The following is quoted exactly as it appears in the newspaper article in the "Old Taylor Book." "KILLED WITH A HOE. J. F. Graves A Farmer of Harrison Township, This County, Meets His Death at the Hands of Elisha Wilson, His Neighbor. "Last Friday evening Elisha Wilson a Road Overseer in Harrison township, this county, struck J. F. Graves, his neighbor, with a hoe handle, inflicting a wound of which he died in a few hours. the circumstances surrounding the sad affair, as near as we have been able to ascertain from the evidence taken before the Coronor's Jury, and the many conflicting reports in circulation are about as follows: "The two men had not been on good terms for some time, owing to some misunderstanding which culminated in a law suit some months ago, and has been the bone of a dangerous contention ever since. "Wilson was Road Overseer and had a number of men out working the roads last Friday. They were working along the premises of Mr. Graves. In the evening Mr. Graves had occasion to pass along the road where Wilson and his men were at work. When he came to the gate or outlet from his premises to the public highway he found that wilson had caused a ditch to be cut on his side of the road, so deep that he had to get off of his wagon and slope the sides of the bank down to enable him to cross. While doing so, Wilson, who was working at this point came up, when the conversation given in the evidence below, ensued, with its fatal results. "After the two men were separated Mr. Graves got on his wagon and drove a considerable distance toward Cainsville, but finally got to weak he could not go further. He was taken to his house and died in six or eight hours after he received the fatal blow. "On Saturday Mr. Wilson came in and gave himself up to the officers of the law, and pending a preliminary examination, and Coronor's inquest, he was admitted to bail, the amount being fixed at $2500. "Considerable excitement prevailed in the neighborhood where the tragedy was enacted, and as soon as the friends and neighbors of the deceased learned that Wilson had been admitted to bail a number of them came to the town and demanded of the officers that he be taken into custody and remanded to jail. They intimated that unless speedy action of this kind be taken that the excited populace would take the law into their own hands and that summary justice would, in all probability, be meted out accordingly. "It was thought that the course suggested by the precursors of Judge Linch's tribunal was the safest one to pursue, and a sheriff's posse was at once dispatched to bring the accused back to Princeton and lodge him in jail. In justice to Mr. Wilson it should be said that he made no attempt to get away, or evade the sheriff, but was found at the house of a relative and was brought back to Princeton Sunday morning and lodged in jail. Both the unfortunate men are heads of families. the funeral of Mr. Graves took place on Sunday afternoon. He was buried in the cemetery near Goshen, in the presence of a large concourse of people. After the remains had been interred another demonstration indicating the degree of excitement which prevailed, was made by some one in the crowd stepping to one side and calling out to all the friends of the deceased to join him. Immediately as many as two hundred men and boys crossed over to where he was and it required the counsel of older and wis! er heads to dissuade them from going farther with their unlawful intentions. The Circuit Court convened on Monday and a Grand Jury was empanneled which at once commenced an investigation and on Tuesday morning returned a true bill of indictment against Wilson for murder in the first degree. The accused was brought into the court, and when informed by the Court that he he had been indicted did not betray the least bit of feeling or excitement in the matter, but seemed, so far as looks were concerned, perfectly calm and in no way surprised at the action of the jury. Messrs Alley and Robinson, attorneys for the accused, called for a copy of the indictment and the usual 48 hours was given them to plead to the indictment. "EVIDENCE BEFORE THE CORONOR. The following is the evidence, verbatim, taken at the coronor's inquest, taken at his late residence in Harrison township, Mercer county Mo., on the10th day of September 1887, by James Trapp, a justice of the peace of Princeton asking---(the rest of the line is missing--JV) "JAMES H. VAUGHN, being duly sworn deposes and swears that he resides in Mercer county. Did not know the deceased until yesterday (Sept. 9th). That yesterday afternoon the deceased came with team and wagon to the road where hands were working the road and Elisha Wilson spoke to deceased saying, 'we are making you a good crossing here,' and repeated it, but deceased made no reply at first but replied at last, 'You think you are d--d smart in doing so.' Wilson then said: 'You son of a--b-- I understand you have been carrying a pistol for me.' Deceased replied that it was not so and who ever says so tells a d--d lie. Wilson replied, 'do you mean to call me a d--d liar?' And when deceased in in the act of picking up a shovel of dirt, Wilson struck him with the handle of the hoe, holding it in both hands, striking him with great force. Deceased fell backward. Wilson struck at him twice with the hoe handle after he fell. Deceased warded off both licks. I think deceased ! got hold of the fence and got upon his feet, but was thrown loose by Wilson. The deceased then picked up a breast yoke and made a strike at Wilson, being about two paces from Wilson, hitting him and knocking him down. Deceased then run at him and caught him by the shoulders, having thrown the breast yoke down. Wilson then go up while deceased had hold of him. Deceased struck Wilson one or two licks while he was getting up. Parties then came up and separated them." "A. F. HAMILTON. I live in Mercer county, Mo., knew deceased, was present yesterday working roads. Deceased came to the road where we were working. wilson said to him. 'Frank, we are making you a crossing.' Deceased said, 'You think you are d--d smart,' and some words passed that I did not hear distinctly. Mr. Wilson called deceased a s--of--a--b and said, 'You are carrying a pistol for me.' Deceased said, 'whoever told it told a g--d--lie.' Wilson said he had taken that as much as he was going to and asked deceased tow or three times if he was going to say that again. I did not hear reply o deceased. Deceased had a shovel in his right hand at the time they were talking and when deceased was in the act of picking up a shovel of dirt Wilson changed his hoe, taking hold of the handle next to the hoe, and struck deceased on the head, with both hands, apparently with all the force he could summon, knocking him down and striking at him twice after he fell. The licks wer! e warded off by the deceased. Deceased got up, backed off from Wilson and picked up a neck yoke, struck Wilson on the head knopcking him to his knees. He then dropped the neck yoke and caught Wilson by the beard, with both hands and then let go and struck Wilson on the right side of the head. Then they were parted The hoe handle was about 4 feet and 9 inches long, about one inch in diameter at the small end and one and a half inches at the large end." "V. E. STEWART Deposes as follows: 'I heard Mr. Wilson say, sometime about the first of June, last, that if he met deceased on the road he had an idea he would kill him; that deceased had talked to him in a way he would not take, and about thee weeks ago he said that deceased passed his house and talked to him in such a manner that he got two rocks and would have killed him if he had not go out of the way.'" "EMERY BURTON Testified that he was acquainted with deceased at the time of his death. In June last I heard Wilson say that he had taken all off of Graves that he was going to and if Graves did not quit abusing him that somebody would be badly hurt and he did not think it would be himself, for he intended to kill him the first lick, if he could." "WM. A. FINNEY. I heard Wilson say day before yesterday, that he picked up two stones and took after the deceased and if he could have gotten close enough he intended to knock his head off." "MEDICAL EXAMINATION. We, the undersigned Surgeons being duly sworn, testify and say that we have examined the body of J. F. Graves and find that he came to his death by a blow on the head, struck upon the right parietal region, causing a fracture of the skull and rupture of the middle meningeal artery, death resulting from pressure of clot on the brain. G.M. BRISTOW, W. F. BUREN, S. D. LOGAN, HARVEY SALLEY." "VERDICT OF CORONOR'S JURY. We, the coronor's Jury, empanneled and sworn to enquire of the manner of the death of J. F. Graves, having viewed the dead body of said deceased, and having heard the evidence do find that said J. F. Graves came to his death at Mercer county Mo., on the 10th day of September, 1887, with a hoe handle by one Elisha Wilson, and we further find that he came to his death by the felonious act of said Elisha Wilson. J. G PRICHARD, JOSHUA MOSS, C. C. YODER, W. S. DAVIS, JAMES HEART." (In the Goshen Cemetery listings in the 1986 cemetery book by Joe Dale Linn are the following: "James Frank Graves Sept. 2, 1853 - Sept. 10, 1887; Margaret, his wife Mar. 1,1853 - Sept. 26, 1908"--JV)