I love the internet...I'm sittin' here drinkin' sassafras tea and thought I would look it up...an old man told me years ago.....I stood on a box to wash his dishes and he would give me a dime...he always drank sassafras...Bode Barnhouse...he was a fisherman on the Missouri River in years long gone by...I drink it every spring...here's what I found:

 

Sassafras, sometimes called white sassafras, is well known for its aromatic properties. The leaves and bark both have a slightly citrus scent, while the roots have a strong root-beer odor. It is from these roots that root beer was historically produced by early colonists. The roots were boiled with molasses, and then allowed to ferment, until a distinctive soft drink was produced. Sassafras tea is another popular drink that is steeped from the bark of the tree and served as a "soothing drink", or a "spring tonic". In England, the tea is mixed with milk and sugar to make saloop, a popular morning beverage. Herbalists use sassafras for a variety of medicinal uses. It is said to have value as a stimulant, pain reliever, astringent and treatment for rheumatism. Skin eruptions may be bathed in an infusion from the leaves. Sassafras tonic has been used as a treatment for syphilis since the early 1600's. It is reported that chewing on the bark may help break the tobacco habit, however, ingestion of sassafras may cause vomiting and can be toxic if taken in large doses. Medicinal use of sassafras has declined in recent years because of the possibility that it may contain carcinogens (cancer-causing agents). In addition to medicinal uses, sassafras wood, bark and roots produce an extract (oil of sassafras) that is useful in flavorings, or in perfumes and scented soaps. A yellow dye is also extracted from the trees. The crushed leaves were used by colonists to thicken soups and stews. Sassafras wood is very durable and is used to make buckets, barrels, poles, posts, and crossties. It is also used in interior cabinetry. White-tailed deer are known to browse on the twigs and leaves of sassafras trees, which are sometimes grown to restore depleted soils. The trees regenerate quickly after a disturbance and are early pioneers in old fields. Sassafras is found throughout the eastern and southern United States and into Mexico. It ranges as far west as Texas and Iowa. ********************************************************************* take it for whatever it's worth ..I don't believe them about the cancer causein' stuff and I always drink the tea made from the roots..not the bark..

Doc Watson - 1991 - Deep River Blues (Solo)



SALTY DOG RAG

what a freakin' day this was...first I went to a bummer of a thang ..I'm not gonna say nothin' ..but my idea of a parade is something other than watchin' fat women walk green dye'd dogs across a street...not to mention a German meal that isn't worth mentionin'...and this one man band...Pake McEntire...get out...all I can say is..Don't give up your day job...I have been around these hills along time and I know in that audience tonight there had to have been at least five fiddle players that could give this ole boy a few lessons...he sawed and he sang...I know why he's not in Nashville...and OMG...a girl he has singin' in his one man band butchered Loretta Lynn...course I never much like the song anyway...but she really nailed the coffin shut...I laughed so hard tonight thinkin about the day and what a bust it was....so funny...all of it...my grandkids got a big kick outta the fiddle player...they said they watched the "cowboy sing"...that was worth  it...but the guy didn't ever really play the fiddle...sawed on it ..but what come out I would not consider music...no...not by a long shot...so if you get a chance to go see this guy...do your self a favor and don't....get a jug...a cup of coffee..what ever floats your boat and throw on a cd...costs alot less..and sounds a ton better...I finished my book and got the kids to bed and if there are any good lookin' men out there...give me a hollar...

Chasing Fireflies ~ Charles Martin

 

I'm outta here...you all have a good one..

Cracker

Nat McKinney

After the Civil War Southwest Missouri was a devastated area characterized by a failing economy, high taxes, lawlessness, disorder, and a general breakdown of society, especially in the small towns and rural regions of the area. When Nathaniel N. Kinney settled in Taney County, Missouri in 1883, he found a deplorable state of affairs. Outlaws and renegade ruled, most of them holdovers from the bushwhackers and guerillas that rampaged through Missouri during the Civil War. After the war, the lack of even minimal law enforcement afforded outlaws free reign. Clans elected and controlled the local sheriff, whose authority it was to subpoena jury panels. If outlaws or their relatives didn’t sit on the juries, they bribed those who did. As a result, although as many as forty murders occurred in Taney County between 1865 and 1885, not a single suspect was convicted. Taney County includes the towns of Branson, Forsyth, Hollister, Merriam Woods, Rockaway Beach, Table Rock, and Taneyville. Nat McKinney feared no man, standing six feet six and weighing in at more than 300 pounds. After yet another murder on September 22, 1883, McKinney began to consider forming a law and order league patterned after other vigilante groups that were popular during the time. When a biased jury acquitted the murderer, McKinney called together twelve of the county’s leaders who met in secret, forming a committee to fight the lawlessness and elect officials who would enforce the law. The group became known as the Bald Knobbers. Though the Bald Knobbers began with “good intentions,” the violence displayed by the vigilante group eventually gained national attention. The organization grew rapidly and by the time they met on April 5, 1885, two hundred people showed up at a meeting on Snapp’s Bald, a hilltop south of Forsyth, Missouri. Kinney, an excellent speaker, was unanimously elected as their leader. Extracting a vow of secrecy from his followers, Kinney instructs them to recruit new members to carry out the goals of the group. Within days, the Bald Knobbers made a public display of their force when over 100 hundred of them broke open the door of the Taney county jail and kidnapped brothers, Frank and Tubal Taylor. The Taylor brothers were well known in the area for their viciousness and were being jailed for wounding a storekeeper during an argument over credit for a pair of boots. The local storeowner, John Dickenson, happened to be a Bald Knobber. After breaking the two out of jail, the mob hauled the brothers south of Forsyth and hanged them. The degree of violence appalled several of the founding members who quickly dropped out, but the Bald Knobbers continued to grow and before long the group had between 500 and 1,000 members. Kinney’s group began to further “correct” the lawlessness by making night rides to scare such “lowlifes” as drunks, gamblers or “loose” women into changing their ways. They frightened wife beaters, couples “living in sin,” and men who failed to support their families. Sometimes they even called on those they simply considered “ornery.” The community began into split into two factions – those who followed or supported Kinney and those who thought him a tyrant and wished him dead. The violence increased as the group would flog or brand suspected thieves, arsonists and robbers. They would hang or beat a man to death for assault, disturbing the peace or destroying property. Some Bald Knobbers began to use their menacing power for greedy and selfish purposes as they went after men who owed them money or who owned land that they coveted. They “settled” feuds over fence lines and property deeds, whipped men for disrupting services in their churches, or for supporting the wrong candidate in the election. However, the harshest punishment was saved for those who talked against them. Some victims who resisted the Bald Knobbers disappeared. Several turned up in the woods beaten to death. Those who lived to tell claimed that Kinney’s followers killed more than thirty men and at least four women, but estimates that are more realistic place the number between fifteen and eighteen. As the Bald Knobbers grew in numbers and their violent acts escalated, a vehement resentment festered among a small group of men who called themselves the Anti-Bald Knobbers. However, the vigilantes thwarted every effort to mitigate the situation. When a judge called for a state audit to ferret out corruption among the county’s officeholders, the courthouse was burned down. The nation’s newspapers published stories about the bloody war in Missouri and the Bald Knobbers were described as the nation’s largest and fiercest vigilante movement. In 1887, the Bald Knobbers killed William Edens and Charley Green, both of whom had been critical of the group, and seriously injured several members of their families. This brought a further outcry from the nation’s newspapers. Twenty Bald Knobbers were arrested and most received light sentences ranging from fines to short prison terms. However, four were sentenced to death. On August 20, 1888, Nat Kinney was shot and killed by Billy Miles, a member of the Anti-Bald Knobbers, in a planned assassination. Though Miles was tried for Kinney’s murder, he was found not guilty based on self-defense. Though the violence continued for a short time, by 1899, the era of the Bald Knobbers had run its course.