The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-11-29
OLD FAYETTEVILLE.
The Singular Life n d Lonely
Passing AWAY of The Country
Farmer.
For The Messenger.

/ did not Dy any means expect tue
material offered by the archives Of odd
Fayetteville" in nv letter two weeks
ago. so I wiz venture to give to the
readers OF The Sunday Messenger pa
per number two. anyhow.
Many years ago Fayetteville people
used 10 see on the streets-though few
could say that they knew him-oue o.
the strangest men that ever inhabited
any community There was nothing
picturesque or mysterious. prope1 ~
speaking. about him. Nobody would
ever have hoped 10 ind a hidden hero
in him. and even Sherlock Holmes
would ave ~despaired Of ulearthing a
murder. committed years ago out OF
such common place material. But he
lived in his little house % years
TO my knowledge and he has been dead
ten years moro; but / have yet TO 6nI
the man who could make head or tau
out OF sam Brown.
/ think the nan Nas Indebted for>the
interest which he attracted TO his pas
sivity(?), and the absolute ignorance
OF everybody about his a~ntecedents. his
present surroundings and everything
connected with him.. Somehow or other
people forgot, if they ever knew. where
he came from, when he settled down
in the northern part of Cumberland
county, and if they ever asked him
they oun out.
He was nothing but a small farmer,
running a o~ne-horSe crop. but whether
he was q widower or a bachelor, was
a moot question to the day of his death.
! once heard the postmaster Of the
nearest office say that IL Lem Brown
ever received a letter in his life he could
not remember it. His home was sit
uated in the neck Of a small stretch
of woods, back of which WAS a wanC
through which ran a stream of deep.
black water, and the farm lay on each
side of the small dwelling. This was 4
rough hewn log cabin of two rooms,
! with a clay chimney and c~lapboarG
roof. The front room Brown used rs
n sitting and sleeping room, while that
in the rear was kitchen, pantry etc.
There was no porch or other additions
TO the house, two little wooden steps
| leading flush up to Nne front door,
which opened directly into the sitting
room, without any hall or other AZ
proach.
/ sat in that hall two hours n night
| waiting while the broken wheel of 3
conveyance was being repaired by L
negro blacksmith and l will describe
the interior, IS l recall il. When he
opened the door TO my knock | think
the man of the house uttered the mon
oSyllable seat as he pushed a rush
bottomed chair in front of the blazing
| lightwood knot. One side of the room
was taken UP with the bedstead, 4 COM
mon four-poster, set very high from the
| floor, with. 1t seemed to me, at least
"a foot of featherbed, over which spread
blankets and a quilt in black and white
1 squares. Next was a table. on which
were arranged four books, three elrj
OF corn and the iron part of a Single
tree. Hanging against the wallis all
around the room were bunch of
shrubs of different kinds Lem Brown
was a ~herbalist, never calling in a
physician on the few occasions on
which he was i'll, and spending hours
in the woods gathering his specifies. 1t
was said that the only time in which
he ever relaxed in his taciturnity was
when forcing some of his nostrums On
a sick neighbOr. On the wall also hung
two packages of pelts of rabbits, foxes.
etc. and there were two chairs N the
| room, besides the ones on which ne
and 1 were seated. n a corner o: the
fireplace stood a long single-barrelcd
squirrel gun, and on a nail above Il
hung a powder horn and a small an
vas bag for shot. On the .mantel-piece
was a common eight-day clock and
several more ears of corn. OF orna-
mentation there was not a trace in the
whole apartment. And why should there
be? This man lived by himself and to
himself, with all hat the words can
imply.
What does the reader suppose that
Brown was doing, while / was waiting
for the wheel to be mended? Reading
and a hOmespun shirt. He had light
Of the fire. There was no
d~iscourtesy about it; he simply ignored
me. Lem Brown was not a bad look
ing man. L should have taken him to
be about forty-five years Of g and
dressed like the ordinary countTylnan,
with jeans trousers stuffed in his boots
and a homespun shirt. He had light
brown hair, a dead pale complexion.
and light blue eye. with the steely CLINT
of fight in them. The most notable
feature of the face was the mouth-thin
set lips over an uncompromising jaw.
Brown did not live quite alone. He
had a companion in life-a large dark
gray CUT dog, which lay in front Of
the fire. To keep up the consistency
of nothing happening in the usual order
in that country home-if IL could Dc
called a home-the dog paid no atten-
ton whatever when / knocked. or when
/ entered the room, keeping his place
stolidly IN front of the fire. And yet
he seemed to feel an interest in me,
though the widest stretch OF vanity
could not regard 1t as a fiattering IL
terest. I had never heard that L was
distinguished by n odoriferous quail.
tiles, but, If that dog got UP once. he
got UP a dozen times, walked over, and
smelt of me. 1t did not seem to give
him any particular satisfaction either,
for every time he lay down after the
experiment he looked very grim; but he
seemed to study a good deal over the
matter. 1 do not remember how !
learned that the dogs name was
"Reub. 1 certainly did not learn il
from his master-but his name was
"Reub."
to town occasionally for the necessaries
of life. Even the fanatic about whom
| Gibbon writes, who lived for years on
| the top Of a lofty column had TO slide