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Recalled Family
Stories
Cyrus Shiplett
A funny
story I heard about Cyrus is that one day Leonard his youngest son was
walking somewhere through the woods back from town and was getting ready
to cross a bridge over a creek and some guys saw him and stopped
him putting guns to his head telling him to never come back thru there
again, now Leonard had to double back and cross the creek at a different
location, he quickly ran home and had to wake his father, and tell him
what had happened. Cyrus realizing that the guys were making
moonshine told Leonard to come on and go with him to spy on these
guys to see what he could do. Cyrus figured out a great punishment, he
watched them until dark and then when the men left after hiding their
moonshine ..Cyrus stole the moonshine and drank every bit of what he had
stolen.
Cyrus also
got so drunk on blackberry wine one time, that his sons tied him
to a pole in the barn and left him for days trying to sober him up,
after this incident Cyrus was taken to court for Lunacy and found
innocent after the town Dr. said that Cyrus was no Lunatic but that he
was just a mean drunk.
Cora and
Cyrus even separated for a while due to his drinking and stories are
told that he would fill up a wagon full of food and drive it to
the house she was staying at in town every week.
Another
story says Cyrus would never go
to church with his wife and for years she worked on him and prayed for
him and finally when he got too old and he finally made up his mind to
accept Jesus as his Savior and be baptized that the Catholic Bishop no
less from Columbus came all the way out to the house to baptize him.
Cora attended St. Josephs Catholic Church and her name is even listed on
a plaque in the entry way into the church.
Alfred
Shiplett son of Cyrus
A story about Alfred is he was 18 when he saved a life and lost his own.
Alfred was working at the mines when he saw a coal bucket falling and
pushed another man out of the way only to be killed by the coal bucket
himself. The man was left with a scar running the length of his face but
he was still alive.
Leonard
Shiplett son of Cyrus
A funny
story about Leonard or Coke as they called him we called him Grandpa.
Grandpa loved to listen to baseball games on the radio in the kitchen.
You know I hardly ever remember Grandpa sitting down he was always
standing and leaning over the table smoking
(while he was on oxygen no less with his air hose reaching all the way
down the hall so the lighter wouldn't blow up the oxygen tank. ) Now
while he listened to the game in the kitchen the game had to be on in
the TV room in case he wanted to run in and catch the playback.
Grandpa
used to sit and watch us play outside and I remember him telling stories
that I now wish I had actually listened to. Grandpa in his early day was
a drinker too like his father and a story that I find funny is that one
day he told one of his daughters in a drunk state that they could
butcher a cow
(he used to raise them) for a special occasion and when he was sober did
not remember telling his daughter that a cow could be butchered, so my
dad took one of my grandpas rifles and when Grandpa got drunk again went
out and shot one of his best cows, and told him to watch what he says
when he is drinking.
Mildred
Catherine Boley Shiplett - Grandma
Grandma was totally into
spoiling us you could not look at anything twice at a store or she would
buy it, Grandma used to order pizza at midnight when you stayed with her
and we would have late night pizza parties, she also used to have tons
of different ice creams and popsicles in the freezer buying what
everybody liked.
Grandma had one weird thing that we still laugh about she would fill up
casserole bowls with corn flakes and she would pour Caro syrup over them
and eat them... it used to make us kids sick LOL.
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