Ruralite Cafe: Published 02/20/03

By Lynn Hotaling - Associate Editor

Readers share family Civil War stories

Luckily for me, several of our faithful readers possess better memories than I and were willing to fill in the gaps in my recollections.

Gladys Hooper of Tuckasegee, Blanche Wike of East LaPorte and Fannie Mae Brown of Canada community, who are all approaching 90, shared stories that are legendary in their particular family circles.

All three heard these accounts first-hand, from the lips of the grandparent or aunt who lived through the Civil War and its difficult aftermath.

Gladys tells of her husband's grandmother, Ingabo Wood Queen, daughter of Andy Jackson Wood and Jane Henderson Wood, who lived near Wolf Creek Baptist Church in the area now called Graze Ridge Road. Ingabo married the Rev. Askew C. Queen, who was mentioned in The Herald a few months ago because he was the first pastor of Speedwell Baptist Church, which celebrated its centennial in November.

Gladys's late husband, Ayscue, was named for his grandfather Queen, though his mother, Mary Jane Queen Hooper, decided to change the spelling of the name, Gladys said.

Ingabo, who was 98 when she died in 1957, was just a little girl clinging to her mother's skirts when the soldiers came.

"Her mother was just starting to cook lunch when a group of soldiers came along with a lot of horses," Gladys said. "They started shooting and killing all her mother's chickens, and then they told her mother to clean and cook those chickens for (the soldiers') lunch. Then the soldiers gathered up all the corn and everything else Grandma Ingabo's family had and took it with them."

Ingabo told Gladys her mother cried and cried after the soldiers left.

"She said she was so scared she just peeked around her mother's skirts. It was a very frightening time," Gladys said.

Incidents recounted in Alley's book mention Col. George Kirk, who was known to have carried out raids on farms in and around Jackson County. Gladys said the way the family understood the story, it was Kirk's men who stole from the Wood family.

Blanche's oral history was passed down to her by her husband's (Oscar Wike) aunt, Mellie Wike, who never married and was 89 when she died in 1940 or 1941. Mellie's story was of the precautions her family took to ensure renegades didn't make off with their food and livestock.

A teenager duing the Civil War, Mellie was charged with safeguarding her family's best horses and cattle by taking them off past Wike Cemetery to keep them safe.

"It was thick woods in those days and there's a bluff above the (Tuckaseigee) river," Blanche said "They gave her the job of taking the good cattle and horses over to the end of the cemetery and staying with them. They just left an old cow or horse in the barn."

Another prudent action by her husband's grandparents, John Wike and Margaret Monteith Wike, was to dig a pit on the ridge across from their house to hide their provisions.

"They buried most of their meat and flour and only left a little in the house," Blanche said. "They had heard that when the soldiers passed through, they carried off or destroyed everything they found."

Blanche said she had an aunt who lived in Norton who told of soldiers taking the family's dinnerware outside and smashing it on a rock. That story is reminiscent of the way Kirk's raiders ruined the Col. John Alley family's bedding by piling it up and pouring a barrel of molasses over it. Howard Alley recounts that episode in "Presumed Dead," the novel he wrote last year.

Our last story for this week comes from Fannie Mae Brown, who lives near Rock Bridge in Canada community. It took place at her grandfather's farm on what is now known as Cedar Valley Road and tells how one mountain family thwarted the renegades' plans.

Fannie Mae's grandfather and some other men were making syrup one day when Yankee soldiers rode up and demanded the horses hitched to the cane mill. After the soldiers rode off with her grandpa's horses, he and the other men got their guns and took off across the mountain by the graveyard to head them off, Fannie Mae said.

"They brought the horses back, but the soldiers were never seen again," she said.

The soldiers' disappearance gave rise to a number of strange events, according to Fannie Mae.

"That place has been haunted ever since that happened. People used to see things there," she said.

Fannie Mae's late brother, Grover Brown, used to tell stories of odd happenings and apparitions along the creek. Several of the stories involved dogs that were usually seen at night.

"If you were going up the creek, they'd be coming down," Grover once told me."It's a hard thing to tell about. It looks just like you're seeing a dog, but somehow you know you're not."

"My pop used to stay at Joe Shook's house sometimes, and he'd meet those dogs going up and then he'd meet them coming down," he said. "So one night he kicked one, only he didn't kick anything except he about kicked his knee out of socket and couldn't walk for a week."

Grover had another story of a young man who was courting up that way and saw a large, white dog.

"People told him to be careful - that he'd see strange things up there and told him about the dog. He said he didn't care - he'd shoot it. So he did. And when he shot the dog, balls of fire flew everywhere - balls of fire as big as a gallon bucket - all over him and his horse. That horse ran so hard he couldn't go again for a week," Grover said.

According to Grover, who told me the stories in 1988, those dogs haven't been seen since Joe Marion Shook died in 1962.

"I saw one that night, the only one I ever saw, and as far as I know, no one's seen any since then," Grover said."

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