Doc and Carrie - Part 3

Doctor Buck Pearce and Carolina Gupton

These wonderful stories came from Carl's book, Freckles and Red Hair. He was so fortunate to have known these two people.

Doc was known to love playing pranks, especially on the children.

On one occasion knowing the girls were in the living room seated by the fireplace, he played a prank that would be told and retold. Doc and Carrie were in the kitchen, Carrie was cooking supper and it was getting dark. Doc took some of the biscuit dough, rolled it out into a thin portion the size of this face. Punching out two holes for this eyes, he covered his face with the biscuit dough. After pulling on his old felt hat, he went out the back door and circled around to the front of the house. He began to loudly knock on the door. Bessie seeing a lone man on the porch picked up the fireplace poker and went to the door. After carefully lifting the latch, Bessie saw the ghostly figure, flung the door open and slammed the poker hard onto Doc's head, knocking him out. Carrie, hearing the commotion, ran into the room where Bessie stood over Doc ready to finish him off. Carrie wrestled the poker away from Bessie. She explained to the girls it was their father who was now bleeding from the gash in his head and slowly regaining consciousness. At this point, Zeffie and Annie fainted amid the screams and tears of the others.

Carrie was known as a practical nurse in the area and called upon to lend assistance in treating the sick. She would use remedies passed on to her by her parents and probably created a few of her own. One treatment was for boils, a result of an improper diet. She would prescribe a "Milk Cow Potice", applying cow's dung as potice to hasten the boil to come to a head. Then the mucus would flow and the healing process would begin. Carrie was said to be quite a sight chasing the cow around the pen, holding a bucket in one hand to catch the droppings and using the other hand to hold up the tail. Then she quickly applied, the secret being to use warm dung. 

Carrie was also an excellent seamstress and made all the family clothes, even the men's suits and winter coats.  Her devout life, dedication to her church and the religious atmosphere she created at home was known by all. She taught Sunday School most of her adult life.

Next post will conclude the story of Doctor and Carrie.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pattie