Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1896-04-24
A REMARKABLE FAMILY.
A Mountaineer Patriarch with Queer
Sociologic Tendencies.


Sociologic Tendencies.
speaking of family pride, remarked
the drummer to a Star reporter, IL
stayed all night at the house of noun
taineer in West Virginia last summer,
who had more pride in his family than
anybody | ever heard of, and I've been
on terms with the puritans and cav
alters for 20 years. This old fellow was
past 10, and was quite well to do, as TINT
quality is known in the mountains. He
owned good house of six or seven
rooms, and could show a clear title ia
5000 acres of land, and was school
trustee. He also owned a store, and
went to see him to sell him some goods.
had heard good deal of him and his
peculiarities, and | made it convenient
to reach his place late i'll the day SO he
would have to keep me over night, as
was his custom with strangers, for he
was hospitable old chap.
MY scheme worked well, and when
l left, the next morning, had his his
tory and that Of his family, and an odder
one, think, you will confess you never
heard of. lie was 72 years old, and had
been married four times, his first mar
riage occurring when lie was only 49,
His first wife was his cousin, his second
was widow with five children, his third
was young woman, the daughter Of
his sons wife ia widow, and the last
one was the stepdaughter of the widow
his father had married. BY these sew
eral wives he had 20 children, which,
added to the five stepchildren, gave him
family of 33 boys and girls, including
three pairs of twins, and one lot of trip
let's. Two of his boys had married the
daughters of the widow whose husband
the old man was, and one of his daugh-
tiers had married one of her sons"
At this point the drummer took a
paper from his pocket and read it over
carefully.
The writer looked his question.
Its all right" he laughed. 81 haven't
learned it thoroughly yet, and / was
just polishing up my memory. I've got
the whole thing written down here just
as he told me. The oldest part of it is
to come. The old man had in some way
imbibed peculiar notions from some
book or other he had found on sociology,
and had organized small society Of
families thinking as he did. One idea
OF these people was that of the advant-
age of early marriage, and when his son
was only about IL years of age he mar
ried the boy to girl of the same age,
and each year for several years after
that one of these child marriages was
celebrated
"Their children, in turn, were mar.
ried at the same early age, and they
were grandparents before they were
80. In fact, one couple at 90 handled q
grandchild on their knees, and at 4C
they were great-grandparents. The
same story, very nearly, could be told
of the others, and some time before the
old patriarch was 70 he could look back
over four generations of posterity. And
it was generous posterity, too, for all
over the paternal acres the houses oil
the children and children's children
dotted the hills and valleys. Of course
among so many, death could scarcely
get by without touching some, ant
when | was there there were only q
of the original 33 left, and even the ole
man couldn't tell how many grand
great-grand and great-great-grand chill
dren there were scattered about him
They were all excellent people, too, ant
far above the general mountaineel
average of large families"
"That's timber country, isn't it?'
asked the reporter, with apparent If
relevance, when the drummer stopped
to get his breath.
"Not any more, in that locality. Tn,
best of it has been cut Off"
"Um-eh," hesitated the reporter
''why doesn't the old man get a mill anc
saw up his family ?"-Washingtol
Star.