This is a true story about Baldwin County, Alabama's answer to the Hatfields and McCoys. It happened 150 years ago. My great-great grandfather, James Marion Hadley, and his neighbor, Green Berry Bryars, couldn't agree on which sheep belonged to which family. Their livestock had “intermixed.”
After some heated words, the Hadleys started shooting. The headline in the Birmingham Iron Age read “Dreadful Tragedy in Baldwin Co. Alabama.”
Bryars and two of his sons were killed. On the day of the funeral, a posse arrived at the Hadley property to arrest them for the murders. They found deserted houses. The entire extended family had already hightailed it out of Alabama, never to return. Some headed west to Texas, the others to Florida.
The Hadley men were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in the Alabama state prison. Apparently they escaped before serving their entire sentences.
The Florida Hadleys changed their name to Lindsey and settled in northeast Florida near Jacksonville. My grandmother’s mother—Annie Lindsey—didn’t know about the family secret until her dying grandfather gathered the family to tell them in 1920.
— Suztek
After some heated words, the Hadleys started shooting. The headline in the Birmingham Iron Age read “Dreadful Tragedy in Baldwin Co. Alabama.”
Bryars and two of his sons were killed. On the day of the funeral, a posse arrived at the Hadley property to arrest them for the murders. They found deserted houses. The entire extended family had already hightailed it out of Alabama, never to return. Some headed west to Texas, the others to Florida.
The Hadley men were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in the Alabama state prison. Apparently they escaped before serving their entire sentences.
The Florida Hadleys changed their name to Lindsey and settled in northeast Florida near Jacksonville. My grandmother’s mother—Annie Lindsey—didn’t know about the family secret until her dying grandfather gathered the family to tell them in 1920.
— Suztek
Wowee! That is some story! It's remarkable that the dying grandfather told the true story. And that it's been passed down.
ReplyDeleteWow! A piece of real history through your family. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fabulous bit of family history.
ReplyDelete