Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-07-25
MATHEMATICAL WONDER.
Ignorant Old Tom Cubbage and His AstOnish-
ing Feats With Figures.


There died in WoodviIle, Va, some
time ago one of the most remarkable
characters the Blue Ridge country of
Virginia ever produced. Old Tom Cab
bage, as he was known, was the mathematl
cal wonder and the pride of the Blue
Ridge people. His feats at figures and
his calculations were indeed wonder full,
and like Blind Tom, the musical prodigy,
his powers we're intuitive and innate.
Old Tom did not know figure or letter,
aud never went to school for an hour in
his life. He was rough, ignorant and
untutored native of the hills, and yet he
could solve, almost in moment, any prob
lem read to him from the text books or
from the papers, and give the correct an
sWer. He would add a column of figures
of any possible length, subtract, multiply
or divide, and do it so quickly as to sur
prise the scholar who tested his remarka-
ole powers.
His answer sometimes will include
dozen or more figures, and Knowing alb
solutely nothing about the enumerating
of them he would give the figures beginn-
at the right, and If a mistake had been
made or wrong figure pUrposely intro
duced by the person taking down his an
swer, Old Tom would discover it at once
and give the correct one. He knew moth
ing of the notation of numbers, and his
whole knO Wedge was limited to the giving
of his answers, figure by figure, as fast
as they could be written froLl the right to
the left. Persons of fair education, who
tested old Tom, say they conld never
stump hum, though they hunted for the
most difficult problems in the books, and
believe he could give the correct answer
to any possible sum. Problems involving
square and cube roots, completing the
square of equations, were as readily solv-
ed by him as simple addition, and yet,
were you to ask him what cube root
meant he would tell you he didn't know.
No one knew the way old Tom did these
things, indeed, he could not tell you him
self He was simply sui geraeris, and the
only one of his kind ever known to the
people of the Blue Ridge.
Old Tom went once to the q University of
Virginia upon the solicitation of some of
his admirers, with view to his education
there in his particular line, but after as
Consisting the professors by his great gifts
and having done all the sums given him
by the students, he declined all proffers
made and returned to his hut in the Old
and his rifle.
The greatest work of this strangely
gifted man was the calculations and COM
putations for hundredyear almanac,
made entirely by himself and reduced to
writing by one his neighbors. This work
was done by him mentally, and included
all the eclipses, as well as changes in the
moon, and was calculated specially for
the part of the state in which he lived.
It was never Published, owing to the out
break OF the war al the time of it's com
pletion, but those who have compared the
manuscript with other published altman
| acs say it is a perfectly correct one.
How this unlettered man could under
stand the movements of the earth and the
| heavenly bodies is the strangest of all bis
| sur Hrising achievements, and must re-
main one of the mysteries known only 10
him who created man fearfully and won
derfully, and breatned into him the splri t
| of life. On one occasion he was asked
| if he could tell the contents of pile of
brush, by some person who thought to rig
him, and his reply proved Old Tom to be
at home where figures were concerned.
eyes," said he, "put 1t in water and
measure the water it displaces, and you
will have the solid contents"
| His measurements of land by simply
walking around it, DO matter what Its
shape, and making his own calculations,
have been proven to be correct, and there
are those who would take survey made
| by old Tom in preference to one made
| by regular surveyor. Outside of his
peculiar gift, old Tom Cubbage was sgd
| failure, and ne died as he had liVed-as
| poor and shiftless as his mountain neigh
bors. He did not even own the small
piece of land upon which his hut was
built, save by the rights of squatter
and work to him was an unknown and IN
solved quantity. Yet he was quiet and
contented man, and was never better sat,
isfied than when copiously supplied with
apple Jack or mountain dew. He would
do the sum given him by way Of pay
for the liquor.
A GladstOnian Victory.