SHOT HIS COUSIN

STRONG, GOODMAN, JOHN

Posted By: Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert (email)
Date: 1/5/2002 at 14:48:07

Leon Reporter
December 28, l893

Last Saturday morning FRED STRONG, son of
J.D. STRONG, of Franklin
Township, accidentally shot his cousin CLINT
STRONG, son of DR. STRONG,
during an altercation with WILLIAM GOODMAN.
We have received two
versions of the affair. The following
dispatch appeared in the Des
Moines Leader Sunday:

VAN WERT, Dec. 23--CLINT and FRED STRONG, and
their cousin, FLOYD
STRONG, of Oxford, Kan., were out hunting
this forenoon and met a
neighbor, WILLIAM GOODMAN, in the road and
FRED STRONG called him
"Pinchy", at which GOODMAN took offense and
invited FRED to participate
in a fist fight. FRED went toward GOODMAN
with his shotgun ready to
shoot. GOODMAN grabbed at the gun and young
STRONG pulled the trigger.
The load of number four shot lodged in CLINT
STRONG's knee, inflicting
an ugly wound, as he was not over thirty feet
away. It is difficult for
the doctors to say just how bad the injuries
are.

We also received the following statement of
the shooting from MR. JOHN
STRONG, father of the boy who held the gun
when it was fired, with the
request that we publish it:

The facts as occurred in the sad and shocking
accident which happened in
Franklin Township last Saturday. Three boys,
aged l6, l7 and l8, were
out hunting about 9 o'clock a.m. When near
the ELIAS JOHN place in the
field as one of the neighbors was passing by,
one of the boys hollowed,
hello Pinchy! a general nickname some call
him by. That made him mad.
He says, I will know what it means calling me
by that name. I will
learn somebody how to pinch, and dared the
boys to come over in the
highway. All three of the boys came over to
where he was, he got off
his horse, tied him to the fence, threw off
both of his coats and horse
blanket on the ground and made for the boy.
All the boys had been
carrying their guns cocked all morning. He
told the l7 year old boy to
throw down his gun and he would whip him and
see his father afterward.
The boy told him he did not want to fight as
big a man as him, but he
made for him, and one of the other boys ran
for the boy's father who was
just over in the field, and while he was
gone, in the struggle the gun
went off just as the man got it away from the
boy.
The gun was loaded with fine shot and hit the
other boy who was standing
by just above the knee, but not seriously.
The man was still so enraged
at the boy that he wanted to whip him, but
the boy told him you
big----go and get some one to come quick I
don't want to fight you.
But the boy's father came up and took care of
the wounded boy. These
are the facts, all three boys tell them.

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Copied December 9, 200l