Mami T-- Part 11

Another little story told to me by a cousin, Rex McDonald who was Aunt Ludie’s youngest son. Aunt Ludie was Mami T’s youngest granddaughter.

She had an old yard dog that she loved dearly. One morning a neighbor from up the road a ways came riding by on his horse, he was on his way into the settlement. She was in the barn and he did not see her, but she saw him. He threw a biscuit into the yard and rode on by. She walked over and picked up the biscuit before the dog got it, and put it in her apron pocket.

A Rocking Chair

She finished her chores in the barn and walked into the house. She got her trusty old shot gun and filled her pipe, she went out to the front porch, and sat down in her rocking chair. She rocked and smoked her pipe and waited! She didn't want to miss him as he would be passing by again on his way home.

He had been complaining that her dog had killed some of his sheep; she had told him this was not true, and that her dog did not leave her yard, and had never bothered her sheep. But he insisted he was right. She figured he had put poison in the biscuit to kill her dog.

When he approached on his way back home she yelled to him, “Hold up there, I want to talk to ye!” He stopped and waited till she walked out to the fence. She handed him the biscuit and at gun point said, “Now ye eat it”, and at gun point he did!

Whether the biscuit had poison on it we will never know, and I don’t know the final outcome of the story. But I do know he did not bother her with complaints about her old dog anymore. I would love to have been a fly on the fence post to have seen and heard this story unfold!

I don’t have any idea about what happened to Rody and Emily. Records are skimpy about them, the last mention that I find is in the 1870 census, and in this census Mami T is listed as a farmer on the line for occupation.

There is however a lot of mention of my g granddaddy William H. (Tony or Tang) McDuffie. According to my daddy he loved women, licker and gambling, and did almost nothing else except satisfy his passions.

He was reported to have been a very handsome man. And he was a real braggart about his conquests, my mother heard him brag once that he had bedded over 200 women.

This is not a lot by today’s comparisons, but this was in a sparsely settled area, and the mode of transportation was on foot or horseback, or mules and wagon. We will never know if this was the truth or not because he was also a great liar, according to the family, he told big whoppers! He was born April 30, 1857, and died October 06, 1936.

He married Mary Caroline McCroan, his first wife in 1881. Caroline was born August 16, 1861 and she died April 18, 1908. And she is my great grandmother. During her lifetime she bore him nine children and their names are as follows:

# 1 Mary Magdalene McDuffie, born November 24, 1883 died in 1944

# 2 Henry McDuffie, born July 25, 1885 died August 05, 1885

# 3 William Benjamin McDuffie, born March 06, 1886 died June 13, 1971

# 4 James (Boss) McDuffie, born January 09, 1889 died September 17, 1963 1962

# 5 John Daniel McDuffie, born May 07, 1890 died August 14, 1944

# 6 Edward Lee McDuffie, born February 27, 1894 died January 28, 1977

# 7 Julia Ludie McDuffie, born March 27, 1896 died July 09, 1981

# 9 Joseph Harvey (Harve) McDuffie, born September 01, 1899 died June 18, 1977

# 9 Samuel H. (Sam) McDuffie, born December 02, 1901 died October 20, 1958

These are Mami T’s grandchildren that we know about. If there are others they are unknown to our family. Mami T helped Caroline raise them until Caroline died, and then she had sole care of them.