The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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A WOMAN STEALS A MARE AND RIDES HER TO BUFFALO
By S. C. Turnbo
In recounting incidents that occurred in the bygone days Capt. A. S. Wood of Kingdon Springs Marion County, Ark. related to me this interesting event.
"The first property of the horse kind stolen from any of the early
settlers who lived on Crooked Greek was a small gray mare that belonged
to my father William Wood. He had bought this mare from an Indian who lived
at Shawneetown where the town of Yellville the county seat of Marion County
now stands. The mare was so small that we called her a pony. She was stolen
by a tramp woman by the name of Jackson. But before the bad woman took the
mare he made a bridle of hickory bark and gathered a quantity of green paw
paw leaves and pinned them together with small sticks of wood that she used
in place of pins. She must have been engaged some time in preparing this
for she made it two feet long and nearly as wide and she fastening layer
after layer of the leaves until it was thick. This she used for a pad or
saddle blanket to ride on after she had stolen the mare. She had no saddle
and used this alone. After the woman had stolen the pony she rode it all
the way to Buffalo and stopped at Bob Trimbles who lived on this stream
two miles above the mouth. Trimble was one among the oldest settlers in
that section and was the father of Capt. Bob Trimble who commanded a company
of men in Col. Mitchells fourteenth Arkansas (Confederate) regiment. When
my father found out that his little mare was gone he borrowed a chestnut
sorrel horse from my Uncle John Wood named Mike and started out on the hunt
for her and soon struck her trail which lead direct to Bob Trimbles. When
the woman thief stopped at Trimbles he recognized the mare as belonging
to my father and he made the woman give her up and she confessed to Trimble
that she had stole her and went on her way afoot. My father when he arrived
at Mr. Trimbles house found the mare all right and lead her back home. This
same mare lived to be 23 years old and brought a small but nice shaped colt
three years before she died.
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