Schley County GaArchives News.....Old Uncle Johnnie Irish April 20 1894
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Carla Miles http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00010.html#0002476 November 28, 2004, 5:04 pm

The Marion County Patriot
The Marion County Patriot, No. 16
April 20, 1894
Page Three

A Fleet Footed Old Man

Old uncle Johnnie Irish, of Schley County, was in town Wednesday.  He is 
perhaps the fleetest footed man in the state to his age, and is now 70 years 
old.  He walked, or rather run, from his home to Buena Vista, twelve miles for 
the purpose of getting the contract for carrying the mail from Buena Vista to 
Oglethorpe on foot.  The mail on this route goes three times a week and the 
distance is 36 miles, which would make that many miles to be covered on foot 
every day except Sunday, but Uncle Johnnie thinks he can make it.

He lives 14 miles from Ellaville and says he has often made the trip in two 
hours.  On one occasion he was going to Ellaville to meet a priest who was to 
pass at a certain hour on the train.  On the road he passed a man in a buggy 
who offered the pedestrian a seat with him in the buggy.  Uncle Johnnie thanked 
him very kindly but said he was in a hurry that morning, and he trotted on up 
hill and through sand beds and left the gentleman in the buggy far in the rear.

He seldom walks when he is on the road but trots and makes six or seven miles 
in an hour easily.  His advantage over horse travel is that his gait is steady 
and travels hills and sand just as he does on level roads.  He says he can 
cover five miles in half an hour.

He is a lively old gentleman and as spry as a cat.  He can relate many funny 
experiences concerning himself.  He says he used to pull the plow while his 
wife held the handles, and one one occasion he took the notion he would have 
some fun, and began to whicker and paw the dirt with his feet and ran away with 
the plow.  He does not pull the plow anymore now and rose to the dignity of 
plowing a steer.



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