The Day Calvin Hastings Just Couldn't Pull Himself together....This is the story of Calvin Hastings and the day he just couldn't pull himself together to make it to court. Calvin Hastings lived quietly in the woods of SC near Graniteville with his wife, Nan, and their children. All of his neighbors had lived near each other for decades in happy accord. One of his neighbors was Wiley LLoyd, believed to be the brother of Nan. Now Wiley had reason to believe that Hastings was not being good to Nan, so Wiley said, "If you hurt her again, I'm gonna kill you." Mmmm, doggie! That surely did make Hastings mad! He'd get even if it was the last thing he did! It was common knowledge that Lloyd was a married man, but also had "living arrangements" and children by his wife's sister, Lizzie. ( Now isn't that a beautiful day in the neighborhood?) So, Hastings brought charges of adultery against Lloyd, and a trial date was set. So, on an April day, in 1879, Hastings set out to testify in the adultery case against Wiley LLoyd. Calvin Hastings did not arrive, but no one thought much about it. His family just assumed he had gone visiting other family members a few miles away. After a day so, the family grew concerned and set out looking for Hastings. His sons made a gruesome discovery "here and there." On one side of the road, here was a leg, on the other side of the rode, there was another leg. Over yonder, was his head. So now you see why I said, "This is the story of Calvin Hastings and the day he just could not pull himself together?" Lloyd and several family members were questioned and jailed until the trial was to begin in Sept. of 1879. Although there was blood evidence found, including a bloody rag on top of his cabin and inside the cabin, the case never went to trial. He and Lizzie were released in September, and no one was ever convicted. ....Hope you enjoyed my "condensed and sanitized" story on this very rainy night. Good night, friends. Pioneer
Submitted by OneMann on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 12:50pm.
Seems to me like ol' Calvin was the exact opposite of condensed! Oh, you meant the story was condensed. Too bad, too, 'cause it was a good rainy night read. Thanks, Pioneer. Don't wait 'til it rains for another. I heartily recommend genealogical research, Sunshine. My mother started about 10 years ago, when she got his first computer. The stories she's discovered and the still-living distant relatives she's met are incredible bonuses to actually filling out the names on the family tree. My two most famous ancestors are Mark Twain (anyone else remember Hal Holbrook's brilliant one-man play?) and John Wesley Hardin, whom I'm proud to say is widely-recognized as the Old West's deadliest gunfighter. Cousin Wes said all of his 40 or so victims, not countin' Mexicans and Indians, of course, (since he used the official US Census Bureau standards of his time) needed killin'. I also know I am descended from the Manns of Manns Harbor, North Carolina, a tiny fishing village on the Outer Banks whose retail section is a grocery store/gas station that's almost lost in the glare of one of the finest tattoo parlors you'd ever wanna see. I haven't been able to proof the lineage, but I might be related to the author of The Mann Act. That particular piece of federal legislation is what prohibits you from crossing state lines for immoral purposes. It was the law used to force former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson into exile. If strictly enforced now, however, it would prohibit Members of Congress from traveling back and forth to their own states. Michael S. Mann Submitted by pioneer on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 8:28pm.
Mike Sounds like your John Wesley Hardin and my Al Swearingen of Deadwood fame, would have had a good conversation or two at Al's saloon. If not a talk, a shoot out. Your J. W. Hardin sounds like some dude. I think my Wiley LLoyd ( I changed his name to protect the innocent--me.) could have held his own with Hardin and Swearingen.
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Great story, Pioneer! I think you mentioned you have many of these stories - you should write a book (without the sanitization). Very interesting. Hmmm - makes me wonder what I'd come up with if I started researching my own family history!
Thanks,
JudyB