Beckham County, OK - Deaths: James W. Colbert, 1907
Tuesday, 11 Dec 2007
Submitted by: delma25@pldi.net (Delma Tindell)

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COLBERT, JAMES W.
(13 Jun 1907, Roger Mills Sentinel, Cheyenne, Roger Mills Co, OK):
James Colbert, the Deceased, Was Angry Over Location of Section Lines.
Last Monday morning about 9 o'clock, David Koontz and James W. Colbert,
neighbors, met in the public road near Welcome school house, six miles
northwest of town and became engaged in a quarrel which resulted in the
killing of Colbert.  Three boys were present, one of them a son of the
deceased and witnessed the tragedy.  Immediately after the shooting Koontz
came to this city and surrendered to the sheriff.
Koontz says he met Colbert in the road, Colbert riding in a buggy.  They
stopped and were talking about a recent survey over which there was a
disagreement.  It appears that Colbert was angry and alleged that Koontz
had influenced the surveyor to favor him.  The quarrel became bitter and
Colbert took a monkey wrench from his buggy and it is said struck Koontz
three times, whereupon the latter drew a small revolver and shot twice,
the first shot going wild, the second striking Colbert in the upper lip
just to the left of the nose.  The victim fell to the ground and expired
in about thirty minutes.  The bullet lodged in the back of the head.
Justice J. R. Casady of this city went out to the scene of the killing and
held an inquest, the jury deciding that Colbert came to his death by
gun-shot wound at the hands of David Koontz.
The deceased was buried at the Cheyenne cemetery Tuesday.
Koontz is now in the county jail here awaiting examination, which will be
held probably tomorrow forenoon.

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