"Ol' Joe Eversole was a merchant in a town
called Hazard, an' he helped Fulton French to start a little store. In
time French almos' drove Eversole out o' business. That was a strange
fight, because neither French nor Eversole ever got into the
shootin',--indeed they remained frien'ly even when their supporters were
most bitter."
"Who carried on the feud, then?" asked Hamilton in surprise, "if the
principals didn't?"
"Wa'al, I guess the worst was a minister, the Rev. Bill Gambrill. Ho ran
the French side an' kep' the trouble stirred up all the time."
"I think I've heard of the Turner war, too," said the boy. "Was that the
same as the Howard-Turner fighting?"
"All of them were mixed up in each other's feuds in that Turner family,"
the Kentuckian replied, "but the 'Turner War' or the 'Hell's Half-Acre'
feud was in Bell County, an' it started over some question o' water
rights in Yellow Creek. It was a sayin' down in Bell County that it
couldn't rain often enough to keep Hell's Half-Acre free from stains o'
blood."
"It is a fearful record, Uncle Eli, when you put them together that
way," the boy said.
"An' I haven't even mentioned the worst o' them, the Hargis-Cockrill
feud in Breathitt County.
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