Grandma's Milk Cows

SPREADING WING EXCERPT
     At about ten years old, I was all into Indians. I decided to make myself an Indian costume. I had a belt around me, with a flap hanging down in front, and one in back. That's all. Not another stitch. I put a feather in my hair for effect. I had a tomahawk. Once, when my sisters were all on the front porch, I decided to show off my costume. I ran the full length of the porch, jumped off real high, and gave a war whoop. It changed into a scream when I realized, once I reached the peak of my jump, that my costume had a flaw. Both flaps flew up. It seemed like I was in the air forever, then when I hit the ground I could not get out of sight quickly enough.
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Grandma's milk cows

Grandma Gillum, left a widow after the death of John Wesley in 1922, continued to work hard, raising her large flock of chickens. The eggs were sold to the "chicken peddler." She also had cattle, and among them she had four milk cows. During that time, most of the cattle roamed the free range south mountains. Some people grew corn in the bottoms, along the river. A likely scenario here was, the cattle got into someone's unfenced corn patch. Possibly in retribution, Grandma's milk cows were stolen. Chances are, the wild mountain cattle could not be taken, but the tame milk cows would be easy prey. That's a possible scenario. All we really know for sure was that Grandma's four milk cows were stolen. Someway, somehow, someone must have thought he saw them in another man's possession. But, that man made a very serious mistake. He said they were his. Grandma needed help, and she knew just the man.

From all I have heard about Grandma Gillum she was a wise, hard, and strong woman. She had grown sons, hard and mature, around her, but for this milk cow thief, she needed a specialist. Indeed she knew one; the man who raised her, sister Dozie's husband, W. H. “Harry” Poynter. Harry must have been getting up in years by this time, probably in his seventies. The time frame here must have been near the mid 1920's, because my uncle Homer spoke of this event around 1928 as something that occurred a few years earlier.

Though Uncle Harry was now an old man, he had a very, very colorful past. During the Civil war, he fought in many hard battles for the south. And, he was a legendary figure in the Pope County Militia War, which I call “Uncle Harry's Little War.” During that war, he once took on three men in a gunfight in downtown Dover, killing one and running the other two out of town, chased by much flying lead. He later faced down a thirty man possee, sent from Russellville to arrest him, with the words, “I will only give up my guns with my life, and make the man who takes it pay a heavy price.” This also took place in downtown Dover. Eventually, the possee went home without Harry.

      Uncle Harry came over and set out to find the thief. Some were able to give him a pretty good idea about where to start, I would imagine. After a time, he came back with the milk cows. No questions asked, no answers given. The law investigated, because a man had come up missing. To my knowledge, no arrest was ever made.