Old Josh, in: Waterford (1899)

Waterford
(1899)

In the township of Ozark, Alabama, there was an old framed wooden building built in the 1840s, that had been at the time a barrel making factory, but had stood for years vacant, a windowless building, it was owned by an Irish man from Waterford, Ireland, he was called for short Waterford, his first name being Shawn, if he had another last name, other than Waterford, no one knew it. Mr. Ritt, the banker, who owned a bank in Ozark, and one in Fayetteville, North Carolina, bought it up in 1861, and made it a stable, with many stalls to it, he purchased young colts, and sold them to the Army during the Civil War days. Old Josh was rented out to Mr. Ritt, by Charles Hightower that summer of ‘61 to tend to the stable work, Ritt was short on hands. In the summer of 1864, he did the same, that is, he rented out Josh again for the same purpose, rented out to Mr. Ritt. It was a hot summer and a trying one for the Confederate Army, perhaps a good one for Mr. Ritt, financially; day and night, the stable was active, horses being sold, and being housed, and watered and fed, and for Josh, likewise, it was a trying summer, in 1864, he was sixty-one years old, he was by no means young, and cleaning out those stables nightly on twelve hour shifts, was a lot of work and one night a stallion got loose and ran out of the barn, ran crazy like through Main Street. Tyrone, a big Blackman, who assisted Josh, for a few hours, who had really the day shift, but his shift went into Josh’ shift, purposely, so one could help the other, he, Tyrone, bigger than Josh and who had been working prior to Josh coming on during the day, Josh now coming on at eight PM, was said by Tyrone Gibbons, he, Josh was really the cause of the trouble. That Josh left the stable door open, when in essence, the horse had run out a few minutes before Josh had arrived to work.

And now Josh is recollecting this old happening, and telling it to his son Silas, as they sit on the porch of Josh’s shanty hut in back of the Hightower mansion, it is fall of 1899.
“They had the advantage over me son,” said Josh, in the cool fall air, Silas listening attentively about Tyrone Gibbons “Yessum, they know’ed it also, they have the advantage over me, they wes two of them against me, like two trained dogs. I tells them someone left the stall open…he say Tyrone Gibbons say, Mr. Ritt, it wes Josh, he did it, he the scoundrel, but he know he did it, that he is the scoundrel, cuz I say so, but Ritt he jes’ look at us both, and I hold my respect, tell Master Hightower, Mr. Ritt say ‘That there nigger of your is trouble maker, and I’m goin’ to whip him good, he done left my stallion loose.”’
“Maybe God, he done took a nap; he was sleepin’ and didnt help yaw pa that day, it sounds!”

“God, he don’t git tired, he jes’ git fed up with us all down yonder here, I reckon; anyhow, I goes hide, and Hightower finds me behind the cow in the corral, I guess Ritt he mighty mad, cuz he still is out lookin’ for his horse, and me, cuz I hightail it out of that stable and leavae Tyrone to his own destiny. And then Hightower he done shot a turkey, and he sees me hiding by the cow, and it a big mamma gobbler, that turkey is, and he dont say a word to me, he jes’ walk over to my shanty and leave that there turkey on my porch, and he leave a note, I can read a bit, and it say, ‘I dont think Ritt will be askin’ for yaw in the future, cuz I told him I done whipped yaw good, so if you sees him, tell him ‘woo, it hurt so much!’ and I eats that turkey he left, and you young ones, eats the turkey, but you dont know the trouble I gits into over that there turkey. And Ritt, he never look at this here nigger again.”