[Granville-Hough] 8 Apr 2009 - Moughtaben
Trustees for Granville W. Hough
gwhough-trust at oakapple.net
Fri Apr 7 16:01:17 PDT 2017
I will be out of town for a few days and will catch up when I return.
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:17:51 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Moughtaben -8 Apr 2009
MOUGHTA BEEN
So much has been said and written about Cornelius "Neese" Sullivan that
little can be added with accuracy. He may not have been the meanest man
in Sullivans Hollow, but he was certainly the most feared. Many
Sullivans would claim they feared no man, but went the other way when
Neese approached. Others openly admitted they were afraid of him,
particularly when he was drinking. Reports that he would get drunk and
sleep with young negro boys did not go well with the community. So it is
better to tell an apocryphal story moughta happen, coulda happen if
you like.
It seems one day that Reverend (and great-uncle) Wilson West was making
his way on a back road of Sullivans Hollow looking for people he could
invite to church. He always rode with saddle bags, one side holding a
bible and the other holding a bottle of whiskey. He stopped and talked
to each person he met, offered to read a few words of scripture and pray
with them. Most people tolerated this and agreed to come to church the
next Sunday. In the hard cases, Preacher West would bring out the
whiskey bottle and share a few drinks. Eventually, the most hardened
sinners would be agreeing to come to church.
Well, on this particular day, Preacher West saw someone walking down the
road somewhat erratically, but still upright. On getting closer,
Preacher West could see that it was Neese Sullivan, just the fellow who
most needed his guidance. Neese had either been to the stills on Merry
Hell, or he had met John Barleycorn or Jack Daniels along the way.
Anyway, for Neese, he was in a mellow mood. Preacher West tried the
bible and found that Neese did not particularly resist his message, but
did not know about coming to church, any church, as he had always gotten
into fights at church gatherings, and sometimes people got killed.
So Preacher West asked the rhetorical question, Would you be willing to
meet Jesus Christ and accept him? To which Neese replied he would not
mind at all. So Preacher West reflected and said, I just passed the
Bunker Hill Mill Pond. Lets go back there and you can be baptized.
Now, Mill ponds are not very deep usually. They just store water for the
waterwheels which turn the machinery for grinding the grain or doing
whatever work is required.
So they went back to Bunker Hill Mill Pond and waded out to a suitable
baptizing depth, and Preacher West did the proper things and dunked
Neese in an ordinary baptism. He then asked Neese: Did you see Jesus
when you went down with your sins? Neese replied: No, Preacher, I
didnt see anybody. You had your hand over my eyes. So Preacher West
said, Well do it again, So this time he did the baptism for a little
longer without covering Neeses eyes, then asked the question: Did you
see Jesus when you were shedding your sins? And Neese again said: No,
I did not see anybody. Then Preacher West said, Well have to do it
one more time. This time he held Neese under the water until Neese
began to struggle, then brought him up and asked: Did you see Jesus
this time? By then Neese had sobered quite a bit, so he replied: No, I
did not see him? Are you sure this is where he fell in? As I noted,
this is a moughta happen story.
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