Things My Grandfather Told Me Tales of The Night Riders & Winning A Lottery

A story that made me glad for a young boy and his bride, a story that made me shiver and want to hurry past a dark window al night, and stories that made my sisters and brothers roll with laughter were some of the "things my grandfather told me."

I was never sure why Grandfather told stories night after night. Was it because we would sit absolutely quiet and never tire of listening, or because he wanted to save the battery on his Atwater Kent radio with its separate speaker? We would hurry through supper and rush to Grandfather's room to hear two wonderful radio programs, "Tompkin's Corner" and "Amos and Andy." As soon as the two programs were over and a fifteen-minute news program, to which Grandfather listened intently, we anxiously awaited his stories. Just as soon as the news cast was over the 1928 radio was switched off. Grandmother always wondered how voices came out of one part when he had switched on another.

The stories Grandfather told us were about a young man and a woman, with two slaves coming from Hillsdale, Virginia to Elliot County, Kentucky in the early 1850s. To this union was born three boys and two girls. The fourth child was my grandfather, born in a little log cabin on Caney Creek on April 2, 1859. He told us how he had lived in these mountains with only three years' schooling. Grandmother often told us, "But when other boys were idlin', the man I later married was studying his sums and learning everything he could." Later this young man came to Robertson County Kentucky and was employed by a man named Holland. Grandfather never could remember his first name.

At that time the county seat was rough enough to be called, "Hell's Half-Acre," but now is known as Mt. Olivet. Here he hired out again to another farmer and after sixteen months he married the farmer's daughter.

"We went into housekeeping in one room log cabin with a huge fireplace and a lean-to kitchen. Since I had been saving my wages for about two years, we decided we were rich enough to put real wallpaper, with red roses on it, on the living room walls, but we were not rich enough to paper the lean-to kitchen. Your grandmother, not to be outdone, decided to paper the kitchen with newspapers. We had a hard time even to find enough newspapers for only 'the established folk' took a newspaper."

This six-foot four inch bridegroom helped paper the new home. As they pasted on the newspapers one little block of print caught their attention. It read, "Five dollars will buy one whole ticket in the Louisiana Lottery, buy one-fifth ticket for one dollar." They read this and pasted on a few more papers and reread those nineteen tantalizing words. Grandmother said they just could not buy one when a dollar would buy so many necessities, but Grandfather had other ideas. The next afternoon with his "necessity list" in his pocket, he rode into the county seat. There he entered the post office, wrote his name and address on a piece of paper from the floor and with it put a one dollar bill into an addressed stamped envelope. Grandfather told his bride about the careless use of their money. No one knows what Grandmother said.

Crops were planted and harvested, and the tobacco was stripped and ready to deliver by wagon to Maysville, Kentucky, The much needed dollar was almost forgotten. After delivering the tobacco to a buyer in Maysville, then Grandfather just happened to go to the depot. There he heard that a Robertson County man held a fifth ticket in the Louisiana Lottery worth $15,000.00. Grandmother later told us, "It wasn't fair, for I didn't get to see how your grandfather looked when he first realized he was a rich man, for he was rich compared to his bank account before."

After Grandfather recovered from the shock, he wanted to build a new house with real wallpaper on all the rooms. They built a thirteen-room home with two halls and a front, side, and back porch. He insisted that all three outside doors be glass. These glass doors probably saved their lives years later. Later Grandfather bought a four-hundred-acre farm, mostly for $10.00 per acre. He also bought a farm in Montgomery County that some people remember today as the "dollar farm."

This story made us glad for many reasons, but Grandfather would always say, "Now children, don't repeat a word of this at school, for others didn't feel as we did."

As Grandfather began this story, it made him noticeably nervous as he relived it. He told us, "Back in the early 1900s, Night Riders with masked faces tried to keep Kentucky farmers from raising and selling tobacco. Now I never believed in mob rule in any form and with my independent Kentucky mountain and Virginia blood, I just continued to raise tobacco and sold it, too. Word reached us that a farmer in Nicholas County was visited by masked riders one night and as he stepped to the door to answer their call, he was shot down. This was about the last of December. I was worried over this news and immediately went to Governor Wilson in Frankfort. The governor gave me six new guns and a small keg of ammunition, with further promise of sending troops.

"On New Year's Eve, two of our wagons were loaded with stripped tobacco in readiness to haul to Maysville the following day. The weather was clear and mild for midwinter. Your daddy was ten years old then. That afternoon your father had received fifty cents for washing two rubber tire buggies down at the pond. His two older brothers were taking their girls to a watch party in town. The party was given by the local editor's daughter, who was also their Sunday School teacher. When the watch was over and their dates home, your uncles came down the road together. As they topped the big hill, they saw a campfire. When they reached the flats there were forty or fifty men on horseback. These men neither spoke or tried to stop the boys. The boys rode on and reigned up in the lot and hurried to call me. I in turn told your grandmother to dress quickly. She awoke the other children, and helped them to dress quickly without noise or light. When we were all dressed I told your grandmother to take the girls and your daddy into a small room that we called the blue room, in the center of the house. By this time your uncles were back from putting their horses in the stable. They were also warned of noise and light.

"Then I stationed myself at the front door with one son at the side and one at the back door. Each was armed with two new guns and a supply of bullets. The boys were told not to shoot unless someone tried to force his way into the room, then shoot to kill. Again we waited. In a few minutes we could hear the horses coming. As they rode into the lower yard, I caught a glint of the masked riders' guns in the moonlight. I couldn't be exactly sure but thought I recognized some of my neighbors in the crowd. But I never held it against them. They were just kind of sick with mob fever. Someone yelled, 'Come on out.' Knowing what happened to Mr. Hedges in Nicholas County, I never said a word. Soon another of the riders yelled, 'Come on out or we will dynamite the house.' Still I said nothing, although I could hear the weather boarding being ripped from the house. After mumbled conversation, one of the men stomped across the front porch to the glass door. I could see out into the moonlight but the man could not see within. The man in a mob-crazed voice shouted, 'Come on out or we will come in and get you.' I answered back in a calm voice, 'Come on in if you want to, but I have a gun leveled about six inches from your head. The instant you turn this door knob, I'll shoot.' The man hurried into the yard. No one bothered the side or back doors. All was quiet, too quiet. Then from out near the chicken house came one shot. Immediately the blasts of the remaining guns seemed to shake the house and we could hear glass falling everywhere. Not a single window pane was left and most of the weather boarding had to be replaced. (Author's note: Some of the shots can be seen in the trim of the house today.) But not one of us were hurt in the least. The downstairs rooms are log you know, cut from this very farm." Grandfather ended in a quivering voice, "The troops were sent and were camped at the Blue Licks, just seventeen miles away on the night of the destruction." We were always so keyed up when this story was over, we could scarcely sleep.

This information was put in the "Robertson County Historical Society" paper