CHAPTER XII.

HISTORICAL JETSAM.

IN a history of Kentucky by Prof. N. S. Shaler, who for more than a quarter of a century filled the chair of Agassiz at Harvard University, it is shown that by actual measurement the Tennessee and Kentucky soldiers in the War between the States were the largest in the army and in the world.

DeKalb County has been noted for its large and strong men. Commercial travelers and others have remarked upon the fact. It is safe to say that no countyof the same population can show a larger number.

"Big" Bill Evans, once county trustee, weighed in his prime about two hundred and seventy-five pounds. Mrs. Matilda Huggins, his sister, weighed probably more. William B. Preston was about the size of Evans, and his mother weighed about three hundred pounds. Fox Frazier (hog trader), his brother Henry, John Parker (of Dismal Creek), Col. James Tubb, James Fuston (tavern keeper), Presley Adamson, Henry L. Turner, Francis Turner, James Stark, Landon Richardson, Bill Garrison, Aaron Frazier, Sr., William Estes, Moses and John Spencer, Jim Willis, Thomas Roe, George and Thomas E. Bratten, Bart Pack, George Givan, Sr., William G. Bratten, Jack Tubb, Rev. Natty Hayes, Gips West-such men, weighing from two hundred and twenty-five pounds up, could be named in scores.

There were other men noted more for their strength

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than for their size, though all were probably above the average in weight. Ben Cantrell, of the Smithville neighborhood, once lifted with apparent ease twelve hundred pounds of brass while in Nashville. Ben Denny was another noted strong man of Smithville. A pioneer shoemaker of Liberty, John Woodside, placed his shoulders under an average-sized horse and lifted him clear of the ground. John Spencer, also of Liberty, carried a bag containing five bushels of wheat (300 pounds) five miles to mill. There were three or four of these Spencers, all large and powerful. It is possible, even probable, that they were related to John Sharpe Spencer, the giant who lived in Sumner County in a hollow tree before James Robertson made his settlement at Nashville. A number of the pioneers went farther into the wilderness as the Cumberland country was settled.

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As to men of great height, Dr. J. G. Squires was probably the tallest. He stood six feet seven and a half inches in his stockings, but would not weigh more than one hundred and forty pounds. "Curl" Jennings, who resided for some years at Dowelltown, was not less than six feet six inches and weighed close to three hundred pounds. A Mr. Brashear, over the average in size, had an attack of typhoid while boarding with Jennings. Each had a pair of trousers made from the same bolt. When recovering, Brashear decided to sit up a few moments. As it happened, Jennings's trousers were hanging on a near-by chair. Believing them his, he slipped them on. When he saw

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how they hung in great folds and bags on him, he fell back weakly on the bed, exclaiming: "Great heavens! If I've fallen off so much, there's no use trying to go about!" John Gann, of Liberty, was about as tall as Jennings and rather thin. One day in front of a saloon John Vandigriff, short and stocky, sidled up to him and said: "Mr. Gann, please hand me down one o' them buzzards flyin' over." Milton Ward, a well-known old field teacher, was about six feet six inches tall and required a special bedstead made for his use. Jim Willis, fist fighter, of Smithville, was six feet four inches tall, weighing about two hundred and twenty-five pounds. He was somewhat stooped, his arms were extremely long, while his eyes were deep-blue and deep-set. While he did not appear to delight in bloodshed, it is believed that he had a natural inclination to fight. During the war he lived in Missouri and belonged to Quantrell's guerrillas. One who knew him says that his scalp was as rough as a turtle's back, due to scars made by rocks, knife thrusts, and club blows. Landon Richardson, of Liberty, weighing two hundred and twenty-five pounds, was usually deputized in ante-bellum times to arrest dangerous characters who came to the village. He was not a "bully," but powerful and fearless. It is tradition that on one occasion he put to flight seven "bad men" from Helton Creek who had attacked him. Firearms were not used in brawls then.

The two men who had the distinction of being the smallest in the county were Frank Foster, of Liberty, and Thornton Christy, of Alexandria.

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Mention has been made in the sketch of Temperance Hall of the disappearance of William G. Stokes. Other mysteries have puzzled the people and tried the souls of the parents of the missing men. Dr. Foster, who was given the story by an aged relative, says that Frank Givan, son of the second Circuit Court Clerk, started horseback to visit relatives in Maryland early in the nineteenth century. He was never heard from again, and he nor his horse could be traced out of the Liberty community. Was he murdered for his money? Did he sink in quicksand, then supposed to exist in the county? The wildest rumors were afloat. Years afterwards a skeleton was found in a hollow tree on Dry Creek, and some thought this the solution of the problem. Isaac Evans, son of Reuben Evans, went with W. B. Preston and others to California during the excitement over the finding of gold. He was heard from once, his letter stating that he had joined William Walker's filibusters. No other tidings have ever reached his friends or relatives, though sixty-five years have gone by.

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Clay lamps, burning grease, were used in kitchens some years after the war. Candles, often made of tallow, were used by the grandfathers for illumination. As there were no matches in general use until about 1830, we know that the tinder box, flint, and steel were kept for starting fires by the early DeKalb Countians.

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Dr. G. C. Flowers, an ante-bellum resident of Liberty, was regarded as the most extensively read

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man in the county in his day, as far as general literature is concerned. Dr. John S. Fletcher, who died in Smithville in 1877 (graduated from three universities, among them the University of Pennsylvania) and was surgeon in Gen. John C. Brown's brigade at the close of the war of 1861-65, had a distinction in after years similar to that of Dr. Flowers.

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The county has produced some men of more than local reputation, but the writer recalls but one instance in which the people contributed of their means to erect a memorial to any DeKalb Countian. It is worth thinking about. The one thus honored was neither jurist, minister, statesman, editor, captain of industry, author, scholar, nor military chieftain. He was a very plain, unassuming man, who out of sympathy for the bereaved and their dead made it convenient to help dig the graves of his neighbors for nearly or quite threescore years. The marble shaft over W. H. (Hamp) Woodside's grave at Liberty is proof that a noble heart is still regarded as more than mere worldly success.

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Mention might be made of many DeKalb Countians with rare or bizarre qualities, such as the one who could never be made to answer yes or no directly and another who spoke as if always quoting, as, "I'm not feeling well to-day, as the old saying is"; but to give the story complete much more space would be required than can be offered in this history.

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Hundreds of names of citizens once familiar in the county are recorded in these pages, it will be noticed. Of their owners little more can be said now than that their graves are green. It is pathetic. But, to paraphrase Burns,

Should auld cognomens be forgot,
And never brought to min'?

A striking thing about the names is the absence of foreign ones. The foreparents were of Anglo-Saxon stock. Some names were queer: Esau Pack, Giles Driver, Sim Hathaway, Bob Prydy, Pack Florida, Enoch George, Gil Etheridge, Cantrell Bethel, Cicero Duncan, Caleb Davis, Seaborn Harts, Brown Harriman, Crofford Rankhorn, John Shehane, Daniel Ratlige, Poindexter Joins, Nehemiah Garrison, Congelius Burrip, Jonas Nokes, Iradel March, Conrad Lamberson, James R. Gapway, Brice Parsley, Zene Crips, John Canler, Seth Whaley, Archamac Bass, Crag Parsons, Acenith Fite, Brackett Estes, Thomas Durham, Edwin Shumway, Randall Pafford, King Herod, William Mooneyham, Cain Adams, Lito Hullett, June Driver, Leven Gray, Friday Martin, Samuel Casey, Tucker Woodson, Festus Moses (the great walnut buyer), Goodman Mallon, Telford Steele, Park Amonett, Vincent Manor, Bart Nonnelly, Emory Cubbins, Mikel Etheridge, Irwin Page, Fuller Sanlin, and North Reynolds. Others were musically alliterative: Edmondson Elkins, Nelson New, Mat Marntin, Lee Lafever, Leonard Lamberson, Benjamin Blades, Sylvanus Stokes, Kern Clark, Rich Richardson, Elam Edge, Pleasant Pistole, Dempsey Driver, Fox Frazier,

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Hardin Hardcastle, Henry Helmantaller, Hawkins Heflin, Rison Roland, Tolliver Turner, William Wellaby, Wylie Wilder, George Givan, Moses Mathews, Henry Horn, Alex Armstrong, Henry Hart, German Gossett, Philip Palmer, Henry Hass, Martin Murphy, Ben Brownin, Thomas Terry, James Jones, Thomas Tyree, Willis Wade, William Wright, Archibald Allen, Elial Elston, William Wilson, Shines Scribner, Abe Adams, Frank Foster, Hiram Hildreth, Travers Tarpley, David Dirting, Mickeral Manning, Morris Marcum, Hart Hinesly, Ephraim Evans, Arch Allen, and Samson Sellars.

As observed elsewhere, the names of a number of families figure no longer in the county's activities. Some of the settlers died; others moved to different sections. Now and then one hears of a few of their descendants: John C. Floyd, of Arkansas, and Frederic Barry, of Mississippi, who became members of Congress from their adopted States; M. M. Brien and Robert Cantrell, noted lawyers and jurists; Bird S. Rhea, Ed Reece, R. B. Wright, Cicero Duncan, Church Anderson, James Yeargin, and Len F. Davis, all prominent in the business world, Mr. Davis in 1914 having the distinction of being the senior of Nashville's wholesale merchants in point of service.

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There were (and are still) in the county many racy local characters of a type one rarely ever meets in large towns, where personalities lose their distinctness of outline like coins which pass innumerable times across shop counters. Such were Jonas Nokes, Ross

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Keith, "Sporting Ike" Hays, and others. Some were natural wits and humorists, whose drolleries have been kept alive by the joke-loving DeKalb Countians. The writer thinks none excelled four or five Liberty wits- Hamp Woodside, Blue Givan, Pole Woodside, Jr., Thomas Vick, James Burton, and M. C. Vick. Dr. Foster avers that Thomas Askew was the wittiest man he ever knew. Such little sallies as these, handed down from father to son, approach the character of folk tales:

Shed Lawson, who resided in Alexandria many years ago, was noted for his cheerful disposition, despite the fact that his treasury of worldly goods was small, and for his ready wit on any occasion requiring quick repartee. When the circus comes to town, the parade is sure to gather the crowd. One day Shed and his little son, who always accompanied him like his shadow, were following the clown. The latter, on his pony and diked out in conventional cap and bells, was shouting his badinage to the sight-seers. Seeing Shed, he said: "Here, mister, I want to hire that boy." Sensing a chance maybe to get his admission fee easily, the Alexandrian asked what he wanted the lad to do. "I want him to blow my hose," the clown said. "O, well, now," retorted Shed loudly and without hesitation, "ef you will jest wait a little while, jedgin' from appearances, the flies will blow it fer you."

Speaking of noses, Littleberry Vick, of Liberty, as well as the Duke of Wellington, possessed a prominent nose. One day he and William Burton were arguing

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over some political issue. Directly Mr. Vick, somewhat irritated, said: " Billy Burton, you never could see an inch beyond your nose." "And, Berry Vick," replied Mr. Burton, "if you could see an inch beyond your nose, you could see into another county."

Matthew Sellars, a pioneer of Dry Creek and a first-class citizen, had no blasphemy in his heart when, after a storm one night, he went out and looked on the wreck the wind had made of the timber and young corn in the new ground. Returning to the house, he said to his wife in a low tone: " Charlotte, don't whisper it above your breath; but, taking the Almighty up one side and down the other, it seems he does about as much harm as good."

There is no spot of earth where the people apply the title of uncle and aunt more industriously than in the DeKalb County Basin. When it is applied to a neighbor, it is an indication that he is getting old. It also signifies reverence. Some wag thereaway once observed: "There are four periods in the life of a man. As a child he is Bobby, as a young man he is Bob, in his prime he is Uncle Bob, and after threescore and ten he is Old Uncle Bobby." Some there were who objected to having the title of age thus thrust upon them, and one was William Vick, the Liberty merchant. One day he was sitting in front of his store. Dempsy Driver rode by and, bowing, said: "Good morning, Uncle Bill." Turning to a companion, Vick said dryly and somewhat resentfully: "Another nephew."

Thomas Askew was a soldier in the Mexican War.

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Becoming ill, he died, to all appearances; doctors and nurses pronounced him dead. His coffin was brought in and placed near the cot where he was "laid" out. He revived when left alone for a few minutes and saw the coffin. Having been a DeKalb official, he reached for a pencil and wrote on top of the casket: "No property found. T. B. Askew, constable."

Reuben Evans, farmer, magistrate, and rock mason, was sincere and matter-of-fact. He was also cautious, extremely so, and one cannot imagine him guilty of exaggeration in praise or blame. While he was doing some stonework for C. W. L. Hale, the latter's child said something the father regarded as bright and cute. "Now, Uncle Reuben," said he, "wasn't that just too much?" "Really," Mr. Evans replied deliberately and carefully, "I can't say it was too much, but it was a good deal."

Dr. J. W. Campbell had a farm in a very deep hollow a mile west of Liberty. One afternoon his tenant hauled about two hundred and fifty pounds of hay to the village. As he passed Blue Givan's store some one remarked that it was a very small load for two horses to haul all the way to town. "But you must recollect that when you come out of a jug you have to come out with a small load," said Givan.

Jacob Adcock, south of Smithville and formerly a representative from Cannon County, bought a broken-down stallion for $15, fed him on roasting ears, groomed him all times of day, and kicked and punched him to make him gay. Then he got out on the fence to watch for a victim. Rev. William Daw-

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son, riding by on a fine black mare, was bantered for a trade. "The horse is a top-notcher," said Adcock, "but too young and spry for an old man like me." As they approached the stable the horse saw his master, then, walling his eyes and snorting, tried to climb out of the stall. His coat glistened, so that he looked as well as he acted. The trade was made, the parson giving the black mare, a watch, and a note for $50 for the stallion. At the Short Mountain camp meeting some weeks later, after the stallion had retrograded to the $15 class again, Adcock professed religion. As he was going home Dawson overtook him, said he was glad God had pardoned his sins, then suggested that he ought to return some of the money he swindled out of Dawson through the horse trade. "I don't see it that way, Brother Dawson," replied Adcock. "When the Lord pardoned my sins he included the horse swap."

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