each summer he would give all the members of the choir Of the church a dinner. I might say that he and his three brothers enjoyed singing togther and I heard them at least once at homecoming before Uncle Nick died.
The part of West Virginia where he worked, for he had to work in a bank to make enough to live on, was a rough country in both people and in physical geography. Once while riding horseback while trying to go from one settlement to another, a terrific storm came up just before sundown and he got lost. He finally saw a light and stopped to see if the people would let him spend the night for he was wet to the skin and it was too dark to go On. The home was made up of a widow and her son, a young man of about 21 or 23. Something woke him up in the middle of the night and he opened his eyes to find the young fellow standing over him with an axe. He yelled, and the mother came and quieted her son who was a poor half-witted fellow and evidently took Uncle Sam to be a revenue officer rather than a preacher. Uncle Sam says he was really scared.
Uncle Sam would always stop over with us (after I was married) on his way down to Florida in the fall and on his way back to Bluefield in the late spring. We frequently would go to Davidson Homecoming, but most of the time he was upset because Davidson would lose. One time he had just come down from Bluefield on his way to Florida and I said more in a joking way, "Would you like to go down to Durham to see the highschool game?" I was surprised when he said "Sure, just let me get a little nap". Mr. Joyner took us down and he enjoyed everything but the score as Durham beat us.
Mama and I went up to see him in the hospital at Bluefield not long before he passed on which was on September 29, 1954. He seemed so glad to see us even though he had plenty of company and several folks were there or came in while we were there. I went up the next morning to see if there was anything he wanted me to do about his affairs. Something came up about Davison and I told him about my experience with "Dicky'' over Greek. I thought Uncle would split his sides laughing. We all loved him and enjoyed his visits With us. He too was a fine Christian.
I hope you will not think that I have just brought in the Aunts and Uncles, but 1 have included them for two reasons. First, became Grandpa loved his children and was never happier than men he was surrounded by his children and grandchildren, and second, more important, to show something of the results of his influence upon the lives of his children. This is not to suggest that Grandma Moore did not have a part in this training for I am sure that a