The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1938-01-13

on stump and put a rope around his
neck and threw it over the limb of a
tree and asked him if he had any last
message to leave He was Il member
of the Odd Fellows organization and
made the Odd Fellows sign of dis
tress. 1t happened that the officer in
charge of that squad was a member
of the order and recognized the sign
made by Stuck. He told the men they
might take the man down from the
stump and the rope off his neck and
that he wanted to talk with him pri-
vately.
l had later on Mr.. Stuck point out to
me the location where he came so near
being hanged, and he told me the Of
ficer took him back into the forest a
little way and told him to keep on
going and to stay in the woods for a
couple of days at least before coming
out. Stuck took his advice and lived
to tell about it.
Raider Returns To The Town
l was witness to a strange meeting
about twenty years after the raid,
when l had grown to manhood, and
was a teacher in the Terra Alta school
and boarding at hotel kept by two
daughters of Mr.. Stuck.
One winter evening shortly after
dark travelling man from Baltimore,
representing a wholesale queensware
house, came to the hotel for his sup
per. After the meal he came into the
lobby where several parties were sit
ting, among whom were Mr.. Stuck and
myself. He opened the conversation by
saying:
"WelI, gentlemen, this is the second
time have been in this town. The first
time was on Sunday, April &c, 1868. l
was a member of the Confederate raid
that came through here and when we
came into the east emo of town a man
rose from behind a stump and cut a
furrow through the shoulder of my
coat. We captured him and took him
along the road couple of miles west
of town and were about to hang him
when the officer in charge told us to
| 'desist,' that he wanted to talk to the
man. He took him out of sight in the
forest and in little while came back
! stating that the man had gotten away
from him and ram"
At that point Mr.. Stuck, who had
been watching him like a cat watches
a rat, stepped over to him and held
out his hand and said:
"Well, l am the man that fired that
shot"
They had a real reunion together
that night.
1t has been stated that atTerra Alta,
then known as Cranberry Summit, the
raiders captured the guard of fifteen
men and destroyed the railroad prop
erty. l think that is a mistake. l do
not think that they destroyed any
property here except that they broke
open the main store here in the town,
belonging to John P. Jones, and |
was told afterwards by Mr. Jones that
they took quite lot of tobacco and
perhaps some groceries, and that they
knocked the heads out of several bar
rels Of flour and poured the flour on
the floor. They knocked the spigot out
of barrel of syrup and let the syrup
run into the flour.
There were several people here who
were known as strict Unionists, among
them doctor by the name of Parsons,
who had been obliged to leave Tucker
Co. because of his Union sentiments
openly expressed, and they were look
ing for him. He had knowledge of their
coming in time to get out of town into
the forest and hid until the danger
was passed. There were, | was told,
several men who had prior to the war
lived in this neighborhood and had
gone South and jointed the Confeder-
ate Army and were acting largely as
guides.
Some years after the war, l taught
country school located on what is
now the Hopemont Sanitarlum prop
erty and l boarded with David Free
land who at that time owned the
| farm. He told me that on that Sunday
he was sitting in the home and from
window he saw mounted men chas-
ing his horses in the pasture field in
an effort to catch them. He told me
that he knew they were Rebels as soon
as he saw them, and he picked up his
hunting rifle and stepped out thinking
to make them leave the horses alone.
The highway ran just in front of the
home, and when he stepped off the
porch he heard the click of carbine
being cooked and he looked up and he
said:
"What do you suppose l saw? l saw
jim Sprigg sitting on his horse with
his carbine cooked and pointed to-
ward me-" and he said, Uncle Dave,