The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-09-10
AN OLD STORY NEW
TO THE PRESENT DAY

Editor Star: Emerson Hough, the
writer of things western, in an article
en- the historical Oregon trail, used
the expression sit is curious how
great things sometimes happen by
reason of little things" and goes on
to relate how a quart Of whisky for
which a party tried to collect ten dol
lars in St. Louis in 1911, played an
important part in the history of the
famous Oregon trail. concluding that
six months from now ten dollars will
seem plumb reasonable for quart of
almost any kind of whisky" All of
which reminds me Of and is a prelude
to the story told me recently by an
old timer or pioneer. which shows that
d number of people now living IN
Marion county are descendants OF
man who came to Marion county as
result of game of poker. If | pos
sessed the gift of story writer, Cora
Harris, for instance, of using lot of
language to state a simple fact or fic-
ton, rather, | could make a serial
story out of it, for which no doubt the
Star would send me a fat check (and
lose some subscribers perhaps.) But
| il is needless to say that possess no
such gift of CAB, but this is the story.
About the middle of the last CEN
fury four planters in the good old
state of South Carolina engaged in a
| game of poker; at the end of the
| game one man owned the plantations
and slaves of the other three. One
Of the victims having a wife, four or
five sons and daughter, the winner
in the poker game had compassion on
him and allowed him to take his team
and some twelve or fifteen slaves with
which to migrate to a new country
and start life over, with the stipula-
ton and understanding that at his
death he was to leave all his property
to his youngest son. They came to
Marion county, bought land and set
tied few miles from Ocala. The elder
sons, however, soon became wise to
the conditions of the inheritance. and
like the story in the Bible of the son
who was not prodigal, did not take
kindly to the idea of working and
raising fatted calves for the younger
brother. One of them did not go to
his father for the goods that falleth
to him, for the reason that there was
none, so without any formality he
took a horse and wagon and two of
the slaves, one boy of ten years, and
went to Georgia and sold the outfit
and took his departure for a far
country (Texas, for instance), bat
whether he INDUCED in riotous living
or not is unknown. He at least did
not return to his fathers house. But
at that time there was a fugitive
slave law" by which the slaves were
recovered and brought back. The boy
then ten years old, is now living some
ten or twelve miles from Ocala. One
of the sons lived in Ocala, was q
county officer and afterwards a mer.
chant and died here some forty-five
Years ago. The daughter married anC
spent her life in Marion county; some
of her children are now living ir
Pinellas county.
The youngest son who was to have
the inheritance was looked upon as
being quite eligible by more than one
mother who had manageable daugh
tiers, but in this case l think it was
a father who did the matchmaking
any way it was made. He too, ha:
long since taken his departure to tina
undiscovered country from whose
bourne no traveller returns, but hi:
widow still survives and is living no
a great many miles from Ocala. Thi:
lis the end of the story except that i
might be remarked that the winner
in the poker game afterwards moved
to Gainesville and was a merchan
there for number of years. Name
are not given for obvious reasons, blu
the story was current in Ocala sixt!
years ago. Citizen.