Memorable Baptizing at the Bluff Hole, Glover’s Creek

Around 1910, there was a large group to be immersed in the waters of Glover’ s Creek by the Rev. John I. Tinsley. A crowd had assembled, the candidates presented themselves, there was prayer, and James Pizarro Wood led a song. Louisa McIntyre lived so near that she put on her bonnet and walked down to the Bluff Hole. Jake Slaughter (not married to Lottie Wood as yet) hitched his mule and walked down the bank of the creek. The baptizing got under way. Lillie May Wheet presented herself, but just then her husband, Jessie Wheet, waded in, held a knife over John I’s head, and demanded him to let her go. Max Holder, who had been to his moonshine bottle too often, waded in to aid the preacher. Mansfield Wheet, also drunk, came in to help somebody. Then Jim Gosnell joined in to do something to anybody. He did. He cut Max Holder across the stomach. Blood flowed until the water was red. The preacher fled barefooted up the creek. The baptismal candidates ran from the water up the bank making it so slick that everyone was sliding backward in his flight. Aunt Lou McIntyre hung her bonnet on a limb and was falling backward into the water when Jake Slaughter caught her just in time. Looking around, Jake saw Pearlie Gosnell sinking in quicksand. He rescued her (she, being deaf and dumb, had no idea of the goings on). There was bedlam! Some trying to get Max Holder out and to a doctor (his wound was almost fatal); some trying to get the drunks out. Throughout it all, James Pizarro Wood kept his cool. He just started singing: “When the Battle’s Over, We Shall Wear A Crown”. Later someone brought suit against one of the participants for “disturbing the peace”, but when asked, the preacher swore that he was not disturbed which ended the trial. (Rumor always had it that the preacher got a new wagon from the father of the young man)

Nothing New Under The Sun

Capital Hill never had “the best little whore—house in Texas”, naturally, but tradition has it that after the so—called hurricane tore into the heavily wooded area between the “Big Road” and the Capital Hill Road, small cabins were built in the “Harrican” to house women of ill repute. This proved to be a convenient arrangement for the farmers who loaded their wagons with extra corn, wheat, meat, etc. and headed for Jim Town and Shives’ Mill to barter for provisions for their “kept” women.

The Death of Leonard Carver 1936

Before the day of Medicare and Medicaid, generation which sends aged parents to so—called nursing homes, the aged were, sent to a County—run Poor House. Such was the case of Leonard Carver (“Uncle Len” to all who knew him). The irony of this case was the fact that Len and Mary Carver over the years had taken in two orphaned relatives, Susie Carver and Ruel Slaughter, and provided for them as best they could from their small farm. After Mary died, Len was sent to the Poor House where he was upset and troublesome and always trying to get back to his old neighborhood. On Tuesday, July 9, 1936, Uncle Len told other inmates that he was leaving. So he left the Poor House at age 83 to walk to Tracy.

On Wednesday, July 10, 1936, Billy Roundtree, age 14, and Jim Underwood, age 14, were swimming in Skeggs Creek below the old bridge on Jimtown Road when they discovered the body of a man. They called the workers on the new bridge who pulled the body from the water. County officials were called and the body was taken to a Glasgow funeral home. Upon examination, severe bruises and cuts were found. There was one bruise under the chin running from ear to ear.

The flesh was cut to the bone on the left side of the head, apparently with a blunt instrument. Uncle Len had told several people near Bristletown that the County-House keeper had beaten him. There was no water in his lungs indicating that he was dead when he was put into the water. The body appeared to have been dragged on the ground.
When the Keeper was called to the stand, he told of having trouble with Carver on Sunday and even prior to then and that he did strike him with his walking cane (“Not hard enough to kill a fly! “). The cane had a crooked handle—blunt instrument? He also stated that when he came from Glasgow on Tuesday, he was told that Carver had gone to Tracy. He also said he went to Dry Fork on Tuesday night by the way of Jackson Highway and Austin returning by Roseville. Also, he said he went fishing in the Cumberland River on Wednesday and just got back the day of the examining trial (Thursday).
All evidence pointed to murder, but as no witnesses appeared against him and there were no Carver relatives to demand that justice be done, (after all, Len was just a pauper in the “Poor House;) the Keeper went Scot—free.