was about a half a mile ahead of us, travelling slowly, the teams  heavilly  loaded with meal and bacon etc. that they had taken from old men   and widow women.

      We now formed, two in a breast and started.  It was a very  good road until we got within about forty yards of where we  overtaken the Jayhawkers.  They were crossing a gulley or drain  and were so closely engaged with their teams that they did not  see us till we were right on them.

      Cochran was with the hindmost wagon.  There were four wagons  well loaded with provisions and other goods that they had taken  from the citizens round in the country.  We overtaken them one  mile above old Jud Adam's on White river just above Ships ferry where they were aiming on fording the river on their way off.  They had corralled their horses and other stock on the other side  of the river.  Tere was three boys and two men there watching  the stock.

      When ochran saw us he threw up his ands and said, "If you  are federls I am not afraid of you".  We gave him no answer only  commencd shooting at them.  Cochran shot at us two fires with  his pistol,and then he run up a bluff about forty yards to a  ledge of rcks on the side of the bluff and leaned over forwards  on the lede and lay there.  One of the men saw him and called  for a longranger gun.  It being handed to him he layed it up by the side o a tree and fired at him, but he did not move.  The  crowd kiled five more of them right there.

     Cochran had four or five men and boys along with his crowd to show them across the river.  We turned these back with the  wagons and had them take the different articles of provisions  etc, back and give them to their proper owners from whom they had  been taken.

      Some of the crowd went up to Cochran in the Bluff and took  all his valuables he had with him and then throwed him off the  bluff.  In the search a day book was found in which the names of  fifty five men purported they had killed since the year 1861 to  that time.  Some of the name's were of men that we knew.  One was
 Reames and one was Shrable.

      There were two young men in Cochrans gang when we come up  that were not killed there, but took them along with us to show  us the stock they had in the corral on the other side of the  river. There was sixty three head of cattle and seventeen head of  horses and mules in the corral.  The two young men were shot off  their horses at the corral, and we drove the stock back across  White River and sent word to the owners to come and get it.  Some  that we knew we took back on the road and delivered to the  owners.  One was Bob Wolf's mule, and one was old  (M)utcherson's  old bobtailed sorrel horse, the only horse he had.

      There was two negroes out of pocket and one white man that  we wanted and we started back after them.  Wat McCubans was one  of the negroes we wanted.  He had told the Cochran Jayhawkers  where the widow Duggin's bacon was hid in a cave, and they had  taken all of it.  Our spies had told us this and that was the  reason we had spotted him.  We come across him at home and they  commenced shooting at him as soon as they got near enough to him  until they got him down and then we went on in pursuit of "Gumbo"  Charley, the other negro that we wanted.  He had that morning  went across the river, riding Bob Wolf's mule to get an old  womans yoke of oxen, that she had had left by some means.  We met  him coming with them taking them to the Jayhawkers ranch.  He was  just rising the point of hill when we met him.  When I saw him riding Bob Wolf's mule and driving the oxen before him I said,  "There is Gumbo Charley", and then the shooting commenced.  After  the first shots were fired "Gumbo" Charley jumped off the mule  and run down a steep hill into a hollow below and them after him  helter skelter, shooting every jump, and him running for life,  until finally he falls, dead.  I think there must have been fifty  shots fired at him before he was killed.  It has been said that  there was a leadmine in that hollow.

 I took Bob Wolf's mule to him.  Two nights before this  occured "Gumbo" Charley and some of his crowd were at Mrs.  Tinnner's shelling the last of her bread corn that they had  ground, where she had hid it. Gumbo Charley was a great fiddler,  and had been fiddling for them while they shelled the corn.  He  had become tired and stretching himself back said, "I wish to God
 de rebels would come I needs a little exercise".

      As we went back home the widow women and children we met  would ask if Cochran was dead, and when they told them that he  was, they rejoiced at it, and said, "we will have peace one time more on earth.  This was the en d of the war here.  We had peace in Izard County from that time on.

      McCoy told me that the night he was a prisoner and slept  with Cochran, that Cochran told him the next time he come in he  inteded to go to Sylamore and clean us all up and starve the
 women and children out.  If you  are now too tired I will tell you some more.

      In 1869 two men by the name of Cochran come to my house.  I  was living at Calico Creek selling good.  They come to me about  dark and ask to stay all night.  I let them stay and treated them  as politely as I could.  I did not know but what there was trick  up and I armed myself with eight shots and three hand axes and  had their bed on the floor before me, so that if they made any
 move that I did not like I would be ready.  I did not close my  eyes that night, but all went on right.

Chapter 19

 The Death of My First Wife

      After 1864 I went on farming.  I was broke up, money all   gone in buying negroes before the war.  My property, such as  stock all were gone or starved to death.  But not withstanding this I did not give up.  I kep t right at my farming and  blacksmithing until 1869 I went to selling dry goods.  I sold  goods for two years and made some money, but during the time I  met with the hardest trial that ever falls to the lot of man;  death that cruel leveler of all destination, to whom the prayers  and tears of husbands, and even infants are addressed, in vain  entered my humble cottage, and took from my children an  affectionate good mother, and from me a tender and loving companion.  It is a time long since gone  by, and one that it  would seem I had forgotten, but when memory reverts back to that  trying period when I bade her farewell in this life and stood by and saw my children so soon to be left without that affection  which she only could import, it seems as but yesterday.

  But it was the ways of the Almighty whose ways are always right,  though we sometimes think  hey fall heartily on us, and even yet,  the remembrance of her suffering are less sustained by my self  and her four children whom she has left behind.  But yet I have  not wish to lift up the voice of complaint.

      I was left with four children, one married and two single,  one the oldest a daughter, and a son.  My daughter was sixteen  years old.  It appeared to me that my situation was the worst in  the world.  I could not bear the idea of scattering my children,  so I told my daughter that we would try to keep house as best we  could, but still it was not like mother, though my two children  with me, and their company was in every way to me pleasant but I  could not be content.

      So I concluded that I must have another woman.  There was a  widow lady lived not far away, whose husband had died.  She had  one son at home who was ten years old, about the age of my  son  that was at home, and she had two sons and one daughter married  and doing well.

      I began to think that as me and the widow was both in the  same situation that it might be that we could do something for  each other, and therefore I began to hint a little around the  matter as we were once in awhile together.  She was an  industrious woman and owned quite a good little farm and lived  comfortable.

      I soon began to pay my respects to her in real good earnest,  but I was as sly about it as a fox is when he is about to rob a  hen roost.  I found that my company was not at all disagreeable  to her. I thought that I could treat her children with so much  friendship as to make her a good stepmother to mine.  In this we  soon bargained and got married.  We went ahead for some time.  After a time our two sons married off and in two or three years  my son died.  My second wife and me had no second crop of  children.

      I sold goods in Calico Rock, Izard County at the time of  which I write.  I was in partnership with some two or three at  different times in the mercantile business.  I made some cash for awhile, and then I began to loose.  I lost because I sold on  credit and could not collect.  I finally  uit by my two farms, my  cash and all the property I could rake and scrape up being gone.  I held on to my least farm.  I still own that one yet.

      I moved on my farm after I quit selling goods and stayed  there three years, and when the county seat of Izard County was  removed to Melbourn, I rented out my farm, and bought property in  Melbourn.  I built a fine house there and lived there four years.

      The children I thought interfered with me and my wife and  caused us to disagree.  One time we did not speak to each other  for over three months, on account of a big muss we had.  The  fourth of July was in about a week afterwards and my wife  children told her, that as that was her birthday they would give her a birthday dinner.  While there she fell down and hurt  herself so bad that she lived only a short time.  It was ten  miles from my house and I went and took care of her the best I  could, and buried her.  I taken her about ten miles to a grave yard to bury her.

      Me and my second wife lived together about fourteen years.  We didn't have any second crop of children.  After my second wife  died I lived with my friend for some three years or more, and the longer I lived this was the worse dissatisfied I got,  although  they treated me with the greatest respect and kindness, but I had  kept house so long that it was not like home to be living about  from place to place.  I was afraid that I would be in somebody's  way, and it kept me uneasy all the time.

      I finally come to the conclusion that if I could get some  good old lady, who had no children at home, for I had none at  home and only two not at home, that I would make a trade with  her.  So I gegan to look around to see what kind of a trade I  could make.  There were several recommended to me.  Ond day I was  at one of my acquaintances going on with my foolishness as usual,  as sly as a fox.  The old lady of the house says to me that she  knew one that would suit me.  I told her to let me have the name,  and where she lived.

      She said the woman lived in Fulton County Arkansas, I told  her to wait till I finished my dinner, that I could not stand so  much all at once and we had a big laugh.  Of course they did not believe one word, I was saying.  But I did, the landlady told me  that she was going to write to this lady some of "these" days,  and tell her of me.

      Well, I said, "tell her I will do my portion of the work,  that she must chop the wood on a hill side and I will make her a  slide.  She can pull the slide up the hill and load it with wood  and haul it down to the house and unload it and then if she gets  lonesome she may haul me back up the hill to keep her company,  and then I will walk back down the hill and talk to her.

      The lady wrote to her what I had said.  the widow lady wrote  back to my friend and said "that she was not in the habit of  hauling wood in that way, that it was true she got lonesome  sometimes, but not lonesome enough to haul me up a hill on a  slide to get my company back down the hill, and as for wood and  water she had plenty of that at home."  I saw the letter this  widow sent, but my friend swore me to keep it to myself.

      After three or four months  wrote the widow a letter and she  answered it very politely.  We had correspondence with each other  for several months before we had seen each other.  Finally we met  and had an introduction and in the course of two or three months  we made a trade and got married.

       I told her before we were married that I wanted to get some  old lady to take me to raise on the halves, that that was the way  people used to do; here, raise stock on the halves.  I was only seventy three years old when we were married and we have been  living together five years,  pleasant and happy as heart could  wish, up to this date, February 1st, 1896.
 

 Steal no this little book, my friend,
 For fear the gallows might be your end,
   And God might say, in that great day,
 Where is Sam's book you stole away.

 Remember when you pass me by,
 As you are now, so once was I,
 As I am now so you must be,
 Prepare for death and follow me.

 Oft may pleasures smile on you,
 May future hours be bright,
 And may sunshine fall upon your way
? To cheer from morn till night.

Chapter 20

 The First Division of Izard County

      As early as 1829 the people of Izard county began to try for  a division of Izard County.  It included in its territory, Izard,  Stone, Searcy, Marion, Fulton, and Baxter.  There had been  several efforts made to effect a division, but they had all  failed.

      Major Wolf was in the State senate at the time and opposed a  division because it would effect his own rights, the county seat  at that time was at Mouth of Big North Fork.

 In the year 1834 an obscure man who lived in the present  limits of Searcy County, by the name of Brown Roberts appeared in  the field a canidate for representative.  He was in favor of a  division of the county.  This man was a very singular man.  he  was about six and one quarter high, slim and bony.  He was a man  of ability and a good electionier.  He was elected and had the  county divided in opposition of Wolf, and called the new county  Marion.

      Roberts was left in Searcy County after the division and  remained in it, as its representative until his death which was  soon after.  Soon after the division of Izard County the county  seat was moved to Livingston Mills at Mouth of Piney Bayou.

      A river man by the name of Asa McFeltch soon located there  at the new county seat, which was called Athens, and done a heavy  mercantile business.  Livingston & Hively run a saw and grist  mill and a cotton gin there by the great water power at the mouth  of Piney Bayou.  The little village at this time contained about  fifty families.

      Athens at this time presented the most town-like appearance  of any place in Izard county.  The principal men of the town  however got in debt and had to brake.  McFeltch and Livingston  employed a little Yankee, who sold goods for them, pocketing all  the cash and broke them up.  His name was Erastus Gregory.  There  is nothing left at Athens except a water power which would be  capable of driving the machinery to manufacture all of the cotton  produced in Izard County.

      The county seat of Marion County was located at Yellville,  on Crooked Creek.  This location remains the county seat till the  present time.  The county seat of Searcy was first located at  Lebanon.  Their county seat has been moved several times, by  reason of which teir county seats have made very little progress.

     When Fulton was surveyed out, the county seat was located at  Salem which remains  nmolested and prosperous today.

      Izard county finally took a vote on the removal of the  county seat from Melbourn and it was decided in favor of Melbourn  as against Sylamore and Melbourn remains the county seat at this  time.

Chapter 21

The Futt and Everet War

      At an early date the Everet Brothers come to the valley of  White River.  They first came to Lawrence county on Black River,  and a short time afterwards they moved to White River and settled  in the west end of Izard County, in that part which is now  situated in Marion County.

      Their families consisted of old Sim, and Jess and old Bart.  A part of them were mechanics, if not all.  They were noted for  being men of honestiy and uprightness in all their transactions.  But they were celebrated for their activity, manhood and bravery.  They were given a right smart to fighting with their men and few  men could handle them in a combat.

      It was old Jess who encountered John P. Houston, a brother  of Old Sam Houston who was first Govenor of Texas.  Old Jess and  Houston met at the Mouth of Big North Fork the county seat of  Izard county at that time and got to talking of the removal of  the county seat.  They had got to pretty plain talk, when Houston  said, "that no one but a D---- raskal would want the county seat  moved," then jumped to his feet and made a move as if to draw a  pistol.  But Everet was  watching him and had a pistol out and  cocked.  He presented it to Houston's breast and told him that if  he made amove he would shoot a hole through him that a ground hog  could walk through.  This man Houston was Circuit Clerk at the  time and had been for several years.  he was a good lawyer when  not under the influence of whiskey.  The report followed him here  that he had killed two men in South Carolina.  He brought a large  library here with him.

      He finally drank himself to death at Maj. Wolf's at Mouth of  Big North Fork, Arkansas, 1836.  After Yellville was laid off as  a town, Hansford Futt, a man of some property settled there.  He  was perhaps a North Carolinear, and not generally liked.

      After a time a difficulty grew up between the Everet and  Futts, and continued to grow year after year as it was occasionly  rekindled by combats in which the Everets came off best.  This feud progressed for some ten years or more and finally resulted  in the formation of two hostile parties know as the Futt and  Everett parties.  There were few citizens who were not in some  way or other indentified with one or the other of these parties.  In the meantime old Jess Everet had one to Texas, but the  contention did not abate by his leaving Young men had grown uup  with all  the bitterness of the contention engrafted in their  bosom.

      In the summer of 1848 Jess Turner had an appointment to  speak at Yellville as Presidential Elector.  This called out a  great number of people, and among them the Futts and EVeretts  were well represented, and a preliminary fight or tow rallied the  fighting men of both sides in line.  At this critical moment a terrible whirlwind swept over  the crowd, scattered their hats and filled the air with dust.  This so confused the crowd that they dispersed, for a time.  The  Everet party, who lived in the country mounted their horses and  rode off, but before they had got out of hearing the noise of  another row reached their ears.  The Everets wheeled their  horses, dashed back  dismounted and then the fight commenced in  earnest.  In a few moments four or five men were killed and  several others knocked down and wounded.  There were four  brothers named King, who figured as champions on the Futt side.

      Old Sim and Bart Everet seemed to be the most dreaded by the  Futt gang, and it was said, that they were held by their arms and  shot by the Futt gang.  They both were killed and young France Everet was wounded.  All that were killed were of the Everet  gang, the Futts having taken  advantage of them in the charge.  Young France immediately left for Texas for his uncle Jess.  Old  Jess, on receiving France's report made his will, armed himself  took young France and a man by the name of Stratton and come back  to Arkansas.  They arrested the King brothers over toward the  Arkansas river, and started to Yellville with them.  They took  them a short distance and killed three of them.  The fourth one  made his escape.

      Soon afterwards a shot was fired at Old Hamp Futt from  ambush without taking effect.  He then quartered himself at home  with a strong guard about his house.  Old Jess Everets could not,
now get to himm.

      A writ was placed in the hands of the sheriff for Old Jess.  The sheriff took about one hundred men and went to where old Jess  was known to be, and finding him, he found that old Jess had more  men than he had.  Old Jess offered fight and told the sheriff to  "pull in".  Old Jess had his men under the brow of a hill ready  for action.  He run un and down the hill telling the sheriff that if he wanted to fight to just fire on gun.  Old Jess told his men  to hold themselves in readiness and not fire until he gave the  command and then give them hades.

     The sheriff would not accept the change.  He went back to town and made an application to the govenor for five hundred  militia.The malitia succedded in capturing old Jess, Stratton and  Young Jess.

      They put them in the Smithville jail, in Lawrence county,  Arkansas.  Soon after a party of about twelve men went and broke  the lock of the jail and liberated them.  They then mounted them  on horses and rode away in triumph.

      The news of old Jess being liberated made old Hamp stick the  closer to his quarters.  Some months after old Jess was liberated  old Hamp stepped outside his door just at day light one morning,  and was washing his face, when a ball was fired at him striking  the bowl in which he was washing.  After some months of fruitless  efforts to get old Hamp, Old Jess was known to go to Texas, where  he died soon after.  It was generally believed that Jess Everett  left some oneless known to Hamp Futt than himself to watch Futts  movements.

      There was a man killed occasionally.  Old Hamp still kept  close quarters.  These times kept on for about twelve months when  old Hamp got to going around, generally between to other  persons.  In this situation he was shot from ambush with a long range gun,  whilst walking in a retired street.  He died in a few days after  being shot.  he told his friends to let his be the end of this  affair.  This was known as the Futt and Everet war.

      I will give you a more extended account of the opening of  the Smithville Jail.  If I was not  there, there were others that  were.  There were only twelve there I know, for I made the  crowbar that broke the lock.  It took two men with the crowbar to  brake the lock of the jail.  If any of you wish to see the  crowbar you can find it by coming to my house in Fulton County.  It has been forty eight years since this happened.

      The hostilities of this Futt and Everet was lasted about  twenty months, during which time there were about fourteen men  killed.  The parties of this war, who escaped, dispensed to other countries.  It was generally thought that the sympathies of the  outsiders were largely with the Everets.

      I will tell you a little more that happened about this war,  concerning old Mat, Adams and Dearl Woods, his son-in-law.  It  seems that Dearl Woods had got tired of the war.  He sent word to  Adams, wanting to knowif he would go home and have no more to do  with the war if he would be in any danger.  Old Mat sent word  back that he thought not, providing some one diden't have a wet  load in their gun they might try at him to see if it would fire.   (D) Earl was on the Futt side and Mat was on the Everet side.

      Old Mat Adams was a brother to Peter F. Adams who killed Dr.  Huff, that I have spoken of before in these pages.  I was well  acquainted with the Adamses.  They were good farmers and stock  raisers, and made money.  They were pure grit, but peaceable men hen you let their business alone.

Chapter 22

      About the year 1830 Judge James Wren and the Hightower  family come to Izard county from the vicinity of Bolingreen,  Kentuckey.  Judge James Wren was a remarkable man for his habits  of industry and christianity.  It was throught his  instrumentality that the first baptist church was organized in  Izard county Arkansas.  In the year 1830, he got a few scattering  Baptist together and sent to Spring River and got a Baptist  minister to organize a Baptist church near the mouth of Piney  Bayou.  I was present at the organization of the church.

      Judge Wren never aspired a great deal to office.  H was,  however induced to accept a term or two as county Judge of Izard  county.  When he come to Izard county he brought with him six  children.  He had had no death in his family up that time, but at  this writing they are most all dead as are most of the first  settlers of the White river valey.

      In those good old days it was not imposible for young men to  get to the highest office,  lthough our school oportunities were  few.  Schools were not plenty then as they are here now, and fat, slick headed boys, who slept at night rarely ever derived any  benefit from them.  However there were a class of boys who grew  up in the valey of White river, in that time, who would do honor  to that or any other time or country.  Of these might be  mentioned some of the Wolf boys some of the Harris boys, some of  the Jeffrey boys, some of the Trimble boys, some of the Coker  boys, some of the Miller boys and many others whom I could  mention.  One of this class of boys got to be governor of  Arkansas, one of the Jeffrey got to legislature, and one of these  gents was elected three terms as county Judge of Izard county  arkansas and declined a fourth term.  I do not believe in any man  holding office more that three terms.  [hand writing says,  something like "possibly ? Trimble might be mentioned in this  connection]

Chapter 23

      In the year 1823 there came a stragler in here by the name  of Russell.  The people did not like his appearance very well.  There was a camp meeting being held up on Strawberry. People went  from White River to the meeting.  During this meeting Russell  goes to old James Jeffreys and takes old Daniel Jeffres horse,  bridle and saddle and saddle pockets and six dollars in cash. Old Daniel come home and found out his horse and allwere gone.  He began to make enquiry and found that this Russell was out of  pocket as well as his property.  His overcoat, was gone, also. The horse that was taken was a fine one and Daniel got on his  horse and went up on White river to where Jehoida Jeffrey lived.  Daniel and Jehoida armed themselves good and took the trail of  Russell, and away they went throught the Mississippi Swamps on to the Mississippi river to a place called Iron Banks, now called  Columbus.  They trailed him on throught Kentuckey to a place  called cane Rock, near the Cumberland river, and in hot pursuit  on his trail.  When they come in sight of a small cabin they saw  the stolen horse standing in a small lot near the cabin.   They  were told by two men who were in the house that there was not,  but that he had been that morning.  Old Daniel walked in the  cabin and there lay his saddle, bridle saddle pockets and  overcoat.  Then he picked up the over coat, Jehoida Jeffrey  standing guard, ready for the first move that showed any  hostilities.  But no one moved.  One of them said when Old Daniel picked up the coat, "you are very imprudent" Jeffrey told him  that he generally took his property  whenever he found it.  He  gathered up all his rigging and went to the lot and got his horse  and they mounted and rode off.  He had got all but the six  dollars that Russell had taken.

      When they got home they said that they diden't get Russell,  but got everything else.  But it  was always believed that they  killed Russell for the man was never heard of afterwards.

      Uncle Daniel and I was always good friends and I ask him one  time if him and Uncle Jehoida diden't kill Russel.  All the said  was that they did not do that way.

Chapter 24

      My readers I will tell you a joke on old Andy Hethhorn.  In  the year 1828 Heathhorn and Shawne Bear, an Indian who lived  here, concluded they would take a big bear hunt that winter together out on the Buffalo Moun tains.  Old Andy had a great many horses in the Sylamore mountains, and as Shawne Bear had no horse  to ride on the hunt, old Andy let him have one of his horses to  ride on the trip.

     So when they had got ready they started out for the big bear  hunt with no day set when they would get back, as neither of them had any family.  Old Andy lived like an Indian, in a camp. He was  acquainted with Shawne Bear and did not know what was coming up.

      They got out on the Buffalo Mountains, and had killed  several bear and other game, all of which was very plenty there  at that time, such as bear, deer, turkeys, panthers, wild cats  etc.  One morning they both agree to separate tand hunt through  to the place agreed on to pitch their camp.  They knowed the  woods and country very well, and that night they were to camp at  a certain spring in the head of a certain hollow what they both  know of.

      If old Andy got there first he was to go to cooking their  suppers.  Shawne Bear told Andy that if he killed a bear that day  that when he got to the top of the hill he would hollow.  Shawne  Bear said, "you will be glad when you hear me hollow", making old  Andy believe that he would be sure and kill a bear that day.

      Old Andy hunted on all day, not knowing anything about the  joke old Shawne Bear was playing on him.  In the evening he got  to the camping place and gets their supper as he thought.  But  night come on and no Shawne Bear to hollow.  Next day old Andy  went and hunted for him, but did not find him, and that was the  last ever heard of Shwne Bear and old Andy's horse.  i was well  acquainted with Andy Hethhorn.  He lived in a camp by himself on  the Buffalo fork of White river which is in Marion County Ark.  Old Andy Hethhorn and his brother Thomas Hethhorn come to this  country from South Carolina together.  They brought some good  stock horses here with them.  There were several good brood mares  in the bunch.  They turned them in the cane brakes here on White  river valleys, and in the course of a few years they had quite a  lot of good horese roaming the woods and valleys.  Finally old  Thomas died which left all to Andy.  It was  s aid that at old  Thomas Hethorn's death, he and his brother had about eighty head  of horses here in the cane brakes.

      In that day here we would not have mules; we thought horses  were good enough.  I have seen horses here ten years old that had  never had a halter on and many of them did not know anything of  corn.  Put the corn in a trough and the horse would go and smell  of it or lick it and then walk off and not taste a grain of it.  Some people would keep and old plug of a pony to ride, when at  the same time they would have from five to thirty head of horses in the valleys of White River at one time, some of them ten years  old, as I have said before, that were unbroke.

      A many a time have I slipped up on a gang of these horses  and scared them to see them run in the cane, and one time I came  very near meeting with my match.  I saw a large gang coming long
 a path and I hid myself under a little steep bank of the river.  The old leader was in front.  There were three or four young  colts, all in the foremost ranks.  When they got opposite me I  threw my hat at them, and I never saw such actions as they made.  They would kick and squeal and make it appear as if they would  tear up the world.  I believe if I had have been in sight they  would have been right on me.  I took good care that they did not  see me, however.  I lay low till they got off some distance, and  this was the last time I ever attempted to scare mares and colts.  This was in the year 1830.

Chapter 25

      About the year 1824 there was a Shawne Indian by the name of  Billy John lived on the south side of White river.  That side of  the river and country belonged to the Shawne tribe at that time. Old Jake Wolf lived up about the mouth of Big North Fork.  Old  Jake had some goods for sale,  and sold some of them to old Billy John on time.  Billy John was to pay old Jake in hides and furs.   The account went on till fall as was the custom, and Old Billy  John comes with a big  bundle of hides, enough as he thought to  pay Jake for the goods he had bought.  The Indian called
 .....Jacob Wolf by the n....."Jake".  So when the ....old Billy  John, got ....hildes and put .....Old Jake weighed them.  And  after making the calculation to see what they amounted to, old  Billy John says to him "Billy John paid Jake".  Old Jake says  "no".  Then Billy John goes back  home and comes with another role of hides, and old Jake weighs them and makes the calculation as  to what they amounted to , old Billy John standing by and looking  on.  When old Jake was done old Billy John says, "Billy John paid  Jake".  Jake says"No".  Then Billy John say to him, "Billy John  paid Jake 'nough, Bill John pay Jake no more".  And he never did  pay Jake any more, for he knew he had paid Jake enough.

 ............................................................
 (Three pages have been lost from this place). (Chapter 26 begins
 somewhere in these omitted pages).

Chapter 26

 (Note: There is an omission here.  The narrative begins again on  page 180)

could get any clew to the murder.  Some of the parties went to  Crumps to see if they could find out anything about it, as a  negro there was of a suspicions character, and asked Crumps about  the negro; his master told the parties that two days before that  the negro was missing.  The parties at once started out to look  for him, as the time his master said he was missing corresponded  to the time the murder was done.  They hunted three or four days.  When they found him he was keeping himself conceved in a cane  brake about one mile from  (Note; the page is torn and the narrative begins on page 181)  on him and he surrendered.  A good guard was kept until next day  when they took him to the woods and told him he ws the man that  had killed Mrs. Evans and there was no use of him denying it.  Said they, "we will burn you up and if you have got anything to  say, say quick.  So saying the posse got axes and began to chip  wood to make a fire around him. They sharpened a stake and drove  it in the ground, then took a drawing chain and tied one end to  the stake and the other end to the negros leg so he could have  good room to play around the stake, then they made a log heap  around the stake and set fire to it.  The darkey told all that I  have told, and more; he told of the violence he commited, after  he struck her the first blow, while she was lying senseless on  the ground.  When he told this one of the Jeffrey boys said,  "make up the fire boys".  The fire was mended and the negro began  to step and twist, then to jump and scream, John Creathers says,  "you G-- D-- murderer this is nothing to what you will be in in a  few minutes,"  His screams got so very bad and pitiful that one  of the men said to shoot him, two of them up with guns and shot  him, and he fell in the fire.  The possee stayed there until he  was burnt up skin and bones.  When they took the negro off and  killed him his master left and was never heard of anymore.  Evans  married again and lived here several  years.  He died near Salem  in Fulton County.  I was at his sale after his death.  His wife ? died shortly afterwards.

Chapter 27

 A negro shoots a woman

     In this chapter I will tell of some more of the horrible deeds done here in an early day.  In 1827 a man by the name of Hillhouse moved in here on Strawverry;  he had a wife and on little boy, and owned on or two negroes.  Mr Hillhouse died in a year or so after he came here.  They were well raised and highly respected here.  I have seen them amany a time when I was a small boy.  Them and my people were great cronies.  Mrs. Hillhouse had a small farm and raised stock.  Her negro man attended to the outdoor work, and as game was plenty he was allowed a gun to hunt with.  Allowed so much liberty this negro became very trusty; his mistress had raised him in the house until he was a right smart sized boy.  The negro came in the house one day and called for his gun as he had often done before .  He seemed to be excited and she asked what he wanted with the gun; he said there was a hawk after the chickens and he wanted to shoot it.  So the negro stepped out of the house with the gun.  his mistress was sitting in a room sewing; the negro stopped by the door on the outside of the house and watched till he saw her head down at her work when he shot her in the head.  There happened to be one of the neighbor women there and she sstepped to the door and saw the negro running along by a string of fence.  She run to the nearest neighbors and raised the alarm.  A possee of men followed the negro and caught him near the Arkansas River.

     The negro confessed to doing the murder but said a white man persuaded him to do it, that the white man said he would run him off and set him free.  The possee did not bring the white man back, they said he outrun them and got away.  They came on them at night lying by a small fire on a blanket and o?? for covering which they had stolen before they left Lawrence County.  It was
always thought the possee killed the white man.  I never knew his name if I did I have forgotton it.

     This white man had been in the neighborhood some time working for one and another.  Mrs.  Hillhouse had him to work for her.  In the mean time he apparently became very much attach to
her and wished to marry her.  She told him very ladylike that she did not wish to marry.  This seemed to arouse his feeling; he was after the negro and all the money he could get, for it was said that she had some money.

     The possee took the negro before a justice of the peace for trial and he was committed to jail to await the decision of the court and jury.  He was committed to the old Davidsonville jail that was the first county seat of Lawrence County and James Kerkindall was the first sheriff of said county.

     When the time rolled around court convened at Davidsonville and the jury found the negro guilty of murder in the first degree and said he must hang.

     The jury was discharged and the judge asked the negro if he wished his sentence given then or wanted to wait until just before the term of court adjourned.  He said he wished it then  and the judge ask him if he wished to talk any before sentence was passed on him.

     He said he was guilty of killing his mistress and he was sorry of it too for if it had not been for that white man and told the mans name, he would not have done the crime, for his mistress was very kind to him.  He said when his mistress had this man hired he was all the time talking to him about having his freedom.   He told the white man that he did not know how to get away, when the white man said if he would kill his mistress that he could go with him and he would give him his freedom and said they would never hear of him anymore, and that he would tell every body that the negro was born free.  he told all that I have told and a great deal more.

     The judge was old Bob Critenden.  he told the negro that he must hang until he was dead, dead, dead.  The judge gave thirty days to prepare for death.

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