"Wild Dog" into Preacher

A primitive Kentucky murderer, Curt Jett, 55, became a Baptist preacher at Union City, Ky. last week. The incident recalled the fast fading culture of mountainous Kentucky.

The Indians called the region the "Dark and Bloody Ground" because the Cherokees and Iroquois almost wiped each other out fighting for its possession. Toward the end of the last century the primitive descendants of white settlers made it another "Dark and Bloody Ground" with their feuds. Chief feuding clans in Breathitt County were the Callahans and the Hargises. Chief killer for the Hargises was Curt Jett, a lanky, pork-eating, whiskey-drinking hothead. He became known as the "Wild Dog of the Mountains." In 1904 Curt Jett, in behalf of James Hargis, his clan chief and uncle, shot & killed a federal officer and a local police chief.* He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Prison tamed the "Wild Dog of the Mountains." He had never been vicious. And when he professed religion he was accepted as a good Methodist. In 1918 he was pardoned. Feudist times were passed ; the law had tamed the wilful mountaineers. Berea College and Lincoln Memorial University were providing them with modern culture. Curt Jett became an itinerant Methodist evangelist. He married, and entered Asbury College at Wilmore, Ky. He and his wife had trouble. They separated; he quit college and Methodism. He remarried and began studying for the Baptist ministry. Last week as he received his ministerial license at Union City, he was a typical mountain minister: tall and sparse; steady, piercing eyes; a warm, friendly handclasp for everyone; speech homely and Biblical ; a proud rumble to his Amens.

* Later Beech Hargis shot & killed his father, James Hargis, was imprisoned, paroled. He broke parole, escaped the officers escorting him back to the penitentiary, has never since been heard of.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.