The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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By S. C. Turnbo
The following old time amusing anecdote was written to me by Hon. S. W.
Peel of Bentonville, Benton Co., Ark. The letter is dated July 19, 1904
and relates to the ways and manners of a saloon keeper and his customers
at Carrollton Carrol Co. Ark. in an early day. In giving an account of it
Col. Peel who is so well known in Ark. and who served in Congress a number
of years said that the incident occurred when he was a small boy and that
he was present at the time. Here is how Col. Peel states it. "I knew
personally well all the characters mentioned and the facts given are actually
true" said he. "The village of Carrollton come into notice in
the pioneer days and was among the oldest trading points in Northwest Ark.
The first saloon - as called now but then by the most refined grocery store
- stood on the north side of the public square. The house was 14 feet square
and built of round logs and covered with oak boards 4 feet in length. The
boards were held down by round logs called weight poles, the door was in
the south end of the building and the door shutter was made of oak slabs,
at night this door was made fast after being closed by tieing it with paw
paw bark which answered in place of a lock. The floor was composed of native
earth. A huge puncheon which reached two thirds of the way across the house
formed the counter. The fixtures and merchandise consisted of a barrel of
cheap whiskey, one tin quart and one pint measure, a greasy deck of cards;
a fiddle and a flint lock rifle. John Potts better known as "Pitcher"
Potts was sole owner of the building and outfit. In those days Mr. Potts
was considered a shrewd business man and his customers lived far and near.
Peltry furs and bees wax were the principal articles of exchange. In one
corner of the house was stacked the cakes of bees wax. In another corner
was piled the peltry and furs consisting of deer skins, coon, catamount,
wild cat, otter and fox skins. Around this noted establishment the male
population gathered day after day bringing the above named commodities to
exchange for whiskey. Some times trade was quite brisk at other times exchanges
dragged along slow. One gloomy rainy day customers did not come in very
fast and business was rather dull until in the afternoon when those that
had arrived in the forenoon had remained and the few coming in later on
made up a fair crowd for a wet day but trade was slow. Though as stated
several had collected but about all the exchange done for some time was
talk. Among the party who lived in the neighborhood was Bill Mitchell afterward
known as Col. Mitchell and who was the first commander of the 14th Ark.
(Confederate) regiment. This man was endowed with plenty of wit and humor
and enjoyed all the fun loving jokes he could pass off on his friends. He
was also one of Potts regular customers. The crowd that day was not flush
with money nor furs and peltry and soon exhausted their means in buying
whiskey and drinking it. After their funds had run short trade dropped to
a low stage and the conversation grew monotonous. Finally a hunter come
in with a small deer hide and laid it down on the counter. "Pitcher"
who was rather a polite and courteous fellow and was always on the lookout
for a good trade ask the hunter if the hide was for sale and the hunter
replied in the affirmative. "Well what do you want for it" said
the grocery man and the hunter who looked like his mouth was dry said that
he wanted something to drink which the proprietor readily interpreted as
meaning some of his rotten whiskey and Pitcher promptly weighed the deer
hide and told the hunter that it ‘come to a quart’. And after
tossing the skin in the corner where the other hides lay in a pile and drawing
the amount of liquor equal to the price of the deer hide and handed it to
the man who in turn passed the adulterated stuff around among the crowd
until the contents of the cup was exhausted. But it was not enough and it
was not long before the men were licking their lips and getting thirsty
again for the want of more whiskey. To purchase more of the stuff was a
puzzle for "Pitcher" Potts abhorred the credit system and refused
to trust his customers with a drink on time. But soon afterward Mitchells
fun and wit began to crop out and whispering to a few of his associates
he stepped out of the building and passed around to the corner where the
peltry and furs were deposited. The openings between the logs in the corner
where these commodities lay was rather large, the owner being careless and
not taking time to chink the cracks and Mitchell catching an oppertunity
while the proprietor was not looking toward that part of the house reached
in and pulled the same deer hide out and stepping aside he carefully rolled
the hide up and tied a cotton string round it without "Pitcher"
seeing him. Though a light rain was falling but Mitchell did not enter the
house until a newly arrived countryman came to Mitchell and after the latter
explained how it was the man took charge of the deer hide and walked into
the saloon and sold it to the proprietor. After the hide was weighed Potts
said it "Just come to a quart" and threw the hide back in the
same corner and drawing a quart of the liquid he gave it to the new arrival,
who passed it around until the cup was emptied of its contents of course
Mitchell got in the house in time to share his part of it. By this time
all the men but "Pitcher" understood it and he was ignorant of
the job put up on him. It was all some of the men could do to keep from
laughing outright but they managed to keep quiet and after the expiration
of a half an hour Mitchell went out again to the corner and pulled the same
deer hide out the second time without being observed by the owner though
the other men saw the trick but kept perfectly mum. Mitchell rolled the
hide up again and tied it with another string that he had prepared himself
with and gave it to a different man that was on the outside who went in
and sold it to the dealer for another quart of whiskey and a division was
made of it among the settlers immediately. This was repeated again and the
crowd was nearly ready to give in with loud rejoicing but a shake of Mitchell’s
head quieted them and soon after this Mitchell took the same deer skin out
for the fourth time and sent it into the house and the man who took it in
the house told Pitcher he had brought him a deer hide. The proprietor took
the hide in hands scanned it closely for he had become suspicious that a
trick had been played on him. He looked at it keenly and turned it over
and untied it and unrolled it and after a thorough examination and hesitating
a little he remarked that it was very strange that all the deer hides brought
in that day were of the same size and weighed just the same number of pounds
and was worth each exactly one quart of whiskey. This was more than the
crowd could stand and they all laughed outright like the roar of a lion.
It was now that Potts caught onto the game that Mitchell and the other men
were up to and he joined in the fun and amusement at his expense and told
the men that they had beat him for once and that it was his treat and stepped
to the barrel and drew an extra quart of whiskey and passed it around free
of expense. After this was consumed "Pitcher" informed his customers
that he had better stop them cracks before he purchased any more deer hides."
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