“Mr. Steel,

     Being informed by Mr. Eubank that Mr. Lusk is setting up some pretentions for the Patent Right we work on for your Satisfaction, I have thought proper to give you in as concise a manner as possible the true standing of the claims held by Hearris and myself for which we have legal conveyances in our possession so far as their rights were lawful. In May 1825 we procured Sperry’s right but he would not be bound to warrant and defend the same, we were to give him a part of the proceeds should we make any thing at it. Mr. Lusk hearing of it wrote to me wishing to purchase or become an agent which letter I never answered. In 1826 July Thomas Key obtained a patent right and made it appear that he had fixed the first Mill on this plan ever known of some two to three years prior to Sperry’s patent and it was surmised that as Sperry has been to Georgia in 1824 and in the neighborhood of  Key when he saw the plan he returned to Tennessee, made a Model went on to Washington City and obtained a patent right. Sperry at the same time let Hiram K. Turk have a county or countries in the state of Tennessee on the same term that we had agreed on in the course of the winter of 1825. H.K. Turk living in the state of Tennessee was informed that Thomas Key was the original inventor and that Sperry’s patent was fraudulently obtained, he immediately went to see Key and made a contract with Key for the U.S. of America with the exception of the State of Georgia which contract with all the necessary papers are now of record in the Patent Office had has been proved to be the only legal patent in the U.S.  On H.K. Turk’s return he noticed Hearris and myself from working on the plan and showed us his authority we then became purchasers of T. Key’s right to the state of [Ga.?] in July 1826 and have worked ever since… and intend continuing to do so as I will show you in the sequel of their narrative that we are correct. In 1827 Mr. Anderson from Kentucky obtained a Patent in the name of Jacob Ammon an inventor prior to Key we then informed Turk that we would not pay him in consequence of Ammons patent but at the same time purchased from Anderson paying him $500 in hand and our obligation for the balance Sperry gave up all pretentions. On the attainment by Keys patent Anderson and Turk immediately went to law and the decision was in favor of Keys patent. Anderson refunded to me the payment we had made and exonerated us from any obligation to him. The above are facts for which we have vouchers to show and admitting Mr. Lusk has a right from Sperry (which I very much doubt) his claim is abortive as Harriss and myself have a right from Sperry bearing date in 1825 from T. Kay 1825 and form Ammon 1827 which we are all the patent that have ever been issued form the Patent Office. You will confer a favor by letting Mr. Lusk see the within information and letting your neighbor and acquaintances know the same as I am informed that Mr. Lusk is leading the people astray…when the Blind lead the blind they will all fall into the ditch…”

       The legal details of this patent battle over what Samuel Sperry described as his invention of a “Water Shute for Saw and Grist Mills” are too complex to sort out. What’s notable is that, in the ensuing legal fight, Hiram K. Turk, mentioned in the letter, who liked to be called “Colonel” because he had held that rank in the Militia, published a newspaper statement that Thomas Key, not Sperry, was the original inventor and that anyone who claimed he had profited by an illegal arrangement was Key was “an infernal damned liar”. Colonel Turk did not mince words. Oddly, James Turk, the letter writer, apparently did. He neglected to mention that Hiram was his son.

James Turk died in 1835. Four years later, Hiram, with his three sons – one of whom was named James, after his grandfather – emigrated from Tennessee to Missouri, where they set up a store and a saloon along the Butterfield Overland Trail to California. About the same time, Andy Jones and his four sons moved from Kentucky to Missouri, where they became known for gambling and horse racing and were even suspected of counterfeiting. On election day 1840, when Andy Jones came into Hiram Turk’s store, one of the local polling places, he got into an argument with one of Turk’s sons. Turk himself became involved as did another son, Tom, who pulled out a knife.  No one was injured in the scuffle but the Turks were charged with assault and inciting a riot and were brought to trial. In the court room, a witness to the fight was threatened with a pistol by Hiram’s son, James, if he dared testify against them. Gun play broke out. James Turk was killed. About the same time, a relative of Jones who was an Alabama fugitive, came to live in the area. The Turks kidnapped the man and handed him over to a bounty hunter, who took him off to Alabama – where he was acquitted.  Hiram Turk, meanwhile, was charged with kidnapping, but the charge was dropped. Infuriated, the Jones family and their friends swore revenge on the Turks.  In July 1841, Andy Jones shot and killed “Colonel Turk” He was charged with murder, but he too was acquitted. 

Then the “Slicker War” began in earnest – a family feud, akin to the Hatfield-McCoy feud of West Virginia and Kentucky which escalated into a full-fledged war. Vigilante groups formed around the two families. Turk “Posses” visited anyone allied with the Joneses, tying them to trees and whipping them, some so badly that they later died from their wounds.  These beatings became known as “slickings”, which was how the “Slicker War” got its name. Before long, revenge-driven acts of frontier justice spread across much of the Missouri Ozarks. Local law men made a fruitless effort to restore order, until the Governor called out the State Militia to control the violence. 38 men of the Turk faction were charged with nearly killing an innocent bystander, but the case never went to trial. Tom Turk was killed by one of his own posse members. Andy Jones fled to Texas, where he was arrested for horse theft, found guilty and hanged. Eventually, all of the original feuding family members left the state.  But the ensuing vigilante violence continued for more than a decade.