This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/YlB.2ACI/1951 Message Board Post: Maryville Times, (Blount Co. TN) Thursday, December 19, 1895: "Shot Him Dead---Several years ago William Kennedy, a son of Alex. Kennedy who died several months ago at his home near Rockford at the advanced age of 94, moved to Texas with his family and settled near Paris. He bought some land joining that of a man named Amos Wright. A dispute later arose over the dividing line between the farms. Kennedy had a civil engineer to survey it off. Kennedy and Wright were present when the dispute was decided, the surveyor locating the line several yards over on the ground claimed by Wright. When it was finished Kennedy was standing nearby with his little son, Walter, then six years old. Wright came at him for a fight, but Kennedy only attempted to ward off his blows. Suddenly Wright drew from his pocket a bowie knife and plunged it into Kennedy’s side. The blood spurted forth and Kennedy only lived a few minutes. Before he died he called his son to his side and spoke to him, telling him what to do with his mother and little brother and sisters. The lad, though only six years old, took his father’s hand and as the last spark of life left him said: “Ill be a man someday, father, and when I am I’ll kill Amos Wright.” Nothing more was ever thought of the matter and eleven years had gone quietly by but the boy’s resolution and promise to his dying father were still within him. On the morning of the 7th of Dec., he went to the home of Wright and waited for him to come out. As the murderer of eleven years made his appearance, the young man raised his gun and shot him dead. After the tragedy the young man went to his grandfather’s home and sent word to the sheriff what he had done. The affair caused intense excitement but it is not thought that Kennedy will be punished under the circumstances. The boy who did the killing is a grandson of Alex. Kennedy spoken of above and he has several aunts and uncles living in this county. The above facts were learned from a letter to relatives."