The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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BLOOD POISON FROM A COPPERHEAD SNAKE
By S. C. Turnbo
Among other incidents we present this to the reader.
In the month of June, 1857, while we lived in the southeast corner of Taney
County, Missouri, opposite the Panther Bottom, my father employed Calvin
Clark to cut the bushes off of a piece of new ground that was planted in
corn. Alex Anderson had cleared the land for my father and he was careless
to leave the stumps from 18 inches to 2 feet high and they were numerous
all over the ground and the tender bushes had sprung up thick around the
stumps. One forenoon while Mr. Clark was at work with a stout hoe a copperhead
snake that was lying coiled at the root of a stump struck his leg and its
fangs hung in his breeches leg. The pants were made of thick home woven
cotton cloth. The man wore drawers of thick homemade cloth also. The man
in his efforts to get rid of the serpent kicked vigorously until he got
it loose then killed the snake with the hoe. As far as he knew the reptile’s
fangs did not touch the flesh on his leg, but late that evening his leg
began to itch and by the following morning the fleshy part of his leg where
it commenced to itch had hardened and seemed to be paralyzed. But the man
went on with his work until noon when his leg began to pain him severely
and he had to quit work and started home where he lived on Big Creek. Mr.
Clark crossed the river in a canoe and while he was going up the bluff at
the upper end of the Panther Bottom he saw two deer standing in a small
glade or prairie and shot and killed one of them. The other deer stood still
until he reloaded his rifle and he shot and killed it also. Seeing my father
plowing In the field on the opposite side of the river, Mr. Clark called
to him to come over and get the two dead deer. As the water in the river
was low my father took the harness off his horse and with the plow lines
in his hands he mounted the horse bareback and rode across the river and
went up the hill to where Clark was sitting on a rock near where the dead
deer lay. Mr. Clark told my father that he was not able to carry the two
deer home with him and he wanted him to have the venison, but requested
him to save both hides for him which my father promised to do and did. By
the time Clark reached home he was suffering very bad with his leg and had
to take his bed at once and lay there eight weeks before he was able to
get out of the house and it was four weeks longer before he was able to
do light work. It was supposed that the poison from the fangs of the serpent
had penetrated through the drawers and come in contact with the skin on
his leg and produced blood poisoning which was followed by a terrible sore
below the knee.
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