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 Profession of Faith, James and Hiram Turk Killed in the Slicker Wars

  • » Date: 1842-02-27
  • » Subject: Profession of Faith, James and Hiram Turk Killed in the Slicker Wars
  • » Written By: Margaret Gleaves Turk
  • » Addressed To: Major James Turk Gleaves Sr
  • » Transcriber: Robert Allen
  • » File # 149

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Postmark: COLUMBIA, KY
Mar 11

25-

James T. Gleaves
Wythe County
Virginia

To the Buflow Ford


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February the 27 1842, Adare County

Dear brother [I]t is through the mercies and goodness of God that I am permitted anest? More to rite you a few lines with thanks to God, I can tell you that I have enjoyed better health for the last six months than I have for a long time, but I do not think that could stand the journey to Virginia[.] Mr. Stone says that you are so very ancious to se me and I am fully as desirous to se you and your family as I well can be[. T]he rest of my family are enjoying reasonable health at present[. O]ld Winny is still alive (reapping about some times and sometimes in bed and very ancious to se her children[. M]y sones and thear families are in common health as far as I no[.] Cabeb (unreadable) my youngest son is still very weakly[. H]e is a subject of the worst kind of a bowel complaint which he has been afflickted with all his life[. L]ast August he had a very severe spell of the billous pleurisy[. H]e was not expected to live, but he was spared more days. Brother you do not no how thankfull I am for he has been under conviction for near twelve months and had not professed which grieved me very much but I thank the Lord that I have been belsst November last at a protrackted meeting that was held in old shilo meeting house in this neighbourhood[.] I had the pleasure of seing my three sons return home to God[]


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O my dear brother you do not no how trapley? I felt to se the power of God displayed in such (unreadable) than about too what Caleb professed first he had the britest manifestations of any one of the three[. H]e was the happiest person I think I ever saw[.] William, he was the next and my eldest son was the last the professed there evidences were very bright and thear godly conversation with thear orderly walk makes me believe the are blest[.] I suppose that you have herd of brother Hiram Turk's fate[. H]e moved to the Missouri two or three years since last spring[. H]is second son, Jeames, was shot by a vilion and fell dead last August[. T]he same clan of vilions wey laid Hiram Turk and shot him on his return from the post office[. H]e road home and died the 22 day after he was shot, but O what a consoling thought he professed to have a hope and died in the triumphs of faith of that peace of soul that calms the troubled brest? Of my dear brother seek that peace which will mak a diing bed feal soft[. I]f you never have tried to seek an interest in the Savour blood wich clenseth from all sin favay? Let me entreat as you are my beloved brother to seek the Lord wilest he may be found[. D]o set a firm resolution when you read these lines from your poor unworthy sister that you will never give it up for the Lord will hear an humble persistant sinnar's cry[. M]y two brothers and one poor sister O how can I bear the idea to se my friends sinking down to (unreadable) there to bear the wrath of God forever and forever[.] I heard from our beloved sister Allen[. S]he was in tolerable health[.]


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[O]ld aunt Allen is still numbered with the living[. S]he is very childish, but is able to walk about and knit[. D]earest brother you rote when you got things settled you would let me no[. P]lese let me no the amount that falls to me when you rite[. S]ome one of my sons will attend to it for me and go for it when it is ready[. P]erhaps I may be able to go with them for I am very desirious to se your wife and children also the rest of my friends in that country to which I was born and raised[. T]wenty years have rolled around since I was there[.] Mr Stone was much pleased with you and sister Mallvina[. H]e told my son Hiram that he was at home when at you house[. H]e speaks very highly of you indeed[. P]lease put my adge? in your next leter[. T]he fevor is raging in this country[.] I have not herd from brother Thomas for some time[.] I would be truly glad if you would take it on your selfs to pay me a visit this spring or summer[.] I must com back[. R]emember me to all of my friends who ask after me and accept my best love to you and family[.]
I remain you sister till death.

Jeames T. Gleave        Margaret Turk

Transcriber Notes

Punctuation is added where it seems appropriate, mostly indicated by brackets around the added punctuation. Capitalization also added where appropriate and sometimes noted by brackets. In most cases spelling errors are as the words were spelled by Margaret Turk.

Margaret Gleaves Turk was the daughter of William & Elizabeth Turk Gleaves.  She married Thomas Turk III.  Margaret and Thomas were first cousins.

“Sister Allen” was Sarah (Gleaves) Allen, wife of Nathan Allen, then living in Warren Co., KY.

“Old aunt Allen” was Jane (Turk) Allen, sister to Margaret's mother, Elizabeth (Turk) Gleaves and mother of Nathan Allen who was living with one of her children (probably David Allen) on Marrowbone Creek in Cumberland Co., KY.  She was baptized on April 9, 1749 at the Tinkling Spring Church, Fisherville, Augusta Co., VA, so at the time of this letter (February 1842) she was in her early 92 years old.

“Brother Thomas” was Thomas Gleaves, living in Davidson Co., TN.

The killing of Margaret Turk’s brother in law Hiram Turk and his son James Turk is part of a family feud called the “Slickers Wars” in Benton Co., Missouri, between the Turks (and friends) and the Jones (and friends).  Hiram Turk (father was killed first.  He is said to have been shot on July 17, 1841 and died at home 22 days later from the wound(s). Andrew Jones was indicted for the murder of Hiram Turk, but was acquitted.  This angered Hiram Turk’s sons and they decided to take the law into their own hands.  The Turks and their friends (mainly Whigs) sided up against the Joneses and their friends (mainly Democrats).  Apparently his son, James Turk, was shot and killed next in August 1841.  Within the next couple of years (could have been a lot shorted time span), two other sons of Hiram Turk were also killed (Thomas Turk and Nathan Turk).  After the feud ended, the only family members left were the widow of Hiram Turk and one son, Robert Turk.  There are variations on the story after that, but the prevailing view is that the widow and her surviving son, Robert Turk moved back to Kentucky and Andrew Jones was hanged for horse stealing in Texas.

The Slicker Wars
The Turks and the Joneses both came to Missouri from Tennessee and Kentucky. The families had settled in Benton County by the 1830s. The Turks owned a store and saloon south of Warsaw. Old Colonel Hiram Turk and his three boys were said to be well educated and courteous, but with a disposition to fight at the drop of a hat. The Jones boys, four of them, lived along the Pomme de Terre River, and were fond of horse racing, gambling, and counterfeiting - though not necessarily in that order.
The clash began, it is said, on election day of 1840. The polling place was the Turk store. Andy Jones and Jim Turk got into a fight at the store, started by a dispute over one or all of the Jones' family habits. The day's entertainment ended in a draw, though not before Hiram and all the Turk boys had entered the fray. Brother Tom had even introduced a knife into the contest. The Turks were charged with assault and starting a riot. A neighbor, Abraham Nowell, was to be a witness against them. That was Newell's first mistake.
On the day of the trial, Jim Turk stopped Newell at a creek ford and announced at gunpoint that he was going to take Newell down a notch and prevent him from testifying. But Newell got the drop on Turk and shot him dead. Newell wisely sought other horizons……
……For his part in the forcible extradition, old Hiram Turk was charged in Benton County with kidnapping, but the indictment was quashed. The vengeful Jones clan, together with Morton's friends, swore to do something about Colonel Turk. And they did. The old man was shot and killed, supposedly by Andy Jones, on July 17, 1841. Jones was charged, and acquitted. It was the beginning of many court actions against both sides. Nearly all of them ended in acquittals or dropped charges.
http://www.lakehistory.info/slicker.html

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