Kernoodle - Mart - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Go to content

Kernoodle - Mart

Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Monday, 12 March 1894

A rumor current here last week to the effect that Mart Kernoodle had been shot has been verified. Nearly everyone here remembers Mart Kernoodle who until a few months ago had a chair in Fossee’s barber shop. He was a heavy set, bald headed chap and was considered a first class barber. He finally got into a racket one day with some of the other employees of the shop and left town. He in time entered business at Clarksville, Ark., where he met his death a week from last Saturday. He attended a country dance and while there engaged in a violent quarrel with a wealthy young man of Clarkesville by the name of Rodgers. The men were kept apart that evening, but the following morning Kernoodle had no sooner opened his shop than Rodgers came rushing in and drawing a revolver fired two shots into the barber’s heart. Kernoodle fell dead grasping the razor with which he was shaving a customer. The affair occurring in Arkansas, of course, attracted but passing attention and the dead barber was quickly buried. The news was sent to the Indianapolis K of P lodge of which the deceased was a member. He was thirty five years old and his wife and child are now living in Jamestown. - thanks muches to "S"


Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Monday, 26 March 1894

The Clarksville, Ark., Herald, speaking of the assassination of Mart Kernoodle, late of this city, says:
There are many conflicting reports in regards to the difficulty, and it is difficult to get at the matter. From the best information it seems that about noon on Saturday, Rogers and Kernoodle had a few words in the barber shop about something that took place at a dance the previous night, that Rogers passed out of the shop remarking as he went that any one who said anything about him was a d—n rascal. When he had gone Kernoodle remarked that he would have to swallow that or he would cut his throat from ear to ear with a razor. Someone reported this threat to Rogers, who immediately went home, armed himself and returned to the shop. He called Kernoodle out in front of the ship, and, after passing a few words, Kernoodle, some say, struck Rogers. Others say he did not. At any rate, they clinched and while in this posture Rogers drew a pistol, punched it against the breast of his adversary and fired. Kernoodle turned and ran into the shop, and as he went in Rogers fired a second shot into his back. He fell and expired in a few seconds, both balls having gone entirely through his body. Kernoodle was quite a fleshy man, and while waiting for a train Sunday night the body was found to be so decomposed that it was considered impractical to ship it, and Kernoodle was buried about midnight on Sunday night.


Back to content