Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-01-21
JIM WEIGHTS COURTSHIP
Related by Silas Hawkins, P. M.
and Storekeeper.
lCoPYRIGHT, 1871

I amt much of a story teller, but
guess 1 can give you the straight facts
about Jim Wright's courtship and mar
rage as well as anybody. 1t happened
about 20 years ago, and it interested
the folks around Barkley's corners SO
much that for four or five years there
wasn't no quiltin' bee, nor mite So
ciety, nor apple cut, nor raisin', nor
stump pullin' that somebody didn't tell
something new about it, and l guess
they're talking about it yet at the tea
drinkin'S. 1t was all brought back
fresh to my mind one day last week,
when 1 found out my oldest boy, Sile,
was kind O shinin' up to Jim's oldest
girl, Sarah, named after her mother.
Jim's pretty prominent citizen now.
He's the manager of the Barley place
and member of the county board Of
supervisors, and some do say he's got
his eye on the legislature for next term.
Yes; that's him goin' by now. You see,
he's big, tall teller and looks kind of
imposin' like. When he was a young
ster he wasn't exactly what you'd call
handsome, but he looked as solid as
rock, and his eyes was always wide
open, only when he had to face girl,
then he used to weaken. That's what
made his courtship and marriage SO
curious.
A good talker? Well, yes, he is, now.
Not very polished, maybe, but he can
speak 20 the pint, and that's more than
some of your college educated fellers
o. of
speaker till after he got married to
Sarah Anderson.
Jim got we'll acquainted with Sarah
when he was nothing but hired man,
workin' on the Barley place, when old
man Thompson was manager. Sarah
was worl<in' there, too, then. She was
Mrs. Thompson's hired girl. No; you
couldn't call 'em servants, the way you
city folks look at it. Sarah's father was
old Deacon Anderson, and he stood just
as well in the community as old man
Thompson did; maybe better, because
Deacon Anderson owned his own farm
and Thompson was a kind of hired
man for Barley. The Barley place,
you know is about 800 acres. It's the
biggest farm in this town, and Barley
himself spends most of his time in New
York and Boston and Europe, and other
far-away places, where folks has more
money than brains, and has coachmen
30 drive for 'em and puts on different
coats at different times of the day and
all that. Sarah Anderson used to eat
at the same table with the Thompsons,
of course, and so did Tim. Why, if
either of them had been asked TO eat sep
arate from the family they'd have quit
right off and everybody around the cor
ners would have backed em up in it, too.
Why, the Thompsons would have been
run out of the neighborhood if they'd
set themselves up to be too good to
have Jim Wright and Sarah Anderson
set with them when they ct their meals.
Jim Wright's father, you know, was
the doctor here for good many years,
and he wanted to send his bog to col
lege, but Jim wouldn't go. He liked
workin' with his hands better than
studyin' books. He said he conld make
more money IN the long run his way,
and when he hired out to old man
Thompson he declared that he'd be
manager of the big farm some day,
and SO he is now, as told you little
while ago.
Maybe I'm getting Off the story a
little bit, but l just wanted to explain
.hsw jim and Sarah stood in this neigh