“I’ve heard that the Creeks are uh stirrin in Alabam,”
Abram McFarland told his neighbor. “Yeah, Jackson has been keepin his eye on
the situation,” Thomas Harney replied. “Tecumseh and the British been tryin to
stir shit up there for months,” McFarland continued.
2 They had been standing in the yard under a large
shade tree in front of the Harney home place for about fifteen minutes
discussing local and national news. It was July in southern Kentucky, and the
heat and humidity made being in doors uncomfortable.
3 In the summer kitchen, Old Joe had noticed that the
family dog was being much too bold around the doorway. “You knows better than
to come in here!” the old Black man shouted.
4 Fido, however, either didn’t hear the old man or
chose to ignore him. The dog walked through the open door and grabbed a biscuit
off the edge of the large wooden table standing in the middle of the floor.
5 Then Joe grabbed a broom that was leaning against
the wall and swatted the dog across its back. Fido let out a yelp and bounded
back out the kitchen door.
6 The two men heard the commotion at the summer
kitchen and turned to look in that direction. Thomas saw Fido bounding toward
them and instinctively reached down to give him a pat on the head. Instead, to
his great surprise, the large hound growled and snapped at him.
7 “Ouch!” he hollered. “He brought the blood!” his
startled neighbor pointed out. “Fido has never done that before,” Thomas
insisted.
8 In the meantime, Old Joe had followed after the dog
when he had bolted out of the kitchen and had just caught up with the dog and
his master. “He’s been actin strange ever since he come back from his last
adventure,” the old man told him after explaining what had happened in the
kitchen.
9 “Get a rope and tie him up in the yard, Joe,” Thomas
ordered. However, when the old man found some rope and went to tie up the dog,
he couldn’t find him anywhere. He had simply disappeared.
10 “Have you seen Fido?” Thomas asked his youngest
son. “No, Daddy, you know how that dog is – he might be gone for days,” William
told him. They never saw Fido again.
11 A little less than two weeks later, Thomas began
running a fever and experiencing headaches and a feeling of weakness. The
symptoms grew steadily worse over the course of the next few days. In fact, by
the end of the week, Thomas was delirious.
12 “The dog was rabid?” James asked his mother. “That
is what the doctor believes,” Margaret told him. “We had to tie him down to the
bed,” she told her son. “I don’t know what we will do without him,” she cried.
“All that we can do right now is pray,” James told her as he took his mother
into his arms and held her.
13 The following day, Thomas finally slipped away. He
had suffered so much that it was almost a relief for everyone to see him go.
14 “Rachel and I were so sad to hear of the passing of
our friend,” the note from Andrew Jackson had read. He went on to assure the
family of his prayers and said that they stood ready to help them in any way
they could.
15 “Margaret and William will need guidance,” their
mother told James. “You know that I will help all that I can,” he assured her.
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