| Stories of Kentucky Feuds |
| Plucked Out-Root and Branch Part-1 |
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| (Page 1) HOUN' DOGS and shoats, public office and bad whiskey, have all been blamed for the broils that grew to feuds-feuds that were pockmarked with suffering and death-but the Kentuckian's clannishness, his love of kinfolk, his willingness to take up their fight or their battle, also must have its place in the list of contributing causes. Kinfolk brought about the most deadly vendetta that appears in the somewhat crimson annals of Carter County's history. The fact that Old George Underwood took a third wife, and that he and his family felt called upon to defend a worthless nephew of his spouse, left a gory record behind, the like of which has few parallels for comparison. Old George Underwood was a Virginian by birth, and, with his first wife and several small sons, migrated to Carter County, Kentucky, in the late 40's, located a rude mountain farm on the top of a ridge from which flowed the headwater of the Tygard and on the other side the Triplett River. His home was a substantial building of logs chinked with mud, bulky and commanding, that later came to be called "Fort Underwood," This was situated near the state road-the graded dirt turnpike between Mt. Sterling and Grayson-a much frequented highway used in the early days by stock drovers, lawyers, litigants and all other casual travel. Old George was a cheerful soul, and the personification of Virginian hospitality, so his house on the hilltop became a stopping place for the better class of travelers, and thus he mingled with some of the most prominent men in that section of Kentucky. . His scope of influence extended as time went on until politicians reckoned that his support was good for forty to fifty votes. More than six feet in height, raw boned, square shouldered, deep chested. with keen, clear and sometimes fierce blue eyes, a ready tongue and simple but polite address, he was a man who had many (Page 2) |
| friends even though he was inclined to be a bully and indulge in "skull fights" when election times rolled around. His Virginian wife died after she had given birth to four sons Alfred, ]esse, Elvin and George Lewis. Then he married the daughter of a neighbor. Two daughters and four more sons blessed this union, their boys being named William, Sennet, Harrison and David. The third wife was the daughter of John Richards, a highly esteemed farmer of Fleming County, and though she had joined the two preceding wives in the family burying ground upon the ridge, she left a legacy of trouble in her nephew, John Richards Tabor, to whom is directly traceable the feud that raged in all its fury for three years and closed tragically in 1879. In these events some of the sons of Old George Underwood play a prominent part, and throughout the narrative their reputations have to be reckoned with. They had ranged the county audaciously for years and their very affiliations had created a background of hatred, which, to a measure, offers a fore-shadow of stirring events that were to follow. Old George Underwood had been a stanch Whig all his ,life, and when the War Between the Sections broke out he boldly announced himself as a Union man. His sons inherited his politics and declared his patriotism was theirs. Many of the Confederate bands in going upon and returning from raids in the state traveled the dirt turnpike that ran in front of the family lands. With these the Underwood boys; and the party they gathered, were in constant warfare. Their farm work was neglected, their homes were open to attack, and frequently their horses and cattle were driven away. Refusing to be hampered by Federal discipline they became guerillas in the fullest sense of the word, and many a grey-coated Confederate fell before their unerring rifles. Such a menace did they become to the detached soldiers of the South that bands of picked men were sent time after time, with orders to decimate the family-but they returned empty handed, and more times than often with empty saddles to show as a result of a brush with the Underwoods-yet the records showed that none of the men sought or those who fought with them were taken or killed by the Confederates. Alfred Underwood, the oldest boy, was the leader. Once, at the head of twenty men, he rode into Maysville, after that town had (Page-3) |
| been looted by the grey coats, and threatened to fire the homes of those who were known to be sympathizers of the Johnny Rebs. He was argued out of this design, but later, when the band had "lickered up," pillage followed. Stores suffered and the stalls of a number of stables were emptied. As time went on they became more ardent in the pursuit of "the spoils of war" and less careful of the property rights of others. As a general thing they sought their prizes in the shape of horseflesh, and not a few of these found their way to Ohio where they were sold. Had they abandoned their predatory bent upon the close of the war their offenses might have been condoned, but Alfred, Jesse and one of the younger brothers continued in their ways for many months after peace was declared, until one particularly bold piece of horse thievery caused Alfred to depart for the West, and he ultimately settled in Kansas. Some will have it that Alfred Underwood was for a time associated with Frank and Jesse James, the notorious bandits and outlaws, but this his family bitterly denied. Sooner or later Dave, Sennet and Harrison also were caught by lure of the West and they went to Iowa where they followed the peaceful pursuit of farming. One of the four sons who remained with his father also later journeyed to Iowa, but under a somewhat different urge. Jesse was the "rattlebrains" of the family with a given propensity for getting into trouble. Soon after the close of the war Jesse flirted too stoutly with "applejack" at Licking Cross Roads and got into an altercation with a Mexican War veteran, James Carey, and when their argument rose to a great pitch Jesse whipped out his bowieknife and slashed the old soldier across the face, leaving a terrible wound. When Carey recovered, however, he forgave the young scamp and said that he believed that the wound was merely the result of a drunken freak. But this gave Jesse a bad name, and a short while later when he went to a circus at Wyoming in Bath County, his reputation as a tippler of apple juice and his general cussedness were the cause of his getting into more serious trouble. There were rough customers in the town that day and many of them held forth in the barroom where Jesse disported himself. The horseplay became vicious and Jesse was dragged into it. A pistol shot rang out and a young man named Trumbo fell to the floor, (Page-4) |
| fatally wounded. The victim of the bullet had taken no part in the rude sport that had been going on, and the man at whom the pistol was aimed having dodged when he saw it brought into action, Trumbo fell an innocent victim, He was quite a favorite in Bath County and his death caused such a stir that Jesse Underwood was forced to take to the hills, Trumbo's friends asserting they would never rest until his slayer had "stretched hemp." For weeks Jesse lurked in his native knobs and then made his way, first, to his father's old home in Virginia and finally to his brothers out in Iowa. Occasionally he was overcome with homesickness, and when thus smitten he would journey back to Carter County and remain for weeks at a time in the wooded hills, dodging home for a night or two but mostly keeping to the open for fear of bringing the law and ill repute down upon his father's head, What brought these migratory visits to a termination will be told farther along for this has to do with the development in the feud that sprang up later. Of the other three sons, George Lewis remained with his father and two sisters at "Fort Underwood," Elvin married the daughter of a respectable farmer and land owner and settled dose by, while William moved into an adjoining county where he married and lived peaceably and happily in his effort to give his growing family some of the advantages of life that had not been accorded to himself or his brothers. So the world wagged and ten years slipped by from the time that the last curtain had been rung down on the great Civil War tragedy. The recitation of the family history of the Underwoods makes rather tedious reading-but there is still other characters whose genealogy it is necessary to trace-these are their adversaries, the vengeful spirits who never unbended, who never forgave the head of the family for besting them politically, and who chose the opposite side when the war broke out-"Squire" Halbrook, his family and the Stamper clan. Little is left of the "Squire's" record. He was a native of Kentucky who settled on the Triplett River long years before, and whose title had been earned through his election to the county magistry. His sons and relationship were numerous--they were honest, respectable people, though bearing rather a hard name for violence. They lived a couple of miles from Fort Underwood and their dose comrades and familiars were a family named Stamper (Page-5) |
| a name common to the region and among whom were many good people and some who were busy dodging the sheriff most of the time. As has been said in the foregoing, kinship is many times strained to the ravelings in Kentucky. So it was in the case of John Richards Tabor, who traces as the direct cause of "The Carter County War." His father married a sister of Old George Underwood's third wife the only earthly reason Tabor had for seeking a protecting wing when trouble overtook him in 1877 and when he had no other place to go. Tabor had been a merchant in Hillsboro in Fleming County and apparently prospered in the years that followed the war, but many times appearances are deceptive. His passion for cards and gambling (which was long concealed) finally came to the surface and he was left stranded financially. Then, taking what was left, he went to Cincinnati, firmly convinced that he could rout the professional card sharks, but when they left him he was plucked clean. Utterly destitute he returned to his native heath and settled in Morehead, in Rowan County, where he eked out an existence by keeping store and later was appointed county clerk. Tabor figured in a scandal that became quite famous in the years that followed. Judge Thomas F. Hargis, while under a judicial cloud, borrowed the minute book and common law docket from Tabor and carried them to the room of his hotel where he kept them over night. Four days later Tabor reported to the circuit court that the books had been mutilated, and later, at the instance of Judge Hargis, Tabor was indicted as criminally responsible. This resulted in the loss of his office, and Tabor sank lower and lower in social level until in the early part of 1877 he shot at James Carey and found it necessary to decamp from Morehead. Not long afterward Tabor was found aboard an Ohio River steamboat in the possession of several horses that had been stolen in Rowan County. With him, as his partner, was John Martin, a thorough going scoundrel who had just been acquitted of the murder of his brother-in-law. The pair were arrested and gave bail and evidently had a change of heart, for soon afterward they appeared at the home of Old George Underwood. |