Christmas Day, 1888
Submitted by Kay Mason <KLMPIANO@aol.com on Apr 22, 2000


Grandfather, WILLIAM FRANKLIN MASON, was born in Bruin, Elliott County, KY in
1872.

Pages 103 & 104:

    "I spent Christmas Day, 1888, with HASCUE BRICKEY and WILSON WRIGHT, two
of my favorite cousins.  WILSON's [WRIGHT] brother-in-law, ARCHIE ISON, had a
general store at the Forks of Newcomb and he and his family lived nearby.
His wife was NANCY BRICKEY [ISON], daughter of Aunt ADELINE WRIGHT by her
first husband, ELIJAH BRICKEY, and so was a half-sister to WILSON [WRIGHT].
She and ARCHIE [ISON] had two daughters, MISSOURI & MARTHA [ISON], about
grown at that time.  The Forks was a sort of gathering place for men on
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays - specially young men.  As there was no peace
officer there, drinking, carousing and sometimes fighting took place - so, in
the language of the poet, 'Joy was unconfined.'
      On this Christmas Day peace and harmony prevailed generally, only
slight disturbances marred the lovely sunny day - just warm enough to be
comfortable in the open air.  The main event of the day, that I recall, was
contests of the young men in lifting, running and jumping.  As I was tall and
thin I was not good in athletics, so I was 'included out.'  There was a young
man named DIDRICK ISON who excelled at such jumping contests.  As I watched
him, I admired (and envied) his superb physique and the ease and grace of his
performance.  As my old friend LAWRENCE used to say, 'He was a handsome
brute.'  Poor fellow!  He didn't know what was ahead of him.

    Some months later he and his cousin, MANDER ISON, a young married man,
went on a trip to Texas and, as was the custom of yourn men in that secion,
they carried pistols and in some way not known to me ran afoul of the law and
when a sheriff attempted to arrest them, resisted and when the smoke blew
away the sheriff was dead.  For this, one got twenty and the other forty
years in prison.  Some mitigating circumstances saved them from hanging.
Their Kentucky friends claimed that they were innocent of the crime charged
by the sheriff in the beginning.  May years afterward I heard they had come
back to Kentucky old and broken men.  MANDER's [ISON] wife had divorced him
and remarried long since."

USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the 
Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as 
this message remains on all copied material.  These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any 
format or presentation by other organizations or persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to 
use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the 
file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with 
proof of this consent.  The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store this 
file permanently for free access.