The Shemwell Family

SHOT FROM AMBUSH _____ Jno. E. Shemwell killed in Stewart County _____ While Riding Along the Public Road After Dark - Details of the Crime _____ News was brought to the city this morning of a foul murder in Stewart County. Last Friday afternoon, John Shemwell a constable of the county who lives near Bumpus’ Mill, on Saline creek, left home, telling his wife that he would be back between sundown and dark, or very soon thereafter. He did not return on time, as was his custom, and his wife became an easy about him and went to a neighbor's and asked that he be looked for. It was remembered that a shot had been heard soon after dark and several of Shemwell's neighbors started out to hunt for him. About 12 o’clock that night they found his horse tied at the top of a hill about a half-mile from his house with one rein of the bridal gone. They knew that he had not left his horse there in that condition, and getting reinforcements continued the search. A few hundred yards further on near the home of Wm. Cobb on the Dover and Cadiz road, his lifeless body was found. The left arm had been torn nearly off and there was a hole in the unfortunate man's side that the shot had torn that would admit three fingers. He was evidently shot with a full charge of buckshot from a musket. In the death grip of his right hand was a bunch of the horse’s mane that he had torn out in falling. The paper wadding from the gun was lying in the middle of the road about thirty or forty feet from where the body lay, showing that he had been carried that far after being shot. The body was carried to Bud Bumpus’ and cared for. Shemwell was shot by parties in a wheat field at the side of the road. The next morning the tracks of the three horses were traced distinctly from the point at which the shot was fired through the field and for a distance of a mile. The shot, which was heard by several parties, was fired about 8 o’clock. Shemwell was about 44 years old. He left a wife and three children. His wife, if the Leaf Chronicle is not mistaken, was a resident of this county before marriage. He had been a constable about 2 years. Readers of the Leaf Chronicle will remember an account of a desperate encounter between John Shemwell, the murdered man, and James E. Wallace, also a resident of Stewart County, in which Wallace was killed. The circumstances were briefly as follows: Shemwell had gone to a logging camp on Long creek to levy on a raft of logs belonging to Wallace. Wallace objected to the levy, claiming that he had given a bill of sale of the logs to other parties. A quarrel ensued, when Wallace pushed Shemwell off the raft into fifteen-foot water. When he came to the surface Wallace punched him with a spike-pole and threw a double-bit ax at him. While he was yet swimming Shemwell pulled a revolver and fired five shots at Wallace, one of which went through his breast and produced a wound that killed him in a few hours. Shemwell was acquitted having killed Wallace in self-defense. The belief is general that Shemwell met his death at the hand of some of Wallace's friends.