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Aug 1, 2012
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If Hogshead is a tough measure, at least one doesn't have to research the measure of a piggin or a firkin. One thing I try to instill when I teach is the ability to research instead of just asking. If one can do a bit of good research, that means a level if knowledge can be gained far above that of just saying "i don't know."
 

mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
3,976
11,065
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
According to her, in the year 1952 his most faithful paramour grew tired of his wickedness, and rammed a broomstick up his rear end as he lay passed out on the bed.

Knowing he’d be scandalized by such a thing, he persuaded his lover to drive him in the back seat of his new Cadillac to the Veteran’s Hospital 150 miles away in Kansas City, where the broomstick was removed and it was thought he’d recover, although he died suddenly on the third day. His trip back to Wheatland was in the undertaker’s new Cadillac hearse.
Now that's an ignoble end.
Milo Cahow’s father lived at least to the age of 106 (his death certificate says 113) and had at least three wives, the last one over 50 years younger than he was.
My paternal grandfather had four wives, the last of whom was younger than my mother. As my best friend says, I have a lot of catching up to do.
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,782
Humansville Missouri
Myrtle Cahow was 5”10” and always wore high heels, dressed to the nines, had waist length curls of raven black hair, and as a teenager in the 1910s cracking mules across the 37 miles from Wheatland to Ha Ha Tonka as part of Cahow Cartage Company must have caused quite a stir, among the imported stone masons from Europe, and potential employees of her father Milo.

In the seventies it was my greatest privilege to drive to Hermatige and take her anyplace she wanted to go. As a gray haired man I’m still honored to be announced as her grandson when I’m in Hickory County, where she still has quite a few living fans, who ask me to authenticate her book (I’m astonished anyone made counterfeit copies, but they did) and sometimes I try and find old places she mentioned in her fifty year comedy series in The Index (the basis and inspiration for the television shows Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres, although she nor her publisher ever were paid a cent of royalties). Yes, there is a place called Bug Tussle, and I could see it every morning as a child, a half mile north of our farm.

Myrtle “Ma” Cahow Agee was a literary genius, and a master of subtle, dead pan humor.

Her grandfather Joshua Cahow was an astoundingly tough, adept, womanizing, scoundrel that she remembered meeting as a child. She later claimed her brother John was so infatuated by Joshua he tried to emulate him.


Myrtle claimed Joshua was 113 when he died in 1904, slipping while walking to church with his last wife (or perhaps girlfriend) who was younger than her father Milo, who was 51 in 1904. Milo was convinced she had somehow murdered him, but resigned himself to the fact he might well have needed killing, given his habits of infidelity. His death certificate says he died at the county home, which might be where his last wife (or girlfriend) stuck him, after she took his considerable estate, or so it was argued.


The story I’ve always heard was that Joshua was over age to enlist in the Yankee army in 1863 to get away from a jealous woman, so he lied and said he was 60. He took 10 year old Milo with him, and said he was 13.

I suppose the need for drovers in the Yankee army was so great, they didn’t check very hard about ages.

But if you must skip town when you’re 73 with your 10 year old son because your mistress gouged your second wife’s eyes out, and made her blind, then it shouldn’t be a shock your grandson died when a jealous woman rammed a broomstick up his rear about 90 years later.

Myrtle said her brother John was a good boy, always popular with the girls, but he came back from World War One a changed man, which she blamed on him being exposed to the wrong companions while in the service.

She told me she should have shot him in 1920 when he robbed her father, but she was married and worried she might have to do some jail time, and somebody had to look after Milo, anyway, since their mother had died.

SWEETER THAN THE FLOWERS


Milo had several girlfriends, but never married until he died in 1931.
 
Last edited:

Brendan

Lifer
May 16, 2021
1,412
7,533
Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
But if you must skip town when you’re 73 with your 10 year old son because your mistress gouged your second wife’s eyes out, and made her blind, then it shouldn’t be a shock your grandson died when a jealous woman rammed a broomstick up his rear about 90 years later.

This paragraph is gold, just gold.
 

WVOldFart

Lifer
Sep 1, 2021
1,937
4,754
Eastern panhandle, WV
If Hogshead is a tough measure, at least one doesn't have to research the measure of a piggin or a firkin. One thing I try to instill when I teach is the ability to research instead of just asking. If one can do a bit of good research, that means a level if knowledge can be gained far above that of just saying "i don't know."
My father was a very smart man. When we were kids and wanted to know a answer to a question, even though he knew the answer he would say "It's in the book." So we had to look it up and we gained the art of research and gained some knowledge. I seldom wonder about something, I look it up. Today it is just as easy to get an answer as it is to wonder. Now with the age of the internet you can say Google it. The world of answers are out there to just ask.
 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,565
27,065
Carmel Valley, CA
There's a big difference in posing a casual question in a thread about something else, vs. blasting in a new thread with a question that's easily researched.

And a number of questions seek the opinions of the group.

A reminder: it's not ok to tell someone to google it. Please provide a link to one or more appropriate threads.

** I know that you believe you understood what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
 
There's a big difference in posing a casual question in a thread about something else, vs. blasting in a new thread with a question that's easily researched.

And a number of questions seek the opinions of the group.

A reminder: it's not ok to tell someone to google it. Please provide a link to one or more appropriate threads.

** I know that you believe you understood what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
Whom is this in response to? Oh wait, is that question allowed? Crap, is that one?
 

WVOldFart

Lifer
Sep 1, 2021
1,937
4,754
Eastern panhandle, WV
The previous two posts for starters, and then a general admonition/reminder/suggestion.

That is for whom the bell tolls!
My response concerning research dealt with life. Don't wonder about things look it up. It had nothing to do with this forum or pipe smoking. If people want to go on believing anything they want without looking it up... let them.. that's why we have so many stupid people in the world.
 
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Jacob74

Lifer
Dec 22, 2019
1,243
6,665
Killeen, TX
Eric Sloane is one of my favorite all time people. I have most of his published books and have several of his prints on our walls. When it comes to history or Americana, he is the man to go to. My Dad used to love reading his books, so I guess Eric Sloane connects me to my father.
"Diary of an Early American Boy" has been on my bookshelf since 1983. I re-read it every year or so. That kind of nostalgic social history is just fantastic. Have you read George Washington Sears (Nessmuk) Woodcraft and Camping?