On June 1, 1792, Kentucky was granted statehood, becoming the first U.S. State west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Ever since that time, the state has had many many feuds between it's citizens. Some of those feuds have become well known parts of history - The Hatfields & McCoys, The Martin-Tolliver-Logan Feud, The Underwood-Holbrook Feud to just name a few.
However most of them were lesser known, and over time , faded from history. And unless you read about them in newspaper archives, or some of the descendants tell you about them, you will never hear of them. It is almost as if they had never happened.
Such is the case with the feud that I'm about to mention. It happened in 1937 in Greenup County, Kentucky, a county along the Ohio river in Northeastern Kentucky. The distance from my house to the community of the feud is just over 30 miles, but surprisingly I had never heard of the feud. But that changed on the evening of August 31, 2022. At 6:41 P.M. that evening, I received a private message on social media from David Kiser. I didn't know Mr. Kiser and still don't. The only interaction I've had with him was a very brief conversation that went like this:
David: "You should check out the Wolfe, Bear, murder trial in Greenup in 1937."
Me: "Thanks, I'll try to do that. I've not heard anything about it."
David: "Sidney Wolfe was my Grandfather. He was murdered in 1937."
Being the history buff that I am, especially interested in historic crimes, I almost immediately began researching the murder. Within minutes, I had over a dozen newspaper clippings about it.
From what research I've done, it appears that the feud began on April 19, 1937 when Sidney Wolfe, postmaster of the Three Prong Post Office, confronted Orville Bear over his conduct on his mail route.
Because of the isolated section of the community, Sheriff Jake Fisher didn't learn of the shooting until 36 hours later, according to the April 21, 1937 edition of the Portsmouth Times.
Then in an act of retaliation, on May 10, 1937, Orville's brother Oscar shot Sidney Wolfe as he was working in the field. According to the May 11, 1937 edition of the Portsmouth Times, Oscar went to the Wolfe store and sat on a porch watching Wolfe in the field. Bear suddenly left the porch and approached Wolfe, pulled out a revolver and shot Wolfe five times - four times in the back on once in the shoulder. Sidney's son, Larue Wolfe, received powder burns on his face when his father was shot.
Greenup County officials immediately left for the remote community of Three Prong to take Oscar Bear into custody. According to the May 10, 1937 edition of the Portsmouth Times, relatives informed Sheriff Fisher that Bear was held prisoner in his own home until the authorities could arrive.
Immediately after slaying Wolfe, Bear had returned to his home and fired shots at several members of his own family. He was overpowered, disarmed, restrained until the authorities arrived.
Shortly before noon that same day, the grand jury indicted Bear on a charge of murder. He was held without bail. The trial date was scheduled for May 20, 1937.
The Portsmouth Times (May 20, 1937 and May 21, 1937) reported that Bear would / did plead insanity. His attorneys stated that on October 19, 1936, Oscar had suffered a blow to the head with a club at the hands of his brother Orville, fracturing his skull. And as a result of that blow, Oscar had been having violent nervous attacks. And that the defendant went "suddenly insane" when he shot Wolfe.
Due to flooding, the courthouse had been condemned, and the Christian Church was being used as the circuit courtroom.
Fearing more bloodshed, the Portsmouth Times reported on May 21, 1937 that Judge Harvey Parker issued an order that all persons be searched before entering the church. Parker felt that since there had been two shootings in the feud and that since ill feelings still continued, the precautionary measures were necessary. Mrs. Bessie Smith was appointed to search all the women entering the courtroom. Policemen Harvey Stewart of Russell, Robert Bradford of Greenup, and Bill Adkins of Fullerton searched the men entering the courtroom.
A jury of four women and eight men was selected, as well as an extra juror. Mrs. H.B. Smith was in charge of the women jurors Deputies Green Howard and Joe Fisher were in charge of the men jurors.
Witnesses were not permitted in the church. As they were needed to testify, they were escorted into the courtroom and out again under armed guards.
Commonwealth attorney L.H. Liles sought to show that Bear shot Wolfe while under the influence of alcohol, and the motive was revenge for the wounding of his brother Orville.
At 11:30 P.M. on May 21, 1937, after deliberating only 45 minutes, the jury returned a verdict of "guilty" and fixed Bear's sentence to life in prison. (Source: Portsmouth Times, May 22, 1937)
As for Sidney Wolfe, he was laid to rest the Boone Furnace Cemetery in Carter County, Kentucky.
One would think that with one man dead and the perpetrator sentenced to life in prison that this would be the end of the violence, right? Well it wasn't.
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| Ernest Bear, courtesy of Find-A-Grave |
August 8, 1937, Ernest Bear was taken into custody after going to the home of Roy Horsley , calling Horsley to the door, and then firing six shots at him from a revolver. None of the shots h it Horsley however. Horsley had been a eyewitness in the shooting of Sidney Wolfe and was the state's key witness against Oscar Bear at his murder trial.
On August 21, 1937, according to the Portsmouth Times, Ernest Bear was fined $50 and costs when arraigned on a charge of discharging firearms on a public highway. On a second charge of carrying a concealed deadly weapon, Bear was held to the September term of the Greenup County Grand Jury on a bond of $500.00. He paid the fine on the first charge, gave bond for the second, and was released from custody.
As for Oscar Bear, little is known about it, but his life sentence was paroled sometime around 1945. But on November 1, 1945, according to the January 26, 1946 edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer he was arrested on charges of cutting and wounding with intent to kill Russell Firth of Greenup. On January 25, 1946, after deliberating only 15 minutes, found Bear guilty and sentenced him to eight years in prison. However he would serve no time on that sentence.
According to the January 30, 1946 edition of the Owensboro Messenger- Enquirer, Just two days later, Oscar escaped from the Greenup jail along with another inmate. He fled to the home of his father Robert Bear. And when the house was surrounded by law enforcement, Oscar sent word out of the house by his father that he would die before surrendering. He then shot his young wife and then killed himself. When deputies entered the home, they found that Oscar's wife Delcie had left a note to her mother profession her love for her husband and expressing a wish to die and be buried with him. The two were buried in the Bear Cemetery in a specially constructed double coffin.
Orville Bear, who was shot by Sidney Wolfe , the incident that started the feud. would die by gunfire in in 1979. According to the March 20, 1979 edition of the Chillicothe Gazette, he was found in his Piketon, Ohio home with a gunshot wound to the neck.
As for the Wolfe family, Sidney's wife Daisy passed away in 1976. Their son Langley was killed in World War II. Both are buried in the Boone Furnace Cemetery. Not much else is known, thus ending another bloody chapter of Eastern Kentucky history.
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