HORRIBLE TRAGEDY IN" ENTERPRISE, MISSISSIPPI.

Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 274, 15 October 1867, Page 3

HORRIBLE TRAGEDY IN ENTERPRISE, MISSISSIPPI.

By a private letter from Enterprise, Miss., we learn that a fearful tragedy was enacted iv that town. It appears that about nine o'clock in the morning, Mr Wm. Johnson went to the house of a man by the name of Wooly. He had not been there long before a dispute arose, which terminated in an affray, in which Wooly drew a pistol and shot Johnson, wounding him severely, but not to such an extent as to render him. helpless. Johnson, as soon as he was < shot, succeeded in getting possession of sn axe, and jumped upon Wooly, stnv k him a terrible blow, killing him instantly. He then attacked and killed , Wooly's wife and baby, and also severely wounded one of. his daughters, who, however, succeeded in making her escape and giving the alarm. Johnson died two days afterwards, and the young daughter is still in a very critical state. Mr Johnson, upon his death-bed, made the following statement : — "I have not lived with my wife for nearly six years. About one year ago I made a contract with Wooly and his wife to support the family, pay houserent, &c, they giving their consent to a liaison with, their daughter, and I have lived with her. in the house with Wooly and his wife since that time,, until about a week since, when Mr Sherman induced the to leave me, and Wooly and the family moved to a .house in West'Enterpri c. Oh the day

of the difficulty the girl wrote me a n ote to com c over at night. I went as requested, thinking that she desired to return to me, and, .not thinking of any difficulty, was unaniied. - I was met at the door by Wooly, who commenced abusing me,. and struck me with an axe on the shoulder, which felled me to the floor. I recovered" -from the blow, and rose to take the axe from him, when I heard a voice inside the room say, 'Shoot him/ and immediately Wooly, or some one in the room, fired, giving me my death wound. I felt that I was killed, seized the axe, wrested it from Wooly, and with one blow split his skull. I then rushed into the room from whence the % voice came, saying 'Shoot him/ and it being dark, could not see who the parties were ; and believing I had been sent for to be murdered, I struck right aud left with the axe to weed out the ranche. If I had known it was the old woman and the girl, I would not have killed them." The girl was not killed instantly", but was unable \o give any testimony. Upon being asked who was there at the time of the difficulty she said Johnson and Charley. A negro woman who was at the house states that a man unknown to her rau out of the back door after the firing of the pistol. Her testimony in the main corroborates the statement of Johnson. The community sustain no loss by the death the Wooly family. Mr Johnson had been a leading business man of Enterprise for some time," but for the past few years had been drinking, excessively, until, finally failing in business, he became desperate.