The Murder of James Holt

James Holt came to Kentucky from Virginia. He married Rebecca Brown in 1825 and they settled on Illwill Creek in Clinton County, where James took up farming and they began raising a family.

When Rebecca died years later, James decided to move out west. It was about 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon of Friday, November 15, 1850, when James stopped by a dram shop at Old Jackson in the northern part of Lawrence County, Arkansas and commenced to drinking. While doing so, he very imprudently remarked that he was prepared to pay one-thousand dollars down for a tract of land.

No one took him up on his offer so James mounted his horse and left. He was going to take his search for land elsewhere. After traveling only a short distance, Holt came upon a man by the name of James Minor, who was standing in the road. Holt stopped and asked how far it was to a place where he could bed down for the night. After the two men talked, Holt started to ride on, but as he passed by, Minor, who was still standing in the road, struck him across the forehead with the barrel of his rifle.

Sometime during the night, Holt woke up in a wooded area. He had been beaten and robbed of his money, horse, pistols and anything else of any value, and left for dead. After wandering about in the woods for some time, he found a road and managed to make it to a home not too far away. But, his injuries were too severe and James Holt died the next day.

A posse of thirty armed men took off after Minor. After a pursuit of some thirty miles, they came upon him and his wife, and another man, Samuel McGhee, who had been an accomplice in the killing. As the posse was bringing them in, Minor leaped from his horse and dived into Leven Point River as they were crossing it. Luckily, one of the members of the posse jumped in after him and Minor was recaptured.

All of Holt's belongings were recovered, including the money. A jury did not believe Minor's claim of self-defense and on December 6, 1850, he and McGhee were executed for the murder and robbery of James Holt.

Georgie's Hole

Howard Hardaway became a writer during his many trips to Canada each summer for a one-day hike. The Louisville Courier called him in and wanted him to write up some of his experiences. He averaged several pieces a year for the journal and some for other publications at the time of this interview. Hardaway referred to himself as ‘The Old Hiker.’ "I’ve learned," said the Louisville, KY native in a May 1959 interview, "that the most interesting places are not right on the road. On the back roads, at the little country stores where the road crews gather for a quart of milk and a moon pie, that’s where you find some real historians." One of the places he wrote about was Clinton County. The following story is an excerpt from an article he submitted to the Courier-Journal sometime during the 1930s.

"Passing northward through a mountain gap at Doc Powers' place. I started down the valley of Koger's Creek by a narrow trail that is passable only by horseback or afoot. "There have been wagons up there," I was told later, "but not for a longtime." And, yet people live up there, and apparently live very well. The farms up in the gap look well-tended and prosperous. In this neighborhood is a cave, a "bottomless pit," known as Georgie's Hole. No one knows the depth of the vertical shaft. Georgie was the name of an old woman who lived hereabouts many years ago. Georgie and her husband "got their backs up" at each other. They couldn't seem to patch things up. One day, out in the pasture, Georgie is said to have maneuvered around so that she got her old man with his back to the hold. A quick shove - and Georgie was a willing widow. Georgie's Hole and its story has served as a warning to Clinton County husbands for 100 years to patch up differences quickly with the wife - or else stay away from bottomless pits."

Howard Hardaway