The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
Turnbo Home | Table of Contents | Keyword Search| Bibliography | Biography
HOW NED COKER WANTED THE MOLES DESTROYED
By S. C. Turnbo
The old Ned Coker farm which is situated on the right bank of White River in Crocket Township in Marion County, Ark. was settled very early. Ned Coker and Aunt Winnie his wife settled this land before 1824. Mr. Coker was a son of Buck Coker and was quite an intelligent man. The writer learned a great deal of information from him relating to the pioneers settlers along White. When I was a young man I took much delight in listening at Mr. Coker’s early reminiscences. I have heard him recite a number of strange and interesting incidents that occurred in the upper White River Valley in the years gone by. He was well known as a man that kept his own councils and run his own affairs one day while he and others were conversing together one of the men remarked, "Mr. Coker can three men keep a secret". and he quickly replied, "Why certainly they can if two of them are dead."
Soon after Coker and his wife settled this bottom they built a small log
house on the bank of the river and cleared a few acres, of land and planted
it in corn in the spring of 1824. But the moles were so numerous that they
devoured every grain of it almost before it come up. This was all the seed
corn or any other corn the man had that spring and there was no more in
reach of him to buy at any price and the man was terribly wrought up in
temper at the hundreds of moles which destroyed his seed corn he had planted.
And in his anger he called on the great God of heaven to cause a flood to
come in White River big enough to submerge all the bottoms deep enough to
drown all the moles from the head of the river to the mouth of it. In the
latter days of August and the first few days of September of that year when
the gates of the nimbus clouds were opened and let down blinding sheets
of water which filled the channels of the creeks and hollows to overflowing
and the rush of this water into White River soon caused this stream to be
a roaring and foaming flood of water which rose so rapidly that Mr. Coker
and his wife were driven from their cabin and they sought safety on higher
ground. As they were leaving their hut Mrs. Coker reminded her husband of
what he had said and prayed for in his wicked way of calling on the name
of the good God of Heaven what he wanted him to do when the moles eat up
the corn he had planted the spring before "and now Mr. Neddie"
says she "I guess your prayers are answered but God cannot drown all
the moles in this bottom without giving you trouble. The water went on rising
and spreading over the bottom until the couple were compelled to remove
their camp a number of times before the water began to recede. Mr. Coker
began to think that it was going to be another universal flood that the
Bible, spoke of and repented of what he had desired the Lord to do and become
restless and uneasy and quoted the word of God as saying that God had promised
that the earth would never be destroyed by water any more "but my God
Winnie this rise looks very suspicious for I believe it is going to cover
the entire earth before it quits. This land is now known as the Alex Pruitts
upper farm.
Turnbo Home | Table of Contents | Keyword Search| Bibliography | Biography
