ANOTHER SLAYING ON TWIN CREEK
Grant Cooper Killed By Alva Holsinger;
Manslaughter Charge   1926
The body of Grant Cooper, 27, shot in a quarrel with Alva Holsinger, 46, at the latter's home on Twin Creek, in Scioto County, about four miles from the Adams county line. Wednesday night of last week, was laid to rest in a small cementery near the home, Saturday afternoon, friends and neighbors carrying the casket from the house to the grave where a short funeral ceremony was performed. Several of the men held rifles on their arms, imparted to the scene the aspect of a military burial. There is much feeling over the killing, it is said, and further trouble is looked for. An ancient feud said to have been born in the mountains of Kentucky has been tranplanted in that remote and rocky section where settlers yet cling to the ancient idea of settling differences by force instead of by the more civilized method of law.

  Surviving the gun victim are his widow and five children: Blanche, 7; Homer, 6; Marcella, 4; Newton, 3; and Genevieve, who will be a year old on March 5; the father, Mert Cooper; two brothers, Morton and Jonas, and five sisters, Mrs. Lawrence Cooper and Mrs. Kinney Cooper, of Upper Twin Creek; Mrs. Pearl Sissel, of McEltree, and Mrs, Kate Moore and Mrs. Nellie Cooper, of Mace's Run. Holsinger, the gun user, was arrested and arraigned before Squire O. R. Foster at the office of Sheriff Barry Runham in Portsmouth Friday on a charge of manslaughter. He entered a plea of not guilty and was bound over to the Scioto County grand jury on a $1,000 bond.Scioto County officials announced that the fatal shooting appeared to be one of justifiable homicide. Holsinger claims he was protecting himself and his property when he fired at Cooper whom he claims threatened his life and was ready to hurl a rock at him when he opened fire with his shotgun. The lifeless form of Cooper was [unable to read sentence] the alleged moonshine activities of the gun user and his sons and also counter charges by the Holsingers that the Coopers have been busy also in illicit whiskey making.

Holsinger, the gun user, claims that he shot Cooper only in self defense. He claims that Cooper came to his house about eleven o'clock and awakened him by cursing and calling him all kinds of bad names and invited his son outside. He said Cooper kept saying he could lick them all. Holsinger claims he did not get up or bother about the man until he heard two rocks hit a small frame building adjoining the main dwelling and where the two small sons were sleeping. Within a few minutes he said he heard the window in the small building crash and his two young sons scream. The gun user says he then jumped out of the bed and grabbed his shotgun and loaded it and called to Cooper to go on away, but that he then invited him outside instead of his older sons and again made boasts he could whip him. Holsinger says he then opened the front door a few inches and saw that Cooper a short distance away with two rocks and his right arm drawn back ready to throw. He says he then aim at Cooper and fired before he could let go with the rock. Mrs. Holsinger told Coroner Fowler virtually the same story, adding that when she was awakened she raised the window blind and looked and saw Grant Cooper walking around in the front yard.

The Portsmouth Times - Portsmouth OH 1926
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