Days of Darkness (20 page)

A December court date was set, but shortly before they were due to face justice, Martin and Tolliver ran into each other at the Gault House, a Morehead hotel. As usual, they were drinking, and soon hot words were exchanged. Both reached for pistols, but as Tolliver raised his gun, Martin fired off a fatal shot while his pistol was still in his pocket, ruining his coat and killing Floyd. As he lay on the barroom floor, Tolliver whispered to his friends, “Remember what you swore to do. You said you'd kill him. Keep your word.”

This was enough to cause Martin concern, and he was probably not too unhappy when he was arrested and put in jail. But reports that Craig Tolliver, Floyd's brother, was saying that he would kill Martin as soon as he stepped from jail, persuaded County Judge Stewart to order Martin transferred to the Clark County jail in Winchester. The Tollivers were furious when this was done, but Craig advised them to be patient. “There's another day coming,” he said. “We can wait.”

When Judge Stewart heard this, he decided it would probably mean death for Martin if he were returned to Morehead just then, and he ordered an indefinite postponement of the trial. This was too much for Craig Tolliver. He called a meeting of the clan. Someone proposed a raid on the Winchester jail; they could swoop down, knock out the jailer, grab Martin, and kill him on the way home. It sounded simple, but Craig was opposed. He had a better plan.

On December 9, 1884, Jeff Bowling, a Tolliver henchman and town marshal of Farmers, was handed an order, probably forged by Craig Tolliver, directing him to go to Winchester and order the jailer to hand over Martin, who would then be taken to Morehead. No one could be blamed if, on the way back, he was killed. Bowling, a Tolliver ally who was not above bloodshed (he had knifed James Nickell in the fall of 1882) seemed happy to be a part of the party.

Bowling recruited four deputies and set out for Winchester, where he presented his order to the jailer. Since it carried the (forged) signatures of two justices of the peace, the jailer saw no reason not to release Martin to them. Martin saw plenty of reason. He begged the jailer not to do it, pointing out that his wife, who had just visited him, had told him that Judge Stewart had postponed the trial indefinitely because of threats made by the same men who had sent Bowling. He begged the jailer to get in touch with Morehead officials before complying with the forged order. But the jailer, not familiar with the More-head climate, decided to obey the order and handed Martin over.

Martin's wife had just boarded the train back to Morehead when her husband arrived, unseen by her, and was placed in the car behind the one in which she was riding. Night fell. The train whistled toward Farmers, where Craig Tolliver and a dozen of his men were waiting. As the train pulled into the station, five Tolliver men held the conductor, engineer, and fireman at gunpoint while six others entered the passenger coach where Martin sat, shackled and handcuffed. Seeing them, Martin tried to run but was immediately shot. Mrs. Martin, hearing the shots, was seized, she said later, “with an undefinable dread” and ran back to the car where her husband lay shot and bleeding. A tough man, he lived until the train reached Morehead and even managed to walk, with help, across the street to the Powers Hotel. He died at around nine o'clock the next morning.

The news of the killing spread through the county, and from that day on open war existed between the Tollivers and their followers and the Martins and their friends. The Tollivers, Bowlings, Youngs, Goodins, and Days were Democrats. The Martins, Humphreys, Logans, and Powerses were Republican.

Craig Tolliver, tall, heavily muscled, and handsome in a brutal way, gradually gained control of Morehead, chiefly by getting himself elected town marshal and by threatening those opposed to him. Dr. Ben Martin, father of John, was a substantial, fairly well-to-do man. The Martins had on their side Cook Humphrey, the Republican sheriff, and Humphrey was one of the few men in Rowan County who was not afraid of Craig Tolliver and his brothers, Bud and Jay, and cousin Andy.

In an effort to even the odds, Humphrey named Stewart Baumgartner from neighboring Elliott County as his deputy. This was probably a mistake. Baumgartner, despite Humphrey's words of recommendation, was a trigger-happy thug and troublemaker. This was academic, however, for he was soon killed. The first casualty, though, was County Attorney Z.T. Young, who was shot but not killed as he rode along Christy Creek, northeast of Morehead. The Tollivers laid the blame on Baumgartner, and a week later, on March 17, 1885, he was shot and instantly killed as he, too, rode along Christy Creek, at almost the identical spot where Young had been shot. No one was ever arrested, but a few weeks later police in Flemingsburg, a small town in an adjoining county, arrested an itinerant gunman who admitted that he and two others had been hired, at fifty dollars a head, to kill Young and Jeff and Alvin Bowling.

Humphrey was not through. In late April he appeared on the streets of Morehead in company with Ed Pearce (or Pierce), a reputed killer, and a handful of Martin sympathizers, all heavily armed. Pearce was not your usual deputy. Short, red-haired, and with a bushy red beard, Pearce came from Greenup, where he was said to have a half-dozen murders to his credit. The Tollivers were alarmed. They sent word to Craig, who was in Elliott County at the time, and he hurried back, bringing with him several of his kin.

Humphrey and Pearce entered the bar at the Carey Hotel and ran into Jeff Bowling and John Day. Insults were exchanged, Day and Bowling retreated to the Cottage Hotel (also known as the Rains Hotel) across the street, and the two groups began shooting at each other. Humphrey and Pearce ran out of ammunition and retreated to the Gault House. Tolliver reinforcements arrived that afternoon from Mt. Sterling and besieged the Martin faction. Rifle bullets ripped through the hotel and ricocheted around the town, terrifying noncombatants. Badly outnumbered, Humphrey and Pearce slipped out the back door and retreated to the Martin home.

Tollivers took over the town, walking up and down Main Street armed with rifles. People were afraid to come out of their homes. County officials caught the train for Frankfort, where they appealed to Governor J. Proctor Knott for help.

In the following weeks a number of people, including Dr. R.L. Rains, Circuit Clerk James Johnson, Robert and James Nickell, and James Thompson announced that they were moving to Mt. Sterling until conditions improved. Others left for good. Dr. Ben Martin, saying that he had been threatened by Craig Tolliver, sold out, took his sons Will and Dave, and moved to Kansas, leaving Mrs. Martin and
their daughters at the Martin home until he could send for them.

But the Tolliver noose was not quite tight. Hiram Pigman, H.M. Logan, and D.B. (Boone) Logan, lawyers and businessmen, joined county officials in asking Governor Knott for help. Governor Knott responded by sending Adjutant General John Castleman to More-head to see if he could determine the cause of the continuing violence. Castleman reported, in effect, that law enforcement in Rowan County was weak because it was in the hands of lawbreakers and that no one seemed especially interested in seeing law enforced. As a result, the leaders of the two camps were summoned to Louisville, where state officials worked out what they thought was a workable compromise. It was not.

Cook Humphrey, H.M. Logan, and Judge James Carey represented one side, generally Republican, while Craig Tolliver and Dr. Jerry Wilson represented the Democrats, if they can be so labeled. On April 11 both sides agreed to lay down their arms, obey the laws, and not attack the other. The agreement granted amnesty to all concerned for the riot. This, of course, pleased and encouraged the battlers, and for a while it seemed that the truce might hold. But not for long. General Castleman, at the conclusion of the truce talks, predicted that the truce wouldn't hold. He was right.

Back in Morehead, Craig Tolliver, supported by County Attorney Z.T. Young, was elected town marshal over Robert Messer. Messer was then elected constable, with Tolliver backing. Ed Pearce, the Greenup gunman, was arrested in Greenup County and tried in Bath County for robbery. He was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison, but before he left he sent for Z.T. Young and told him that H.M. Logan and Sue Martin had offered him and Ben Rayburn money to kill Young as well as Jeff and Alvin Bowling. Pearce later recanted, saying that Craig Tolliver had threatened to have him killed before he reached prison if he did not lie.

On June 11, Alvin Bowling was indicted in Mt. Sterling for the murder of a man named Gill. Ed Pearce, at the trial, testified that John Martin and Cook Humphrey had made a deal: Humphrey would collect the county taxes, Martin would then rob him and take the money, and together they would go West. The Morehead police judge, a Tolliver man, then issued a warrant for Humphrey, who was at the Martin house at the time. (Pearce later recanted this charge, too.)

Then began a period of open lawlessness. Tolliver heard that Cook Humphrey and Ben Rayburn were at the Martin home, and early on the morning of June 28, 1885, after surrounding the house during the night, the Tollivers attacked. Said Mrs. Martin:

Craig Tolliver and his gang came to my house early in the morning after Cook Humphrey and Ben Rayburn. At the time there was no one living at my house except women … myself, my daughters Susan and Annie, my little daughter Rena and my married daughter, Mrs. Tusser. My husband had gone to Kansas. He had received warning that he would be killed if he did not go, and we women folks persuaded him to leave. My sons, Will and Dave, had also been threatened, and they, too, had gone to Kansas.

It was Sunday when the Tollivers came. Cook Humphrey and Ben Ray-burn were at my house. The Tollivers found out he was there because the night before he had slipped in to Morehead after his Winchester…. they saw him and the next day they came after him. They hid in the bushes around the house. In the party were Craig Tolliver, Mark Keeton, Jeff Bowling, Tom Allen Day, John Day, Boone Day, Mich and Jim Ashley, Bob Messer and others I did not know. Tolliver was town Marshal of Morehead and claimed he had warrants for the arrest of Humphrey and Rayburn on the charge of attempting to assassinate Taylor Young, but they never had any warrants.

It was a lopsided fight. “The Tollivers came in the yard and demanded that Humphrey and Rayburn surrender,” said Mrs. Martin. “Craig Tolliver slipped into the yard and got inside the house. He was creeping up the stairway when Humphrey discovered his presence, seized a shotgun and discharged it into his face. Tolliver fell back down, and his friends rushed in and dragged him out of danger. He was badly scarred but alive. A half-grown boy was at work in the field, he approached the house and two shots were fired at him. The word got to Morehead but no one dared go to relief.”

Sue Martin, a spunky sort, made her escape but was met by Tolliver, his face covered with blood, who threatened to kill her if she went to Morehead. She made a dash through the bushes. Tolliver fired at her, but she escaped and hid in a ditch until nearly night, when she made her way into town. But when she reached the courthouse she was arrested by a deputy sheriff and put into jail. The Tollivers threatened to set the Martin house on fire if Humphrey and Rayburn did not surrender.

“At about four oclock,” Mrs. Martin reported, “Rayburn made a run for the bushes. Several hundred shots had been fired. The two men, Rayburn and Humphrey, rushed out the eastern door, leaped the fence and dashed across the cornfield toward the mountain.”

The two men had gone about a hundred yards when Rayburn was hit. He rose, was hit again, fell and did not rise. Humphrey made it to the woods, and the gang, knowing he had a Winchester, did not pursue. The Tollivers then set the house on fire. Mrs. Martin and the
girls ran out as the house and all its furniture went up in flames. Annie made her way into town, where she was arrested and put in jail with her sister Susan. Mrs. Martin and the other girls spent the night under a tree.

The next night Major Lewis McKee got off the train with 150 men and marched up the street to encamp on the courthouse lawn. The Martin girls were released from jail. There were no charges against them.

Craig Tolliver claimed that he had warrants for the arrest of Humphrey and Rayburn and had a right to use as much force as necessary to arrest them. But on July 3, A.J. McKenzie was appointed temporary sheriff, and a few days later Craig Tolliver, Jeff Bowling, John Trumbo, Boone Day, Robert Messer, James Oxley, and H.M. Keeton were arrested for the murder of Ben Rayburn. It looked bad for them. It wasn't. They had to be given an examining trial before two magistrates. One was a Tolliver man, the other a Republican. The Tolliver magistrate declared that no cause for trial existed, and since it took two to vote for trial, all of the accused went free.

Jeff Bowling went to Ohio, where his mother-in-law had married a wealthy farmer named Douglas who, after a short time, turned up dead. Bowling was tried and sentenced to hang but got the sentence commuted to life, was paroled, and moved to Texas.

Meanwhile, back in Morehead, Craig Tolliver, now Marshal Tolliver, moved to consolidate his gains. C. W. Collins, a Tolliver man, was appointed temporary jailer. H.C. Powers sold his Powers Hotel to Craig. Some say he was forced to sell, since he got only $250 for it. Craig renamed it the American Hotel, opened a saloon, and again changed the name, to the American Hotel and Saloon. The law required that such enterprises be licensed, but since he was the law, Craig saw no reason to bother with such details. He also opened a dry goods store. Not long after the hotel sale, a mob stormed Powers's home and shot it full of holes. Powers had had trouble with Jay Tolliver. He left town.

Following the fight at the Martin farm, Cook Humphrey resigned as sheriff, and William Ramey was named to the post. He was an honest officer but in no position to challenge the Tollivers, and late in the summer of 1885, when the court was clearly unable to function, Governor Knott again sent in troops. A few of the alleged killers were put on trial, and though only minor sentences resulted, many of the culprits decided to leave the county. A kind of peace settled over the town, and on August 8 the troops went home.