Turtle Rock

The Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, in Madison County’s Wolftown is where Ohmer Jackson called home. With little education and at the young age of 14, he struck out on his own while many American young men were going off to fight in World War I. Leaving his parents, four sisters, and two brothers behind, he found work in a nearby logging camp in Wallace Gap.

Becoming one of Madison County’s more vibrant characters, he was known by some as “Mountain Man,” and by a select few, he was quietly referred to as the Sunuva Bitch. Nonetheless, he was as proud as he was colossal, standing every bit of six feet tall and tipping the scales at two-hundred and fifty pounds or more in his prime. Strong as a mule, his hands were one and a half times the size of most other men’s.

As Madison’s checker champion, it’s said that he was one very hard-working farmer and logger who could spin a tale better than most. So large a figure was he, that it’s quite possible he may have been the inspiration for many a loggers’ lore, but I assure you that the stories I’m about to tell you are the culmination of my own personal research and corroborating testimonials from eyewitnesses I, myself have interviewed.

His skills were plenty and when he wasn’t farming, you could find him mending a country fence or breaking horses. He was the one man who could break a horse that seemed otherwise unbreakable and people would come from miles away for that one service. His biggest fault, however, was that he was a binge drinker who sometimes would oversample his own product, some of the best ‘shine for miles around.

His voice was gruff and accent so strong that one year, the census taker recorded his name as Ohma. His was a commanding presence and surpassed only by his legendary feats of strength. Among the stories that spread throughout the county was the time he lifted the front end of a stranded, loaded-down logging truck, turning it around on a narrow, impassable mountain road by getting down on his back under the front end and placing his feet directly under the bumper, before pushing it up like one might do on a leg press machine today.

When the county sponsored a strong-man contest, he didn’t think much of the challenge as he was accustomed to lifting hogs all by himself, but perhaps for a lark, he did enter the competition. After successfully completing all the tasks, the final challenge was at hand. It didn’t seem likely that anyone could lift a fifty-gallon barrel filled with water and carry it across the finish line, but Ohmer stepped right up for the challenge. By now, most of the contestants had been eliminated. As he walked up to the barrel, the crowd of observers and the other contestants watched quietly. Looming over that barrel, Ohmer took a few deep breaths and with a final shiver from head to toe like a wet dog, head to tail, he proceeded to wrap his big arms around it. Lifting with his legs, he scurried as fast as his legs would carry him across he the finish line. The only competitor to do so, the Mountain Man was then declared the strongest man in the County of Madison.

Ohmer and his nephew, Charles Berry were always playing gags on one another. Each one, an attempt to outdo the other. One of Charles’ favorites, that he often bragged about, was the time he threw an old rubber hose at Ohmer and shouted, “Say, Ohmer, look at this here snake!”

So scared, he turned white, Ohmer jumped and yelled back at him, “Gawl dammit Charles, you caused me to mess all over myself!”

It was while working in a logging camp that Ohmer befriended a man named John Will. One weekend he invited Ohmer to go home with him. That’s when John Will’s younger sister, Evelyn, caught his eye and he immediately became lovestruck.

Evelyn was a Madison County native with light colored hair and a slender, petite frame. Well educated, she was a most generous and loving person who never said a discouraging word. With a great ear for music, she could play the piano, guitar, accordion, and harmonica which she often played in church. A God-loving woman, she was always singing hymns not only in church, but at home while doing her chores.

They say that opposites attract and nothing could be truer than with Ohmer and Evelyn. Following a brief courtship, Ohmer proposed and against her parents wishes, she became Ohmer’s bride. Ohmer never had a penny to his name, but he did work hard to provide for her.

Of course, Evelyn did more than her share of work around the house. Always the first to rise, she first built a fire in the cook stove and while waiting for it to get hot, she read her Bible every morning. She always cooked breakfast for everyone, did the laundry in an old galvanized washtub on the porch and tended the large garden that provided all their vegetables yearround, canning what was left so it would spoil.

Life was hard back then. Without running water and electricity, kerosine lamps were used for light. They never owned any of the houses they lived in. Ohmer always bartered with the property owner to pay the rent. The kids were responsible for bringing in water from the nearby spring and milking the cows every morning before going to school.

More to come