CHAPTER IV.

PASTIMES OF THE FOREPARENTS.

We should not think of the past in terms of the present, but remember that social advantages of a century ago were far inferior to those of 1914. The society of the grandparents, then, as in all primitive communities, was somewhat rude. The crudeness varied, being less apparent in the villages than farther in the backwoods. While there was some degree of refinement among those who could buy books and visit the outside world occasionally, the majority were plain citizens. Amusements were few. There were parties, sometimes called frolics. Candy-pulling and frumenty boilings were often the outcome of a quilting, log-rolling, or corn-shucking. Such plays as "thimble," "snap," "slapout," and "Jake's a-grinning" would be engaged in. Others would be accompanied by songs on this order:

The higher up the cherry tree,
The riper grows the cherry;
The sooner you court a pretty girl, The sooner you will marry.

The dances were usually rough in outlying communities. The more cultured, especially near the middle of the nineteenth century, enjoyed the Virginia reel and other less boisterous dances; their plays, too, were more refined.

With people of Anglo-Saxon stock the favorite musical instrument in the first stages of society is the

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violin. General Stokes and Hon. Horace Overall performed on this instrument. In the mercantile account book of Dr. Wright General Stokes, Richard Arnold, and Green B. Adams are charged with "piano songs" in the first third of the nineteenth century. Does this mean that there were pianos in the county as early as that? Possibly the music was bought to be sung without piano accompaniment. The fiddlers in the county from 1800 to 1875, including black and white, would have no doubt numbered several hundred, and some were so popular that they were in demand on all nearby social and public occasions where music was a feature.

The race course was encouraged and well patronized. There were quite a number of locally famous horses, and some had prestige beyond the borders of the State. Dr. Foster writes:

The stallions Old Pete, George Boyd, and Steamboat were as well known in the western part of the county about 1845 or 1850 as the most prominent citizens. William Gothard, of Liberty, was a great lover of horses. Lemuel Moore, the tailor, once sold a small "scrub" for thirty-five dollars. The animal turned out to be a racer and soon afterwards sold for eighteen hundred dollars.

Tan Fitts, of near Temperance Hall, owned Dock Alvin, Elizabeth Johnson, and Tom Hal, noted racers.

The most noted animal in the county was Ariel, a quarter horse. The owner was William B. Stokes. It was told that he won so many stakes that few would bet against him, and through a prejudiced cabal, he was ruled off the tracks. Whereupon his owner

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painted him a different color and won other races, but the paint eventually took off the hair. Of course this was apocryphal. Stokes's daughter, Mrs. Leath Calhoun, told the writer that Ariel's leg was broken and that her father gave him to his brother-in-law, Horace Overall, then a lad. Horace and the little slaves put some sort of juice or homemade liniment on the afflicted limb. As it did some good, boylike, they decided to anoint him all over, thinking a greater improvement would result. This denuded him of his once glossy coat. In a conversation with the writer in 1899 Mr. Leander Hayes said: "I recall having passed Colonel Overall's one day and saw the animal standing in the lot by the road. All the hair had slipped from him except that on his belly and the ends of his ears. He was a woeful sight."

What became of Ariel? The next heard of him is through Oliver Taylor's history of Sullivan County, East Tennessee. Taylor says in one place:

Sullivan County wheat took first prize over the world at the Vienna Exposition in 1872, and the bones of the swiftest horse of the racing days between 1845 and 1860 moldered on a field on the old Fain farm east of Blountville.

Farther along in his chapter devoted to politics are these notes:

When General Stokes and De Witt Senter were opposing each other for Governor [in 1869] they engaged in a discussion at Blountville. Stokes was the owner of Ariel, the famous race horse. He appealed to the horse-breeding and agricultural spirit of his countrymen. "The bones of Ariel," said he, "are moldering in Sullivan County soil." Replaying to this, Senter said: "I grant you it is a great honor to have

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the resting place of the fastest horse of the times; but, gentlemen, the bones of an ancestor of mine, who fought in the battle of King's Mountain, are sleeping in Sullivan; and what are the bones of the fastest horse in the world compared with the sacred dust of a man who fought for your liberties?"

It is possible that Ariel, after recovering from the broken leg, was bought and carried to East Tennessee for breeding purposes. Dr. T. J. Jackson, of Liberty, says that he once read a description of Ariel in pamphlet form, and his natural color was described as "snow white."

There were company, regimental, and brigade musters in the first half of the nineteenth century. They became less frequent about 1855.

Solomon in his glory was not much more resplendent than the superior officers at these gatherings. Especially noticeable were their long black or red plumes. When the time came to muster, some one would take a position at some point on the street and cry out: "Oyez, Oyez! All who belong to Captain ----'s company form in a parade here." Another would call the same to a different company a hundred or two yards distant, and so on until all the militia was in action. After forming they, with drum and fife (field officers on prancing horses), would march to a commodious field and evolute and march to the admiration of the surging crowds. Dr. Foster writes:

As the muster at Smithville was a bigger affair than that at Liberty, it must have been a brigade muster. Colonel Cotton, Major Atnip, and Captain Perkins took great interest in these affairs. The officers' hats, as I remember, were of the stovepipe pattern. Horses not used to the noise and

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crowds reared and pranced, but Captain Perkins seemed to enjoy the prancing of his roan steed. In the language of old Tom Askew, all the officers "felt the weight of the argument."

Mr. H. L. Hale, who was almost six years of age when the war began, recalls a muster he witnessed at Liberty and writes:

I think Peter Adams was then colonel of a DeKalb regiment. I can see Colonel Peter sitting his gray charger in a deep Spanish saddle, with high boots and spurs and three-cornered or crescent-shaped hat and large feather or tassel. He was, I thought, the finest and greatest man I ever saw or could expect to see. Tall and straight, he had a military bearing as long as he lived; and, small as I was when I saw him on this occasion, I thought he took special pains to "daddle" that plume by some movement of the head.

He says further: "These companies always marched to the stirring music of fife and drum. There was a Liberty company called the Blues and another the Greens. Ike Lamberson and Jim Bethel, negroes, were noted fifers and drummers."*

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*Among the State archives are many commissions of muster days. Thus, Thomas Patterson was made captain of the Forty-First Regiment September 18, 1812, George Turney lieutenant, and Josiah Spurlock ensign. Joseph Fite became a captain in the regiment January 28, 1813. Lemuel Moore was commissioned lieutenant of the same regiment June 14, 1813, and Moses Garrison September 14, 1814. In the last-named year Shadrack Moore was made a second major of the Sixteenth Regiment March 21, while Beverly Strange (or Strong) became captain April 13. James Malone figures as early as August 31, 1813, as lieutenant.

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Shooting matches were greatly appreciated, and there were crack shots celebrated throughout the county, W. G. Evans and John McDowell among others.

The chase is appreciated in all new countries, and it was so in this county. Until long after the War between the States some farmers kept packs of fox hounds. It would be interesting to know their breed. But they were black and tan, with an occasional grayish or pied animal, lank, with long pendulous ears, calling to mind Shakespeare's description: "Ears that swept away the morning dew, . . . matched in mouth like bells." Farm neighbors would meet each other with their packs on some high point in the hills and spend the hours from dark to dawn's approach and listen and listen and listen. The charm born of night in the woods around the fire waiting for the hounds to open up! The music of the railing pack wafted over hill and hollow! The man who takes part in all this once soon finds the lure irresistible, and the chase becomes a habit.

The writer has heard his mother describe the corn-shuckings and the shanty songs sung while the men were at work. A banquet would follow the husking of the big piles of maize about midnight. Though the corn-shucking meant work for the negroes, they enjoyed any occasion where they were free to indulge in antics and humor. Whisky and brandy were plentiful on these occasions. The report of a "husking bee" held in the northern corn belt some years ago showed that a champion shucked ten and a half bushels in an

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hour. Something like that was probably turned out at the corn-shuckings mentioned.

Superstition prevailed, and, indeed, it still prevails to some extent. The writer does not claim freedom from it and admits that he will not willingly pass under a ladder, pare his nails on Sunday, tell a dream on Friday morning before breakfast, nor step over another's feet! The inculcation of superstitious notions has been laid to the slaves; but our ancestors were as much to blame, if any blame can be said to attach, since the wisest minds now give credence to the occult.

The social visit, as it was of old, might well be classed with amusements.

There was still a genuine hospitality existing, and for neighbors, though not related, to pay each other a visit Saturday afternoon and remain until Sunday afternoon was no uncommon thing. This was called "going abroad"; by the children, "goin' on a broad." Perhaps Saturday night was the most interesting part of the visit. Around the great wood fire in winter or upon the porch in summer the gossip of the neighborhood would be discussed, then would follow stories of adventure and the supernatural, relieved with humorous anecdotes. Greatly enjoyed, too, was the evening call, when neighbors would merely "drop in" and sit till bed time.

Reverting to the society of the foreparents, it should be stated that looking on wine when it was red and corn whisky when it was white was almost universal. In 1840 there were 1,274 distilleries in the State. The best citizens made, sold, and drank intoxicants. There was scarcely a gathering where men did not

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drink - musters, races, elections, and weddings. The bibulous frequently disturbed camp meetings. Children were "treated" on Christmas morning. Of course there were temperance advocates. When Bird S. Rhea and H. A. Overall were candidates to represent the county in 1853, the former was defeated, it is thought, because of his temperance principles.

DeKalb County had its share of the 1,274 "stills." Perhaps the first was put up about 1801 by Jesse Allen on Eagle Creek. The writer's maternal grandfather, Abraham Overall, was a distiller, and from his old account book we get an idea of the cheapness of ardent spirits and realize how the best people kept a supply. Among his customers were Thomas Richardson, Moses Allen, Dr. Flowers, Dr. Jefferson Sneed, William Goggin, Josiah Fuson, Samson Braswell, John Allen, Josiah Hale, Matthew Sellars, Samuel Barger, William Pistole, Joseph Hays, James Stark, Hiram Morris, Joseph Turney, Daniel Ford, Francis Turner, Isaac Turney, Jacob Adams, Henry Powell, Goolsberry Blades, 'Bias Wilson, and Peter Clark. Polly Stanly and Polly Huchens purchased largely, perhaps to sell. The latter on July 17, 1841, was charged $3 for six gallons. Under the same date is this entry: "Three gallons whisky in evening of the election, $1.50." Here are the purchases of one farmer for about seven months of 1844. The buyer's name is withheld, although on the book: April 12, one gallon of brandy, .62½ ; April 17, one gallon of whisky (order), .37½; April 27, one gallon of whisky, .37½ ; May 1, one gallon of whisky, .37½ ; May 9, one gal-

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lon of whisky, .37½ ; May 23, one gallon of whisky, .37½ ; May 29, one gallon of whisky, .37½ ; June 18, one gallon of whisky, .37½ ; June 27, one gallon of whisky, .37½ ; July 12, one gallon of whisky, .37½ ; July 17, one gallon of whisky, .37½ ; August 24, one gallon of whisky, .37½ ; November 6, one gallon of brandy, .40.

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