Halloween in Forestville

told by Lavon Speer Covington

I'm going to tell this story as it was told to me by my grandmother, Maude
Speer, when I was a small girl, and later, by my father, James Speer Jr.
I'm backing it up with the original newspaper clipping. Unfortunately the
year isn't printed on it, but it was in the early 1920's.
It was Halloween night, and my uncles, Howard and Paul Speer, were down at
Forestville Grammar school, with a group of local boys, wondering what
Halloween pranks they could pull. Uncle Paul was always instigating
something, even when it wasn't Halloween!
The Kimes lived across from the school, and had several girls, and Mr.
Kimes just happened to be a Deputy Sheriff. The boys decided it would be
fun to take a pair of the girls underwear off their clothesline and hoist
them up the school flagpole! This is exactly what they did. At some
point, Mr. Kimes realized what was going on, and fired a few rounds from
his shotgun into the croud of boys! Uncle Howard got pelted in the back
and uncle Paul got some in his hand and leg.
Someone ran uptown to the card room where my father, James, was playing
cards, and told him that Mr. Kimes had shot his brothers! My father ran
down to Mr. Kimes house and knocked on his door. Mr. Kimes came to the
door with gun in hand. My Dad asked why he shot his brothers and Mr. Kimes
aimed the gun at Dad and fired!
Fortunately the gun was unloaded, but he then turned the gun around, and
hit my father over the head with the butt of the gun! This put a big gash
in my father's head, above his eye.
At this point the boys went home, and Grandpa loaded them up and went into
Santa Rosa to the Sheriff's Department and filed a complaint against Mr.
Kimes. See newsclipping.
The Sheriff took pictures of my father and uncle Howard. Gramma Speer
gave me my father's picture, and I have no idea where the picture of uncle
Howard's back is, last time I saw it , it was in a drawer of a desk that
Gramma kept in the parlor.
I have my father's picture hanging on my wall, it makes a great
conversation piece!