There was strong hostility between Jackson Township farmers James Williams and William Chapman in 1895.
The two men had a long-lasting argument over a dirt road between their farms near Mud Pond and the village of Muhlenburg, which ended with a deadly shooting.
Williams was taking care of his 10-acre farm and walking on the dirt road when Chapman confronted him about trespassing on May 15, 1895.
The two men physically fought as the stronger and younger Chapman, 38, was dominating the older Williams, 63.
As Chapman was strangling Williams, Williams managed to take a gun from his pocket and fired a shot, immediately killing Chapman.
Williams, a captain in the Union Army during the Civil War, never got married and lived with several dogs in a hut on his farm. He surrendered himself to Constable John V. Johnson.
After Johnson confirmed the murder by finding Chapman’s body, he arrested Williams and took him to the Luzerne County Prison where he was placed in Cell 15.
The next day, Williams gave an interview to a reporter for the Evening Leader, claiming the shooting was in self-defense.
Williams was asked if he was regretful.
“No, I’m not. If I didn’t kill Chapman, he would have killed me, and a man is a drunken fool to let another man kill him if he can prevent it,” Williams is quoted in the Evening Leader story published May 16, 1895.
Williams also gave another reason for the killing as he alleged Chapman was abusive toward his own mother.
The Evening Leader reporter noted in the story Williams had a large cut on one side of his face from where Chapman struck him with a stone.
Williams’ trial was held a month later, June 17, 1895, before Judge John Lynch in Courtroom One at the courthouse that once stood on Public Square, Wilkes-Barre.
At a time before the exchange of evidence called discovery, it was learned during the trial that Williams once lived with Chapman’s mother when Chapman was a young lad. As the relationship ended, Williams purchased the 10 acres across Mud Pond and constructed himself a two room hut and an outhouse.
“Williams lived across Mud Pond and cultivated the land, selling his produce to merchants in Nanticoke. Williams cleared a dirt road between the two farms to make it easier for him to access the country road but Chapman maintained he was not entitled to use the dirt road,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported June 8, 1895.
Williams, who was represented by Attorney John McGahren, testified in his own defense telling the all-male jury made up of merchants, miners, a steam boat captain and a farmer, that Chapman first struck him with a rock causing him to fall to the ground.
Williams told the jury Chapman jumped on him and choked him until he managed to remove a revolver from his pocket and fired a shot into Chapman’s stomach.
There was no post-mortem examination of Chapman, who was buried in Ceasetown Cemetery in Jackson Township.
The jury deliberated for two hours before finding Williams not guilty of murder on June 21, 1895.
“The verdict was received with applause by the audience and one man who gave vent to his feelings more vociferously than the rest was ordered up before the bar and Judge Lynch gave him a severe reprimand,” the Sunday Leader reported June 23, 1895.
