Bear in the house. Bears were a problem in the early days of the Boston Mountains. A certain family had killed a hog when the weather turned cold. They had cut up the meat and hung it in one of the spare rooms in the house. To inter the house you had to come into the front door as there was no other way into the house. In the early days they did not have hinges on the doors but used a system of removable doors. There were four hooks two on each side of the door. The door had 2 two by fours which went across the door and suck out on each side of the door about 8 inches. To open the door you simply lifted the door of the side hooks and set it aside. The bears had not yet hibernated for the year. The man had to go on a trip over night. This was the night when the bear came to visit. The bear simply put his snot under the door and lifted it and walked into the house went past the bed where the woman was laying and literally shaking with fear. The bear went into the spare room and toke a ham and went out with it. When the man returned he pitched a fit. “That meat is our winter supply for the winter and you let a bear take it.” He ranted and raved. A few nights later the bear remembering where he could get meat came back for more. The same scenario except the man was at home so when the bear came by the side of the bed the man pulled the cover over his head and let the bear have his meat.

Running from a panther. One evening a certain lady was going from her house to a neighbor house. The distance was several miles and this was in the times when panthers roamed the Boston Mountains of Arkansas. The lady was carrying her infant child. She encountered a panther and began to run from it. Of course she could not out run the animal but she would take of a piece of the child’s clothing and throw it down. The panther would stop and shred the clothing and take up her trail again. When she had striped the child she started shedding her clothes. When she arrived at her destination she arrived necked but alive. 

Don’t insult a preacher who has a mean son. This story also has to do with Al Starbuck. A man was mad at great grandpa Starbuck because of one of the sermons he preached about sin so he cursed great grandpa out publicly. Al was not present at the time but he met the man one day just as he was riding his horse across the Arkansas River. The story is that the man back his horse backward all the way across the river to escape.

            A knife in a grave. A group of young people were discussing about whether they would be afraid to visit a cemetery at night. One young lady avowed that she would not have any fear to do such a thing. They challenged her to prove it and gave her a knife to stick into a certain grave to prove that she had actually gone to the cemetery. She went to the cemetery and stuck the knife into the grave. It was in the days when girls wore long dresses so when she stooped down to stick the knife into the grave she accidental stuck it through her dress also. When she raised up the knife sticking through her dress gave a pull on her skirt. They found her there the next morning. The puling on her dress scared her so badly that she apparently died of a heart attack.  

            Murder at the Indian dance.  At the time of this story my great grandpa Starbuck was living in Missouri. His older son James Albert, who went by the name Al, was pretty wild young man. Maybe it was because his father was a preacher and he wanted to rebel as some preachers sons do. It happened that there was an Indian dance for young native people, but Al and some of his friends decided to crash the party. Later the party got rowdy and a fight broke out. In the mêlée that followed an Indian boy was killed. Al and his friends were charged with murder an went to trial. The Indian was killed by a rock. The defense for Al ask one of the Indian young men if he had thrown any rocks and he said that he had and hoped to God that it hit Al Starbuck in the head. This gave the opening for the defense to argue that if everyone was throwing rocks, there was no way to say that Al’s rock was the one who killed the boy. So Al was acquitted.

            Since the trail cost money great grandpa Starbuck had to sell his farm to come up with the money for paying for his son’s defense. Also, great grandpa being a preacher, and because of the notoriety of the event great grandpa thought it best to leave the area. The moved to Arkansas make it possible for my mother to meet my father. It is interesting how God takes tragedy and turns it into something for his glory.

            As a side note, one of Al’s friends told Al after the fight that that Indian would not have covered Al so fast if he could have got the rock out of his pocket faster. So it appears that Al’s friend may have been the one that killed the Indian. The fact that it was an Indian and not a white boy killed may mean that justice was not served. 

Stories told by my grandma Taylor

            The song that broke up a revival meeting. My great grandpa Daniel Starbuck was an itinerant preacher, which meant he had no church that he pastured but went about preaching at every opportunity. One thing he did was to hold revival meetings. One particular revival meeting was going real well with good attendance until my grandma and one of her sister sang a particular song. The words that I remember from the song were, “That shelf behind the door don’t use it anymore, but quickly clean the corner out from ceiling to the floor.” It was an attack on secret sins which people hid. It was not well received so the revival went downhill because people did not want to give up their sins.

            Stealing watermelons and slow horses. When my grandpa Lee Taylor was a boy he and some other boys slipped into someone’s watermelon patch to eat their fill of good watermelons. While there their horses begin to act up and trying to break loose. They ran to the horses and got on them. It was a panther that was hungry and wanted some horse meat.  They took off with the panther chasing them. The other boy’s horses were faster than my grandpa’s horse. The panther front claws would hit the rump of his horse and leave their mark with each leap. The panther chased him until he got home and the horse literally ran up on the porch of the house. I guess the moral of the story would be when stealing watermelons make sure your horse is faster than your friends.