Although my Grandpa didn’t know Talton when he was a young
boy, his mother Sarah (Hall) Banks told him stories about the kind of child he
was. Sarah had been born in 1849 and
visited her Hall relatives, on Beaver Creek, often with her mother, Roxanna and
Grandmother, Martha “Patsy” (Talton’s Aunt).
Talton was David and Anna’s youngest child and he was small for his
age. He was only three years older than
my Great Grandmother Sarah so they played together when she visited.
Grandma
Sarah said Talton didn’t talk much but he thought a lot. He would pull pranks on his friends and
family and stand back to watch the fun.
He was never suspected as the culprit, because he was so quiet and
seemingly so sweet. He really was a
sweet little boy, but he loved to stir
up something and watch the pot boil.
He was very bright and learned quickly.
He spoke very little until he was about five years old because,
according to him, he “didn’t have nuthin’ ta say”. He didn’t fight and scrap like the other kids because he was
small and usually got “stomped”. One
thing that would always send him into the fray was ganging up. If one person was ganged up on by two
or three kids, Talton would wade in with both feet. Then he would get “stomped”.
As were the other
children in the family, Talton was expected to do his chores and help tend the
crops and animals. He did this without
complaint because he loved being outdoors. When his chores were finished, he
loved exploring his mountains with his dogs and cousins, finding caves to play
in and apple trees to raid. Apples were
his favorite food. He became as familiar with his mountains as he was with his
own home. He hunted his mountains for
small game with his father, brothers, and cousins to help feed his family. He was a natural with a rifle. As he grew older, he grew into his rifle and
his bones.
Talton attended school
whenever it was taught, usually in the winter, and only if weather permitted
and a teacher was available. He learned
to read and write well for his day and loved newspapers. He wasn’t overly concerned with the Bible or
other books, but the newspapers told of events that were happening in his time. He learned something of the world outside
his mountains and decided he liked it just fine where he was.
In the fall of 1860, the
upcoming presidential election was all over the newspapers. Talton was 14 years old and politics had
captured him. He hated the lying,
cheating politicians, but would argue his ideas about the issues and with
anyone and everyone to the point that nobody wanted to talk to him. He had learned about taxes early in life
when he traveled with his family to the county seat to pay the taxes on their
land. In those days, the taxes had to
be paid in person. On one of these
trips, Talton asked his father, David why they had to pay taxes to men they did
not know for land these men did not own.
His father explained that taxes were a way for fat worthless old men in
the government to keep the mountain people poor and to make the fat old men in
the government fatter.
Talton then suggested, “Why don’t we just
stop payin’ an’ shoot ‘em when they came on awr land ta git the money? It ain’t ther land, it’s awrn. They don’t tend it, they just tax it.”
To that, his father
replied, “ Because they’d jest sen’
more men an’ more men an’ finally they’d kill us all or throw us off awr own
land an’ sell it to somebody’d pay the taxes”.
His father added, “Ye got ta learn ta pick yor battles, boy. Some ye cain’t win. Tain’t smart to start fightin’ a loosin’
battle”.
“What if ye think it
ain’t no loosin’ battle? What if ye
think it’s the only right thing ta do?” Talton pressed.
David looked at his son
long and hard before he answered, “Then ye stand up an’ fight with all that’s
in ye an’ never stop, even if it kills ye.
But ye’d best be willin’ to die fer it, son, fer most times right an’
wrong don’t make no matter. It’s who
holds the power, decides yor fate.”
The material on this website is
copyrighted © 2001 by Nancy Wright Bays, Patty May Brashear.