So small a matter as an alleged social slight
has been found to have been the trifling cause which started the
family feud by reason of which James B. Taylor and Isaac Futch
shot each other to death on Thanksgiving day at Fairview, sixty
miles north of Hillsboro. According to further details of the
double killing received here today, the neglect of Futch to invite
Mrs. Taylor to his wedding a year ago when all other neighbors
were guests and the refusal to admit Mrs. Taylor when she arrived
to the scene of the nuptials engendered the bad blood which
finally developed into bitter hatred, culminating in the violent
death of two of the best-known citizens in the county. Taylor
besides being a cattle man, was foreman of the United States
treasury mine, well-known for years as a Sierra county old timer
and quite popular. Futch, not quite so well known, was
nevertheless highly esteemed by all who knew him. He was formerly
foreman of the Winston cattle ranch.
The refusal of Futch to have Mrs. Taylor attend
his wedding led to gossip and the claim created a sensation in
county social circles. High words had frequently passed between
the two men and when they met at Fairview on Thanksgiving day both
resolved to end the trouble by killing the other.
Both men drew their guns at the same time,
Taylor a Colt heavy forty-five, and Futch an automatic pistol.
Horrified bystanders heard the crashing staccato of the two guns
being rapidly emptied and saw both men fall, both dying in less
than half a minute. Each was wounded twice, and Taylor snapped his
empty gun twice at his enemy after both were down, in a last
desperate fury of revenge.
Taylor was an unsuccessful candidate on the
democratic ticket for probate clerk two years ago. He married a
Miss Lauglin of Kingston, this county.
Albuquerque Morning Journal, November 29, 1909
(Special report from Hillsboro dated November 28)