What skeletons’ are in your closet.

[ALACOWMAN]

there was a old black man in my home town.. Rich Hunter.. that was a son of slaves he was over a hundred years old before he died.. i was a kid but i can remember him, and could not understand a word he said... but never a better human being in existence. and respected by our town . he gave his property to 2 white brothers that were dirt poor before he died ....

 

[Dave]

Growing up my grandparents were considered to be big farmers for their time and back around 1970 they hired a 16 year old hand that couldn't read or write they provided a small house for him and helped him get his driver license and then provided a vehicle. He was given a small amount of cash each week for him to buy his necessities. All in exchange for working sun up to sundown 7 days a week. He did this for 25 years until my grandfather's death. My uncle took over providing him a 7 day a week job after that and he worked there until 2006 and it was told to me that when the time came and he was able to still work It would be my responsibility to provide employment. Unfortunately Skeeter had a stroke in 06 and is unable to work. A lot of people over the years commented about him being a slave. My grandparents gave him an acre of land and paid his social security that he didn't know anything about until he needed it when he had a stroke. Looking back now I see that they considered him their slave but made sure he was taken care of and he was free to leave but he had nowhere to go.

In the late 60's I worked on a neighbor's chicken farm/hatchery. There was a mid aged guy who worked there. Both him and his wife had IQ's in about the 60 range. They gave him a small house, paid his utilities, and enough to get by on. They really took care of him because he had nowhere else to go. He was strictly manual labor and not the best at that. At the age of 16 I was his boss at times because if you gave him a job pouring water out of a bucket he would have to be retrained about every other hour. Did they get his labor cheap? Yes. But he have a job, was as productive as he was capable of being, and I remember he sure was happy on pay day. Much better than today's welfare system. He felt proud of himself.
Now back to Jo's subject of skeltons in the closet.

 

[Caustic Burno]

my great grandfather, was a member in the KKK,,, they burned down half of a town stoled and terroized.. and that was his good side... he was murderd after winning a card game and thrown over the dam at widows creek...my grandmother told me about how she and her sisters, hid behind a door at the funeral from the klansmens....... the klan also paid for his funeral ... years later an old lady told my grandmother who killed him.........................and no i aint making this up. it happend

My great grandpa one was the big lizard around here, got his hand shot off by a shotgun crossing a fence.
We are not sure what he was out doing with the shotgun at the time.

 

[Ryder]

Story is that one of my maternal ancestors was from the New York/New Jersy area. Seems there was a love triangle going on and the other fellow somehow got knifed. Ancestor, not wanting to deal with the hangman, rode out fast under cover of darkness and eventually made his way down to Louisiana.
Here he married and had several kids.

He was a small dapper man with an Irish temper with more guts than sense. One day, story has it, he fought seven duels then jumped up on a stump and asked if anybody else wanted to try him.

Story has it that later his adventuresome spirit led him out west. One day a tight rope walker was performing walking across a deep canyon.
The ancestor, being drunk at the time, decided he could do that. He fell to his death.

It is hard for me to imagine having such an ancestor :roll: being as sedate and mild mannered as I am.
Of course I didn't take after that side of the family.

 

[cow pollinater]

I've got the James gang on one side of the family both by the James' themselves and by another guy that ran with them and the Daltons on the other side of the family.

 

[LauraleesFarm]

cow pollinator,
I am told that your family helped my dad's ancestors get out of Tennessee and into Texas (in a big hurry).

 

[Isomade]

I've got the James gang on one side of the family both by the James' themselves and by another guy that ran with them and the Daltons on the other side of the family.

I'm a Younger descendant. Can't remember exactly which one, but my uncle is a genealogist and has all the information.

 

[3waycross]

I've got the James gang on one side of the family both by the James' themselves and by another guy that ran with them and the Daltons on the other side of the family.

When i was a kid in Missouri my best buddy was a little skinny kid named Charlie Woodson. Claimed to be a close relation of Jesse James. As mean as he was i wouldn't be surprised. His only real ambition in life to was to kill his Pa when he grew up for beating him all the time. I often wonder if he got it done.

In the same area my uncle Bill in missouri was somehow tied to Cole Younger. His Daddy was named Cole Younger Henderson. Story was his grand daddy and Cole were friends and business associates. It wouldn't surprise me a bit they were definately some backwoods sonofaguns. Good folks though and were real good to me!. Ole Cole used to sell me bantie roosters($.25 apiece) to fight with my crazy cousins. Man do i miss those days.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

3way where were you from in mo? Just wondering.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

My great grandpa cut a baldknobbers head off with a sickle knife in a barn loft, but I don't know the rest of the story of what he had done, and why they were after him.

 

[greybeard]

Only skeletons in my historical closet are the ones in England's War of the Roses. We were on the "white rose" side. Bunch of conniving, murdering thugs it seems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wars_of_the_Roses



Slick, my great grandfather as well settled in Hopkins County Texas. Originally from Ala, he and his wife ran a store in a little town for many years about 1/2 way between Sulphur Springs and Emory. He's buried in the Greenview cemetery near Sulphur Springs.

 

[slick4591]

I never really had any contact with that side of granddad's family. He and my great-grandmother died before I was born. I know they had a place north of Sulphur Springs, but never knew where. Don't remember ever being taken to the cemetery, either. All the great-aunts & uncles were spread out from California to Colorado and my granddad was the only one that stayed in Texas. I probably don't want to know all the facts! :lol:

 

[ALACOWMAN]

this is my ggg grandfather he was born in 1824 married twice his second wife was a confederate soidlers widow.. he fathered his last child, a girl at sixty years of age , she and a couple more are not listed here but she died in 1960... thats a he$# of a span ... Deroy bryant is a cousin in Mabank TX... if anybody is familiar with that area.. http://genforum.com/bryant/messages/10301.html

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

My great grandpa cut a baldknobbers head off with a sickle knife in a barn loft, but I don't know the rest of the story of what he had done, and why they were after him.

I calls it a sling blade, um-hm....

 

[Commercialfarmer]

My great grandpa cut a baldknobbers head off with a sickle knife in a barn loft, but I don't know the rest of the story of what he had done, and why they were after him.

Had to look up what a bald knobber was. Found this attention grabbing...

Back in Christian County, the execution date came to bear on May 10, 1889. After a late night of prayer services and repentance, the next morning the three men were led out into an enclosed area and onto a scaffolding the sheriff built himself, despite not having any prior hanging experience in executing prisoners. After last-minute prayers and final goodbyes between a father and son, the trap was sprung. Onlookers watched the three men twist and writhe on ropes that were too long. The condemned men's feet dragged along the ground, and at one point young Billy's rope broke, leaving him writhing on the ground and calling out for help. He was re-hanged, and after thirty-four minutes, the last of them finally died. Public criticism of the botched executions ran rampant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Knobbers

:shock:

 

[Ryder]

OK. So what's a bald knobber?
Am I going to have to look it up myself?

 

[P & H cattle]

" The Bald Knobbers was a group of motivated vigilantes in the southern part of the state of Missouri, who were active during the period 1883–1889. They are commonly depicted wearing hoods with horns, a distinction that evolved during the rapid proliferation of the group into neighboring counties apart from its Taney County origins.

The group got its name from the grassy bald knob summits of the Ozark Mountains in the area. The hill where they first met is called Snapp's Bald, located just north of Kirbyville, Missouri.

The Bald Knobbers, who for the most part had sided with the North in the American Civil War, were opposed by the Anti-Bald Knobbers, who for the most part had sided with the Confederates."

 

[Ryder]

Thanks. That was a new one on me.

 

[3waycross]

My Dad's family is from Italy. They don't talk about their skeletons.......ever! They just bury them and hope they stay that way.

Mom's side is hillbilly's from Missouri and Kentucky who know's what they have pulled, but then they don't talk either.

I do know my greatgrandfathers brother tried to shoot his way back onto the boat from Denmark and my grandpa took the gun away from him. We still have it, an Iver Johnson 32. He was pretty crazy, i guess he was still brawling in the beerjoints in Warrensburg Mo well into his 70's