A shoot out took place at the Empire Mill, about twenty-five miles north of Kingman, Arizona, (near Chloride) on a June morning—Friday the 13th, 1890. Edward H Jones and Presley Brown were the victims that fateful day.
Jones had been shot in the neck, and died almost instantly. Brown was shot in the stomach, and met the grim reaper the following morning. Jones used a 38 caliber pistol, and Brown fired an old fashioned shotgun. Each fired only one shot.
The confrontation arose over a dispute on the dump of the mine, in which Ed Jones accused Presley Brown of meddling with his affairs. He drove Brown away from the dump and back down the hill at the point of his pistol. Brown was unarmed.
Jones returned to work at the dump and worked a few minutes. He then took his pistol in hand and walked to the house—just a few yards away where Brown had gone. Jones thought that he had the only gun on the place and had the upper hand over his victim.
A few minutes before the dispute up on the dump mound, another man had left a double-barreled shot-gun near the kitchen door, but this was not known to either party. When Brown saw Jones approaching the house he ran to the back of the kitchen and noticed the gun propped near the door. He quickly grabbed the weapon.
They met in the dining room doorway and the shooting took place, both firing at the same time, and mortally wounding both men. Jones was foreman of the mine, and lived in the county for about four years. He had a quarrelsome disposition and was frequently in trouble. He was a single man, about 36 years old, and a native of Maryland.
Brown worked at the mine and also ran the boarding house. He had been in a number of shooting scrapes. He left behind a wife. The coroner at the inquest declared that the deed was done in self- defense, and exonerated Brown. But, unfortunately that Friday the 13th was not a luck day for either one of the hot-headed men that warm June morning.
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