EARLY LINCOLN COUNTY FAMILIES
"MRS. JAB BY WANDA BROWNING FALK"

CHAPTER ONE EARLY CHILDHOOD When you are up in years as I am, folks are likely to ask, "Grandma what is the first thing you can remember?" Gracious me! How far back can a child remember? We hear something told over and over again by older members of our family, and we aren't sure whether we really remember or not. Anyway, I do not remember some things that happened when I was close to three years old. It was 1849 and we were living on the White River in Southern Missouri. We were at the supper table when my brother Allen (just turned eighteen) announced that he was going to join the gold hunters in California. He said a caravan from our colony would be leaving in ten days.  I was heart-broken, for Allen was my oldest brother who took mighty good care of me. I remember bursting into tears and yelling "Don't leave me, Allen! Don't leave me!" and my Pa hushing me in one hurry by demanding, "Dry your tears, Angie, or leave the table." My mother looked very sad, and my Pa looked as sour as green apples, but my other five brothers went hog -wild with excitement and talked of nothing else for the next ten days. I remember the big girls in the settlement bringing tree branches to put on the wheels of the wagons and gathering wild flowers to hang around the oxen's necks. The morning the caravan was to move out, Allen came to me with a package, and he said, "Angie, this is for a big girl who never cries." I opened the package and there were two pretty side combs and a pair of knitting needles. I looked over my mother and she had the identical presents. I was prouder than a peacock, and I did try not to cry, but when the teams started up the tears rolled down my cheeks; but at least I didn't make any noise or fuss, and I just hoped Allen was to far away to see my tears. The part I didn't know about until years later, when my brother Preston told me, was that Allen had had a real argument with Pa that evening when he first announced his plans. It seems that Ma and all the boys were some surprised that Allan had the grit to cross Pa and actually make a move to leave the nest. Pres said he would never forget that evening as long as he lived. After supper, Allen and Pa sat down under the big tee to the right of our door. Pres and John didn't dare go near the tree (John was sixteen and Pres nine). They sat out to the side of the house and stretched their ears to listen. They were to scared to move and to interested to keep whittling, which was what they were supposed to be doing.   Pres said it was like two big bulls eyeing each other. That's a good likeness, come to think about it, for both Pa and Allen were big men. Both were over six feet, but Pa filled out all over and weighed a lot more. Some neighbors said that my father, Thomas McCarty, was a brawny, friendly happy Irishman, but others call him hard-bargaining, strait-laced, tight-lipped Scotchman. All agreed that Allen was the "spittin' image" of his Pa; and they were mighty good- looking men with dark curls and Irish blue eyes. Pres said Pa seemed calm and peaceful enough when he asked Allen about this uproar in California, and Allen answered him cool as a cucumber. "Pa, it is rumored that gold has been found in Californy that a man can grow rich in a day by simply picking up rocks on top o' the ground." Allen was heating up a little. "Charles Lucas brought word from the east that President Polk vowed this was no rumor. There is gold there, all right! Plenty of it!" Then every rakshell in the country will be headed west by sun-up. You're to young for such a trip among robbers and thieves and worse!" "I'm eighteen, pa and I'm not the youngest in our colony who expects to head west soon." Pres and the other boys nearly swallowed their tongues when Allen went on, halfway poking fun at Pa. "I do remember being told there was one Thomas McCarty, who at the ripe age of eighteen took for his wife one Rebecca Comstock, who traveled with him from Kentucky to the wilds of Indiana." "Are you thinking of taking a wife on this journey?" Allen roared with laughter at the shocked look on Pa's face. "That I am not. There are maidens about, but I'm doing my traveling first; make my pile, then settle down." "You are wise there, Son Many women are poor travelers." But Pa wasn't giving in this easy. "You know nothing of your country to the east and less of this barren land to the west. That is not all; you know so little of your forekin, where they came from, what they did! I tell you, Son, you are not ready to fly out of the nest." "So!" retorted Allen, "I haven't listened to you to tell all of us again about your up-bringin'." John winked at all the boys scrunched down at the side of the house; then he sauntered around lazy-like to the tree. The rest followed a few at a time and waited to see if Pa would wave them away, but he didn't. Pres said Ma let me out of the house about then, and I crept into Pa's arms and fell fast asleep in a few minutes. Wouldn't you know it! But Pa's strong, melodious voice could lull and charm far older women than I. When he read the Bible to us, it would give you goose pimples. If he had been a calmer man, he would have been a wonderful preacher. Pres said Pa let out all the stops that evening and repeated all his best stories. He didn't hesitate to tell his sons that the Scotchman had been driven out of England because they didn't see eye to eye on religious questions. They moved over into Ireland and taught the Irish a few things about thrift and orderliness, but the thanks they got for that was to be invited out of their adopted home and told to move out fast. What did that Irish period contribute to the family? ( I can see Pa's eyes crinkling at the corners when he's tickled about something.) "Oh, a bit o' the brogue that will last for generations!" Pa pointed out that by 1789 thousands of these Scotch-Irish had arrived in Pennsylvania. There were a lot of other immigrants there, and they were going to stay, for the Allegheny mountains discouraged movement westward. But don't think these stopped the Scotch-Irish. They just up and found a passageway to the north, traveled around the mountains and south again until they reached the edge of Virginia.   There the Garrett s, Penergrass es, Haig s, Grey s, Blake s, McGrath s, and McCarty s built homes, tilled the soil, worshiped God as good Presbyterians. Sure they had to fight Indians! Sure they had to conquer the wilderness! In 1802 the McCarty couple had a son and they named him Thomas. Pa said it was no concern of his that President Jefferson the next year acquired the Louisiana Territory. He had no more reason to be concerned about western expansion when he was eight years old, for his own little world collapsed. His parents died of a strange and vicious fever, apparently malaria. A lot of folks in that settlement died of the same ailment. Pa said he would be forever grateful to the Blakes and the McGraths who looked after him, and when the Blakes moved the next year they took your Thomas with them. Pa grew up near the Cumberland Gap where he watched the emigrant wagons travel through this natural gateway in a never ending line. He listened a lot around the campfires at night, and he learned more and more about the country west of Kentucky and Tennessee and the Mississippi River. Pa let the boys know he was taking care of himself by the time he was twelve, and when he was eighteen, he was full-grown and ready to strike out for himself.  He married Rebecca Comstock of the Kentucky Comstock s, and a new wife was reason enough to hit the for the new country. The McCarty s joined a caravan heading toward Indiana and Ohio. Then the news came that New York State had, at last, started the Erie Canal. Thomas and Rebecca rushed to the scene of this exciting enterprise, and there Thomas worked as a subcontractor until the canal was finished in 1825.   The MaCarty s settled down at Terre Haute, Indiana, and watched an Indian stockade blossom into a thriving city. Pa admitted that he loved the excitement of road and canal building, and he decided that it was the right place and the right time to start the family. He reminded the boys they were born at Terre Hauteù all six of them, and three sisters besides.  Then the excitement was over. Indiana was bankrupt because she had invested too heavily in highways and byways. Pa said he had a feeling in his bones that hard times were coming, and he felt restless and uneasy. He knew they should get out while the getting was good, but he couldn't persuade Rebecca. She kept putting him off week after week, and finally she just said she was going to stay in civilized country among civilized people. So Thomas said he would take the six boys along with him, and she could look after the girls. That was about all I ever did find out about this split-up. My brother John, the solemn, quiet boy of the bunch, told me when I was too curious one day, that his mother, Rebecca, knew Pa would never come back, so she sued for divorce and got it in less than a year. Pa never opened his mouth about it again, and you can bet I never questioned him. Pa had told all the history he was going to say that evening. He turned to Allen with, "The rest you can remember well: you were twelve by then." Allen wasn't quite ready to close the discussion. He answered, "Yes I do remember. We traveled to Missouri, and we went through St. Louis and St. Genevieve. You told us that people there were French, and we looked them over hard, because we never heard of such. You took one look at the White River country and told us we were going to start a saw mill. We did just that and we never worked any harder in our lives, but I liked it." Allen had to get in a little teasing, though, which is something none of the rest of us ever had the nerve to do with Pa. "I keep thinking, though, that it seems a mite strange that you chose this particular spot to build a saw mill. It couldn't have been that a certain pretty little French girl, Salle LaFource, had something to do with sudden decision to stay in these parts." The other boys, Pres said, held their breaths at Allen's daring. But Pa just brushed him off. "That's no concern of yours, Son. Marion, go look after the horses, and I'll put this young lady to bed. She is getting heavier than a ton of led." Allen chuckled, but then said very seriously, "Sallie is pretty, she's good, and she's my friend." That was the opinion echoed by all the boys' I can tell you that for sure. When Pa married Sallie LaForce in 1844, the boys were nightly surprised, but they soon found out this young girl knew how to make a house a home.   Sallie's first baby was a boy who died after birth; then I came along, Jeanette Angelina. Imagine one baby girl among all those boys! I guess they set out to spoil me rotten, but Pa made it plain that he didn't like spoiled children around. My three older half-brothers, Allen, John, Thaddeus, were my guardians, while Marion, James, Preston were my playmates.  I remember that Ma worked night and day to finish a coat for Allen to take to California. Of course she had to weave and sew by hand. Ma actually made two coats in one; the inside was plaid material and the outside was a plain color. I know how much Allen appreciated it; he was the kind who would make a lot over it if you handed him a pretty wildflower. Pa and Allen parted friends, but they never saw each other again. We heard from Allen once or twice a year, but the mail didn't get to us often, and there was no pony express until 1860. This next episode is one that I remember very distinctly, although I must have been about three and a half years old. It was Sunday morning and we were at the breakfast table when Pa announced suddenly, "Marion, get the horses; your Ma and I are going to church this morning." "What will I do with Angie?" asked Ma gently. "Well, I guess Marion and Preston are big enough to take care of her!" and Pa left the room.   "Oh, Ma," Pres whined, "Marion and I wanted to go down the land and climb trees." " You can take Angie with you." "With them fat, short legs taggin' along!" "Take her or stay at the house all day." The folks weren't out of sight until we were down the wide lane looking for the tallest tree to climb. Suddenly Marion yelled, "There's the red bull coming! Quick, Angie, we gotta climb a tree!" Sure enough, the big bull that belonged to our neighbor was coming right down the lane toward us. We hoped he hadn't seen us yet. Each boy grabbed one of my fat hands and ran to the nearest tree. Marion swung up first to a lower limb, then he reached for me. " Lift her up quick, Pres, and you get yourself up in one hurry!" There we sat, awaiting the approach of one of the meanest bulls around. He lumbered along slowly, lowing softly; lowing softly then he would stop long enough to shake his head in vain attempt to rid himself of the pesky flies, that buzzed about him. Maybe you think our hearts weren't beating fast! He came right under the tree where we were perched, and there we stopped. He flung his head over his own shoulder and then the other, wile the slobber flew from his head over his own shoulder and then the other, while the slobber flew from his mouth in all directions, some of it actually reaching Pres's big toe clinched like a vise to the limb of the tree. It seemed like hours, but it couldn't have been many minutes until Mr. Bull ambled on up the lane absolutely unconscious of the terror he was spreading. "Well, we're in the same fix we wuz. He's ætween us and the house." Marion was always the pessimist. As we were figuring out what to do, we heard the sharp clickety-clack of a loping horse down the road, and a rider came into view. He spied us crouched in the tree and raced up shouting at the top of his lungs. "Git to the house, all of you. Yer pa's been shot." Then he was past us, rushing our enemy, the bull away off to the side of the lane. We didn't even think about the bull any more as we ran after the horse and rider, crying as we went. "Who did it?" gasped Marion to John, who stood at the yard gate waiting for us. "Ole Sully," he answered in a tired voice. Marion turned and looked at Pres and said bitterly, "Yeah! He's been spoilin' for a fight for a long time." Then a neighbor man came out to tell us, "Your pa and ma took a short cut to church over one o' Sully's pastures just like they've done a heep o' times but Sully was in a bad mood, I guess, and ordered them offen his land. Yer pa isn't one to take orders like that without explanation, so he had words with him; and the next thing, according to y'r ma, Sully had out his gun and shot your pa right through the belly. Yer ma sez the bullet went through him and out his back clean as a whistle but he sur is bleedin'!"  I remember running into the house to find my mother kneeling over my Pa who was white as a bed sheet. I was scared silly, of course, and started crying out aloud. Thaddeaus grabbed me up and ran out of the room, whispering, "Angie! You can't be a cry-baby. You gotte be big. Ma's got no time to pay you mind now. Pa is awful bad." Sometime that afternoon Ma called us to the door and said very quietly, "John, you are to take Allen's place her now. While I doctor your pa, you take care of Angie and the boys. See that they mind you. I won't have time to look after any of you."  We crept around that house for seventeen days, and we didn't cross patient, solem John once. We were just that scared. I didn't know until I was older what kind of doctoring Ma was doing, but she told me later she probed the wound each day with a narrow piece of silk, using slippery elm bark for a tube to keep the wound open and draining properly. She also made a slippery, sticky mucilage by boiling the elm bark and water together. This was used to draw inflamation from the wound. Imagine what doctors would say about all this nowadays! I know the neighbors gathered in the yard at different times, and they shook their heads and looked very sad. None of them expected Pa to live. On the seventeenth day, word got around that his bowels finally moved. Folks seemed so relieved and wore such happy faces! I didn't see why that was so important, but twenty years later when I was doctoring my own, I often thought of this very important event. It was just a month afterwards that Ole Sully heard that Thomas McCarty was up and about and ending fast. Much to the amusement of the whole community, Sully suddenly sold out and moved to some other district. John brought the word to us that Sully was gone, and he remarked in his slow, solem way, "Know, maybe we can have peace for quiet a spell." Of course I had to know later on what caused this shooting, and as usual it was good old Pres who tried to explain it to me. He told me it was all harkened back to a long time ago when our Pa got interested in the Regulator and Moderator feud.(1) Pres said he was sure the whole thing was past and gone except maybe in that little corner of Missouri. In thinking it was over years later, Pres thought Pa and Sully were just trying to taunt each other. Anyway, the neighbor men told our boys that Pa was proud of his Moderator stock of seventy years back, while Ole Sully swore by his Regulator stock. They just seemed to like to argue over this every time they met, but election time care around and the argument got pretty heated, Sully bragging that he was the only real Democrat in the whole settlement. It seemed he didn't take to our Pa's ideas about Free-Soilers (2) You might know I didn't understand any of this until many years later when I studied some of my grandchildren's history books. Maybe me brothers were right when they said the whole mess would have died out early if the people in the settlement hadn't kept egging Pa and Sully on, just for the lack of something better to do. Pres remembered John and Ma trying to figure out what the feud was really about, and John drawling out in his slow way, "Don't men find the damndest things to go shootin' over!" For once Ma didn't scold him, even if he did use a swear word before a lady. Footnote:1. Collier Encyclopedia. 1765-1771 Regulator Moment started in Carolinas. The back country farmers took government in their own hands to drive out law country grasping tax collectors. They opposed armed force with force. Moderators took side of army, which finally subdued Regulators in Battle of Alamanac. Footnote: 2. The Record of America, Adams and Vannest. By 1848 the northern Democrats were insisting on a more definite stand as to slavery. They held a convention in Buffalo and called themselves "Free-Soil, Free labor and Free Men." The split in Democratic party caused Van Buren, a Wig, to be elected.

Transcribed and Submitted by Mary Lafferty Wilson

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