This story was first related to me by Finis Mulkey who was the son of Keene Mulkey of Floyd County, Kentucky. Keene was the youngest brother of my grandpa Felix Mulkey who resided in Lawrence County, Kentucky at a place called Needmore. The post office address being Cherokee. Anyway this is about a school trustee election held in July of 1933. The election was held in the Prater Creek School House on the head of Prater Creek in Floyd County. Most all of the participants in the bloody shoot-out were cousins of Polly Ann Conn Mulkey the wife of Keene. The fiasco resulted in the death of five men and the wounding of six. The following is from the "Paintsville Herald", July 6th 1933.

"PRATER CREEK IS SCENE OF BLOODY BATTLE

One of the bloodiest battles ever to occur in Kentucky took place during a school trustee election on the head of Prater Creek late last Saturday afternoon and as a result five persons are dead and six others have bullet holes in their body.

Seated on the opposite sides of the table, the two factions, one supporting Arnold Robinette and the other Arville Sammons, "shot it out." When the smoke cleared, Wilburn Conn and Wayne Click were dead, and nine others wounded, Green Conn, Mimms Conn and his son Millard Conn died Sunday from their wounds. Lawrence Conn, another son of Mimms Conn is shot through the bowels and is in a dying condition.

Ike Conn who was wounded in the right thigh is at liberty under $10,000 bond on each of two charges in the killing of Mimms and Millard Conn. He was arrested after treatment at the Beaver Valley Hospital at Martin, by Sheriff B.F. Sturgill of Floyd county. All other participants in the bloody battle are dead or in the hospital at Martin.

Witnesses said there were no signs of drinking at the school election but the night before was bitter between the two factions. It is said that more than $500 was spent in the school district by the two sides.

Sol Sammons, the candidate for school trustee supported by the Green Conn faction, it is said, was leading by two votes when the shooting took place. Two votes were ready to be cast for Arnold Robinette, the candidate backed by Mimms Conn and sons and Hayden Howell. As the two voters arrived according to the report, Green Conn stepped inside the room where the election was being held and announced that time for closing the polls was at hand. The opposition, and Hayden Howell were seated at the table to tabulate the two more votes for his candidate. Mrs. Martha Conn, wife of Green Conn, Snatched at the poll sheet, it was reported and Lawrence Conn did likewise whereupon Green Conn knocked the latter down with fists. Guns then began to blaze across the little table.

"When this happened," Hayden Howell is reported to have said at the hospital, "Millard Conn shot Green in the back as Green started to pull a pistol. Then the shooting was almost continuos. There were from thirty to forty men and women in the room and I saw the men fall on every side of me. I was unarmed and the fight was between Mimms and his son, Millard and Lawrence on one side against Green, Ike and Wilburn Conn and Wayne Click on the other. As I ran from the midst stooped over, a bullet struck me in the back.

Lawrence Conn was quoted as saying at the hospital at Martin that Ike Conn shot him while he stood begging for his life, his revolver in his holster.

Mimms Conn was quoted at the hospital at Martin that when the shooting began, he crouched behind a door and took no part in the fight, but that Ike Conn after shooting several others, turned and saw him and fired upon him.

It is said that Millard and Ike Conn did most of the shooting.

Three teachers are necessary for the school at which the shooting took place. Sol Sammons was a candidate with an announced intention of recommending Woodrow Conn, Richard Hall, and Green Conn Jr., as teachers. Jerry Howell was named as one of the teachers to be appointed by Arnold Robinette, the other candidate.

Other disturbances were reported from other sections of the state in the school trustee elections held last Saturday. One is reported killed in Breathitt County and two were wounded in Lawrence County. The election passed off quietly in Johnson County.

Finis told me that when some of Lawrence Conn’s family visited him at the Martin hospital that the Doctor said "you may as well dig a grave for him too because he is dying." So they dug Lawrence’s grave, but he survived his wounds after all. Guess they were all pleased about that, including Lawrence!

Finis said that on the evening prior to the election, Green Conn came to visit his daddy Keene and do some campaigning for his side. He was said to have offered Keene a milk cow that would be delivered to his home the evening after the election, "if you vote the right way." But on election day when Keene voted on the way out of the room Green Conn said to him "big boy you have done the wrong thing and I’ll see you tonight." They were counting the votes as they were cast and he knew that Keene had voted for the other side. Green was killed there at the schoolhouse or else he may have killed Keene that evening, if Keene had not killed him first.

Finis went on to say that there were no more trustee elections held in the state of Kentucky after that. From then on the trustees were appointed by the teachers and school board.

Finis has passed on now. He died September 24th 1997 at the age of 84, I am so glad that I was able to meet him and spend several days talking with him. He still lived on the head of Prater Creek and is buried there.