Thursday, February 14, 1901
SHOOTING AT DURBIN
Mrs. Mary Young and John Taylor held for murder
Tuesday last week, Geo. E. Mory, a lumberman who had been cooking in O’Connell’s Camp, came to Durbin and went to Riverside Hotel for dinner. He was drinking but to what extent is not known. There was at the hotel some other men who were quarreling in the dining room, and it seems that Mory engaged in some loud talk. The landlady, Mrs. Young, appeared with a revolver, and presenting it at the head of Mary, told him to “quit that chewing.” This is a slang phrase and means loud and angry talk.
Mory was duly impressed and subsided and took his seat at the table and began eating his dinner. Mrs. Young passed to the other side of the table and sat down to her dinner laying the revolver beside her by her plate. John Taylor, a colored waiter, went to the kitchen to serve some of the dinner.
After sitting down, Mory’s mind dwelt on the pistol incident and he said, “Lady, you held a pistol at my head, something that has never been done before, and something I don’t want you to do again.”
At the renewal of hostilities in this manner, both rose from the table, and John Taylor, the waiter rushed in and seized the man and thrust him into the corner of the room. While they were struggling together, Mrs. Young shot and killed Mory, the ball passing entirely through his body, entering just below the fifth rib.
Taylor carried the dying man out into the hall, and Mory said, “Let me down.” He was laid down and almost instantly expired.
An inquest was held over the dead body Wednesday and Mrs. Young and Taylor were committed to jail. Deputy Sheriff Sheets, B. F. McElwee and Ed Jackson arrived with the prisoners Thursday.
Mrs. Young is about 23 years old. She is accompanied by her husband, who is a cripple from rheumatism, and by her baby, a pretty child about two years old. She is a very small woman, probably not weighing 100 pounds. It is reported that she is a native of Kentucky. It was anything but an agreeable sight to see this mother and child going to jail. She is confined in the steel cage of the jail with her child to keep her company.
CAUGHT ON THE WING
We catch up a few things which come to our notice as we go, and we note them down for the readers of The Times.
Persons exposed to the storm of last Monday afternoon and evening, February 4, would, we think, consider it the worst weather we have had this winter. We knew a man to start out from Slaty Fork that afternoon to come to Edray, but by the time he reached Samuel Gibson’s residence, he was willing to put up for all night. Finding others out in the storm about their work, our friend became almost ashamed of himself that he did not face the storm and go on.
On reaching Edray next day and hearing of a sleighing party from Marlinton that evening, he learned much more about bracing up against the cold northwesters and sweeping blizzards of a Pocahontas Winter.
Not long since we visited Buckeye and went to church, as we generally do when an opportunity of that kind presents itself. We will not say much about the preacher, but the congregation was good and gave good attention to the different parts of the service. Among those present was a good man, a Mr. Duffield who lives near Jackson Courthouse. Mr. Duffield is a brother of Mrs. Clark Kellison, and a first cousin of Newton Duffield. He is making a visit among his many old friends in this county. We appreciated our little talk with this man very much. Dinner time came and we had many invitations to dinner, of course, as our Buckeye friends are certainly very hospitable. It was convenient for us, however, for the time being, to go home with A. M. Kee, where we, as often before, got a good dinner…
DURBIN
Within the last year or so the town of Durbin has gotten a bad name, almost as bad, in fact, as Marlinton had before it set up a town government. There have been two killings here within a year.
The sole cause of the disorder has been the use of whiskey in a community which was not well organized enough to govern. Recently, Napoleon Bonaparte Arbogast was qualified as justice of the peace. He is a citizen of the place, and he gave the liquor dealers one month to leave the town. It is reported that his action has had the desired effect and that peace now spreads its snowy pinions over Durbin, and Uncle Bob Kerr can lay aside his arms and wait on lady customers without fear of interruption.
