Anecdotes
A likely story
Jessie’s great-great grandfather George R. Robinson owned a mill on Clear Run Creek, on the east side of the Black River. One day the wind blew so hard straight up the mill race that it blew the water back through the mill and unground two bushels of corn.
Good Medicine
Landron had a spinster Aunt named Thankful Boney. She was a large woman and the Boney children sometimes teased her by calling her “Tank”. That wasn’t the only teasing they gave her. At a fish fry, the boys (perhaps helped by their father) took some cooked fish eyes and put them in a box. They gave them to “Thank”, telling her that they were good medicine.
The Yankees Are Coming
During the Civil War, Jessie’s great grandmother Betsy Ann Matthis had just baked a honey cake when she was frightened by the sight of some men coming toward her house. She thought they were Yankee soldiers and so she ran off from the house. When all was quiet she returned to find that the men had eaten the cake and pissed in the empty cake pan. Just some local hoodlums, apparently.
Abner’s teapot
An Old Teapot
Jessie’s great grandfather Abner Robinson was a captain in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and he was captured and sent to White Plains, New York, as a prisoner of war. Abner had a large brown teapot, which he gave to his granddaughter Anna Matthis. Anna Matthis Cashwell gave it to her daughter Jessie Lee Cashwell Boney, who in turn gave it to her daughter Dixie Lee Boney Soo.
Laying Sod
Jessie’s brother Jim went to Cleveland with his brother Joe and several other young men to find work. He tried a number of jobs. One of these involved laying sod. Jim didn't know what “laying sod” meant, but he assured the boss that he knew what to do, and he was put in charge. He told one of the other men to start at one corner. Jim watched the man for a few minutes to see how to lay the sod, and then he started in at another corner.