The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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A FRIGHTFUL RUNAWAY
By S. C. Turnbo
On the first day of November 1880 as Henry Clark was going from Lead Hill Arkansas to his home in the south east part of Taney County, Mo. in a wagon drawn by two fine mares. His team run away from the top of the dividing ridge between the head of the hollow that runs down to Bradleys Ferry and the breaks of Horse Hollow that runs into East Sugar Loaf Creek. Miss Fannie and Ida two of his little daughters accompanied him. When Mr. Clark had arrived at the grove of timber on the crest of the ridge where the road was then he halted his team to fix something about the wagon, and when he got out of the wagon the team took fright and started down the hill in a run. They followed the road only a few yards when they turned to the left and went as fast they could go over the stony ground which stuck out of the ground a few inches above the surface. The wagon was pulled and jerked so swiftly along that there was a constant bouncing of the wagon on the rough stones which nearly beat the life out of the children. The sight of the runaway team as they went plunging down the rough hill side with the two little girls in the wagon box was horrifying and as the despairing father followed on after the wagon unable to check the terrified mares did not expect to find his darling children alive, Some distance down the hill while the team was rushing along at break neck speed the children were both hurled out of the wagon onto the stones. Fortunately they were not killed, but Ida was seriously injured. Fannie was not so badly hurt. The poor father now rejoiced that he did not find them dead. Onward rushed the frantic team running over bushes, saplings and boulders until they turned to the right and struck the road and ran across it where the wagon box was thrown off and the hind wheels were detached from the fore wheels. Here the mares in their frenzied fury turned to the left again and recrossed the road and dashed down the hill side taking the fore parts of the running gears of the wagon with them, the team went straight toward the hollow below where the original road crosses at the cliff of rock, but before they reached the bed of the hollow they ran between two post oak trees which the wheels struck with such force and the mares going at such a high speed that they jerked loose from the remainder of the wagon and the team separated and went on. One of the mares was named Diner and the other Fan. Diner ran across the hollow and up the hill side and fell dead near the road. "Fan" was found alive in the hills of Big Beach Hollow a few days afterward. Soon after the fearful run away occurred Bob Trotter and Lige Motley came along in a wagon. They were living on the river and were going from Lead Hill and the children were taken to Lead Hill by these men and cared for by friends until Mr. Clark and his wife could convey them home. Fannie recovered from her injuries in a few days but Ida lay several weeks before she was able to walk.
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