The
Barber-Mizell Feud
Judge
John Mizell did not heed his brother’s dying words. He immediately organized a posse of twenty local men, ordered
them to bring the Barbers to justice, and instructed them to take no
prisoners. He appointed David B.
Stewart to replace his brother as Sheriff and lead the posse south to fulfill
its mission.
The
posse’s first act was to arrest Needham Yates (an uncle of Jack Barber) and his
sons William and Needham, Jr., because they were suspected of participating in
the ambush.
The
next suspect the posse encountered was Old Moses Barber’s son Isaac. Judge Mizell ordered his men to tie Isaac to
the nearest tree. Then, all twenty men
simultaneously emptied their guns into the bound man so that no one individual
could be accused of his murder.
News
of this heinous act quickly spread through the neighborhood so that Old Moses,
Jack, and Moses Barber, Jr., were able to flee their ranch before the posse
arrived. Isaac’s enraged widow, Harriet
Geiger Barber, met the judge and his men instead. It is said that she cursed the lawmen with such foul language
that they hurriedly seized her cattle and sped away, anxious to escape her
tirade. For many years, she would keep the
bullet-torn coat that her husband had worn when murdered—and her hatred for the
mizells would last the rest of her life.
Judge
Mizell returned to Orlando with the Barber herd and most of his posse. A few of his men, though, chose to pursue
Old Moses, Jack, and Moses, Jr. They
almost succeeded in capturing the trio, too.
But, their horses became mired in what was then known as shingle
creek. Ultimately, they only succeeded
in capturing Moses, Jr., whose horse also bogged down in the mud. It was this incident that earned the stream
its current name: Boggy Creek.
More:
8.
Aftermath