Amanuensis Monday - The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 49

The following transcription is from a series of recordings my father made in the early 1990s:

Old man Zeb York [Son of Sylvester and Sophia Peniston York] was named after his uncle Zebulon York who was a Confederate Brigadier General.  Old man Zeb had a son named Zeb who married Henry Brown. They had a son named Zeb who we called Little Zeb.  Little Zeb married Emma Griggs and they had a son named Zeb. 

Brigadier General Zebulon York

Old man Zeb married Mollie Earle.  They had the following children:  Zeb, Horace Peniston “H. P.”, Jesse, Billy, Thomas, Earle and Julia.  Earle married Mr. Henry Krause and Julia married a Wales. 

Zeb, Jessie and Earle made Sicily Island their home.  H. P. lived here off and on over the years.  

The last time H. P. lived here was in the late 1940s.  He and his wife and son, H. P., Jr. lived in the house across the way from my house where Brother Nolen lives today.  My aunt Nita Peck rented that house to them.  They later moved to Mississippi.  H. P., Jr. now lives down in Florida. 

Thomas moved out to Georgia and Billy lived up around Fairbanks, up above Monroe.  Julia moved to New Mexico but she used to come back to visit her sister, Earle.  At one time her husband managed the Peck Plantation.  That was before William Vaught managed it. 

Old man Zeb York was a very successful farmer and had several hundred acres of land up at Peck.  He also raised cattle and sheep.  When he died, the land was divided up between all his children.  I don’t believe any of his descendants own any of that land now. 

I’ve got to tell this story... 

Old man Zeb York, T. J. Peniston and my daddy used to play a card game called ‘Setback’.  They would play every Sunday evening in the early 1940s.  They would take turns hosting the games.  I often watched them play but I never could catch on to how the game was played.

T. J. Peniston

One Sunday evening they were playing in the dining room at our house.  Somebody knocked on the door and Daddy said, “Son, go see who that is at the door.”  When I opened the door, there stood old man Zeb’s son, H. P.  He was living up in Monroe at that time and had stopped by to visit.  

Man, he was all dressed up in a suit and shiny shoes.  He asked, “Is Papa here?”  I told him he was and invited him inside.

He walked in the dining room and spoke to everybody.  They stopped the game to visit with him.  He asked his father how his mother was doing, how the farm was doing and several other questions.  

The visit lasted about fifteen minutes then H. P. said he had to go.  I walked him to the door and when I walked back in the dining room old man Zeb said, “H. P. is a good boy but I’d just as soon be nibbled to death by a duck than to have him come in here while I’m trying to play cards!”  Mr. T. J. Peniston got up out of his chair and almost fell on the floor from laughing so hard.  

Note:  Parts 1-48 of 'The Stories That Should Be Told' can be found in the Tags List on the right-hand side of this blog.