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The following story illustrates the tensions
in quiet communities occasioned by the slavery question.
During the Civil War some people in the North sympathized with
the South. Such sympathizers were called Copperheads, and those
who had lost family members fighting for the Union especially
hated them and at times attacked them. In Darlington Township
there was one Copperhead family, the Douthitts of Douthitt Inn.
One afternoon Arthur Bullus Bradford's son, also Arthur by name,
rode the family horse, Old Morgan, to Enon, where he spent some
time racing with other young fellows and often winning, for Morgan
was a very fast horse. But as evening approached, he went to the
local store for the groceries his mother had asked him to pick
up. It was raining by then and very foggy.
As he was about to start for home, he overheard some men forming
a plan to ride, under cover of the fog, to Douthitt's Inn, where
they would attack and kill that family.
Arthur Jr., knowing that his strongly anti-slavery father nevertheless
was totally opposed to violence, rode home as fast as his horse
could go.
When the boy told his father what he had overheard, Arthur Bullus
Bradford grabbed his gun from the study, leaped onto Old Morgan,
and headed for Douthitt's Inn, where he arrived just ahead of
the mob.
When the men appeared, Bradford rode toward them, calling out
the leader's name and stating that he would shoot the first man
who dared to cross the road toward the inn. The mob dispersed
at once, and no attack on the Douthitts ever took place.
After the excitement was over, Bradford looked more carefully
at his gun. Wasps had filled the barrel with mud. There was no
way he could have fired it, but of course the mob had not known
about that.