The following article was written by Jim Early and published in the Pocahontas Star Herald in 1940.

Pioneer Days

I was brought here seventy years ago next October, from Green County Indiana. I was a one year old babe in my dear old mothers arms. I have spent my entire live within a radius of four miles of where the Ingram Post Office and Vernon School and Church House now stands. The old Pioneer lived off the fat of the land and had boundless resources. The last pair of deer hams I ever saw, my father killed the deer and smoked the hams. This was the year 1880, sixty years ago. We kids wanted to eat them, but dad said, "No, those hams must be passed on to a rich man". So he sold them to Uncle Dan Oakley who kept a store on lower Camp Creek. Uncle Dan also ran a peddling wagon. In those days my next door neighbor was the late Bill and Bunk Spikes, and their sisters Cassie, Martha, and Fannie. I want to say that I will always have a warm place in my heart for those dear old childhood companions who have ever seemed like real brothers and sisters to me. Yes, we kids romped and fished down Tennessee Creek. The first eel I ever saw, we kids caught it in Tennessee Creek on the Uncle Joe Spikes place. It was a sure a dandy. Just as we pulled him out onto the bank, Uncle Joe, father of our good friend, P Spikes, came along squirrel hunting. He told us it was a Rocky Mountain Rattlesnake, whereupon we dropped our fishing tackle and took to our heels. Uncle Joe had a good laugh as he called us back and told us what it was and helped us string him up and told us we would now have some real eating.

The old timer had his whims and superstitutions. When his cow got poor and hide bound and the blood left the extremities he called it Hollow Horn instead of Hollow Belly and bored her horns, split her tail, and rubbed salt and pepper on it. He planted his potatos in the moon and hunted veins of water with a forked switch. He was also afraid to burn sassafras wood or carry a hoe through his house, because it would cause a death in the family. However, many good sensible people hold to those same old whims today.

When those old whims are stamped on a childs brain by its grandmother and other borebearer, they are hard to uproot. Even this old smart alec had got a few old whims hanging onto him like a cursed mantle. I can't get rid of them.

Signed, Jim Early, Sr