My father used to tell us about a fight between the Everetts and Tutts in Yellville, Arkansas. Was there a feud?

My father used to tell us about a fight between the Everetts and Tutts in Yellville, Arkansas. Was there a feud?

D.W. Everett
Freeland, Wyoming

Yes, there was a feud between the Everetts and Tutts in Marion County, Arkansas, during the years proceeding the Civil War. One of those who experienced its violence was young Dave Tutt.

He joined the Confederate Army in 1862. Two years later he was living in Springfield, Missouri, where he became friends with Wild Bill Hickok. Both men went around town with a pair of pistols strapped to their belts and were referred to as “noted scouts, desperadoes and gamblers.”

One night they quarreled over a card game (and maybe a woman). The next day, July 21, 1865, in a Springfield public square, they strolled toward each other and established the “walk and draw gunfight.” From a distance of about 100 paces, each fired his pistol. Hickok’s round hit Tutt in the heart and he “bit the dust.”