George Williams is being shot and mortally wounded by Alvie Fields. The April 8, 1892 Incident happened in front of building shown here, on Railroad Street. According to a contemporary, George Williams was "... kind of an ornery bugger I guess. He was a pretty heavy drinker in the saloon there and he'd always get into an argument and he'd pull a gun out like he was going to shoot, see? But anyhow, there was a guy by the name of Alvie Fields. [...] I think that was his name. He was supposed to have been related to Smock, but I don't know that for sure. But anyway he made up his mind that if he was going to pull a gun on him, he was going to get him first. But anyhow he didn't have no gun so he went to a man there. I kind of hate to talk about this. I didn't see it, but I was told by people who was there. He went to a guy I knew real well and told him he wanted to borrow his gun. He had a butcher shop there. He was a partner in the butcher shop. He had a .45. He asked, "What are you going to do with it?""I'm going to kill a darn mean dog." he says, "He's always a-bothering me. I'm going to kill him."
He got the gun and he wounded the guy. Well, he got into an quarrel with him and he pulled out his gun and he shot him. But he didn't die right away. They took him to Portland. I think they got him to Portland on a freight train. The freight trains always carried one coach to carry passengers. They didn't have passenger trains in them days."
--Dave Cereghino, February 28, 1976
3 comments:
I don't remember this scene. Did you do this scene this year, Lilly?
No, we did not do the shootout this year and I am very regretful of that. We need to find two young bucks to get out there and do it. I'm sure the police and the art gallery were glad we did'nt do it, but there is always next year!
A newspaperman from West Lynn recently verified Cereghino's conjecture about Joseph Alva ("Alvie") Fields being a relative of the Smocks. There is a photograph at our museum of Alva and Henry Smock posing for a class photo together. Their mothers were Sebastians. Alvie died in 1943 and is buried in Grangeville, Idaho. He mined for gold in Idaho and apparently lost it all in a card game.
Post a Comment