Our story begins in the rolling Pee Dee River hills just north of where Big Mountain Creek runs into Pee Dee River at Grassy Island. A ford was once used to cross the creek there but since then several new bridges have been erected at different places along the creek. In the early 1800s this area was fairly populated with farming and a fishery being a big...
Read MoreFather Goose
In the early 1950’s many people who lived in Anson, Richmond and surrounding counties called Lockhart Gaddy, “Father Goose.” Lockhart and his wife Hazel lived near Ansonville in Anson Co. N.C. Lockhart started out as an avid goose hunter. The story goes that in 1926, he bought five wild geese, clipped their wings, and used them for decoys each winter to...
Read MoreThe Beast of Bladenboro
Bladen County is one of the oldest counties in N.C. It lies about seventy miles northwest of Wilmington and just southeast of Lumberton. The mighty Cape Fear River slowly makes its way through the counties on its way to the coast. The county is mostly rural and only a few towns dot the landscape. Farming is big in Bladen County with its rich land and...
Read MoreThe Original Hippie
Ol’ Ches McCartney (Goat Man) was a free-spirited road person long before it became fashionable to be a Hobo or even a Hippie. With a longing in his heart to be somewhere else, he and his goats traveled up and down the highways of our country. He was a man of very few earthly goods but managed on what the Good Lord blessed him with. Even as a youth, people...
Read MoreTraveling with the Goat Man
I never had the pleasure of actually talking with Ches McCartney (Goat Man), but back in the late ’50s I watched as he and his goats made their way west on Hwy. 74 in Rockingham. Ron Goodman and Joe Lyerly said the Goat Man camped just off Mill Road in Rockingham and other folks said he made his camp behind the old Rat Market in Ellerbe at different times....
Read MoreThe Goat Man’s Coming
“The Goat Man’s coming” was a familiar saying through the middle parts of the twentieth century; all over our country. Sometimes traffic would be backed up for miles, following a large rickety ol’ wagon with a smaller one in tow. Both were being pulled and pushed by as many as eighteen goats. Yes, I said goats, you know them smelly creatures with horns....
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