"Feuds May Be Renewed on Upper Twin Creek ,Alva Holsinger, Gun User, Surrenders, Whiskey Making, Old Grudge Believed To Have Led To Gun Play" 2/24/1926
A shooting which officials believe may lead to moonshine making resulted Tuesday night about eleven o'clock for Grant Cooper, 27, father of five children and the arrest on a murder charge of Alva Holsinger, 46, father of four children. The shooting occurred near the front door of the Holsinger home about four miles up Upper Twin Creek and less than a half mile down the creek from the Coopers home. The gun user fired a load from a single barreled shot gun into the left breast of Cooper, who died within a few minutes after staggering backyard about thirty feet from the spot where he was standing when shot. Several of the shot are thought to have entered the heart.Feudal days of long ago when gun play was frequently staged on Upper Twin Creek. In the extreme section of the West Side and north of Buena Vista probably will be renewed, the result of the killing.

Trouble over Land While the father and brother of the gun victim allege that trouble between Cooper and Holsinger was over Cooper beating Holsinger to a tract of land he wanted to farm and the fact that Cooper had ordered Holsinger and the two [unable to read a sentence] said to be operating near the small tract rented by Cooper. The wife and her grown sons of the gun user outly deny that much could have been the cause of the trouble as the men were friendly and on speaking terms until in December. The Holsinger family claims that Cooper went on a drunken rampage at that time and picked a guarrel have nothing at all with Mr. Holsinger or that the bad feeling had existed ever since. Sheriff Henry Dunham and officers will investigate the claims of the Coopers concerning the alleged moomshine activities of the gun user and his sons and also counter charges by the Holsingers that the Coopers have been busy also in illieit whiskey making.

Gun User Held. Mr. Holsinger is held in the county jail pending a complete investigation of the shooting. Mrs. Holsinger and two grown sons and two small sons -their home on Upper Twin Creek this afternoon expressing fear that the Coopers might burn the house while they were asleep. They went to make their home with relatives on Buena Vista.




The Portsmouth Times - Portsmouth OH; 24 Feb 1926
Contributed by: Frank Lewis and Doris J Moore
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

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