Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1889 — A WAR OF EXTERMINATION. [ARTICLE]

A WAR OF EXTERMINATION.

The Ha!field-McCoy Feud—Wagon-I.oads of Rifles and Revolvers for tho Participants. Another bloody chapter was added to the story of the Hatfleld-McCoy vendetta last night by a skirmish, in which Mrs. James Brown was killed and John Blumfield wounded by a detachment of the McCoy party in ambush. The feud has now assumed the aspect of a war of extermination i nd the battle which has been brewing for forty-eight hours may begin at any moment. The only thing that has kept the Hatfields from attacking the McCoys was the strong force and intrenched position of the latter, but the situation is now entirely changed. The Blumfield family, stung to frenzy by the wanton butchery of A 1 Blumfield and his wife, have decided to Join the Hatfields in an attempt to exterminate the McCoys. This will give the Hatfield leaders at least 250 armed men. Yesterday John Blumfield, Charles Blumfield and George Hatfield, all of them cousins of the murdered pair, went to Huntington and recruited about a dozen of their relatives who work there in the Cincinnati & Ohio railroad shops. They then purchased all the rifles and revolvers they could find in the place, securing In all about 100 , repeaters of recent model and nearly 130 , revolvers. They also bought several , thousand cartridges. This supply of war material was loaded upon ten wagons, and they were driven south toward the scene of the Lincoln county feud, surrounded by a guard of fifteen desperate men, armed to thetoelh. No attempt was made to stop them, as the county authorities are pow erless. ; The cavalcade was attacked at Fudge’s creek, near the Guyandotte river, last night, by a party of McCoy’s friends in ; ambush near the farm house of Mrs. James | Brown, who was a Hatfield before she was married. The Hatfields had stopped for supper, and were eating, when a valley was poured through the windows.

The Hatfields were taken by surprise, but seized their rifles and returned the fire. It was pitch dark, and it is not known if any of the McCoys were hart, as the Hatfields were afraid to search in the underbrush. When Blumfield’s men returned to the house, Mrs. Brown lay dead upon the floor, with a bullet through her neck, and John Blumfleld, the leader of the party, was found to. be wounded, but it is impossible to learn how seriously. This last affair has stirred up feeling there to the highest pitch, and it bas been determined to call on the Governor for troops. Every one recognizes, however, that the regular militia can do little, for they will be ignorant of the country and its thousands of biding places, and would be shot down from ambush. There is some talk of organizing a company of State rangers on the Texas plan, but no one can be found to assume the leadership. No reports from the scene of the Blumfleld funeral have been received. A dispatch from Wheeling denies the accurateness of the above story, and says there bas been no trouble since last Thursday night, when McCoy and Haley were lynched.