I once had a deputy sheriff tell me that nothing "dispelled tensions" in a crowded juke-joint quite as much as stepping inside with a nickel-plated double barrel (S x S). Not sure where he got one, and there's not many of those kind of jukes left around here, but there used to be one every five miles or so. This was "no country for old men" for a long time, being over a half hour from the sheriff's department under the best of conditions.
True story............
Grandaddy bought this farm, and the house I'm living in, in 1919, as a young newly married man. It had been idle for several years since the country doctor who owned it and built this house died with tuberculosis, but there was a "squatter" who was living in this house for free, and supposedly care taking the place. When word got to him that Grandaddy had bought it he sent him word that if he set foot on the place he would "leave him lying in his tracks".
Grandaddy rode a horse 25 miles to the sheriff and told him the situation. Sheriff handed Grandaddy his personal sidearm and said "You can handle this, can't you?" Grandaddy rode on to Augusta and bought a Colt revolver for himself.
When Grandaddy rode down here to confront the squatter, he found him in the mule lot. Grandaddy said "I heard what you threatened. I bought this place, it's mine, and I am going to live here and farm it. We're going to settle this right now. If you want to shoot it out I have two pistols. If you want to cut it out I brought two knives, or if you want to fight it out with fists we will, but we're going to settle this now." Joe said he wanted to "fight it out". Grandaddy replied, "In the middle of the public road", turned about, and headed towards Stoney Bluff Road. They got halfway there and Joe said "No, I'll leave", and backed down. Can you imagine a high sheriff doing something like that today?
I live in the same house that was standing empty when Grandaddy bought this place 100 years ago, this year. The first year taxes are recorded as having been paid on it was 1875.
SRH
Last edited by Stan; 01/26/19 08:43 PM. Reason: additional info
