RUTHERFORD AND PIERSON
C. W. (Neilly) Rutherford.
There was a law firm of Eidson,. Pierson, and Rutherford that existed
for a while. Then for many years there was Eidson and Pierson (James A.
Eidson, and John C. W. Pierson) in the old rock building on the south
side. C. W. Bell and Eidson were never partners. In those days those
lawyers were fighters. Once Eidson and Bell were on opposite sides of a
case and one wrote a statement. The other, Bell, said, "That compels
me to say what you state is untrue." Eidson said, "That compels
me to say that is a ...... lie," And they went together. (They became
famous lawyers, and that must have been in their younger days, even
possibly under influence of liquor. My father said Judge Eidson was the
most courteous lawyer in court he ever knew, and Judge Bell was
outstanding. He had helped dig the canal for the water wheel out at Gentry’s
Mill, just east of Highway 36, West. His father was a surgeon in the
Confederate Army and was killed or died in the war. He and his mother and
sister, the very civilized Miss Anne, came from Tennessee to Hamilton. Don’t
know just when, early. First lived up the street, now Bell Avenue, in a
log house, later in a two-story frame house on West Main Street, later the
home of Old Uncle Bob (R. S. Shockley, who came from the Old South, lived
out at Gentry’s Mill, and was once sheriff, and in his last days justice
of the peace at Hamilton. Once starting out I had a little suit against
the railroad and in filing it, Uncle Bob said, "Now, Bud, the
railroad is awful particular about [The previous sentence stopped
without an ending.]
Once old man Jim Wrenn was in his court. He said, "Now, Jim, they
have got you charged with cussing before a lady. You are guilty, and I am
going to find you guilty, but if you want to call any witnesses, I will
hear you!" He said, "I will call Pat, " his son. Uncle Bob
said it was no use and found him guilty.
One time an Irishman shot Mr. Eidson in the leg over on the east side
about where the Baker Building is. Both were drinking and probably Mr.
Eidson said something pretty curt. The Irishman got two years for it. It
seems that stray Irishmen were always raising the .... .
(Reminds me of a time a drunken Irishman decided he wanted absolution,
and asked where he could find a priest. There were none here, and someone
told him Uncle Tom Emmett, father of Chris Emmett and the others was a
Catholic and maybe he could serve in place of a priest. At that time he
had a tiny shoeshop on the east side,. before he went into the tinner’s
and plumbing and windmill business in a big way. The Irishman came in, in
a drunken and blustering way, and Uncle Tom tapped him on the head with a
shoe hammer, hardly missing a stroke, and laid him out. Someone asked what
was the matter with him, lying there on the ground, and was told that Tom
Emmett gave him absolution.)
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CHESLEY'S HAMILTON COUNTY INTERVIEWS
BY
HERVEY EDGAR CHESLEY, JR.
Born: 21 November, 1894
Died: 17 July, 1979