DICKENSON COUNTY VA, NEWSPAPER UNKNOWN - 1890-early 1900"s

KILLED ON CUMBERLAND MOUNTAIN

RICHARD HALL SHOT BY MARSHALL

HALL AND BELCHER IN A QUARREL OVER A GAME OF CARDS

[Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch]

Clintwood, VA., July 22 - Richard Hall, who lived near Osborne’s Gap, this

county, was killed a day or two since.  The particulars of the affair, so

far as could be learned were substantially as follows:  Hall and one Michael

Belcher, a Kentuckian, and one of his friends, met by agreement just beyond

the limits of the State line on the Kentucky side, and Hall and Belcher

engaged in a game of cards.  For awhile, the game went smoothly enough, but

at length a dispute arose, and after some hot words Belcher drew his pistol

and fired at Hall, the ball crashing through his brain, when he instantly

dropped.  But Belcher, not being yet satisfied fired two more shots, one

ball passing through Hall’s arm and the other taking effect in his shoulder.

A gentlemen from near this place had been over in Kentucky, and as he

ascended the rugged heights of Cumberland mountain on his way back home he

met Belcher and his friend, who seemed to be in a very great hurry, and upon

being interrogated as to the cause only halted long enough to say that Hall

was shot and lying by the road side up on the mountain.  Sure enough upon coming up the mountain some distance, there lay Hall stark dead, and his brains spattered over the rocks.   Hall was a man of bad character, and was an near relative to Talt Hall, who was hanged at Wise Court House last September. The top of Cumberland mountain is a places resorted to by gambler, drunkards, moonshiners, and the worst element of this county to hold their revels.