Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1942-06-11
The Morgan


He was one. of those handy all
round fellows who could max
anything from sleigh to rock
ing chair, or fiddle, and seeming
ly not half try. And, by the way
he did make chairs. and good one
too, nothing like them since. HI
married buxom girl for better O
worse (the latter in this case) ant
they took up their abode in littl,
cabin pn the edge of the settlement
He, like other men of his time, ane
before and since, formed the habi
of imbiding freely of anything tina
had an alcoholic content-the star
of an unhappy downward career.
To whatever lofty heights tht
connubial relationship may have
scared at the start, only too soor
they found it expedient to ''roos
on different poles" No offspring t6
tend. to bind the tie," it eventual
ly took two houses to hold the cou.
pie. While they were yet unde,
the same roof, an older brother OF
Joe, whom we will call Trump
(for the reason you may guess
dropped in for visit and tarried
long enough to exhibit himself as
"forty-niner," fresh from the gold
fields of California.
According to our informant, he
was wearing a loud checkered suit
of clothes, held at the waist by a
wide leather belt, which, it was
purported, was filled with gold. He
also sported one of those mon
strously big watches such as the
writer has since seen, seemingly to
prove that everything over on the
Pacific coast was prOportionately
big. Trump was the Big Ike in the
community during his stay and
then he took his departure on foot.
as he came. Joe accompanied him
little distance, as was the custom
in those days.
Their route took them cross hill
and dale in the direction of dense
woods that lay along either side of
a hollow through which ran a small
stream. Reader, don't lose sight of
this woods, We'll be back to it later
on. This was the last seen of
Trump. What became of him we
never knew. No word of him ever
came back to the neighborhood.
AS time went on week after
week, it was noticed that Joe was
wearing plaid suit of clothes just
like Trump's. He was also carry
ing a large watch such as Trump
had. Further he was wearing a
wide, scaly-looking belt, but was
nothing like his brothers belt
Joes glistened in the sunlight. 1t
was made from the skin of black
snake Joe told folks that if they
wore belts like that they would
never be troubled with rheumatism.
Now lets turn to another phase of
this narritive. About the time that
Trump took his departure, a little
incident was said to have taken
place that eventually grew into
quite sensational story. A half a
mile from where Joe lived, along a
lonely ridge road, was a log cattle
barn, and nearby was a we'll for the
purpose of watering the stock 1t
was the. chore of the landowners
bachelor son, a man of sterling
qualities, to make daily trips from
the creek farm to this highland to
see after the cattle.
One night, before retiring, this
man, or some of the folks, heard
shrieks in the vicinity of this barn,
as though someone was in distress.
For good and sufficient reasons, no
doubt, the worthy servant did not
care to make any investigation, par
ticularly at that hour of night. 1t
was long hill to climb,-but that
was not all The seeds of supersti-