Family Stories page 2
Dr. John H. Driver
and John Cary George:
Dr. Driver who was married to Julia George’s
oldest sister Emily, told Alice Lemons that her granddad George was the finest
man he had ever known. He said he was so kind, and a friend to all. He also said he was very well respected.
John Cary George loved to hunt and was very
good at it, that’s how they got most of their meat. He built a beautiful home in Little rock, Ark. He built it
himself out of the best lumber that he had planned himself. He also played the
violin or fiddle as it was called.
On one of his hunting
trips, he came across a dead man, who had been there for some time. Near the dead man was his rifle, on closer
examination he saw the rife was a very good one, much better than his shotgun,
so he took the rifle and left his shotgun near the body. When the authorities arrived and someone
identified the shotgun as John George’s, he was at once accused of the
crime. When he got word, that he would
have to go to court, he was sure he would have a very hard time proving his
innocence. So he packed up his family
and Uncle Driver and Aunt Emily, and fled to Texas and changed their names.
Uncle Driver kept practicing medicine. The sheriff located them, through a label on
a bottle of medicine. The sheriff
arrived after dark, grandma George went to the door, as they called for John
George. He came to the door with rife
in hand and was shot dead, at first sight. Grandma George was left with seven
young children, Ott the oldest at 16 and Julia the youngest at less than 2
years.
Grandma George took the children and went to
live with her father in Jasper, Texas.
With his assistance, she and the children were pretty well off, although
her brothers were concerned about how much attention and help they were
getting. To keep peace in the family,
she packed up the kids and moved to Oklahoma, where times were very hard.
One night , a mountain cougar got under their
house, the floor boards were not nailed down, and it keep raising them with its
back, which had everyone scared. This went on for sometime until grandma could
boil some water and poured it through the cracks, making the cougar leave.