Days of Darkness (31 page)

Will was buried on June 4. “The corpse was brought to Daugh White's yesterday and at 9:30 this morning we buried him,” wrote Dickey.

Miss Alice Callahan and I sang, “I will sing you a song.” I prayed and when they were filling the grave we sang, “Nearer my God to Thee.” Just as the grave was made ready to receive the earth John G. and Gilbert White rode up. They live in Winchester. Theo Cundiff went to Winchester for them. Theo accidentally shot himself this morning. A flesh wound in the leg.

This killing is the result of the Howard-Baker feud. On the 19th, just as I was starting to Hyden, I saw Will White jump on Jim Tish Philpot and beat him about. White was drunk. During his term of office he acquired the habit of drink. He has been the most offensive citizen of the county since I have been here. He was often drunk, and at such times he was insulting and disagreeable. He has a fine farm, a wife and several children, was about 35 years old. The Whites will now help the Howards to exterminate the Bakers. If there could be such an upheaval here as the French-Eversole war made in Perry County, we would have a new era in this county. The old White-Garrard feud has been going on for 50 years. But it has never broken out in virulent form. It has kept the county back in every respect, and has really protected crime, as each took sides in nearly every trouble.

For the past week or ten days the Howards and their friends have carried their Winchesters all the time. James Howard and two of his brothers, and Sid Baker, his brother-in-law, do this. The past few days a large number of the Whites and their friends have been under arms. I suppose there were 30 Winchesters in town today. The Bakers were in town last week but kept off the streets. Allen Baker rode into town yesterday in a buggy, Jim Howard saw him and made at him with a Winchester, but was prevented from doing any violence. Sheriff Beverly White, brother of William White, deceased, was present, but took no notice of it.

Yesterday Miss Ibbie Baker, sister of the Baker boys, was at the Lucas Hotel, where I board. She sent for me to accompany her out of town; she was afraid the Howards would kill her. I complied, though I could not believe she was in danger…. We met Miss Emma Baker, another sister, as we returned from the burial today. Many people believe Jim Howard would kill any of them if he should meet them on the street. This county is in desperate condition. John G. White is now on the ground and has shown himself a very dangerous man in other days. He has killed his man, and has always shown himself ready for a fight. William White, deceased, was a bright business man and a scion of two of the most prominent families in the county, but his tyrranical nature cost him his life. Tom Baker is doubtless a very bad man … cool, calculating, daring…. May God lead in the councils of the people and direct everything to the clearing of this foul atmosphere.

The foul atmosphere was not improved when Sid Baker, Jim Howard's brother-in-law, shot and killed Charlie Wooten. As he lay dying, Wooten confessed that he had been with the Bakers and Jesse Barrett when they killed the Howards. Deathbed confessions seemed popular, and most of the people who died during this time, especially those who died of gunshot wounds, seemed to have something to confess.

A few days before the June term of court, Sid Baker came into the courthouse, surrendered for the shooting of Wooten, and was released without bail. The tension in Manchester was so bad that few people would walk the streets at night. Almost everyone went armed. When Bal Howard returned on June 5 for the June term of court, he rode into Manchester and not to the Howard home on Crane Creek.

With both Bakers and Howards in Manchester, gunplay was expected, but the first day of court went off peacefully. Bal Howard asked the court to process the warrant for the arrest of the Bakers for killing Wilson Howard and Burch Stores. The Howards were furious when the Commonwealth's attorney asked for, and was granted, a change of venue for the trial of Jim Howard for the killing of Baldy George. Jim later said that the change of venue was asked because the Commonwealth's attorney knew that no Clay County jury would convict him. He was probably right, and in retrospect it might have been better had he been tried at home and released.

With such bitter currents swirling around the court in Manchester, Judge William Brown decided to seek help and on June 10 caught the train from London to Frankfort and asked the governor for troops. He got them and returned next day with a company led by Captain McCain, with Colonel Forrester in company, attesting the seriousness with which Governor Bradley viewed the conditions in Clay.

For some reason, Judge Brown and Colonel Forrester did not get along well, adding to the unpleasant atmosphere of the court. Judge Brown thought that Forrester's troops were unnecessarily intrusive and that Forrester himself had no respect for the court or the local people. Forrester complained that Brown had no regard for him or his men. Nevertheless, the term of court went off without trouble. The judge transferred the case of Tom and John Baker and Jesse Barrett to Barbourville, and sent Jim Howard to jail in London. The Howards muttered against the decision but did nothing to interfere with the troops when they left with their prisoners. When Forrester and his men delivered their prisoners, however, they went home to Frankfort, surprising Judge Brown, who had been under the impression that they would come back to Manchester for the remainder of the session.

While court was in session, someone shot a black named Collins on Town Branch, and two days later Jim Tish Philpot, William Phil-pot, and James Fisher rode into Manchester and surrendered for the killing. No one paid much attention. They paid a lot more attention when, on June 24, John Howard was shot and killed at his home on Sexton Creek. He had been sitting in the front room of his house when a shot came through the window, hitting him in the arm. Grabbing his pistol, he ran outside, saw a man running toward the woods, and dropped him with a single shot, only to be hit again and killed. The body of his victim was retrieved, apparently by John's killer, and no one was ever arrested.

The Reverend Dickey noted in his diary that Judge B.P. White was drinking himself to death. This was an exaggeration.

On July 1, Bad Tom was tried and acquitted for the murder of the Howards after witnesses swore that he was miles away at the time of the killing. Legend has it that Wilson Howard had lived until four in the afternoon and identified his killers. But to whom? Even Thena and Gard Baker, who knew who did it, could not swear to it, even if they were willing, as they surely were not.

Tom's return did nothing to ease the situation in Manchester. On the contrary, it was as though his homecoming had sounded a signal. The tempo of violence at once increased. On July 3 Gilbert Garrard and his wife were shot at on their way to church. One shot cut Garrard's coat, another creased the neck of his horse. “Oh, God!” he cried, “I'm shot!”

“No, you're not,” said his wife calmly. “Now, get out of here.” A week later he announced his intention of leaving Clay County.

Hardly a day passed now without some new incident that added to the violence. On July 8, T.T. Garrard bailed John Baker out of jail in Barbourville. “I am told by a young man named Brittain,” wrote Dickey, “that the Garrards are bringing John Baker back so that he may kill Howards. I am afraid that is the way the Howards and Whites will see it.” He was right about that.

The cases of John Baker and Jesse Barrett were heard in Clark Circuit Court in Winchester. The trial proceedings were enlivened when John Hacker, considered a Baker adherent, testified that he had seen the defendants and Tom Baker kill the Howards. He had testified to the contrary at Tom's previous trial and now explained this inconsistency by telling the jury that he had been threatened with death if he didn't lie.

“How can we tell you're not lying now?” asked the defense attorney. “Well, I can't be lying both times, now, can I?” Hacker replied.
The power of his logic didn't seem to sway the jury, who found the Bakers not guilty.

A gruesome note was added to the sour symphony the next night. Tom Baker's wife Emily had sold a fine saddle horse to William Treadway, who stabled him in the livery stable run by Amanda Lucas, who also operated the Lucas Hotel. That night someone broke into the stable, shot and killed the horse, and set the stable on fire, killing several other horses. No one was arrested, and the finger was never pointed very sharply at anyone. John G. White accused Tom Baker, but he couldn't prove it, and few people believed it, since Tom and Bill Treadway had always been on good terms.

The constant feeling of danger was apparently getting on people's nerves, and public drunkenness became more noticeable. On July 10, a drunken Gilbert Garrard told Tom and John Baker, “Kill who you want. We stand with you.” Asked about this, T.T Garrard would say only, “Yes, we stand by the Bakers.” His statement indicated the general deterioration of moral standards. The T.T. Garrard of old, of the Gold Rush and the Civil War, would never have condoned murder.

“Tom Baker's second son has been arrested for drawing a pistol on Ballard Howard,” wrote Dickey. “He is out on bond. The criminal record of this county is fearful. So many men have killed their man and created so many widows and orphans. It is a small thing here to kill a man. It is so common.”

Bad Tom was tried in Barbourville for the murder of Will White, found guilty, and given a life sentence, but he appealed and was released. He didn't seem very upset about his conviction. Later that week Gilbert Garrard and his wife left Manchester, with four bodyguards, for Pineville. Near Red Bird they were fired on. Two of their bodyguards were killed, but the rest of the party escaped. T.T. blamed the Whites, who said nothing.

“We have had heavy rains,” wrote the Reverend Dickey. “Time for tides to carry the logs to mill. There are several cases of smallpox in Clay County. Several people have subscribed to the twice-weekly Courier-Journal which is now available for 50 cents a year, but you can get the weekly Courier-Journal and the Clay County Republican for 50 cents.”

The murder of John Howard did not go unnoticed. On July 20, John Baker and Frank Clark were on their way from Ibby Baker's to the home of T.T. Garrard, where they had been doing guard duty, when they met Alfred “Nigger” Neal. They had been drinking and were casually shooting when they met Neal, and he protested. They
had words, but Neal got away and rode into Manchester, where he reported the incident to the sheriff. Felix Davidson and Daugh White, both deputies, rode down Mud Creek and intercepted Baker and Clark at the mouth of Horse Creek. They surprised the two and informed them that they were arresting them for shooting at Neal. (If this is what really happened, it was an open invitation to violence, for it would have been highly unusual to arrest anyone for shooting to frighten a black man.) As usual, words were exchanged, or so it was reported. Someone reached for a gun. White and Davidson shot first. The coroner said John Baker had thirty-two bullets in him, Clark eleven.

At the time, no one knew who the killers were, and there were no arrests. “After the first fire, the assassins ran on their victims and dispatched them,” Dickey reported, though it is not clear how he knew this. “John Baker has been charged with all manner of crimes, though he is a young man, inside 25 years.” Baker had been charged with burning the home of the Widow Wilson and with stealing meat from a neighbor's smokehouse but had been acquitted. As Dickey said at the time of his death, “He was one of these men who could always escape punishment. He leaves a wife and one or two children. His father, Garrard, a relative of George Baker, was killed when John was only 10 years old.” This was the Wilson shooting.

“Dick McCollum was with them but escaped,” wrote Dickey. Again, this is strange. If McCollum saw the shooting, he would have been able to identify the killers, which he did not do. He may have been afraid to. On the other hand, White and Davidson may have killed Baker and Clark from ambush, at which point McCollum fled. But Neal said nothing of seeing McCollum with Baker and Clark.

The killing of Clark, a black, was, as Dickey noted, incidental. He just happened to be present and had to be killed to prevent him from identifying the killers. It was nothing personal.

The Best Men in the County

Early on the morning after John Baker and Frank Clark were killed, Tom Baker and twenty of his men rode into Manchester and, while the good people of the town were finishing breakfast, methodically and unhurriedly shot up the place. Galloping around the courthouse, they shot out practically all of the windows while prisoners in the jail hooted and cheered. Down the hill into the main part of town they rode, shooting as they went. They shot twenty times into the dry-goods store of T.M. Hill, where Jim Howard worked. They shot the windows out of J.B. Marcum's store. The attack apparently caught the Whites and Howards completely off guard. There was no pursuit as the gang rode out of town, and no arrests. No one ever explained what the purpose had been. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

During the first week of August 1898, Sheriff Beverly White moved from the county into Manchester, fearing that he might be killed from ambush. The lines were now drawn. The Bakers did not feel safe (and probably weren't) in Manchester. The Whites and Howards didn't feel safe (and probably weren't) out in the county, especially in the Crane Creek area where both Howards and Bakers had lived almost since the settlement of Clay, and along the Goose Creek region ruled by the Garrards.

And the Garrard family, even with the guidance of the redoubtable T.T., was in a state of crisis. The sons of T.T., unlike the younger Whites, appeared to have no stomach for gunplay, and gunplay appeared to be a prerequisite for survival. “General Garrard,” wrote Dickey,

lives in his ancestral home, built of brick in 1835. His grandfather, the governor, was a Baptist preacher, but the General's father was a skeptic, though a moral man. The General is perhaps the same, a good citizen but profane and a good hater. He has hated the Whites for 60 years and has been hated in return. Now the hate has issued into violence. His son James is afraid to stay at home and lives in Middlesboro with his sister. Gilbert has moved to Goldsboro,
North Carolina. The old man's life is thought not to be safe. He had an armed guard around the house when I visited, and he says it has been there since Gilbert was shot at.