Bill Smothers - Part II

Bill Smothers – Continued

The following continues from the History of Daviess (sic) County, Kentucky:

            “One of the most remarkable events of Smothers' life was his arraignment at Hartford on the charge of murder. He was defended by the celebrated Jo Daveiss. The circumstance was as follows: One summer evening a keel boat made fast at the landing at Yellow Banks, and the crew paid a visit to the house of Smothers. A man named Norris led the crew. He was of Herculean proportion, and it was the common boast that he had never met his match in a fisticuff from Louisville to New Orleans. While in the house the boat men indulged themselves in such freedom of remark that Miss Molly, Smothers' sister, concluded she could not remain with propriety, and ran to the house of Felty Husk. Smothers remonstrated at their behaviour, and six of the number left the house. Norris remained. The crew on returning found the lifeless body of their comrade extended on the floor with the warm blood trickling from two ghastly wounds. Smothers at their approach had fled the house and concealed himself in a strawberry bed in the garden. He escaped from here to the woods where he s t the night. At daylight next morning he knocked at the door of Ben Duncan, Esq., who lived on Pop Creek, ten miles from the Yellow Banks. He informed Squire Duncan of the nature of the charges against him, and demanded a judicial investigation. The crew of the boat were summoned as witnesses. They came in a body to the house of the Justice, many of them armed, and declaring their intention to hang the prisoner on the spot. But the friends of Smothers were there prepared to defend him and the day passed without serious disturbance. Smothers gave bond and security for his appearance on the first day of the next term of the Ohio Circuit Court. He was perplexed in mind upon the subject of employing good counsel in his defense. He was poor, and lawyers' fees were high. His anxieties about the matter were, however, happily relieved, for Jo Daveiss, who knew Smothers well and admired him for his independent spirit and indomitable courage, sent him a message from Frankfort: “Don’t ruin yourself hiring lawyers; I will be with you on the day of trial." The fame of Jo Daveiss and the-widespread acquaintance of the deceased, brought such a concourse of people together at court on the day of trial, as had never before been seen in Hartford. The keel boatmen from Louisville were there, and strangers from a circuit of a hundred miles were in attendance, curious to see Bill Smothers and anxious to hear Jo Daviess. In due course the case of the Commonwealth versus William Smother, alias Bill Smothers, was called. Judge Brodnax occupied the bench. John Daveiss, the brother of Jo Daveiss, was the prosecuting attorney.

            The evidence in the main was in accordance with the facts already stated.

From the historic interest to the people of Daviess County connected with the names both of defendant and his counsel, we make room for a traditional report of the further proceedings in the case from the pen of the Hon. Thomas C. McCreery: Jo Daveiss made no labored effort at cross-examination, but permitted the witnesses to make their statements in their own way, sometimes putting a single question, to elicit explanation. When the Attorney announced that the testimony was closed on behalf of the Commonwealth, Jo Daviess exchanged a few words with Smothers and then rose and said, that his client, from motives of delicacy, had positively refused to introduce his sister, who was the only witness who could state anything material to the defense—that the prosecuting attorney might proceed with his argument to the jury. By the feeling manner in which he made this simple statement, he seemed already to have gained the vantage ground. But John Daveiss was a man of no ordinary ability, and knowing that he had to cope with one of the greatest advocates in the country, or the world, he put forth his full strength in his opening speech, endeavoring to forestall the impression which had always attended the powerful efforts of his brother. The evidence was arrayed in a masterly manner, and he closed by a spirited and strong appeal to the jury to discharge their sworn duties honestly and faithfully, exhorting them to disregard alike the fame and the passion of the orator who was to follow him, and assuring them that whilst the wicked might rejoice at acquittal, all good men would say amen to the condemnation and the execution of a marauder, an outlaw, an assassin and a murderer.

            That wonderfully eloquent and strangely eccentric man, Jo Daviess, then rose to address the jury. It was his ambition to do everything after a fashion that nobody else in the world ever had attempted. He never was known to ride to a court-house. but made his circuit on foot, whilst a negro boy accompanied him on horse-back, carrying his papers and clothing in a pair of saddlebags. His manner, his style, his tactics at the bar, were all his own, and they all lie buried with their great master on the field of Tippecanoe. No fragment of a speech of his remains today; and from the erring and fading memories of men we derive our only ideas of that inspiration which moved upon the feelings and swayed the passions, until he could drive his triumphal car over any obstacle that might oppose his onward course. Tradition furnishes a dim outline of his speech in defense of Smothers, which was probably the greatest forensic effort of his life. It was made for a friend, without hope of reward, and the whole power of mind, body and soul were poured forth in his cause.

            He commenced as if he had a fee to assist in the prosecution. He reiterated the strong points in the Attorney's speech, and offered additional arguments in favor of conviction. The friends of the accused began to whisper that he was a snake in the grass, and that he had come to help his brother, and the eyes of Smothers were raised in calm surprise to the face of his counsel. But Daveiss went on, urging that an acquittal, under all the circumstances, would be a monstrous outrage upon law and justice, and insisting that the jury ought, without hesitation, to hang the criminal. Adopting all the epithets which had been so liberaly bestowed, he called upon them to hang the marauder, hang the outlaw, hang the assassin, hang the murderer. Proof or no proof, let the hang-man proceed on his mission of strangulation. That such, in effect, was the common reasoning of prosecuting attorneys, and he had been repeating in substance what had fallen from the gentleman who preceded him, but the law was established upon principles precisely of an opposite character. He dwelt upon the tenderness and mercy of the law, and the safeguards it threw around the life and liberty of the citizens. That malice - premeditated malice - was an essential ingredient in making out a case of murder. That if the killing was in sudden heat, it was manslaughter, and if the blow was given in self-defense, or in defense of family and home, then it became a virtue, and was no crime at all.

            Without a note, he reviewed the evidence from beginning to end. Calling the names of the witnesses as he went, and contended that the Commonwealth had failed to prove that his client had slain the deceased. That he was found dead in the house of the prisoner at the bar, but no man had seen the prisoner inflict the wound. That (those) circumstances, however, conclusive they might appear, were frequently deceptive. He read a case in the English Reports, where an innocent man had been executed upon circumstantial evidence even stronger than that before the jury, and took the position that the unscrupulous and vindictive prosecutor was guilty of murder, and the twelve jurors were his aiders and abettors because they did not require that positive and undeniable proof which leaves no room for a reasonable doubt. That if, in truth, it was the hand of Smothers that directed the blade, the facts in the case warranted the conclusion that the other was the aggressor. That the prisoner was a man of sense and a man of prudence, and never would have sought an encounter with a giant, whose physical force was so great that be had never found an equal; and who had a host of thirty comrades who would have rushed to his call and staked their lives in the quarrel. That the deceased was the aggressor in the beginning, and it was a fair inference that he so continued to the end. That unbidden he had invaded the sacred precincts of the prisoner’s home, and in return for civility and hospitality, had offered insult and injury. That his foul false tongue had aim to fix the seal of infamy upon the spotless tablet of a maiden sister’s fame. That when his companions, impelled by repentance and remorse, had left the house like a fiend of darkness he lingered upon the spot. That if Smothers bad slain him, he slew him in the holy cause of religion and of virtue, and that the King bf Heaven had strengthened the arm that drove the pointed steel to his heart.

            He paid an eloquent and glowing tribute to the brave pioneers who, by their toil and sweat and blood, had won the great valley of the Mississippi from the Indians, and consecrated it to agriculture, to commerce and to the arts. That a golden crown had been tendered to Julius Cream for his victories in Gaul, and for the addition of that province to the Roman Territory. That these men had conquered an Empire thrice as great and thrice as fertile as Gaul. and neither the charity, nor the bounty, nor the justice of the Govern-ment, had ever induced it to bestow upon one of them so much as an iron skillet. That a Representative of that Government was here today, appealing to a jury of the country for the blood of one of the bravest, because he had stood upon the threshold of his rude hut, which was his castle in the eye of the law, and had defended his family against the licentious and wanton insults of a blackguard and a ruffian. He said that if Smothers had to die, it was meet and appropriate that he should die at Hartford. Hartford had been the theatre of his valor, and Hartford should be the scene of his execution. That he came with the party that erected the first fortification; that his hand dug the ditch and planted the palisade; and when the Indians besieged, and fired upon you from stump, bush and tree, whose aim was deadliest and whose rifle ran clearest in your defense? And when they were defeated and turned their backs in retreat, who was fleet-footed enough to lead the van in the pursuit; who hovered around them like a destroying spirit until he had dyed the waters of your rivers in their blood? Who trailed them to their homes beyond the prairies and restored your stolen property without ever receiving one cent in compensation? That whatever falsehoods may have been invented and circulated against his client, the forked tongue of slander itself had never charged that his soul had been stained by the sin of avarice. That with ample opportunities of securing an immense landed estate, there was not a foot upon earth that he could call his own. That whilst others had enriched them selves by speculation, peculation, violence and fraud, the poverty of Smothers was a vindication of the sterling integrity of the man.

            In his charge to the jury, Judge Broadnax approved himself the able lawyer and the upright man. Forgetting the many annoyances of Smothers, he exhorted the jury to look in mercy upon the prisoner, and to give him the full benefit of every reasonable doubt. The jury, after a retirement of ten minutes, brought in a verdict of “Not Guilty.“

            Smothers invited his counsel to go home with him, and Daveiss accepted the invitation. He was so well pleased with the country around Yellowbanks that he settled the place known as Cornland, now owned by James Rudd., and planted the orchard which stands upon the slope of the hill. His brother, John Daveiss, not long afterwards commenced opening the farm upon which the Crutchers’ long resided and lived there for many years. Smothers not long after emigrated to Texas, where he ended his life.”

Source: “An Illustrated Historical Map of Daviess County, Kentucky,” published in 1876 by Leo McDonough & Co.

Early History - Bill Smothers

The following is an excerpt from the opening chapter of “An Illustrated Historical Map of Daviess County, Kentucky,” published in 1876 by Leo McDonough & Co.

            "There seems good authority for the claim that the first permanent settlement in what is now Daviess County was made by the celebrated William Smoothers, otherwise known by the more popular name of Bill Smothers. This settlement was made on the site of the present city of Owensboro. Hartford, on Rough Creek, and Vienna (now Calhoon) at the falls of Green River, now respectively the County seats of Ohio and McLean Counties, were the centres of the principal settlements made in this part of Kentucky. Each place was rudely fortified against the attacks of the Indians, and crowded with men, women and children, who had gathered in the stockade for safety. Disease began its ravages among them. Their chief source of subsistence, wild game, became scarce in the vicinity, and as soon as danger from Indian depredations was somewhat over, the families settled outside the forts, though usually at first within an easy distance of the centre of the settlement. The families at Hartford located on the banks of Rough Creek, and those at Vienna scattered through the hills in the rear of that place.

            Among the settlers at Hartford and Vienna was Bill Smothers. For the incidents of his history we are indebted to articles in the Owensboro Monitor from the pen of the Hon. Thomas C. McCreery. He was born on the western frontier of Southern Virginia, near the Holston River. One day his father while hunting was killed by the Indians, and his mother on the ninth day afterward followed her husband to the grave, dying from grief. These tragic circumstances engendered an undying hostility against the Indians in the breast of William Smothers, who was then a boy of twelve. Standing by the graves of his parents, he raised his hand to Heaven, and swore that he would devote his life to the destruction of the Indian race. When he subsequently came to Kentucky it was with the intention of fighting Indians, and avenging the murder of his parents, and so joined a party who were coming down to fortify the Green river country. A fort was built on Rough Creek, and called Hartford. In besieging this fort it was noticed that the Indians generally came from lower Kentucky, and waded Green River at the falls. At this point, now the spot where stands the. County seat of McLean County, a fort was accordingly established and called Vienna. After its construction, the Indians seldom came in great numbers, and the white families soon scattered and selected locations where inclination, or safety directed.

            Bill Smothers disliked living in a densely settled neighborhood, preferring

rather the solitude of the wilderness, and he accordingly fixed on a location on the Ohio River at a point nearest the settlements. He built a cabin where now stands Owensboro. It was erected on the bank of the river near the gas works, and the exact spot is now occupied by the tobacco factory of Frazier Brothers. His cabin is described as being of round logs, and having two doors, one of which looked out on the Ohio, and the other opened into his garden On the lower side of the house there was a shed room, made by extending the main roof, being enclosed by slabs of timber planted in the ground. About four feet of a single log had been cut out to make a passway into the room. In this were deposited his peltries and groceries, and when he entertained a large company, which was frequently the case, it was converted into a bed-room, more comfortable and agreeable in cold than in warm weather, owing to the abundance of deer and bear skins and buffalo robes which were kept there. Such was the beginning of the city of Owensboro. In person Smothers was within an inch of being six feet in height. His hair was dark brown, and his thin heard of the same color. His complexion was fair, and his eyes deep blue and prominent, and the expression of his face pleasing and intelligent. His figure was erect, his limbs and body firm and symmetrical, his motions easy and graceful, denoting great activity and a considerable amount of muscular power. He did everything deliberately, nothing in a hurry. His mind was in keeping with his body, quick, active and vigorous. He was rarely vulgar in conversation, and never affected the coarse manner and rude speech of the ruffian. He was inferior to no man in personal courage. In short, if he had received a thorough education and possessed good morals, he might have occupied a prominent and honorable position. His love of fun, the controlling passion of his life, led him into many improprieties, and perhaps clouded his memory with crime.

            It was some time about the opening of the present century, certainly not later than 1799, that Smothers made his home on the Ohio. The situation was lonely enough to delight him with the solitude. From Panther Creek to the Ohio, and Green River to Blackford be was the only inhabitant. He roamed the forest alone, and slaughtered the game at pleasure. The necessaries of life were obtained at his door. The barges, slowly cordelled by their armed crews down the Ohio, would stop and give him salt, flour, and groceries in exchange for dried venison, hams, bear meat, and buffalo robes. These advantages enabled him to live in a style far beyond the towns of his old friends and comrades. No gentleman below the falls could furnish so sumptuous aboard, and no man entertained with more genuine hospitality. “Old rye" and “ flour bread " were unknown in the interior, and his visitors manifested a general partiality for those articles. “ Pass the flour bread up here," “start the old rye down here," were remarks usually heard at his table, while the generous host was attentive to the wishes of his guests, and labored to supply their wants. The one fear Smothers possessed above all others was that new settlers would intrude upon the domain he had marked his own, that farms would be opened up, the game driven away or destroyed, and that he would be left in his old age without the means of support in the very country from which he had expelled the Indians. He regarded a surveyor’s chain with particular abhorrence, and "corner trees" were an abomination. He determined that his house should present fewer attractions, and that he would thus not assist in luring strangers to the neighborhood. Instead, therefore, of delicacies, the simplest and coarsest fare of the hunter supplied his table. He almost deserted his home, wandering in the woods for weeks and months together. He hunted deer and bear on the Kentucky side of the river, and twice a year took an Indian hunt on the other side of the Ohio, where he was as equally successful. Sleepless days and nights would he spend to get a shot, and at every crack of his rifle an Indian fell. If Indians were plenty, which was generally case on the upper Wabash, he would kill from two to half a dozen on a hunt; and if they were scarce he sometimes crossed that stream and shot them on the boundless prairies beyond. When horses were stolen from the settlements at Hartfort and Vienna, he led the pursuit, and generally returned with the animals, or an equal or greater number. These expeditious made him familiar with the country as far west as the Mississippi. Smothers was compelled at last to witness the inroads of other settlers. The news saluted his ears that about twenty families had arrived on his territory, and were preparing to build houses and open plantations. The surveyor, with compass and chain was making new lines, and the axe was laying low the trees."