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Jan. 25, 1880, the citizens of Herald's Prairie were startled by learning that David Buchanan had been killed by Robert Buttery. The difficulty occurred on the road, about seven miles southwest of Carmi. The parties were brothers-in-law; there had long been a grudge between them, and their friends had all along looked for trouble when they should meet. Buchanan was the larger party of the two, and had been very free with his threats about how he would kill Buttery on first sight, and that Buttery was rather afraid of him. There were two eye-witnesses to the affair, but only one, a young boy, gave in his testimony, the other being a brother of Buttery's. The boy's testimony, was to the effect that the parties were riding along the road at the time of the meeting, and that Buchanan undertook to override Buttery, while the latter had continually kept backing to keep out of trouble; that Buchanan was very abusive, and made several threats, at the same time frequently reaching into his pockets, as though to draw a weapon of some kind; that Buttery had only fired the first time to scare Buchanan and keep him from following him, and had only fired the fatal shot after Buchanan was closing in on him, and threatening his life. On the other hand, it was shown that Buchanan could not have been advancing on Buttery at the time the fatal shot was fired, as the shot took effect in the side toward the back, and came out the other side. The Squire held that the evidence was not sufficient to hold for murder, nor of allowing him to go scot free.
He was tried, convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to threeyears' hard labor in the penitentiary.
History of White Co IL Pg 376
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