The SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY of Woodsfield, in Monroe Co., reports on the trial of John Soergel and Stephen Paine:

"In the case of John Soergel and Stephen Paine for killing Elisha Barker, the Grand Jury returned 'not a true bill;' they thinking, perhaps, as every body else did, this is a justifiable homicide." (SOD, 27 July 1864)


From the SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY, 27 August 1856:

"An Infamous Outrage.

"On the 16th inst. [this month] four young men from the lower part of this county, named John Kent, John Henthorn, Ezra Barker and Elisha Barker went across the river and committed a brutal assault on a very respectable old
gentleman named Ankrom and his wife. It appears that the party took some observations of the house of the old people as they went down past it in the forenoon, and on their return in the afternoon stopped and asked for something
to eat, which was kindly furnished them. Not getting something that they asked for, they, or some of them, fell to swearing and abusing the old lady, and she ordered them out of the house. Thereupon a fight commenced. A son of
Mr. Ankrom, at some distance, hearing the disturbance hurred to the house, and found the two old people lying stretched out in the yard, insensible. The
scoundrels had been warned of the approach of the youn man, by one of the party who was standing sentinel, and fled. The latest accounts from the old people, state that the old lady is improving but has not yet recoverd her
mind; the old man, it is feared will not recover; a frightful wound having been made on his head by a stroke with a gun.

"The old folks are aged about seventy-five years, and are said to have considerable money in their hous. Whether this accounts for the assault or not, we pretend not to say. Three of the party are now in our county jail, but Elisha Barker, who is said to be "head devil" among them, is still hiding
about in the woods of Jackson township. There has been a clan of marrauders
infesting that neighborhood for years, and it is hoped that a portion of them will now be sent to where they will no longer keep the neighborhood in terror."

The SOD reports the following on 5 April 1865:

"AFFRAY IN JACKSON TOWNSHIP. Reports have reached here of a serious if not
fatal affray in Jackson township. The account apparently most reliable is
this: On Friday last two of the Barkers attempted to arrest on of the Henthorns, who had been drafterd and refused to report. Henthorn, it is said, resisted when a fight took place, in which he shot both the Barkers with a revolver---one of them through the breast, and the other through the shoulder.
The one shot in the breast it is thought will not recover. Henthorn was still at large, at last accounts."

Next week, the 12 April 1865 SOD reports:

"THE BARKER AND HENTHORN BATTLE. The most reliable account of the bloody fight between the Barkers and Henthorns, noticed last week, is this: One Eli
Henthorn was drafted some months ago and failed to report. The Barkers concluded to take him, and went to the house of another Henthorn to find him, but he was not there, when they fell to quarrelling with this Henthorn.
Henthorn's story is, that one of the Barkers then commenced stabbing him. The Barkers say Henthorn shot Barker before Barker attempted to stab him. Another
Barker engaged in the fight, and also another Henthorn. The result was that one Barker was shot through the breast and another through the shoulder, both balls probably penetrating the lungs. One Henthorn was stabbed several times
in the back, laying bare the spine in two or three places, and another was shot through the arm. One of the Henthorns also used a maul to some purpose on two of the Barkers.

"There were four Barkers, and a relative named Cooper, engaged on one side, and two or three Henthorns on the other. The Barker party remained masters of the
field, and burned the dwelling houses and barn of the Henthorns.

"Warrents are out for the parties, but none have yet been arrested. The two Barkers who were shot are not able to be moved, and will probably not recover."