History of Greene County

By H.B. Crowley in 1906

6th Installment

Gen. Crowley discusses prominent men of early Greene County years.
Theo Gramlings, the Smelers, Col. B.A. Johnson, Dr. J.G. McKensie, the
James Boys and Younger Brothers.

Colonel William P. Melton came to this county from the Spartanburg district in South Carolina in the early fifties. He purchased the Samuel Willcockson place, and settled where J.C. Field now lives. He was a man of some means and of more than ordinary intelligence. He served his township as justice of the peace for some time, and was a useful citizen. He had three daughters, Martha Jane, Cede and Caroline. The first was married to W.M. Boyd, commonly called Cock Boyd, and his widow, Mrs Martha Boyd, lives on lands she inherited from her father's estate, and she owns a very valuble farm. The second daughter married Benjamin H. Harris, and moved to Boone County, many years ago. The third daughter became the wife of Wm. R. Akers, who was a bright and bustling fellow, who died soon after their marriage. She was afterward married to Mack Wiley and went west, and is now probably living in Boone County, Arkansas.

William Pevehouse was perhaps the first white child born on Crowley's Ridge. He was a grand-child of the old pioneer Benjamin Crowley, and he was for a long time and honored and respected citizen. He was Sheriff of the county at one time and his name appears prominently on the church books of the early Methodist congregations of the county, as its secretary and in other official capacities. He was a small man in stature, and many jokes are told on him, especially of his size. When he was about grown, he and his brother went to a house-raising, and as usual on those occasions, the women had a quilting during the day, and all joined in a dance at night. The young people cleared the room, by moving the bedstead, tables and pots to one side, and danced all night to the music of the fiddle or banjo, and by the light of the tallow candle, or pine torch. Late in the night when the dancers became tired and were resting in readiness for the next set, "little Billy Pevehouse", as he was called, seated himself on the rim of a large cooking pot to rest himself, when a young lady who could not find a seat, asked and was granted permission to sit on Billy's lap. Now this young lady was large and ccorpulent and the young man's lap was not very expansive in fact, was exceedingly narrow and not very blunt. Anyway, the seemingly impossible feat of setting a large, fat girl on the lap of a little spindle-shanked young man accomplished, and Billy being very modest and obliging fellow, peeped out from under his load of feminity and pretended to be enjoying the torture. As the other dancers were somewhat tired , the resting period was longer than usual, and Billy had to bear up his magnificent cargo of beauty for quite awhile, or at least it seemed an age to him. The sharp rim of the pot began to be anything but a soft cushion for poor Billy's legs, and he was gradually being forced down into the vessel. At this critical moment his brother began to feel a deep concern for Billy's safety, and went around to look after him. He found Billy holding his mammoth sweetheart, and crying unalloyed agony, and the brother had to invent a ruse to rescue his suffering kinsman. He proposed to Billy that they go out to look after their horses, and when the girl arose from his lap it took the brother, assisted by the girl, to extricate Billy from the pot, and set him on his feet. He vowed in after years that he never proposed to nurse another girl, not ever his better-half, and he always had an aversion to nursing children, so much so that his wife had all that to do by herself, he claiming that he never had fully recovered from his experience of that night.

Again, it was told of him that he once had a warrant for the arrest of a man of great size, and finding this fellow at Greenboro, Sheriff Pevehouse made the arrest, but the man refused to go with him and declined to make bond for his appearance at court, but instead, lay flat down on the ground and refused to budge. Pevehouse summoned two men to guard the prisoner, and went and secured a wagon in which to transport this man to jail. After being placed in the wagon, the man saw what he was up against, and began to beg to be permitted to make bond, which the Sheriff graciously allowed him to do.

It is also told of him that when a mere boy he took his rifle and went into the timber to kill a deer, and while creeping through the brush not far from his home, he discovered what he thought was a large buck partially concealed behind a tree. Fearing to move to where he could get a better view of the deer, lest he might frighten the animal, he shot at such portion of its body as he could see, and at the crack of his gun, the deer fell dead. He rushed up to view the animal, and discovered that he had killed one of his grandfather's valuable calves. He went home crest fallen fearing to make known the fatal mistake he had made. True to his open, honorable nature, he did tell his grand-parent that he had killed one of his fine calves, and instead of scolding him, his grandfather asked him to go and bring the calf in, saying that a fat calf was about as good as a deer.

William Pevehouse was taken when a small boy by Samuel Crowley and raised, and the writer's mother has often told him of how she and little Billy used to stay by themselves at night when they could hear the howling of the wolvess and the scream of the panthers in the nearby woods. They would bar the door to their one story house, lay down and sleep soundly all night, unless one of the fierce and hungry brutes would come so near as to wake them by the noise of it's howling. The writer's mother has often told him that Billy Pevehouse was the best boy that ever lived, henever did anything to cause her a moment's distress or uneasiness. He was constantly held up to me as a model boy, and my conduct sometimes fell so far short of his that I often regretted that there was ever a Billy Pevehouse permitted to live. He married a Miss Furgeson and moved to Washington county, Arkansas, and died during the war. His widow and children were living a few years ago at Evansville; in the state. Mrs. J.G. McKenkie is a niece of Wm. Pevehouse and her husband, Dr. Mckenzie, is the oldest practicing physician in length of service in the county at the present time.

Wiley Pevehouse was another useful and respected citizen of the county. He was born and reared in the county, and was a brother to William Pevehouse previously spoken of. His first wife was Margaret Capps, who was the moher of the Mrs. McKensie above referred to. They had only two children, both daughters, and their names were Sarah and Cynthia. Mrs. Pevehouse died while the girls were small, and he then married a Miss Bowman, who was the mother of W.W. Pevehouse, Mrs George A. Gramling, John Pevehouse and Betty Furgerson, the latter two dying many years ago; Sarah, the second daughter by his first marriage, married Thomas Harris, and is now dead. Wiley Pevehouse was also married to a widow by the name of Sarah Cooper, but they have both died in recent years, without leaving any issue, he having died about three years ago and she within the past year. He owned a fine farm near Walcott in this county, and was a pillar in the Methodist church, which he joined when a young man, and his entire life was in keeping with his professions as an upright as an upright Christian gentleman.

J.R. Gramling, whom every one called "Uncle Dick," came to this county in 1857 from Spartanburg, South Carolina, settling at the present homestead of the family northeast of Walcott. His father, Ruben Gramling came here with him, and soon afterward B.M. and Thomas Gramling followed. Dick and his father brought several negroes with them from South Carolina and also some fine horses and wagons. Ruben Gramling bought out Wm. Pevehouse where L.T. Dennis now lives. Mrs Dennis being his daughter, and was given the home place. Dick bought out Billy Houston, this being where George and John Gramling lived at the time. Dick was a blacksmith, and a wagon maker, by trade and he made all the plows and repaired the wagons in the whole country for a long time. He always contended that the James boys and the Younger brothers had stopped at his shop more than once to have their horses shod. His shop was the voting place for Cache township for many years, and was therefore the rallying place for political parties for a long time. At the time the James boys and their confederates, the Younger Brothers, made their raid to Gad's Hill, a party of nearly a dozen well dressed gentlemen stopped at the shop to have their horses re-shod and their conduct convinced Uncle Dick that they were the noted out-laws. They were mounted on great fine horses, and seemed to have plenty of money. No one could draw from them who they were bound, nor did they manifest any interest in the country. If any man in the world could have found out these things about the mysterious travelers it would have been Uncle Dick. He was a worthy disciple of Socrates, and what he could not find out about a stranger, was not to be learned by asking questions. But these strangers baffled him. One time, while they were in his shop, his nephew, M.C. Gramling, who was the tax collector, was in the wood-working department of the shop collecting taxes from the people of Cache township. The strangers watched him very closely, asked who he was, what he was doing, and demanded rather bruskly if he was a carpetbag officer. When told that he was not, but that he was a ex-confederate soldier and had lost his arm in defense of southern institutions, they said he was alright, and became easy. Only a day or two after this visit the news reached the neighborhood of the great Gad's Hill train robbery.

Dick Gramling was a member of the Methodist Church and a very substantial pillar in the financial fabric of that denomination. He was almost as faithful in looking after the financial side of the church's life as Dr. Bennett now is in the same line, and he was a larger giver himself. He and the writer almost built Warren's Chapel, assisted by W.T. and Mell Francis, W.H. Cothern, Wm. R. Gregory and a few others. During the war he put up a tannery at his big spring, and he and Wm. R. Gregory ran it for many years. It was a great help to people during the war, and saved our women and children from having to go bare footed through the cold and bleak winter days of this period. He aalso bought the first wheat thresher with separator attachment to it, brought into this section of the country, and it was a curiosity. It required eight or ten horses to operate it, and people went miles to see the machine in operation.

John W. Smelser is another man deserving mention in a narrative of the early and useful citizens of the county. He and his father, Abraham Smelser came to Greene county in the early fourties and he marries Nancy Clark, and raised a family of three sons and one daughter, the sons being well known citizens, Wm. H., J.A., and W.P. Smelser. The daughter was married to S.S. Gregory, and lives at the old Smelser homestead. His father, Abraham, wife and three sons, moved to Randolph county, and are now residents of that county, living near Pocahontas. He filled the office of justice of the peace here for half a generation, and made a good officer, as he did in every relation of life in which he was ever called upon to act. He was a member of the Methodist Church, and he attended the meetings of his church both far and near. He would load up his own family and as many of the neighbors as could get in his ox-cart, and drive miles to attend the big meetings. He was a model home-life, with always and ever a bright ray of golden sun-light running through the entire domestic fabric.

The writer began the practice of law before Esq. Smelser's court and recalls the kind and encouraging things he said to him on that embarrassing occassion to a young attorney. He never failed to say something that would make one feel better satisfied with life, and he was never known to speak unkindly of anyone. His decision as a justice was always founded on perfect equity between man and man and no one ever said that he did not get justice when tried before Justice Smelser. His entire life appeared to be in harmony with his Maker and in sympathy with all man, and it is pleasant to dwell upon his career, even at this distant day. The writer could not wish for his country a greater blessing than that all its citizens were such as the subject of this brief and imperfect sketch.

The disposition of Esq. Smelser to speak kindly of everybody reminds the writer of a story told on Capt. Kuykendall, who also possessed this very rare and commendable trait of character. It was said he could not be included to speak harmfully of any one and the following incident goes a long way towards proving it. There was in the community a worthless and shiftless fellow that seemed without a redeeming virtue, and some of the Captain's friends made a wager that he could not find anything good to speak of this fellow. So they approached him and began to talk about the fellow, saying all the hard things they ever heard about him and asked the Captain if he knew the man and if so, could he possibly think of anything good about him. Kuykendall reflected a moment and replied presently that the fellow was a "first rate whistler."

Colonel Benjamin A. Johnson, who lives at Crowley in this county, was a native of the state of Tennessee and his first wife was Sarah E. Fielder, of Hickman county of that state. The writer married a younger sister of Mrs. Johnson, she being Miss R.L. Fielder. Another sister was married to John C. Treadway, and was the mother of Thomas, William, and Ed Treadway, of Paragould, and of Mrs. McFall, of near Camp Ground, and the other sister of Tennessee. Fielder was married to Rev. E. H. Bratton, and she was the mother of Mrs. Sallie Mangrum, William, Thomas and Manda Bratton. These ladies were sisters of Thomas and Polk Fielder. Colonel Johnson enlisted in the Confederate army in Missouri and was made Lieut. Col. in Reeve's regiment of Missouri cavalry, a most daring and indomitable body of soldiers. They made their mark where they went and victory perched upon their arms on many a bloody field. At the close of the war Col. Johnson came to Polland, now in Clay county, but which was then in Greene county. In 1869 he came down to the Dr. Croft farm and soon afterward bought and moved onto the old Ed Bratton homestead, where he lived for several years and then purchased the Mart Gramling place and moved to it, and resides there at the present time.

Col. Johnson is strong and active for one of his age and is now living with his third wife. He is a consisant member of the Baptist church, a great student of current news and takes a lively interest in political affairs, being and old line Jeffersonian Democrat. He appears satisfied to spend the rest of his days on Sugar Creek, surrounded by his children, grand-children and great grand-children, drinking the finest water in the world, eating big red apples and smoking home-made tobacco.

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