nty Judge John
Burnett and his wife. However, the commencement of the Hargis-Cockrell
feud in 1899 was over a contested election of county officers. The
Fusionists or Republicans declared their men the winners, while the
Democrats were equally certain of triumph. James Hargis was the
Democrats' candidate for county judge, Ed Callahan for sheriff.

The leading law firm in all of eastern Kentucky at the time was that of
James B. Marcum and O. H. Pollard, but when the election contest arose,
the men dissolved partnership. Marcum represented the Republican
contestants, his former partner looked to the affairs of the Democrats.
Until this time Marcum had been a close personal friend as well as legal
adviser to James Hargis.

Depositions for the contestants were being taken in Marcum's office when
the two lawyers almost came to blows over Pollard's cross-examination of
a witness, with Hargis and Callahan sitting close by. Harsh words were
uttered and pistols drawn, and Hargis, Callahan, and Pollard were
ordered from Marcum's office. When warrants were issued for them and
Marcum also by police Judge T. P. Cardwell, Marcum appeared in court and
paid a fine of twenty dollars. But Jim Hargis refused to be tried by
Cardwell--the two men had been bad friends for some time. Then, instead
of attempting alone the arrest of Hargis, the town marshal of Jackson,
Tom Cockrell, called on his brother Jim to lend a hand.

It is said that when Tom went to arrest Hargis the latter refused to
surrender, drawing his gun. But Tom covered Jim Hargis first. Whereupon
Hargis's friend, Ed Callahan, who was close, covered Tom Cockrell and in
the bat of an eye Jim Cockrell, his brother, covered Callahan. Seeing
that the Cockrells had the best of them, both Jim Hargis and Ed Callahan
surrendered. That incident passed without bloodshed and Marcum himself
sent word to police Judge Cardwell that he didn't want to prosecute
Hargis and asked that the case be dismissed, as it was.

That same year there was a school election.

"Marcum flew in a rage," said Hargis, "when I accused him of trying to
vote a minor and he pulled his pistol on me but did not shoot."

Though that difference was also patched up, the families began taking
sides in the many quarrels that followed. Accusations were made first by
one side, then the other. Marcum accused Callahan of killing his uncle,
and Callahan in turn charged that his father had been slain by Marcum's
uncle.

In