(Transcribed below for easier reading.)

Thanks to Kim Fuller Baxley for sending me these articles.

The New York Times
January 18, 1889
contributed by Kim Baxley
A Bitter Family Feud In Which Shotguns and Fire Play a Leading Part

Charleston, S.C., Jan. 17 - Smoky Town, a neighborhood of Newberry County, is greatly excited voer the bloody feud between the Banks families.  About two months ago Butler Banks was ambushed and shot down in the road while on his way to town.  He made a narrow escape, a leather bag hanging at his side receiving most of the load.  Recently he received an anonymous letter warning him to leave the country on pain of death.  He charged his troubles to James C. Banks, a book agent, and loaded his gun with buckshot.  Last Saturday he "got the drop" on James and brought him down, putting eight bullet holes in his body and head, and then took to his heels.  James will probably die.
On Saturday night a gang of masked men went to Butler Bank's house and burned it down, his wife and six children barely escaping with their lives.  The family were asleep when the house was first fired, and succeeded in extinguishing the flames, but the marauders drove them back into the house, and saturing rags with kerosene, applied the torch a second time, and would not allow the family to escape until the fire was under full headway.  Not only was the Banks residence burned, but also the crib and feedhouse, with all the year's crop of corn and provender, the woman and children being left destitute.
Mrs. Banks and her children recognized several of the marauders, and the machinery of the law is in motion.  A warrant has been issued for Butler Banks, and strong efforts will be made to punish the would-be murderers and incendiaries.  It is expected that there will be more bloodshed.

The New York Times
January 24, 1889
contributed by Kim Baxley
FIVE   INCENDIARIES ARRESTED

Charleston, S. C, Jan. 23.—Five persons accused of setting fire to the house of Mrs. Butler Banks over the heads of herself and little children,  in Newberry County, have been arrested.  Butler Banks, who shot James Banks, has not been caught yet, but his wife has been arrested as an accomplice after the fact.  The people in the Smoky Town neighborhood are determined on the punishment of both Butler& Banks and the incendiaries.