One of my grandfathers, Abraham Musick, was a skilled blacksmith and he had his shop on his family land. As one might expect of a blacksmith, he is described as being a strongly muscled man, of slightly over average height, with a barrel chest, large arms of great strength, and dark hair. One story told of him, describes his temper, as well. He had made at the request of a customer a peice of equipment. He had told that customer what the price of the peice would be and had gotten the ok to go ahead. But when the customer, who also happened to be a neighbor came to pick up the peice, he wanted to re-negotiate the price and did so by denigrating the workmanship. See this burr here, and the curve is not quite right, and on, and on. If there was anything my grandfather was proud of, it was his skill and his temper, legendary in the community, came forth in full blossom. He took the peice from the hands of his neighbor and told him in no uncertain terms to get off his property and never let the sun cast his shadow on the land again. The neighbor needing the peice, knowing that there was no other blacksmith nearby, began trying to reconcile immediately but Abe would have nothing of it. He told the man to 'git, and git now!' and the man did indeed start back- peddling, but he also continued to 'Now, Abe, now Abe!' My grandfather picked up the axe that was laying nearby and raised it over his head. The neighbor turned and began to run. Abe threw the axe at him and whether deliberately or not, missed him and the axe hit a tree beyond him. The axe buried in so deeply, that they never did get it out. If the tree is still there, then so is the axe. (smile) This grandfather is famous in our family for more than this story, but I suspect that the temper played a part of what I am telling you here. Abraham Musick was married to Rachel Collins and one of their descendants told me that the two had twelve children. I am not one of those descendants. My great-great grandmother Mary Collins, sister of Rachel, was orphaned and went to live with Rachel and Abe. Mary bore Abe two children as far as I can tell. Now my family knew there was a secret of some sort here, but it was only as I began to do genealogy that this secret slowly unfolded. Apparently none of the descendants of Abe and Rachel knew of this liason. The three of them lived together and my great grandmother was married from Abraham Musicks house at the age of 13 years. I wonder how the two sisters felt about this arrangement? I suspect that they had little choice in the matter. A first cousin of my dad's, told me that Abraham would rush out of his shop, yell at Mary, ' Mary, I want, I want - Oh, damn-it-to-hell, you know what I want!' and poor Mary, scared half out of her wits, would gather up everything she could find and take it to him, hoping one would be what he wanted. One of Abe's and Rachel's descendants sent me the following description of their property. I don't know if this was the land on which the above story of the axe took place or not. "If you rolled down the mt. off of the Clark Castle Cemetery on the south side you would roll into Sycamore Hollow where Abraham and Rachel Collins Musick had raised their family and watched them spred out all over, but mainly staying around the Johnson Co. Ky area. There was not much bottom land for farming but they seem (sic) to make it work. There are area's where it is only about 50 feet between Sycamore and the next Mtn. So this family raised a lot of what they ate and did a lot of loggin, and a little farming. >From one mountainside to the next where they lived was abt 100 feet and that is a long (estimate). Their house was positioned where they looked toward the southern mountain. From the front porch of this house abt (40 ft) was a rockcliff where the mountain started back up again. There was then and there is now a small clear stream that runs down the hollow." I have seen many a place that could fit this description. Another of my grandfathers, was Alden Williamson. All family records state Alden Williamson's first wife was Isabell Thompson, but none give definitely when or where they were married. Records partly official and partly traditional are to the effect that after the Revolutionary War was over, Alden came to the Clinch River Valley of Western Virginia. Whether he had married in Fincastle County and they came together or they were married in Tazewell County is not known. Family records, also state that Alden Williamson died in 1816, while going down the Tug River on a raft of timber. He is buried on the Bill Little farm, formerly the Sam Endicott farm. This farm is on the Kentucky side of the river, a short distance below the mouth of West Virginia Camp Creek. I have often wondered what Alden was doing on that raft. Was he going to or returning from getting supplies, was rafting people and material his 'job?' If the family records could record HOW he died why couldn't they have recorded what he was doing and WHY when it happened? Be glad to share info on either of these lines. Nancy S