No. 64

Carrie In 1870 (Talk Turkey)

Stewart King c/o

John C. Davant, Attorney

501 Cleveland St.

Clearwater Florida

December 12, 1939

Dear Stewart,

I’m enclosing that newspaper article your mother showed me in 1895, soon after I moved into the mansion.

It was about that situation with Miss Carrie Dawson.

The Buffalo Express

Wednesday, August 24, 1870

Farmers & residents of Cohocton were arrested.

Self-Appointed Vigilance Committee & Moral Protectors of the Community.

Victim John CURTIS Said, "they called the men by numbers:"

1. Adelbert Jennings

2. Henry Harrison

3. Seth Henry

4. Benjamin Notting

5. William Backs

6. Thomas Jennings

7. Elmer Whiting

8. Eleazer Rolling

9. John Faris

10. Charles Banta

When I first held the newspaper, I have to admit that I scanned quickly to pour over to this part:

Carrie's testimony:

I was awakened by the girl crying, “They are killing Pa and Ma!” I said, “There is no match!”

I got dressed and tried to light a lamp, but there was no match. Ida came up with me; I put on nothing by my dress; Ida brought the match while I was dressing; when I got to the door, I heard them ask "where is the teacher?”

I held the door and tried to come in and we could have held it longer, but they called for an axe, then we let go the door and ran into a little room over the kitchen with no floor. The children followed me, and I got behind the chimney; one of the men came on each side of me and caught me by my breast and left arm and dragged me out into my room; I was unable to stand up. and begged them not to pull me so hard. One said, "don’t be so rough."

They took me up in their arms and I asked, “What are you using me for?” I said, “I recognize you and you will have to pay for this!” They had a light, so I could tell. One was so fast to pull me down that he fell down; I screamed for my mother, and I screamed for Mrs. Curtis, and kept it up.

They dragged me to the kitchen, and it was here that I asked Mrs. Curtis, “What are they doing this for?”

Mrs. Curtis said, “I don’t know.”

I asked her, “Had I not been true? Had I not been sisterly to her?” And she said, “Yes, you have.”

Still, they carried me to the door and threw me to the ground.

Now they called Mr. Curtis to come out. Their treatment of him I could not see but could only hear pounding flesh. For a moment they eased up on him and one of the men said, “Learn to ride your wife.”

Then they turned to me.

One of the men said, "Strip her!"

I said, "Oh, don't do that."

The first thing done was to tear off my dress and then my undergarments; then they put tar on my head. And while I was screaming for my mother, they put tar in my mouth; then they tarred my body and put feathers on my head and body.

Then I recognized Seth Henry's voice (I had heard him call the dances) saying I must leave the place the next morning, and he spit on me.

I could see the men; Benjamin Notting and John Faris took me from the chamber. I have heard him call off for a dance but did not know him; I recognized Eleazer Rolling and Elmer Whiting; cannot say that I recognize any others. I saw Thomas Jennings; I know John Faris, also Benjamin Notting; have seen him several times; never saw Bill but once before; that was at a party I gave. I know Eleazer Rolling as he attended my school. Elmer Wheeler attended my school last winter.”

Oh Stewart, remind me never to throw a party!

Sometime after this case before the courts, your mother told me that Carrie’s brother was inspired to attend law school. This at last this secured for the family some much-needed restoration in Kanona. This was where Carrie attended to her parents’ estate, became her brother’s secretary, and on the weekends worked at one of the hotels, still dreaming of opening her own school.

Well, one day who walks through those popular doors of that--your mother's words here--“eternally dirty hotel” but your other uncle, your mother’s older brother, Hank. This was the one who ran away from home, if an 18 year old can do such a thing, and took off to Australia for the gold rush. After the war here, he came back and eventually reunite with his old temperament, after the prodigal son bit, and fought again with his father and Val over the financial panic fall out and business split and was establishing another grist and sawmill there, on his own.

Your mother said Hank was always capable of ruining another picnic, even when he was having a fine meal on his own hill, he was like a real middle spike of the longest finger in the hand of goodness. A mechanical person, I understand he was worthy, but “fingernails always dirty.”

Your mother said that her siblings did not approve of Hank's marriage to Carrie, but two grown adults could do as they pleased, she said.

Your mother said, “At least Hank had the decency to wait one full year until after the passing of our dear mother, a queen of decency and humility.”

Miss Dawson was now your mother’s sister-in-law, but the letters had a frosty gloss or duplicity between them, as these things happen, because a downturn in correspondence shows up in every relationship from afar, your mother said, and I agree, for it cannot be sustained if only for the demands of the chores in the garden and porch steps, which need sweeping. But let not that happen to us, okay, Stewart?

I imagined Carrie was finally in love and rich and free and could read poetry with a man who wanted her for her mind and ignored that she was, still, after all these years, “well-shaped.”

I imagined she was loved for her mind, at last.

I imagined a lot more, worse than the turkey feathers.

Back to the letters of Charles Brother.

Later I will get to the part about when I finally met Carrie and you will know the truth about the Horses in Kanona.

—Miss Minnie

2025 Copyright Christine Friesel