Just for fun, and to give life
to our kinfolk, Jerry Dagenhart has contributed the following
stories by written by himself from oral tradition handed
down by the grandchildren of Suzie Pinion Barlow Pennell
The Legend of Mean Bill
Let me start by saying I do not wish to
offend anyone by sharing the Mean Bill tales, I simply want
to make sure they are not forgotten. He is my ancestor and
therefore a blood relation so do not think I am telling the
story of someone elses family. Let me also explain that Pinion
was the original spelling of Pennell and the two names were
used interchangeably before the Civil War.
Mean Bill, William F. Pinion/Pennell was
not a bad looking man in fact rather handsome, he was tall
and had dark features and he was rather intelligent.
William F. Pinion was born the son of Joseph
and Mary Bouthe Pinion. He and his brother Archie set their
sites on marrying the beautiful daughters of their Uncle
Ellis and Aunt Polly. Courtship was begun and soon the two
men had permission to woo their cousins. Priscilla Pinion
and Suzie Pinion were celebrated beauties in their neighborhood rivaled
only by their cousin Mary Ann Pinion. It is easy to
see why the Pinion brothers were smitten with them.
Engagements were announced and all was well.
Then one day an invitation came for a church social in Boomer
just over the mountain where some Walker relations lived. Suzie
and Priscilla and sister Anna and their mother made the journey
on horseback. Present at the gathering were the handsome
Barlow brothers, sons of Charlotte and Braxton Barlow. Larkin
Carlton Barlow was immediately drawn to Suzie Pinion, in
fact it is said he could not take his eyes off of her.
After the social, Larkin took the liberty
of writing to Suzie and professing his love. He also came
to court her and it was not long before Suzie felt a similar
admiration for Larkin. She broke of her engagement with cousin
Bill and accepted the proposal of the handsome young man
from Boomer. Bill was furious and fled to the family
hunt lodge for many weeks and could not be consoled.
Larkin and Suzie were married and were blessed with two
beautiful daughters, Martha and Mary Jane.
When the Civil War broke out, Larkin joined
along with his brothers and the Robinett’s and others. Bill
Pinion and his brothers also joined the cause. It was said that Bill said ”If he was laid in his grave by a Yankee that
at least his broken heart would beat no more.”
Tragedy struck at the Battle of Hanover Courthouse and Larkin
Barlow fell dead as did four of the Robinette boys, and brother
John B. was wounded and captured and would die later in a
Richmond Virginia Hospital.
Suzie was devastated and felt she had brought
about Larkin’s death by marrying him; she felt they
were being punished for hurting Bill so, after all she had
been promised to Bill.
William F. Pinion returned from the war and he soon learned
of Suzie’s widowhood and so he plotted his revenge.
He started courting his widowed cousin and brought her wild
game and presents and brought candy and presents for her
young daughters as well.
Suzie truly believed that Bill had forgiven her and she
soon returned his affections and it was not long before they
were wed.
After winning Suzie for his own he became extremely jealous and made her wear
a bonnet that covered her face whenever they were in church or in town. He
also treated her and the children very poorly. I have been told many
times he would be served first and eat two thirds of the cornbread and chicken
and whatever was left over could be divided between Suzie and the girls,
many times Suzie did without so her girls would have enough to eat, he would
also put cornmeal on the stoop to make sure Suzie and the girls had not left
the cabin and that no one had been in while he was gone. He was sure
a man would come and steal Suzie away.
I will continue later with The Legend of Booger or Haint
Holler and the unbaked cornbread.
I want to take my time and tell these stories
correctly. In case you haven't figured it out Bill
was the most jealous man in the Brushy Mountains and was
a very cruel husband and stepfather.
Grandma Mary Jane Barlow Dison/Dyson always referred to
the Pennells as the”Mean old Pinions” because
of Bill. More to Follow
Now again I want to make sure everyone understands I love
my Pennell family but the stories about Bill are too interesting
not to tell.
If you have relatives in the North Carolina
foothills you are no doubt well aware that chestnut fed hogs
and cornbread in addition to home canned garden truck, and
wild game were the steady diet of our ancestors along with
preserved and dried fruits and molasses and honey. It
has already been said that Bill was mean and jealous, but
he was also greedy and stingy when it came to food.
On one occasion he was going to town with
Suzie, and the girls were given breakfast and a list of chores
to do and then Bill reminded them that they would all eat
when the adults returned and the two girls had better not
mess with any of the food rations or he would know. He
kept a careful measure of the cornmeal and a constant inventory
of the larder or pantry. Bill and Suzie set about their
trip to Cross Keys to trade and Martha and Mary began their
Saturday chores. There was wood to chop and cleaning of the
cabin and several other tasks Bill had set down for them
to do. The girls liked to get their work done in a
hurry and then play in the cool pine shade with their mothers
doll and tea set and other items she had brought from her
home when she married their father. There was also
a rag doll named Lottie made by their Grandmother Lottie
Carlton Barlow. About 1 o'clock the girls were finished
with their chores and set out to play. They were always
very careful with their toys as they knew there would not
be anymore to replace them if they were broken. They
did not often have the luxury of playtime and when they did
they savored it. After an hour of “maginery” tea
and tea cakes hunger set in and the girls decided they could
make a few hoe cakes and Bill would never miss the cornmeal. (flat
piece of bread baked on the hearth in the coals) The
girls put the toys back in their mothers chest and carefully
got out enough meal to make two small hoe cakes. Martha
heated the iron skillet and put in some lard whilst Mary
Jane mixed the batter. Then fear struck them both for they
could hear a wagon in the distance and the whistling tune
Bill always whistled as he returned from town. Quickly
the girls ran to the back door and Martha hurriedly cleaned
the skillet whilst Mary Jane quickly dumped the batter in
a hollow stump and then washed the bowl. The girls
had everything in place and were darning socks when the wagon
reached the front yard.
Bill appeared pleased that the girls had
minded him. Then he went to the pantry and noticed the meal
bag was not tied the way he left it. He could not be sure
if any was gone but it was not the way he left it so when
Suzie cooked their dinner Bill advised the girls that he
would have their share of the cornbread as they had not minded
his instructions. Bill never found the unbaked bread,
but the girls were punished all the same. Bill took
the beautiful dresses their grandmother Charlotte Barlow
had made for them to wear to church and traded them at Cross
Keys the next time they went to town .
I was also often told that as the girls
grew older if they wanted to go to town or to a party or
social they would have to give up their cornbread for a week
to get Bill's approval. This continued until the girls
were old enough to marry and leave home.
Suzie gave Bill five children: Priscilla Ann, Joseph Ellis
Carson, Hiram Jefferson, Julie Matilda Elizabeth, and Andy
Bryson Pennell.
How Booger Hollar Got Its Name (Another Mean
Bill Tale)
When Suzie was expecting her first child
by Mean Bill she was in the final days of her pregnancy and
had to take to her bed. Her sisters came and helped
out as much as Bill would allow and Martha and Mary Jane
were regular little nurses.
The night came quickly on the day her water
broke and so did the fierce storm outdoors. Bill was to go
get the midwife. With each crash of thunder Suzie's pain
came closer together yet she was concerned for poor Bill
out on such a night. Finally Suzie asked Martha if
Bill was back yet. Bill answered before Martha could
say word, "Bill ain’t back yet because Bill ain't
left yet".
Mary Jane took a pine knot and lit it and
her Moma’s old umbrella and lit out for Grandma Polly. Bill
cursed her as she left as she was only 5 or 6 years old. She
knew the way to Ella's and Polly's even in the dark and the
lightening helped her see the trail.
When Ellis and Polly returned (they left
Mary Jane at their cabin in dry clothes that had once been
her Mothers), the Baby was coming. The cord was
around the little girls neck and she did not live. Polly
never said a word but Aunt Martha never forgot the look her
dark eyes flashed at her nephew and son in law Bill. The
baby was to have been named Priscilla Anne for two of Suzie's
sisters but as it did not live it was never named.
With the first light of day, Bill took off.
Ellias and his brother Uncle Joseph, (the two grandpas) fashioned
a little pine coffin and Polly and Aunt Prissy bathed and
cleaned and dressed the pretty dark-haired baby in clothes
that they had made weeks before. When Aunt Sallie arrived
with little Mary Jane they saw the casket set out in the
front room and Mary Jane cried her little heart out. They
waited til mid-afternoon but still Bill did not return so
Uncle Archie suggested that they should bury the child near
its kinfolk at the Reid Burial Ground and he would give the
appropriate sermon. Suzie could not leave her bed and Aunt
Sallie her baby sister stayed with her as the family carried
their precious little burden to the burial ground near the
Reid homeplace. Thomas Reid and his sons had already
dug the grave very near the spot where Ellis and Polly’s
sons were buried (baby boys who also never lived to be grown). A
field stone was erected over the grave and it is said Uncle
Archie gave a beautiful sermon and prayer.
Evening came and still no Bill. Uncle John
and Uncle Archie set out to look for him. Where had
Bill been? He had walked to Cross Keys and bought a
jug of consolation and was now in the hollar near his home
just beyond Uncle Jonas Whites and was quite drunk. He
muttered out loud they can all blame me if they see fit but
the baby would have died anyway. It was meant to be. Just
then the squal of a newborn child pierced the black still
night. Bill fell to his knees and started to pray, but again
the babe squalled out. He jumped to his knees and began
a fast run toward his cabin dropping the jug in the creek
where it hit a rock and broke. When he reached the
cabin he was pale white and fell through the door. He
looked like a mad man covered with mud and a wild look in
his eyes. He crawled to where Suzie lay in their bed
and grasped her hand and begged her to forgive him, he then
said our child never cried when it was born, but I have heard
her cry tonight in the hollar where we used to walk when
we were courting. He mumbled on about the crying babe and
some of the men who had returned from looking for him got
him to his feet and took him to the porch and cleaned him
up and then got him to the cot in the front room.
When morning came Bill awakened with a start
and remembered the events of the night before. The neighbor
and family women were about the business of feeding the folks
who had stayed all night. Bill grabbed a plate of food
and tore off without a word to anyone and no one followed
him. He reached the hollar and traced his muddy prints
to the spot where he had heard the baby cry. He then surmised
it had been the spirits in the jug and not any other kind. Then
in the light of morning the cries wailed out again he fell
to his knees and started to pray, before he could finish
his prayer for forgiveness he glanced skyward and noticed
that two tall tulip poplars were rubbing each other and as
they did so they sounded exactly like a young child crying
or wailing. Bill sat down and laughed and realized
it had been the liquor and his guilt that had played tricks
on him. He named the hollar 'Booger Hollar' and to this day
it is still called that and he would often frighten his children
by telling them not to walk though the hollar on their sisters
birthday or she would cry out to them.
Now this story was told to me by three separate sources
and only varied slightly, so I believe it is true however
sad it may be. For those who do not know mountain lingo
a booger or a haint is a ghost or spirit.
Mean Bill and The Halloween Haint
Most of you know mountain people refer to ghosts as haints
/ haunts and spirits.
On Halloween when Uncle Jeff and Uncle Carson
were teenagers they had been invited to a corn shucking and
barn dance and their father, Mean Bill adamantly refused
to let them go he said "Too much meaness gets done on
Halloween and I ain't having my boys out and about to get
accused of any mischief"
The boys were plenty mad so they hatched
a plan, they jumped out the loft window of their parents
cabin and took old clothes from the barn loft trunk. (Clothes
that had belonged to Suzies first husband, Larkin Barlow)
and they made a scarecrow and placed it on the porch in front
of the window. Presently they began to moan "Bill, Bill
Penyuuunnn!!!!!! Come out and meet your match" Soon
Bill aroused and in the moonlight he could see the shadowy
stranger in the window. Bill called out "Who are
you and what are you about this time a night?"; the
figure did not answer.
Bill got down the gun from over the mantle
and he fired right through the window and the figure crumpled
over. Bill replaced the gun and went back to bed. Suzie
exclaimed Bill did you see who it was? Bill replied, "No
but we shall see in the morning cause I shot him and he's
a laying on the porch floor."
Jeff and Carson removed the dummy and returned
the straw and the clothes to the barn and they took a rabbit
from one of the rabbit gums (a homemade rabbit trap) and
cut its throat and smeared blood all over the porch, and
then skinned and dressed the rabbit and put it in salt water
on the back porch with the ones they had dressed earlier
the day before.
The boys didn't get to the dance but they
had a good laugh at their Daddy’s expense and when
word of the incident made its way around the neighborhood,
you can rest assured nobody ever came calling at Mean Bills
after dark.
Suzie and the Trousers (another Mean Bill story)
Now let me stress again that Mean Bill is not only my step great grandfather
but he is my close relative as his wife was his first cousin. I proudly
hang his picture on the wall regardless of the tales told about him. He is
such an interesting character and I am so grateful so much has been told
about him.
Now it has already been said that Bill was
a jealous man and he often made Suzie wear a bonnet with
a long bill over her face in church and he made her and the
children walk behind him when they went anywhere, so he could
block her pretty face from oncoming glances.
On one Saturday morning a trading trip was
planned and the wagon needed mending so Bill set out on foot.
He sprinkled meal on the front and back stoop and told Susie
not to let any strangers in.
Suzie went about her chores and Bill set out for Cross Keys
(a trading post where current Hwy 127 enters the Lenoir road).
After a while Suzie remembered Bill's Sunday
trousers needed mending, Try as she might she
could not find a bright enough spot in the cabin to sew.
So she took her basket and carefully hopped over the trail
of corn meal and sat in the porch rocker and commenced to
darning the pants. The children were inside playing
quietly.
Bill was very near home and suddenly he
felt a jealous streak and some how sensed something was not
right at home. As he approaches the hill above the
cabin he caught a glimpse of Suzie and a mans trousers. He
saw red and was shaking with anger. He crept up like
a panther and pounced down on the porch dropping his parcel
and sack. Well now I caught you, and where is the man
that wears these pants.
Suzie felt angry and was tired of the jealous
fits so she said, "Oh he's right close by, why if you
look in the winder lite you might even see him." Bill
rushed to the window and saw only his on reflection in the
wavy glass. "Do you see my gentleman caller Bill?" Bill
then took a closer look and he could only see the children
in the floor playing. Then Suzie confessed, "Well
you caught me this time Bill, red handed, you caught me a
mending your old Sunday pants!!!" Bill stomped
off and found his jug at the spring and did not come back
to the house until supper was on the table.
Grandma Suzie
The mud was still wet on her crooked willow
cane;
When the angels bid her go in the gentle falling rain.
Her body was bent and worn from a life of
woe;
By a counting of years she was still considered young.
She had faded like a flower that is not allowed to grow;
Where the sun’s light warms it and life’s songs are sung.
Bill had been her husband, her master and
her foe;
Scarce could one believe he had ever been her beau.
None of that mattered now for the Angels bid her go.
This day had been like all the rest, she
washed and dressed
And prayed that her children would be blessed.
Her hand and face were drawn from the ravage of a stroke
Yet she knew she must prepare a breakfast before “his highness” woke.
With pain and dread she placed her bonnet
upon her head,
And limped toward the cabin door.
She grasped her faithful cane and leaned upon it once more.
Outside it was raining and the winter wind
was cold,
She gathered up the needed wood and headed toward the door.
She faltered but a moment for a voice was
in the wind.
It was the voice of Larkin whispering ”I’ll see you once again”
Once inside she tended the coals and rebuilt
her fire.
The mud was still wet on her crooked willow cane;
When she placed it in the corner and returned to fan the flame.
She sat in her rocker “I shall rest
a bit before he wakes”
She reached in her apron and opened the little frame.
That held a cherished image, Larkin Barlow was his name.
Here eyes filled with tears and she clasped
it to her breast.
Then her trials were over as she labored her last breath.
The mud was still wet on her crooked willow cane;
When Bill tried to wake her with harsh words and disdain.
His face was blank and pallid when he realized she was gone;
He thought back to the time when a fiddle had played their wedding song.
”Have I really spent my entire life doing this woman wrong?”
Bill walked to his neighbors almost in a
trance;
Fixed in his mind was the image of Suzie,
the ”Belle of the Ellendale“ dance.
The mud was still wet on her crooked willow
cane,
As her children gathered round her stricken with grief and pain.
Mary Jane was the first to see what was in her mother’s hand,
Carefully she retrieved it, the handsome image of the man;
She recalled being told how in a battle he
had died;
She also recalled that with the telling her Mother always cried.
Mary Jane placed the portrait in the pocket
of her dress;
She would claim it as her inheritance if required to confess.
The neighbors came as neighbors do and carried
out the tasks;
They prepared Suzie for the journey to the land that always lasts.
John Dison made the coffin and Uncle Archie said a prayer;
The Reid sisters bathed her and carefully combed her hair.
The mud was still wet on “her” crooked
willow cane
When Mary Jane bore it home in the falling rain.
She placed it by the chimney in her own cabin
home;
And never in her entire life had she felt so very alone.
She reached in her pocket and retrieved the portrait case;
She placed it on the fireboard and gazed at his handsome face.
“Is my mother with you at last and
is she safe and warm?”
Jeff held her in his arms and comforted her as she cried;
And that’s just the way it was when Grandma Suzie died |
