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JL XJL-UJ U U xiTHE MOONSHINERS.THE CAGED WILDS.Autobiography ol* Tom Jones, a* Writ ton li) llim»oH; in Fulton FountyI was born in tne state of Indiana, Green conntv, on the banks of Beaugardis creek, near a little village called Scotland. My father never kept any record of our ages but I think 1 was lnm in March of the year 18.19 or 00. Anyhow, I was old enough at the time of the great eclijise to have a perfect recollection of that strange day. 1 suppose the first and only total eclipse tinsIndians were so frightened, anti took Columbus fora cod because he told them the eclipse would te before it came, as he knew from the almanac.Well, on the big eclipse day that came when I was a boy. strange things happened,I tell you. The birds and the fowls went to roost, the cows came home to their calves, the pigs Hjuealed, the horsas neighel, the world was dark as night and the stars shone out. The country round us was wild, and settled here and there in places, and the folks all came from their settlements and huddled up like a fhx-k of scared sheep in the cabin of niv grandfather Goode. He was a religious man and they thought may Ik* he might save them, for nearly all believed the last day had come. Some were crying, some praying, some shouting, some biding, some running here and there as if they were crazy, and home laughing and screaming in hysterics. TV hen at l;ist a ray of the sun l»egun to appear, some cried out that it was Christ s face about to rend the veil of darkness. A very few had heard of eelijises and were busy locking into their pewter basins, that were lined with water a little muddy, to see if it was the sun of day appearing or the Son of ManWe had no crockery ware at that pi ice and time; nothing but pewter plates and basins, and our mothers and sweethearts used to rub them up till they shone like silver. I have one of the old pewter dishes yet that was handed down since the Revolution—a curious-shaited concern and a good deal battered, but it seems to me that baked 1 leans and cab-liage taste better out of that dish than they world out of sure-em nigh silver or gold. Y e have got another relic in our family. It is a rille gun that our grandfather Goode owned and used in the time of the Revolutionary war 1 don’t know my grandfather s given name but he was a brother to the mother of old Governor Sevirs, of Virginia. My father, John H. Jones, was bom in Buncombe county North Carolina—now Henderson county. Afterwards my grandfather Jones moved into Monroe county, East Tennessee, and there my father and mother were married Afterwards, they and the families 011 Initl sides all moved bock to Indiana, where the} found rich lands but plenty of fever andague, so much of it that father moved Iinto East Tennessee, close to Ducktown the head of Brushy Creek, Bolk county.Indians were plenty in those parks game of all kinds was common. We hai keep cl. se watch«iver our stock to keep the wild beasts from playing havoc with them. Often we had our st jck run in by the panthers, bears and wolves. We settled 011 a little Indian improvement that had some wigwams and cabins upon it, and Indians living in them at the time we moved 011 the place. But during the winter the savages left these cabins. Here, 011 the first of March, :Sj9, my brother Avers was born—the brother who is now confined with me in the jail in which I write. In the same vear Folk county was orgunized, ami the fir*t election ever held in that upper section of the county was held at our house. The country was very sparsely settled with w hite folks; but the red ski 1 is were pleniy I they had their greeI him to come. He said I was too little to handle his big gun a deer hunting,but I let you I know he didn’t think I was too little to tackle the plough handles. No, sir! he made me freeze to them. I ploughed yokes of oxen when I had to reach up to get hold of the plough handles, and hadn’t time to change 1 my skirt and my 1 011 net for two and three ' weeks hand running. It sounds curious I 1 know, to tell that, a big lioy like me wore nothing but a long shirt and a sunbonnet, but it is the fact. That was the garb for boys at that time ami place. Big boys, such as go sparking the girls nowadays, went barefooted , • -.hen and with only a tow shirt that reached m my luck stoojito their knees and a fl ax sunbonnet. I can I table or chair, as you know, but write 011 myf now following the plough in that j box held on my knees. But thinking aboutgarb, and hopping lively over ruckssawclose by us, made up a company of volunteers t«;flgkt for Texas, but I would have gone with them, if it hadn’t lieen for that girl. And here it was I bad to part with her after all, for 1 must go where my parents said. We minded our fathers and mothers in them days, 1 tell you. If we didn't/ they soon give us to know' the strength of their rightpretty Mamietears standing ____________in the bottom of blueliell flowers. You think that sounds romantic for an old fellow like writing in 11 jail cell and getting a crickind getting a cr , for I haven’t a ..........d round the s igar kettles. 1 alwaysthought my dear old ma’am loved me better than she did the rest of the children, for she made my shirts longer and my bonnet bigger than the others.Sugar making generally began in February. We would chip a place out of each sugar maple tree and put spiles in them for the supthe old times when I was a boy warms my heart and makes me forget things as they are now. I haven’t lieen well since I saw you; and thinking about C’apt Cox’s doleful doom—his not lieing able to get a new trial— makes me downhearted. God knows I’m sorry for the Captain and his good wife and sweet children. He’s a mighty fine man to my inind, ami 1 wou’d have rejoiced with all ~ th . | my heart, to see him set free, though 1 wasout in1to Ithe tnt!#sr tn u„is that lefl l^hiiul her 3 myself, not knowing when I put to catch it. About the- lmdje shall see my own iife and children and mysugar orchard we storing the humble home in the mountains. I have lieenlarge troughs and hogsh-a.Is i or sh r s: tht herenos,for . weary months and I've sa,,, »'lf“r'-»^ an;l ketues or H« ^ ,inmt forgot how the sky looks, but I require in. Mind you, the*** bi • .-rulier how my children look, (iod bless sap by^speHs, and when tl«y “ a big ^ theln in my dl.,,ams ^VHrJ. night\\ ell, I will finish my humble story next eek, if you, my kind madam, or the readjusap i»y speiis, ami ucu tuc, siiell of running, then we wouM huir up the cakes and have a frolic! The old folks would I toil, generally, of a day when the young ones burnt brush or hunted; but at night the youngsters, boys and girls, came flocking in from everywhere to the sugar camp, and they made it lively. They boiled the sap and skimmed the kettles and stirred the sugar might and main the first part ol the night, then they w ould make candy and eat it and frolic till the chickens crew for day Their homespun frocks didn’t keepth-enjoying themselves and froir made to them,. Such play_b from having love and romps,game:.... of the bttle chaps, (Ini not big yet) and I used to feel sorry to see the girls fighting aud ducking their heads to keep from being kissed, and screaming out, but after I got bigger I knew' it was all buncombe, and that them was the very girls that wanted to be kissed the worst.The country now began to settle up with men of more property—men wor.li, I suppose, • five or six hundred dollars apiece—and they began to build letter houses and to get us in the notion to build them too. One man put up a good saw and grist mill 011 the same creek near where we lived, but some distance down, and the neighbors elublied together and cleaned out the creek so tha*i we could float logs down to the mill in the freshet season. The creek was nearly dry in summer, but in the spring when the snow melted, it boomed, and then we had always hundreds of stock logs ready to roll in and float down. Our folks had the most oxen and did the greatest part of the hauling of the stocks in the winter over the snow and frozen ground Sometimes we had ten yoke of oxen to haul .....big log, fastening one end of it —:»i------*■ I.-...okoins and lettii— —ink*ers of your paper w’ould like to hear auy ire about such simple doings. I like to ite it myself. It draws off my mind and brings pleasant things to my memory.the si.w ith great log-cfiains and letting the end drag. The creek was froze all but when the thaw or break-up came, thei fora frolic!—tumbling in the logs andfloatnif1 the wide,JViftient. Th-eligcorn dances, id harvest merry-makings, i games to look at.which -----oT-—- -- -father was never afraid of the Indians and he went among them in such a friendly way that they made our house kind of headquar-whiterite:iin»ffR¥,i,‘;E WSSSilS Elfuwy[ i l*. got t- «itill anybody's house. 1« WWSL' , iittys.“;‘.“l,^'iire without taking outt I sue insides, and roasting itawhi e, take itotr,' eat ott all that was done, and then lay the .leer, or Iwar, or hog, liuck on the tire to roast some more, while they danced, lliey would keep this up until all the game except the 111-sides had been roasted and eat.I It was generally talked of 111 the settlement that the Indians would steal white babies - and sometime kill and eat them. 1 never * knew this positively though 1 have heard the 1 women tell such tales around the fire as would lt;I make the hair rise on my childish head, nml 1 ku «v my mother kept her iloek pretty close under her wing. She never like.1 the Uwl Skins and my father didu t like thejKwr land after having been used to the rich Northwest where you could raise trom 5° to a hundred bushels of corn to the acre without try-IMSo back he went to Indiana, and indeed he had never sold his land therefor took away; his sheep; Indian imp 1 Rumthis time • of Bloomfield an from Louisville.I We did lots of w sight of land by put up the l»sthe HoKy..Teirk in* this pin*nt Uick t« State, settling even miles easl 1 road leading errehaut, liul.ired u fathei11 that settlement, x icckiui it would have cost him twenty-fivt or thirty dollars if he had hired it done, bul he did it with his own hands. After lie had put up the logs, he took his axe and sk. them down inside and out, and he chinked the cracks inside with the hearts of 1 timber and daubed them on the outsidehad a good stick and clay chin.......big fire-place rousing .............jpread over all the bottom*and then we went after the logs that we*l all outing here and there, now among tlj trees and now in the eddies. Sometimes xT-canoes, sometimes on the land, sum? times in the water, anil sometimes under t, uirruhiiig and hollowing, catching game is ►veil as logs, routing oat the muskrats ail ninks and w easels with the dogs, and soit*-;iines treeing the biggest kind of aslimy-loCj-ing snake, that would make fight and lok savigrous as the pictures in ycir South snake story ’that yu brought me. We often got wet as wafcr-rats, but we bad a little whiskey along—tbjre wasn’t 110 Revenues yet—and w * ally with an ager or two.got off frtl-log-floolng out sometimes wienfun but the fun g .. _ got to the mill, fo chances catching the logs at the .s heart-rending to a poor fell, irked so hard over his stocks to tumbling fiver the dam and down tin rent—gone f J-r good and all.I Aaid, the country was mipr last, licit men moving hi and brin^4^.J(; fi and -•-** MM letter in mv eves. pra-. Niad to risk %r the mill, audit fellow that hit’• -m --1 tetter in mv eves. pnc. Iwhich lookeil the prettiest, sitting at \ . wheel or going to milk of a morning Wfcf ttidr way to school. For we had a too. When we had had one running am'A three months we thought we were the it*\-, ligentest neighlK.rliood that ever was lut mv father hadn’t much oninion of Iwokslle was powerful pious and he held out a^t learning was the invention of tli de jieople wicked.vith 11»ook i• feet iIf he • han«ls he thought v 1 the pathvetting w„. ,straightway ordered us out to the wood p* i»r to feed the oxen lt;ir to the plough. But fcs didn’t hinder me from getting a glimpse.t the pretty girls under their bonnetsent to schoiding infirst jntI to have some inters were mighty IUIU _ e had the liest house 011 the rood and a big barn to lioot, travellers seeing the prospect, would push for our place to stay at all night.There was a heap of traveling—big men, some of them—driving stock from Kentucky to Illinois. Among tlie big bugs thatstopped at our house was Henry Clay, and a hner gentleman never lived, just as hearty and free in liis ways and yet elegant as you please Father thought there was nobody like old Henry, and he voted for him to be president.Well we made big crops—raised a sight of grain—wheat, corn, rye, and oats and tobacco! we didn’t have the Revenues), hemp, flax Irish potatoes and all kinds of garden vegetables. We made our ow n sugar from the sugar maples, and raised our own meat; had cattle ami hogs and sheep 111 abundance —and plenty of fruit. Our murket was unhandy. hut now und then u peJd.er would come along and buy up our chickens at lifty cents a piece and our butter at 5 or 6 cents anil our women would get tin pans and l« pers of pins and needles and wool cards and knick-knacks from him. .Everything else we had to get in Louisville, Ky., where we hauled our tobacco and got from four to five cents a pound for it Our flax seed, tobacco, chickens and butter were about all w e raised for market. Fork was only worth from two to three cents a pound anil corn from ten to twenty cents a bushel. The woods were full of deer, and every-ImmIv jiunted more or less, but some had it down to a perfect science. The country was level and some that made hunting a business could go out on a good horsewith plenty of bottom, and in a few hours drive a buck up to his house door and either shoot him or knock him in the head with a cudgel. Father was too jiowerful hard working to care much for hunting, though he always kept a good gun and a yard full of big dogs. He would not let me take them out often, or go far from the house when I did. I must just let the dogs ruu what they could close around the field, so when they treed anything he w'ould not have far to go from his work to cut the tree down when I calledrom going to frolii he creek, a skating;.. fishing on the ice. Maybe you don’t ’ about this ice-fisliing. I’ve made some open their eyes telling about it, but it i as true as it is good sport, that you m out on the frozen creek or pond and stnk* hard blow on the ice and no matter how the fish may lie down in the water u neath, the blow will stun them and the} rise up to the surface and you can brenl ice ami take out vour fish.1 was awfully afraid of the girls, thoug. j liked them so well, especially one,Mamie Donaho, the prettiest girl I evt in my life, with the brightest eyes a: downiest cheeks. H-r father was one of t rich new men that had come in—he was w. nearly a thousand dollars I exjiect, and sides this pretty daughter he had a lot of 1 cliievous boys that riled father might sometimes with their pranks. For instam had ju-t moved in and brought ■ick that our neighliorhood had e . 1 that jack had a pair of cast ir £lungs, that could wake up the echos so yoi ^ think judgement day had come and Gabi w was sounding hLs trumpet- He came over our place one day and gave a bray t‘ ., scared the children most into fits and uui ' every hog take to the woods. They stay there two days ami nights and when t* did venture to come home, the Donaho b| ° had found out the joke and would set u., bray like Mr. Boos’ old jack, and the pi. animals would drop their corn and make] f the woods, till they nearly went wild. I . the deviltry of the Donaho boys didn't mj .. me admire their pretty sister any the 1( ., and 1 got a chance at last to bring myself her notice and to do a little piece of gall try in her service. When we went fishing the ice one day, the mischievous bovs pla ]a trick 011 the girls. They found a w no place in the ice and they called out to Wt girls to “run here and see what a big fls • And here they come and huddled around m;1 place, and the boys stamped, and the * snapped and cracked, and the mischief-111 wj] e. s cried out “the ic ■ is breaking!” and av ycl the girls scuttled off the dangerous pi* tin screaming and stumbling und running lt;against one another. My girl was not u e}j to the ice and she fell down upon her kn * and hands close to the thin ice. 1 had niy pleasure of helping her up ami taking Injj.....thrLome, and after that I left off being in her coiupanv and took to bringing apples and maple sugar- We were all ^ «•ting 011 swimmingly. The schools and “ mills and the meetings were in full blast, the neighliorhood was feeling itself sutha and rich and pious, and Mamie ami me c]u ing each other better every day, when lo \ behold, what must that dad of mine do, w|| take it into his restless noddle to move a'to t and go down South to the mountains of Nlt; j) Carolina. “Yes, nothing would do; he sold his fauei and his hogs to Mr. Donaho, the fatheipro iny girl, and he bundled our beds and thi ‘ in the wagons and mother and the chile I ( on top, and hitched in the ox teams1 niai away we timbered. You may know it dea heart-rending to me to leave Mamie. ^Iyou given up going to the Mexican war on berth rt account: I was just astripling when Captthoi
Newspaper Details
Atlanta Sunny South
Atlanta, Georgia, US
Sat, Mar 06, 1880
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Andrew W.
USA 03 Mar 2025
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