Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-09-05
OLD FARMER ANDERSON.
After Twenty-eIEht Years He Celebrates
the Ending of the Civil War.

Under the WILLOWS at the ola spring
house of old Davy Anderson's farm,
three miles up the valley from here,
was celebrated recently strange event.
which is the talk of the country folks
hereabouts. The center of a group Of
friends and neighbors was old Davy
Anderson himself. and at his right
hand was Percival, his long-absent SON.
On the table was a demijohn of whisky.
the like of which has probably never
been heard of in this country. be-
cause it was at the bottom OF Davy
Anderson's mill-dam for twenty-eight
years.
The story runs back to the days when
the Southern rebellion begun. Fort
Sumter had been fired upon. Davy
Anderson then was a rank Democrat OF
the State rights persuasion. During
the war he was known as ''Old Copper
head of Cushion Valley" His son Per-
civaI was then young man, just past
twenty-one years of age. When news
reached the farm that Southern soldiers
had opened fire on General Anderson
in Fort Sumter, Percival said it was
shame He stood up for General An
derson and the cause of the North, al
though there was no relation between
the two families. Old Dayy, however,
maintained that if the Southern States
wanted to secede they had a right to,
and that there was nothing in the Con-
stitution to prevent it. Percival said
the Union ought not to be divided, and
he was for General Anderson, for the
family name, anyhow. Words between
father and son soon ran high. the
father being in towering rage because
his son dared to oppose him in a politi-
cal dispute.
This was in April, 1861 A few
months quickly passed, and father and
son continued their disputes. News OF
the war was very slow in reaching the
Anderson farm. At length, when hay
making began. father and son had
bitter quarrel in the hay field. In
those days, as now, farmers generally
had a demijohn of whisky in the field
for the haymakers. Davy had drank
more than he should, and when Perci-
val called his father a rebel sympa-
thizer the old man raised a rake and
broke it over Percivars head. The
farm hands then rushed in and stopped
the fight. Percival went to the farm
house, put on his Sunday clothes, kiss
ed his mother and sisters goodbye,
walked all the way to Harrisburg and
enlisted for the war; He was the only
son. and when Davy Anderson sObered
up and got to the house. he found the
women folks in tears. They would not
be comforted, and Davy was roundly
censured. He wept with them, Of
course, and had nothing to say. The
next day Davy went into the hay field
and dragged from under the brush,
near the spring, that demijohn OF
whisky. 1t was nearly full, as the hay
makers had not touched it, having
named it fighting whisky" Davy
took the demijohn to the house, corked
it tightly, encased the cork end Sc
curely in a ball of tallow, and threw
the demijohn in the mill dam, saying:
Stay there until Percival comes
home, and we'll take drink and make
up"
Percival went to the front, wrote
few letters home, but finally he wrote
no more. He fought in number OF
battles, and his long silence led his
parents to believe he had either been
killed or taken prisoner. Percival was
captured and taken to Andersonville
prison, from which he escaped and went
on foot to the Everglades of Florida.
For twenty-seven years nothing was
ever heard of the missing soldier. The
Anderson family heard from some Of
his comrades, who wrote saying he
must have died in the prison pen al
Andersonville.
About month ago Jacob Shuler,
q well-to-do farmer at Breckuock, re-
ceived a short letter from Key West,
and, to his utter astonishment, it was
signed Percival Anderson. 1t asked
whether the old folks were still alive,
and if they were, to visit them and
drop few hints that their long absent
son might still be alive, and NIGH
come home again. Shuler did so, but
the old folks shook their heads sadly.
To make a long story short, Perciva
Anderson arrived two days ago. tall
sun-bronzed, brown-whiskered man
his German brogue all gone, and hi:
language of the true Southern twang
He first called on Shuler, and together
they went to Anderson farm. In al
the long years of his absence things
had changed but little. The farm
house, the sprfng-house, the willows
the barn and stables looked about a
they did when he left The old folk
were at supper on the back porch. I've
sisters that had never married wer'
also there. The meeting of the long
absent son with the family, was touch
ing indeed, and there was not dr.!
eye among them. 1t was midnight be
fore they went to bed; before each hat
told his or her history, since they sepa
rated. Percival said he had not writ
ten home simply because he had gottel
out OF the habit of writing, especial.
after he had written two letters hom
from Florida, but which the old folk
never answered because they never re
ceived them. Percival bought farming
land, and now owns an orange grow
and large truck garden in western
Florida The next day Davy Ander