Fulton-Dekalb-Taylor County GaArchives News.....Bathed in Blood March 18, 1879 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Linda Blum-Barton http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00003.html#0000645 February 8, 2008, 9:48 pm The Atlanta Weekly Constitution March 18, 1879 Part 4 - INCIDENTS OF HIS LIFE AND FAMILY. ------------------- What His Former Partner Says About Him. Atlanta, Ga., March 12, 1879 It is with faltering pen and uncertain fingers that I come to wrote of "Bob" Alson -- dead! For ten years he was my friend -- knit to my heart by a thousand ties. To write of him or talk of him is to give to the public many things that should be cherished in the privacy that makes them sacred. For four years we were bound together with the sympathy that men feel for each other when they slave shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart to fight against odds -- and in the extremities of that struggle I learned to know him, I believe, better than any living man ever knew him. I shall write of him, then, as if he were before me to-night, and with his blue eyes looking into mine, and my hand within his kindly grasp. If I should be betrayed into writing anything that would have been better unwritten, I shall remember that noe but his friends have read it, for I do not believe that the state of Georgia holds to-day a single man or woman who has aught but regretful tenderness for the dead man that lies in that coffin yonder! -------------------------------------- THE "HALIFAX" ALSTONS! Bob Alston came of a princely stock. His ancestors settled in Halifax, North Carolina, nearly a century ago. They were imperiors, dauntless people, of enormous wealth, lavish habits, and stirring traditions. They were of a stubborn strain of fighters, dominating over everything and brooking no contention. They were know over the country as a gentle but reckless race and came to be called the "Halifax" Alstons. Many a time have I heard Alston tell, in his frank and bright way, of the traditions of these people -- how they traveled from one of their estates to another in almost regal state -- with the old King George coach and four and an army of sable attendants -- how his grandmother used to carry her own sheets and pillows and loaf sugar with her everywhere she went -- and of how, in her mettlesome days, racing with her husband over the country-side, she would put $100 on a cock-fight and follow the fox-hounds where none but the Alstons dared ride. Or of how is grandfather offered his estates to Jefferson when war was declared, and drank rye coffee to his death, because he drank it during the war -- of how honest Willis Alston, his grand uncle, had to confront the whole state of Carolina because of his assaults upon a defaulting state treasurer, and of the lordely way in which these two brothers fought and frolicked alternately with the gentry from Virginia to Georgia. The elder of these "Halifax" Alstons, the grandfather of Bob Alston, came to Georgia with his family, and bought the "Shoulderbone lands" now owned in part by David Dickson. He had by this time lavished much of his wealth, but was still immensely rich. He had three sons -- Willis (Bob's father), Augustus and Gideon. Each of these men came to a violent death. Willis Alston became involved in a feud with the Ingrams, of Hancock county, a very brave and honorable family. SEVERAL RECONTRES TOOK PLACE BETWEEN THEM. and their feud was the reigning sensation of that section of the state for months. Colonel Alston always went armed with a "yager"-- a funnel-shaped gun deadly and heavy. He had, however, several pairs of the dueling pistols. One night a general engagement was expected and the duelling pistols were all out in a room for inspection. Young Gideon Alston was at home on vaction from the university of Georgia, where he had just risen sophomore. I have heard Colonel Mark Johnston say that he was the handsomest and most winning boy he ever knew, and a boy of great brilliancy. There was also in the house a young Castilian named Pepin that Willis Alston had picked up when he was in Nashville, paying his suit to Miss Trimble, who afterwards married General Sam. Houston. Colonel Alston saw this friendless boy and adopted him. He was a great favorite with the family. He and Gideon on this night left the room with some pistols to try them. In a few moments Pepin came back and announced that he had shot Gideon, through mistake, and killed him. Pepin was given a place in the navy and was drowned in one of the tropical seas. It is notable of this Alston-Ingram feud that a dramatization of it was written and published. The M. S. was discovered, without signature or clue, in the hat of a lady, who was fearless and widowed. She published it. Had the authors been known they would have in all probability, been killed. THE ALSTONS IN TALLAHASSEE. Shortly after this time the Alstons moved to Tallahassee, where they at once became very prominent on account of their wealth, bravery and talent. They were an unusually handsome and athletic race -- being without exception six feet or over, well proportioned and accomplished. Willis Alston once carried a load of eight hundred pounds dead weight on his shoulders in Tallahassee for a wager. In Tallahassee was started the feud between the Alstons and General Reed. General Leigh Reed was a young man who had distinguished himself in the Indian wars in Florida, and who stood very high in public estimation. Brave, genial, brilliant, he had a most auspicious career ahead of him. He was the leader of one of the parties in Florida, and Colonel Augustus Alston led the other. They became involved in a difficulty, Bob Alston says, because of an article that had appeared in a paper reflecting on Governor Call. At any rate, the trouble resulted in a meeting in which Augustus Alston was killed. The facts seem to be that as the men turned to fire Colonel Alston's yager went off before he had aimed it, the hair-trigger having yielded to an involuntary pressure. General Reed aimed deliberately, fired and Colonel Alston fell with a fearful wound torn through him. The Alstons always asserted that General Reed should have held his fire, but Reed's friends claim that hte duel was a fair one, and that Reed went into the duel with "yagers," knowing that it was a duel to the death, and only took his just chances. In any event, however, the sister of Augustus Alston was almost maddened at the death of her brother. She took the lead from the body, and moulding it into bullets sent them to Colonel Willis Alston, telling him to hurry home and avenge his brother's death. It was very well understood that when Willis Alston came there would be trouble. Additional Comments: Part 4 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/fulton/newspapers/bathedin2543gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 7.2 Kb