Shocking Affray

The Home News, May 26, 1860

On last Sunday evening between sundown and dark, an altercation arose between David Quimby and S. L. Brabham, relative to some business matters between them, their relations being that of landlord and tenant. Quimby wished to ride over a farm of his, occupied by Brabham, which the latter refused to permit. The dispute was carried on until both parties became enraged, whereupon Brabham struck Quimby on the forehead with an old fashioned hoe, breaking the skull, making a triangular aperture of one and a half to two inches. Dr. Wm. F. Clarke, of Lowell, was immediately called to the spot, and extracted eleven pieces of the skull, varying in size from a ten cent piece to ¼ inch in diameter. After the wound was dressed, Quimby got up and walked across the house, and it is supposed by his physician that if he can be kept quiet, he will recover. Brabham is acting as his nurse, and had he been half as kind before as since, the difficulty would not have occurred.