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A Story from My Past
A Story from My Past
I was cleaning my little computer area-sorting cd’s and just trying to make some room for a project when I came across a cd with some back up stuff on. On it I found this blog I had written a few years ago.
Grampa A
One of the neat things we did when we were up home in Michigan was go to the old family cemetery in North Star.
My mother is starting to get a little older (sorry mom) and probably doesn't have that many more times she will get there. And I don't know how many more trips I will make there either.
What was neat was being able to see family history and giving Linda a sense of who I am and the people I came from.
I knew my great grandmother, but my great grandfather died 6 years before I was born. They had raised both my mom and my uncle Jack for much of their early lives, so I had many stories of both told to me over the years. But my uncle Jack finally revealed one that had never been told to me. I'll try to tell it with out too much embellishment.
It seems that around the turn of the century my great grandfather was the sheriff for Gratiot County. One of his pride and joys was the matched pair of horses that pulled his carriage so he could take his sweetie (my great grandmother) for a ride on Sunday afternoons.
Well as the story goes-
One dark moonless night a scurrilous pair crept thru the shadows and eased they're way into the dark barn. Once inside the barn they opened the stalls and led the two horses out and away into the night. The next morning when great grandpa A went to feed the pair he discovered that they were gone.
Leaving the barn he went and got a couple of deputies and they began to investigate. After checking the local bars, boarding house and interviewing suspects they found that two near do well drifters from Tennessee had disappeared in the middle of the night with all their belongings, leading two horses with them.
Grandpa left his deputies in charge, rushed home and told his brother Arley to take care of his wife and babies. He kissed his young wife goodbye, packed a bag, grabbed his colt revolver and caught the train. He was headed south in pursuit.
Once in Tennessee he was told of two brothers who had just returned from up north with a matched pair of dapple-grays. The next morning grandpa snuck thru the woods and up to the brother's barn. He was peering in the barn and had seen his horses when the brothers came up behind him. When grandpa demanded his property back an argument ensued with one of the brothers pulling a gun. Grandpa pulled his, shot twice and both brothers died where they had stood.
As grandpa was leading his horses from the barn the local sheriff arrived and asked my great grandfather what had happened. He told the sheriff who he was, showed him his badge and why he had killed the two men. The Tennessee sheriff told him not to worry about burying the two horse thieves, he would take care of it. And did my grandfather need any help loading his horses on the next train north, as the pair did have kin in the area and it might be wise if he left as soon as possible.
He agreed, got the horses loaded on the next train and returned home to his family, never to leave them again until the day he died.
This story is a true one, well mostly and I'm sticking by it, after all mom, your brother wouldn't lie would he?
Hope you enjoyed
posted on Apr 25, 2009 6:29 AM ()
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