Cutting Affray at Chestnutridge

   The Bull Creek area of southern Christian County might well be called the epicenter of Ozarks feuds. Some of the infamous Bald Knobbers of the mid and late 1880s were from that area, and some of their activities occurred in that area. Although the reign of the Bald Knobbers did not really involve a family feud so much as a political one, elements of kinship and family factored into the feud. Almost concurrent with the Bald Knobbers' reign of terror was the Matthews-Payton feud, which occurred in southern Christian County. Then came the Meadows-Bilyeu feud in late 1898, which culminated in Bud Meadows's killing of three members of the Bilyeu family, who were his in-laws. That affair had scarcely died down when another feud flared up at Chestnutridge, located about four miles southeast of Spokane on present-day Highway 176.
   On Sunday, September 29, 1901, Preacher Larkins and two of his sons, Jeff and Ben, got into a bloody encounter at a church at Chestnutridge (often spelled Chestnut Ridge at the time). It seems John Carter had married a daughter of Preacher Larkins, and the couple had a baby together. However, they had separated and the young woman had returned to her father's home with the child. On the fateful day, Carter showed up at the church with a brother of his and a friend of theirs named Charley Coates. John Carter tried to take the child away from its mother, which brought Judge Larkins and his sons to the young woman's aid. When Carter drew a pistol, Preacher Larkins knocked it out of his hand. This caused Carter's brother and Coates to enter the fray, and all hell broke loose. Larkins and his sons drew knives and "began to cut right and left." Carter and his sidekicks, who "also had sharp steel in their pockets," drew their blades and a knife fight was on in earnest, with both sides slicing every which way. When the bloody encounter ended, Charley Coates lay mortally wounded. At least that was the initial report, although the victim was misidentified as Charley Carter at the time. The other combatants had wounds of varying severity, and even one or two bystanders who were merely trying to stop the fight ended up getting cut. Seven men in all were injured. Preacher Larkins and one of his sons were said to have lost considerable blood from their stab wounds.
   The Springfield Leader-Democrat said in its initial report of the affray that Charley Carter (actually Charley Coates) was not expected to live more than a day or two. John Carter was well enough to travel to Ozark and turn himself in after the fight, and the next day the county sheriff went down to Bull Creek and arrested the other parties involved in the melee, including Judge Larkins, as the preacher was usually called. (It's not clear whether he was ever actually a judge or this was just a name or honorary title he went by. He is listed in census records as "Judge Larkins" as though that was his actual name.)
   The Leader-Democrat described Judge Larkins as "a well-known character in Christian County." He had served on "more grand juries than almost any other man south of Ozark," and he had a knack for getting involved in political disputes. In the Meadows-Bilyeu feud, Larkins had sided strongly with the Bilyeu faction and had testified against Meadows in the legal proceedings against him for killing the Bilyeus. Despite his somewhat cantankerous reputation, Larkins had "always stood for peace and good conduct in his neighborhood." He also "never lost an opportunity to defend the faith of the Christian church," although his preaching was "of a local and somewhat irregular character."
   Dr. Wade of Spokane, who treated Charley Coates, was apparently about the only man who did not believe the dire prognosis that others had issued about his patient. He performed an operation to sew up Coates' internal organs, and within a week or ten days, Coates was on the mend and was expected to make pretty much a full recovery. The young doctor received much praise for the skill and expertise that resulted in such a surprisingly good outcome.