The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
Turnbo Home | Table of Contents | Keyword Search| Bibliography | Biography
DEATH OF JOHN ROBERTS
By S. C. Turnbo
We have mentioned the name of John Roberts who built the first mill In Green County, Mo. and that he and sheriff Tom Horn had an altercation one day and Roberts attempted to kill him with a knife but a half dollar in the sheriffs vest pocket saved his life. I have often heard some of the early settlers say when I was a little lad of a boy that Roberts was a desperate man one day he and Judge Yancy met in Springfield and had a fallen out and Roberts would poke fun at him. Yancy did not want any trouble with him. The ill feeling continued to exist between them until one day they met in Springfield again and Roberts began a quarrel with Yancy at once and he would follow Yancy around holding a spectacle case in his hand and would snap it at the judge to frighten him. Though Yancy tried to avoid trouble but Roberts kept following him and tantalizing him until he grew tired and he tamed on him and shot and killed him. This is the way the old settlers said it was and I suppose it is true.
Turnbo Home | Table of Contents | Keyword Search| Bibliography | Biography
