New Hampshire Statesman

A REMARKABLE CHARACTER.

The Greenville (Tenn.) Economist gives an account of the trial of an extraordinary man of the name of David Greer, for the murder of one Higgins. The trial lasted two days, during which a great number of witnesses were examined. It appeared from the testimony, that Greer had for about 30 years past lived a secluded life on and near the top of the Bald Mountain. There seemed to have been a vein of singularity running through all his notions, his manner of living, &c. He was very hospitable to strangers when they came to see him, and he was frequently visited by the curious, who were attracted by the desire to see the strange man of the mountain, whose fame was spread through all the surrounding country. In his dealings he was uncommonly exact, and an undevating adherence to truth and honesty, was a marked trait in his character. He had many years ago gone to the top of Bald Mountain, where there are several hundred acres of land entirely destitute of a tree or shrub, yet the soil is good and covered with grass, where he planted a corn and potato patch which he surrounded with a ditch, to secure them from intrusion, but finding on the experience of one season, that his crops could not come to maturity, in consequence of the area in which they were located, he abandoned the top of the mountain, and came some distance down its side, where he took up his residence, built a mill and made many domestic regulations for his convenience and comfort, some of which showed the work of an ingenious hand. His mill was made on a small construction, was kept in motion by the water of a small mountain stream, & would grind from half a bushel to a bushel of grain per day. He once erected an iron manufactory on the mountain. He was a man of uncommon physical strength, and had performed feats entirely within himself, in the erection of his building and machinery, which it was judged would have acquired the strength of four or five common men to perform. Greer on his father's side, was of Turkish descent. He has a good education, and was esteemed, when in his youth, a young man of fine talents. But the unfaithfulness of the object of his affection, and the thus unhappy termination of a love affair, gave him an aversion for society, and settling alone on the Bald Mountain, he took up the idea that he was the monarch and sole proprietor of it established lines, marking the extent of his dominions, and declared himself independent of any other human government. A tax was once levied on him by direction of the court of Buncombe county, within the bounds of which was some of his property. He refused to pay the tax, waged war against the court by whose order it was levied, went to the court house while the court was in session, stoned the magistrate off the bench and then returned unmolested to his kingdom, crowned with the laurels of victory, where he was ever afterwards permitted to remain free from the visitation of tax gatherers. He established an entry taker's office, exacting a certain sum of money from every man who brought his cattle into his dominions for the benefit of the range, and assigned to each a certain portion of land, which he designated by some particular name, as Hazle Patch, Thicket, &c. This regulation was generally acceded to without dispute, by those who took their stock thither. He sometime ago drafted a constitution for a government on his own plan, which was exhibited in court as evidence to establish his lunacy.

The origin of his antipathy against Higgins was a disagreement in their trading, Greer conceived that Higgins had told him a falsehood, and he had treasured in his mind a powerful aversion for lying. The quarrel between them became so high that they proceeded to blows, after which Greer applied to a magistrate and had his antagonist arrested, as he had himself since avowed, for the sole purpose of having a good chance to shoot him, while he was under arrest. He professes to believe that it is not wrong to kill a bad man, and upon this ground justifies his conduct. His first shot proved unsuccessful, when he unperceived got ahead of the party and from a waste house near the road where they were to pass along on their way to the magistrate's, shot Higgins dead on the spot. He was arrested by the constable, Mr. Erwin assisted by Mr. Cooper, who had been aiding the constable to apprehend and convey Higgins to trial after a violent resistance, in which it became necessary to maim him by shooting him through the hand, and committed to prison in Jonesborough for trial. The case was ably argued by the counsel on both sides. The ground of defence assumed by the council for the prisoner was insanity. The jury retired about an hour and returned with a verdict of acquitted in consequence of insanity. A bond was given to the court for the prisoner's keeping peace one year, and he was set at liberty. As soon as he was discharged from custody, he took up the line of march for his mountain kingdom.

Bos. Gaz.