A Forgotten Feud of "Bloody" Breathitt County, Kentucky

if you bring up the topic of Kentucky blood feuds most people are going to think about the Hatfields and McCoys which were two families one which lived in Kentucky and the other which lived in West Virginia who shot at each other for generations some say it all started over a pig but there were many other blood feuds in Kentucky that were just as shocking maybe even more so than those better known feuds the turn of the century Markham cockerel Hargis affair in Breathitt County Kentucky was so violent that the press coined the term bloody Breathitt it's one of those lesser-known feuds that deserves to be remembered the participants in the feud lived in and around the county seat of Breathitt County Kentucky town called Jackson Jackson was a small town which only had a population of approximately a thousand people in the early 1900s today it remains small with around 2,100 inhabitants while the more famous former residents of the town estate advance author of the book hillbilly elegy said he spent his summers with his family in Jackson the town was originally named Breathitt town after Kentucky governor John Breathitt but changed his name in honor of u.s. President Andrew Jackson the big businesses in the region were coal in lumber and they were driven by the railroad making its way through the mountains the other type of big business that the townspeople of Jackson were concerned with was politics the elections of 1901 were by some accounts bitter in Breathitt County James Hargis a local businessman with ties to the Democrat Party was elected to the position of County Judge and Callaghan was chosen as sheriff though by a very small margin the candidate who had opposed Callaghan in the election fought against the result but Hargis threw his support behind Callaghan which caused him Hill feelings in the course of contesting the election a meeting was attended by Hargis and Callaghan a prominent lawyer represented the Republican opposition named James B Markham and a few others a fight broke out between Hargis and Markham and both men drew their pistols on each other but they were escorted out of the room before any serious injuries occurred but the damage was done because warrants for Hargis and Markham were issued by the judge Cardwell for their arrest Markham turned himself in paid a $20 fine but Hargis refused to do so because there was bad blood between Judge Cardwell and himself he suspected a relative of Cardinals had killed one of his brothers of your prior and had been pardoned so that no one was held responsible for the crime the town marshal James cockerel deputized his brother Tom and went to a rest Hargis he ran away from the cockerels and surrendered to sheriff Callahan the man he had been supporting in the contested election sheriff Callahan accepted his surrender and drew his revolver informing the marshal and his brother of Hargis surrender in a later statement describing the incident harga said suddenly and without warning both threw their pistols down at me and I believe would have assassinated to be and not Callahan interfered just then Markham sent word to Cardwell that he was to blame for the entire difficulty and asked that the charge against me be dismissed I was never able to explain who got the cockerels to try to assassinate me but he added the cockerels that I were the best of friends up till that time the incident seemed to be over until February 1902 when Tom cockerel the same man who had gone with his brother to arrest Hargis got into an argument with Ben Hargis James Hargis his brother at a local tavern reports of what happened in the tavern berry but witnesses say both men had drawn pistols and shot at each other Tom cockerel was badly injured but Ben Hargis died later from his wounds some witnesses claimed that before his death Ben Hargis asked his family not to seek retribution against Tom cockerel because they both drawn their pistols if he felt like he had invited his fate the feeling perhaps agreed with Ben Hargis to set his mind at rest but after his death they went after Tom cockerel in court markham not only defended cockerel but also refused to accept a fee for his services dr. beady a permanent resident of jackson and a guardian of the cockerel family was instrumental in ensuring that the trial was moved to another County because the amount of publicity and ill feeling the entire affair had stirred up in Breathitt cockerel was tried in the next county over in a town called Hampton he rode the trial with 12 armed guards and was even given a rifle himself in case he had to defend himself although he never had need to use it eventually he was acquitted which of course left bad feelings and the part of the Hargis cockerel died a few years later in October 1908 killed in an accident involving a freight train he's a where he printed in the news of Maryland newspaper said he had been called bad Tom because of his ability to pick a fight and get out of it with a whole skin while his antagonist was usually found with one or more bullet holes in him the bitchery also noted that he was the only one of those involved in the feud in the last five years to die from a cause other than a bullet from the gun of an enemy after cockerel was acquitted in the murder trial of Ben Hargis dr. Cox said that he felt afraid for his life not only had he helped to have the trial be moved to a different County but he had been one of the most active supporters of the Hargis political opponents on a Sunday night in April 1902 a few months after killed the killing of bin Hargis dr. Cox received a call from someone who said that they needed help he went to his office on the second floor of a building across the street from the Jackson courthouse but no one was there as he was leaving there were shots fired from the direction of Hargis brothers stable yard which was located on another corner to the courthouse some reports say dr. Cox died with 20 buckshot wounds in his body no one was ever arrested or held accountable for the murder of dr. Cox although locals noted that for weeks afterwards Hargis didn't go anywhere without an armed guard two months after the murder of dr. Cox in July James cockerel the marshal who had gone to arrest Hargis with his brother got in a fight with Curtis Jett the nephew of Hargis in the Arlington hotel dining room khakhra was still acting town marshal and Jett was a deputy sheriff both men drew their pistols on each other but they're friends again intervened and no one was harmed a few days later Cockrell was shocked in the middle of the day in nearly the same location where dr. Cox had been shot and died from his wounds a few days later witnesses said the fatal shots had come from the second story of the Breathitt County Courthouse the same night Cochran was shot and killed the tavern where bed Hargis had been shot was mysteriously burned to the ground John Patrick a lawyer one of the witnesses to the shooting of cockerel said he saw three gun muzzles sticking out of the courthouse window he also claimed he recognized one of the shooters shortly after this admission Patrick fled Jackson's he had been warned to shut his mouth and get out of town if he valued his life patrick was summoned from a grand jury trial about the death of James cockerel in Jackson but he refused to come back right into the judge that he feared those responsible would kill him if he went back when the National Guard was called restore law and order in Jackson Patrick eventually returned and testified that he had seen Curtis jet and courthouse window shooting at James cockerel in November 1902 JB Markham the lawyer who had initially drawn his pistol against Hargis in the election conference wrote a letter to the editor of the Lexington based newspaper of the Herald decrying the killings in Breathitt County he wrote there have been over 30 killed in Breathitt since the 24th day of last December and the Lord knows how many of them wounded for I have been unable to keep track of either class jurors and witnesses will be afraid to do their duty as they're afraid to oppose certain influences openly he named two men who had been beaten for testifying in khakhras trial Markham continued the state of fear existing here is simply indescribable and appalling it cannot be truthfully denied however that the existence of the present state of lawlessness and a certain judges constant association with those suspected of complicity in the murder of Cox and cockerel have destroyed in the public mind confidence in the administration of justice in a shocking turn of events Markham submitted a sworn affidavit to the Herald from one of his clients a man named Moses Feltner who said that he had attended multiple meetings with both Hargis and callahan Felder claimed that the purpose of the meeting was to plan the assassination of Markham Markham went on to state that the only reason he was still alive was because Felder had tipped him off to the plans and he had changed the time he arrived and left his home in order to thwart the would-be assassins or he would walk down the street carrying his baby in his arms having been assured by Feltner that they wouldn't risk shooting the child the affidavits Martin gave to the newspaper were never filed with the courts but he changed the wording on another set of affidavits and submitted those the main difference being that the first set and second set were the names Hargis and callahan were switched out with certain wealthy and influential citizens Hargis and Callahan sued the newspaper for printing the affidavits and a Breathitt County jury indicted the newspaper for criminal libel but it appears this charge was dropped probably because of what came next on May 4th 1903 Markham who was working as an attorney at the time was shot in the back while standing on the Breathitt County Courthouse steps talking to his friend captain BJ you and a Shep deputy sheriff while Martin was on the ground another man ran up and fired a bullet into his head you would later testify that one of the shooters was Curtis jet Markham's letter to the editor and the sworn affidavits were reprinted all over country and readers were astonished that Markham had predicted his own assassination Hargis and Callaghan were both president witnessed the murder of Markham incredibly claimed that they could not see well enough to identify the shooter because the smoke from his gun was too thick hog is then instructed callahan who was still a sheriff not to chase the assassin because it was too dangerous at this point the National Guard was called in to restore order in Jackson un claimed a man offered him $5,000 to retract his statement that one of the shooters of Markham was jet but he refused the bribe even though the man threatened to kill him if he didn't accept the money instead ewtn's hotel was burned to the ground the first murder trial for the murder of Markham ended in a hung jury for Kurtis jet then in August of 1903 a second trial took place in a different venue Kurtis jad and a man named Tom white were convicted of the murder of Markham and sentenced to life in prison a month later jet was also found guilty for the murder of James cockerel he served 15 years in prison but then was pardoned after his time in prison yet claimed to be a changed man it became a new life as a preacher on the anniversary of the murder of Markham in May 1912 sheriff Callahan answered the phone in the window of his store and was shot through the window he died from his wound in May 1907 judge Vargas lost a civil suit to Markham's widow was ordered to pay her eight thousand dollars in restitution still it seemed that Hargis had survived the feud which had claimed so many others but then there was a last twist Hargis was killed on February 6 1908 by his only son Beach with his own gun the beach had stolen from his home historians say Beach was angry with his father from an incident a few days before that got him drunk and lost control of his temper he emptied the gun into his father hitting him five times witnesses said that Hargis last words were mercy I am killed the Louisville courier-journal when reporting on the Breathitt County murders none that virtually everybody involved in the feud was related to each other they said that the early Breathitt County families like all the mountain and isolated communities had so married and intermarried that nearly everyone in the county was related to nearly every a person for example Alex Argus's wife was a niece of James B Markham Curtis Jets father was a brother of Tom and Jim cockerels mother Jetts mother was a half-sister of Judge James Hargis it's not clear how many deaths and shootings in bloody breathitt were related to the feud but in the end that fight was as much of her power and politics as it was over family and it's not as if blood feuds are unique to Appalachia William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet has two families the Montagues and the Capulets who've carried on a blood feud for generations each blaming the other the Capulets claim the Montagues furnish all the troubles we are only innocents slaughtered while the Montagues counter that the Capulets are making the war we are only defending ourselves and our property the same sort of finger-pointing in retribution seems to been used in the just as violent if not nearly as poetic bloody Breathitt County I hope you enjoyed this episode of the History guy short snippets of forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 180,294

Keywords: history, The history guy, kentucky, breathitt county, jackson, us history, history guy

Id: IzbuLDq3TiI

Length: 12min 33sec (753 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019