USA > Georgia > Floyd County > Rome > A history of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia, United States of America; including numerous incidents of more than local interest, 1540-1922, Volume I > Part 30
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"When we went into camp near Ma- nassas, while Gen. Wm. M. Gardner, later of Rome, was in command, Bill took the general a lot of beautiful honey, which was highly appreciated, and while he was enjoying it at the breakfast table an old man came up
and in pitiful language informed him how some soldiers came to his house last night and robbed him of all his honey, twelve hives in all, and they worth five dollars apiece, and now he was a ruint man, and the girls couldn't git no clothes, and the cofee was out, and the old 'oman was sick, and so forth.
"The general was a West Pointer and a strict constructionist, and he was proud of his regiment; so that evening at dress parade he made them a nice little speech about a soldier's honor, and about this honey business, and wound up by saying that he didn't know who stole the honey, and didn't want to know, and he wasn't going to try to find out, but he wanted every man who was willing to help pay the old man for his loss to step five paces to the front.
"Bill Arp was the first man to step out; he threw up his hat and hollered 'Hurrah for Ginrul Gardner!' The whole regiment stepped forward and joined in cheers for their noble gen- eral, while Bill, without waiting for orders, went down the line with his hat, saying, 'Put in, boys, put in; the general is right; let's pay the old man and git the gals some clothes. I golly, the gals must have some clothes!'
"They made up about ninety dollars and the old man was paid and went
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his way rejoicing, and the remainder of the fund was turned over to the hospital.
"While in camp at Centerville dur- ing the bitter winter of 1861-2, the or- ders against contraband whisky were very strict, but still, the soldiers man- aged somehow to keep in pretty good spirits. One day a six-horse team from Page County drove into camp, loaded down with sixteen barrels of very fine apples. The hind gate was taken off and a barrel set down and the head knocked in, and the boys bought them quite freely. After a while another barrel was set down, and in course of time Col. Jno. R. Towers, another no- ble Roman, of the Miller Rifles, ob- served that Bill and some others were quite hilarious, and he suspected there was something wrong about that wagon, and procured an order from Gen. Sam Jones to examine it. On inspection he found there was a five gallon keg of apple brandy in each of six of the barrels, and the kegs were packed around with apples. The gen- eral ordered a confiscation. He sent a keg to each of the five regimental hos- pitals, and had the sixth keg sent to his tent and put under his cot.
"Bill Arp did not seem to be pleased with the distribution, and wagged his head ominously. He was on the de- tail that was to guard the general's headquarters that night; and so, the next morning, when the general con- cluded to sample the brandy, and sent down for a few of us to come up and join him in a morning cocktail, he discovered that the keg was gone. Col. Towers was there, and sent for a list of the guard, and when he saw Bill Arp's name, he quietly remarked, 'I un- derstand it now.' All doubts were re- moved; no search was made, for the general enjoyed the joke; but that night the keg was replaced under his cot with about half its original con- tents. Bill said he was always will- ing to 'tote fair and divide with his friends.'
"This is enough of Bill Arp-the original simon pure. He was a good soldier in war, the wit and wag of the camp-fires, and made many a home-sick youth laugh away his mel- ancholy. He was a good citizen in peace. When told that his son was dead, he showed no surprise, but 'sim- ply said, 'Major, did he die all right?' When assured that he did, Bill wiped away a falling tear and said, 'I only wanted to tell his mother.'
"You may talk about heroes and
heroines. I have seen all sorts, and so has most everybody who was in the war, but I never saw a more de- voted heroine than Bill Arp's wife. She was a very humble woman, very, but she loved her husband with a love that was passing strange. I don't mean to say that any woman's love is passing strange, but I have seen that woman in town, three miles from her home, hunting around by night for her husband, going from one grocery to another and in her kind, loving voice inquiring 'Is William here?' or 'Do you know where William is?'
"Blessings on that poor woman! I have almost cried for her many a time. Poor William-how she loved him! How tenderly would she take him when she found him, and lead him home, bathe his head and put him to bed. She always looked pleased and thankful when asked about him, and would say, 'He is a good little man, but you know he has his failings.'
"She loved Bill and he loved her; he was weak and she was strong. There are some such women now, I reckon; I hope so. I know there are some such men."
* "BIG JOHN" UNDERWOOD .- " 'Big John' was one of the earliest settlers of Rome, and one of her most notable men. For several years he was known by his proper name of John H. Underwood, but when John W. H. Underwood moved there, he was identified by his superior size and gradually lost his surname, and was known far and near as 'Big John.' Col. Jno. W. H. Underwood, who came to be distinguished as a member of Congress, and afterward as a judge, was a man of large physique, weigh- ing about 225 pounds, but 'Big John' pulled down the scales at a hundred pounds more, and had shorter arms and shorter legs, but his circumfer- ence was correspondingly immense. He was noted for his good humor. The best town jokes came from his jolly, fertile fancy, and his comments on men and things were always origi- nal, and as terse and vigorous as ever came from the brain of Dr. Johnson. He was a diamond in the rough. He had lived a pioneer among the Indians of the Cherokee, and it was said fell in love with an Indan maid, the daugh- ter of old Testenuggee, a limited chief, and never married because he could not marry her. But if his disappoint- ment preyed upon his heart, it did not prey upon the region that enclosed it, for he continued to expand his pro-
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portions. He was a good talker and earnest laugher. Whether he laugh- ed and grew fat, or grew fat and laughed, the doctors could not tell; which was cause and which was ef- feet is still in doubt, but I have heard the wise men affirm that laughing was the fat man's safety valve, that if he did not laugh and shake and vibrate frequently, he would grow fatter and fatter until his epidermic cutiele could not contain his oleaginous corporosity. Dr. Chisolm, of Charleston, is said to have put this matter beyond all dis- pute, for he had a fat man weighed but a few hours before Ar- temus Ward lectured in that city, .and this fat man laughed so hard and so continuously at Ward's wit that he overdone the thing, and died in his seat. The coroner sat upon him, and the doctor weighed him and found he had lost eighteen pounds of flesh that night-laughed it away, which would seem to settle the vexed question.
"Big John had no patience with the war, and when he looked upon the boys strutting around in uniform and fixing up their canteens and haver- sacks, he seemed as much disgusted as astonished. He sat in his big chair on the sidewalk in front of his gro- cery and liquor shop, and would re- mark, 'I don't see any fun in the like of that. Somebody is going to be hurt, and fightin' don't prove anything. Some of our best people in this town are kin to them fellers up North, and I don't see any sense in tearing up families by a fight.' He rarely looked serious or solemn, but the pending fight seemed to settle him. 'Boys,' said he, 'I hope to God this thing will be fixed up without a fight, for fighting is mighty bad business, and I never knowed it to do any good.'
"Big John had had a little war ex- perience-that is, he had volunteered in a company to drive the Creeks and Cherokees to the far west in 1833, just 50 years ago. It was said that he was no belligerent then, but want- ed to give the Indian maiden he loved a safe transit, and so he escorted the old chief and his clan as far as Tus- cumbia, and then broke down and re- turned to Ross's Landing on the Ten- nessee River. He was too heavy to march, and when he arrived at the landing, a prisoner was put in his charge for safe-keeping. Ross's Land- ing is Chattanooga now, and John Ross once lived there, and was one of the chiefs of the Cherokees. The prisoner was Ross's guest, and his name was John Howard Payne. He
was suspected of trying to instigate the Cherokees to revolt and fight, and not leave their beautiful forest homes on the Tennessee and Coosa and Oosta- naula and Etowah and Connasauga rivers. He brought Payne back as far as New Echota, or New Town, as it was called, an Indian settlement on the Coosawattee, a few miles east of Calhoun, as now known. There he kept the author of 'Home, Sweet Home' under guard, or on his parole of honor, for three weeks, and night after night slept with him in his tent, and listened to his music upon the violin, and heard him sing his own sad songs until orders came for his discharge, and Payne started afoot on his way to Washington. He said Payne was much of a gentleman.
"Many a time have I heard Big John recite his sad adventures. 'It was a most distressive business,' said he. 'Them Injuns was heart-broken. I al- ways knowed an Injun loved his hunt- ing-ground and his rivers, but I never knowed how much they loved 'em be- fore. You know, they killed Ridge for consentin' to the treaty. They kill- ed him on the first day's march and they wouldn't bury him. We soldiers had to stop and dig a grave and put him away. John Ross and Ridge were the sons of two Scotchmen who came over here when they were young men and mixed up with these tribes and got their good will. These two boys were splendid looking men, tall and handsome, with long auburn hair, and they were active and strong, and could shoot a bow equal to the best bow- man of the tribe, and they beat 'em all to pieces on the cross-bow. They married the daughters of the old chiefs, and when the old chiefs died they just fell into line and succeeded to the old chiefs' places, and the tribes liked 'em mighty well, for they were good men and made good chiefs.
" 'Well, you see, Ross didn't like the treaty. He said it wasn't fair, that the price of the territory was too low, and the fact is, he didn't want to go at all. There are the ruins of his old home over there now in DeSoto, close to Rome, and I tell you, he was a king. His word was the law of the Injun nations, and he had their love and re- spect. His half-breed children were the purtiest things I ever saw in my life.
" 'Well, Ridge lived up the Oosta- naula River about a mile, and he was a good man, too. Ross and Ridge al- ways consulted about everything that was for the good of the tribes, but
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"BIG JOHN" UNDERWOOD'S RETURN TO ROME AFTER THE WAR.
Ridge was a more milder man than Ross, and was more easily persuaded to sign the treaty that gave the lands to the state, and to take other lands away out in Mississippi. You see, our state owned the territory then clean out to the Mississippi River.
'Well, when the whole thing seemed to be settled with the chiefs, we found that the Injuns wasn't go- in' to move. We couldn't get 'em started. They raised a howl all over the settlements. It was just like the mourners at a camp meeting. The families would just set about and mourn. They wouldn't eat nor sleep, and the old squaws would sway back- wards and forwards and mourn, and nobody could get. 'em up.
"'Well, it took us a month to get 'em all together and begin the march to the Mississippi, and they wouldn't march then. The women would go out of line and set down in the woods and go to grieving, and you may believe it or not, but I'll tell you what is a fact: we started for Tuscumbia with 14,000 and 4,000 of 'em died before we got to Tuscumbia. They died on the side of the road; they died of broken hearts; they died of starvation, for they wouldn't eat a thing. They just died all along the way. We didn't make more than five miles a day on the march, and my company didn't do much but dig graves and bury Injuns all the way to Tuscumbia. They died of grief and broken hearts, and no mistake.
"'An Injun's heart is tender and his love is strong; it's his natur. I'd a rather risk an Injun for a true friend than a white man. He is the best friend in the world and the worst enemy. He has got more gratitude and more revenge in him than any- body. I remember that Dick Juhan swindled an Injun out of his pony, and
that night the Injun stepped up to Vann's Valley and stole the pony out of the stable and carried him off, and Dick followed him next day and caught him and tied him, and brought him up to old Livingston before a magistrate. I was there and took the Injun's part and got him discharged; and he kept his pony, and he was so grateful to me that I couldn't get rid of him. He just followed me about like a nigger and waited on me; hunt- ed for me and brought me squirrels and deer and turkeys, and when time came for 'em all to go west, he hung around camp and wouldn't leave me. When I left him at Tuscumbia, he cried and moaned and took on, and I don't reckin he ever got to the prom- ised land.'
"Big John was a stout and active man, considering his weight. He was patriotic, too, and when he found that the fight had to come, he came up manfully to the cause and declared he was ready to join a buggy regiment and fight until they plugged him, which they were sure to do, he said, if they pinted any ways down South. When Joe Brown called for state vol- unteers, he responded promptly, and seemed proud that he was in the line of military service, and was enrolled on the Governor's staff. He said that he couldn't march, but he could set on one of the hills around Rome and guard the ramparts.
"Nevertheless, notwithstanding, it so turned out that old Joe got fight- ing mad after while and ordered all his staff and his militia to the front, and Big John had to go. The view he took of his new departure in mili- tary strategy will appear in the sequel, and also his remarkable retreat be- fore the foul invader when Sherman took the Hill City and dispersed the home guard to remoter regions.
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"Big John is dead. The last time I saw him he had lost his fat, and his old clothes were a world too big for him. He said he was juicing away so as to fit a respectable coffin and save a winding sheet or two in his shrouding. He owed no man anything and no man owed him a grudge. Fat men die like lean ones, but they rare- ly die fat. Their fat is their vitality. Fat men are generally good men, kind men, peaceable men, and they are honest. Their fat makes them good- natured, and their good nature keeps them from swindling or cheating any- body. If I
was thrown among strangers and wanted a favor, I would pass by all lean and hungry strangers and sit down by the biggest, roundest man I saw.
"Big John's special comfort was a circus. He never missed one, and it was a good part of the show to see him laugh and shake and spread his magnificent face. I saw the clown run from the ring-master's whip and take refuge close by Big John, and as he looked up in his face he said, 'You are my friend, ain't you?' and Big John smiled all over as he replied, 'Why, yes, of course I am.' 'Well,' then,' said the clown, 'if you are my friend, please lend me a half a dol- lar.' The crowd yelled tumultuously as Big John handed over the coin, and the joke of it was worth half a dollar to him.
"Big John took no pleasure in the quarrels of mankind, and never back- ed a man in a fight, but when two dogs locked teeth, or two bulls locked horns, or two game chickens locked spurs, he always liked to be about. 'It is their natur to fight,' said he, 'and let 'em fight.' He took delight in watching dogs and commenting on their sense and dispositions. He com- pared them to the men about town, and drew some humorous analogies. 'There is Jimmy Jones,' said he, ‘who ripped and plunged around because Georgia wouldn't secede in a minute and a half, and he swore he was go- in' over to South Calliny to fight; and when Georgia did secede shore enuf he didn't jine the army at all, and always had some cussed excuse, and when con- scription come along, he got on a de- tail to make potash, con-ding 'im, and when that played out he got a couple of track dogs and got detailed to ketch runaway prisoners. Just so I've seen dogs run up and down the fence palings like they was dyin' to get to one nuther, and so one day I picked up my dog by the nap of the neck
and dropped him over on the outside. I never knowed he could jump that fence before, but he bounced back like an Injun rubber ball, and the other dog streaked it down the sidewalk like the dickens was after him. Dogs are like folks and folks are like dogs, and a heap of 'em want the palings between.
"'Jack Bogin used to strut around and whip the boys in his beat, and kick 'em awful, because he knew he could do it, for he had the most mus- sle; but he couldn't look a brave man in the eye, mussle or no mussle, and I've seen him shut up quick when he met one. A man has got to be right to be brave, and I'd rather see a bully get a lickin' than to eat sugar! "
Author's Note-The above highly interesting and entertaining account contains a number of historical er- rors, particularly with regard to John Howard Payne and the Indians, against which the history lover should guard himself. It is well to remember that Big John was apt to depart now and then from the path of historic rectitude.
"BILL ARP" TO
"ABE LINK- HORN."-Maj. Chas. H. Smith wrote a saucy open letter from Rome to Abraham Lincoln at Washington on the eve of the opening of the Civil War. It was this letter which caused him to write thereafter under the pen name of "Bill Arp." The original Bill Arp happening along, Maj. Smith said, "This letter is so hot, I don't know whose name to sign to it!" Arp said: "Them's my sentiments, Major; just sign mine." And he did. The letter was widely copied and made Major Smith famous and uncomfortable as well. Here it is:"
"Rome, Ga., Aprile, 1861.
"Mr. Linkhorn, Sur: These are to inform you that we are all well, and hope these lines may find you in statue lo. We received your proklamation, and as you have put us on very short notis, a few of us boys have conklud- ed to write you, and ax for a little more time. The fact is, we are most obleeged to have a few more days, for the way things are happening, it is utterly onpossible for us to disperse in twenty days. Old Virginny, and Tennessee and North Carolina are con- tinually aggravatin' us into tumults and carousements, and a body can't disperse until you put a stop to sich
*From Bill Arp's "Peace Papers."
ANECDOTES AND REMINISCENCES
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MOSER
84
WHEREIN MAJOR SMITH TRIES HIS HAND AT FARMING.
When "Bill Arp" emerged from the war, all he had was a bolt of cotton cloth and a hunk of gum opium, which he quickly swapped for food. He tried to raise vegetables for a while, and here he is seen turning a few furrows. His boys are enjoying the sport, and the eldest advises him to keep at the law.
onruly konduct on their part. I tried my darndest yisterday to disperse and retire, but it was no go; and besides, your marshal here isn't doing a darn- ed thing-he don't read the riot act, nor remonstrate, nor nothing, and ought to be turned out. If you con- klude to do so, I am authorized to rekummend to you Col. Gibbons or Mr. MeLung, who would attend to the bizness as well as most anybody.
"The fact is, the boys round here want watchin, or they'll take sumthin.
A few days ago I heard they surround- ed two of our best citizens, because they was named Fort and Sumter. Most of 'em are so hot that they fair- ly siz when you pour water on 'em, and that's the way they make up their military companies here now-when a man applies to jine the volunteers, they sprinkle him, and if he sizzes, they take him, and if he don't they don't.
"Mr. Linkhorn, sur, privately speak- in, I'm afeered I'll git in a tite place
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here among these bloods, and have to slope out of it, and I would like to have your Scotch cap and kloak that you traveled in to Washington. I sup- pose you wouldn't be likely to use the same disgize agin, when you left, and therefore I would propose to swap. I am five feet five, and could git my plow breeches and coat to you in eight or ten days if you can wait that long. I want you to write me immegitly about things generally, and let us know whereabouts you intend to do your fitin. Your proklamation says somethin about taking possession of all the private property at 'All Haz- ards.' We can't find no such place on the map. I thot it must be about Charleston, or Savannah, or Harper's Ferry, but they say it ain't anywhere down South. One man said it was a little Faktory on an iland in Lake Champlain, where they make sand bags. My opinun is that sand bisness won't pay, and it is a great waste of money. Our boys here carry there sand in there gizzards, where it keeps better, and is always handy. I'm afeered your government is givin you and your kangaroo a great deal of on- necessary trubbul, and my humble ad- vice is, if things don't work out bet- ter soon, you'd better grease it, or trade the darned old thing off. I'd show you a slite-of-hand trick that would change the whole concern into buttons quick. If you don't trade or do sumthin with it soon, it will spile or die on your hands, sertain.
"Give my respects to Bill Seward and the other members of the Kanga- roo. What's Hannibal doin? I don't hear anything from him nowadays.
"Yours, with care,
"BILL ARP."
"P. S .- If you can possibly extend that order to 30 days, do so. We have sent you a check at Harper's Ferry (who keeps that darnd old ferry now? It's givin us a heap of trubble), but if you positively won't extend, we'll send you a check drawn by Jeff Da- vis, Borygard endorser, payable on sight anywhere.
"Yours,
"B. A."
"BILL ARP" AND THE LOT- TERY .- We publish in another col- umn a letter from the managers of a lottery establishment in Baltimore to Chas. H. Smith, Esq., of this place, and his reply. . . The public owes Mr. Smith a debt of gratitude for ex- posing this iniquitous scheme.
(Correspondence.)
"Gilbert & Co., Bankers and Brok- ers and General Agents for the Dela- ware State Lotteries.
"Baltimore, Md., Jan. 10, 1860. "C. H. Smith, Esq., "Rome, Ga.
"Dear Sir: We take the liberty to enclose you a scheme of the Delaware State Lottery, for which we are gen- eral agents, our object being to try and sell you a prize so as to create an excitement in your locality that will tend to increase our business. With this end in view, we offer you the preference to purchase a very fine- ly arranged package of 25 tickets, which we have selected in the lottery drawing Feb. 11, Class 72. This pack- age gives you the advantage of $31.25 worth of tickets for the cost of only $20; and to convince you of our con- fidence in its success, we will guaran- tee you another package of our extra lotteries free of charge if the above fails to draw a prize, the lowest be- ing $200 (see full scheme within). We make this offer in good faith, with a desire to sell you the Capital, $37,- 000. Should you think favorably of it, enclose us $20, and the package will be sent by return mail, the re- sult of which we confidently think will be satisfactory to you.
"Yours truly, "GILBERT & CO." "(This is confidential.)"
"Messrs. Gilbert & Co., Gents .: I acknowledge receipt of your kind let- ter of the 10th. I send you my note for $20, instead of the cash, as it will save exchange, and there is really no necessity of sending money to Balti- more and having it sent back again in a few days. This arrangement, I confidently think, will be satisfactory to you, for it is done in good faith.
"I really feel under many obliga- tions that you have chosen me as the object of your liberality and do assure you that when that $37,000 prize comes to hand, the excitement which it will raise in this community will swallow up and extinguish the John Brown raid, and you will sell more tickets here than traveling circuses and mon- key shows take off in 20 years. This is a good locality for such an experi- ment, for there is a vast number of clever people who are in the habit of racking their brains to devise some way to get money without working for it, and I know very well that when they are satisfied they can do so
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through your company, they will cheerfully give you that preference which you have shown to me.
"Our court is now in session, and I very much regret you are not here to lay your proposition before our Grand Jury, for I have no doubt they would properly appreciate it, and out of grat- itude board you a while at public ex- pense. Our legislature, in its genero- sity, passed a special act, (which may be found in the 11th division of the Penal Code) to compensate such hon- orable gentlemen as you seem to be.
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