AMERICAN FEUDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 77, 17 August 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMERICAN FEUDS

XK\Y MIUDKU AIODKD TO LONii LIST. WAITED 20 YEARS FOR VEX(JEAXCE. Another cliii|)lcr lias licen added to the Callaluin-Dcaton feud and Kentucky's longest and most deadly vendetta. Ed. Callahan is dead.

Callahan ua> shot on Hay 4 while about his duties at his store at Crockettsville, Breathitt County. It was a peaceful morning and there were no indications of trouble about the little country store. People were going on with their work and there were no signs of a lurking foe. but when three pufl's of smoke issued from the hills and three gunshots were heard Ed. Callahan was seen to fall to the floor, crying, "AJy tiod, they have killed me this time!" He was reading a letter which he had received in the morning mail, and had approached a front window to get a better light. There he was in plain" view of the assassins, who had l;3en lying in wait on the mountain side for a chance.

Three Winchesters were discharged at the mountain feudist, and he fell mortally wounded. His family gathered, and Mrs. Wilson Callahan, his daughter-in-law, emptied the contents of a revolver in the direction from which the shots came. Callahan, with as little delay as possible, was hurried to the Witherspoon Hospital at Buckhorn, Breathitt County, three miles away, where after lingering a week with a fair chance of recovering, pneumonia set in and he died.

DYING DECLARATION. The dying ieudist sent for his family, who, when they were gathered around him, were asked to live as he had lived, at peace with all men. On his deathbed he claimed that he had killed no one and that he was the victim of circumstances, and that it was the over-zealousness of his friends that had brought him into trouble. He was the deacon in a church and its financial support. He never drank intoxicants, did not smoke or chew tobacco, and he was mild-spoken. He leaves a married son, Wilson Callahan, and, also a young wife. He owned vast timber interests and was considered the lumber king of Breathitt County. His store and residence and other pieces of property comprise the village of Crockettsville.

It was twenty years ago since Callahan's employees shot and killed Jim Deaton. Nobody claimed that Callahan fired the shots or even had a revolver, but the shots came from the men working for him. and he was with them at the time. Deaton was a rival logman and had tied a raft to a landing which Calfahan claimed.

Many ha.ve fallen victims to the assassins since that time, and the killings are laid to the members of the factions. Callahan became a power in politics and was elected Sheriff of the county. James Hargis was then County Judge, and Callahan's men became associated with those of the Hargis, and various feud's resulted—namely, the Callahan-Cardwell, the Callahan-Hargis-Cockrell, the Callahan;- Smith - Deaton - Davidson - Johnson feud. The bloodiest of the feuds was in the two years in which James Cockrell, Dr. Cox and James B. Marcum, all prominent men. were killed. These murders aroused nation-wide interest, and the State authorities spent thousands of dollars trying to put a stop to it through the agencies of the State militia. The murders nevertheless continued with about the same frequency, although the victims were not prominent men, and therefore the attention of the public was not aroused at it was when Hargis and Callahan were on trial for the murder of the three men mentioned. Curt Jett and Tom White are the only two men now being punished for any of the various murders.

HEAD OF CALLAHAN'S FOES. John Smith is at present regarded as the head of the anti-C'allahan faction. Smith was at one time Callahan's henchman. He was a clerk in Callahan's store and attended to Callahan's business when the leader was away. He incidentally made love to Callahan's wife, and after the break came, and he confessed to the murder of Cox. Cockrell and Marcum at the instigation of Hargis and Callahan, he fled with Mrs. Callahan to Oklahoma. He returned recently, and it is believed bv many that it was he who most desired Callahan's death. Callahan left two brothers. One is a merchant, residing about half way between Jackson and Crockettsville. The head of the Callahan house is now Wilson Callahan, an athletic young man. who has been away in college most of liis years, and has mixed but little in his father's affairs. He will doubtless take up the work and continue the store and other business. On his deathbed Callahan said. 'T have never harmed a man. Tf I die it will be with a clear conscience. Jim Hargis never killed a man. nor did he ever hire anybody to kill an enemy. We have been accused of many crimes, the deeds of men taking advantage of our position and authority." Callahan talked freelf during the last hours of his life and appeared to harbor no resentment for the men who had finally succeeded in shooting him.