Look Back: Preacher gets a sermon

(Look Back with Bob Enoch - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)
The Young Preacher of Ritchie County, continued.
The story of a young preacher preparing for his first sermon in a “tough” Ritchie County community continues. The y.p. had decided not to share with the leader of the town, Jacob Deehm, that he had something in common with the community; he too had fox hounds and loved to run them. The story, as told by Dr. Deem, continues as Jacob Deehm speaks to the y.p. before his first service:
“…Later in the midst of a controversy about the worldly pastime of fox chasing, which grew more and more heated and in which the minister pretended to be shocked at the very idea of upright men wasting their time in such a way, Mr. Deehm, after a silent spell of anger, burst out, ‘Young man, I don’t think you would be any less a good man, or do less good for mankind, if you could see a little joy, a little beauty and a little romance in the every day things of common life, out of which everybody else around here must get their livelihood, happiness, success and career.’
“The preacher was shocked almost to open admiration to hear such words from an old man back in the hills; but he stuck to his determination to keep Deehm still ‘in the dark’ about his own belief of the hobby.
“Leading the old man on by asking him what romance or joy he could possibly get out of fox chasing, the young minister heard the following story from the old man:
“I you have eyes you can see; if you have ears you can hear. Yesterday morning was one of those soft and givey days, good for running a fox. I felt in my bones that I would like to have a daylight fox chase. I went out to the barn and reached up in the hay loft, got my old horn and gave it a toot or two. Mary Gabbort, Reddy, Old Bess, Tenner, Lizzie, Old Sandy, old Dick Barbon, and a lot of pups, came out of the straw stack. I saddled up my old gray mare and we went back on the hill above Pullman in order to get the Loudin dogs in the race. Old Sandy is the chorister of the pack. He has a golden mouth and a silver tongue and his notes are sweeter than the dripping of honeycomb. After they had scouted around awhile, I heard Old Sandy strike the keynote. The old dogs took the low grounds of the bass and the female dogs and pups took the alto, soprano and tenor and they began playing, ‘We Will Hang Jeff Davis in a Sour Apple Tree,’ then I knew they were excited and was running by sight. I have heard Sousa’s Band, Gilmore’s Band, church choirs, singing, drum choruses and the like but that was the softest and prettiest and sweetest music I have ever heard. You could hear the feet of them pups hitting the ground in beautiful accompaniment to Mary Gabbort’s soft mellow tone as she was singing. Here they come and sure enough they were running by sight and the dogs were carrying him in their arms right through the meadow. Just then around the point they came. They were coming into the home stretch and closing in. Old Sandy picked the trail up in front and began playing ‘When the Swallows Homeward Fly’ to the tune of ‘Along the Green Lane in the Maytime,’ a real melody of happy hounds in a hollow, ‘Snowbirds on an Ashbank,’ while the little pups were bringing up the rear and their little feet were playing the ‘Turkey in the Straw.’ The squirrels were standing out on the limbs of the trees on their hind feet with their heads bent down as if they were praying to the beautiful anthem. But, it was one of those soft givey days, good for running fox.
“When the story was finished the preacher did not even bat an eye. He merely said, ‘I hope you will come to my service tonight, Brother Deehm.’
Concluded next week…
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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.