| Notes |
- Ruby Catherine Messick traveled by wagontrain, with her parents from North Carolina to Tennessee. At the age of 16 she gave birth John Wesley Messick he was born March 26, 1814 in Coffee county, Tennessee. I can find no record of a marriage for her, and most everyone I have contacted believes she was never married. She gave her children her maiden name, and her son carried it with pride and honor. She always was shown in census records to be living close by or with her son and his family.
She was quite a "Unique little lady" according to the old timer's of Baxter County. She was known as "OLE GRANNY MESSICK" by all who knew her. My grandmother, Faye Harvey, still had living first cousins in Mt. Home. I was fortunate enough to visit with them during a trip I made there. They described her as follows " She was a very proud woman. Little and tiny, very petite in stature. Her eyes were as black as coal and as sharp as needles, she never missed a thing. Some said she could "out dance or out jig ( as they called it) anyone at a barn dance. The last one to quit and go home."
They also said that Granny Messick had many strange powers, that actually many people in the comunity thought of her as a witch.
It is recorded in the book "The History of Baxter County" a story of the Steamship "Rosewood'
in 1899 exploded not far from Dr. Marler's place (the 1st pioneer doctor in Monkey Run Arkansas) Dr. and Mrs Marler ran to the scene of the accident, and seeing the number of injuries, scalds and burns caused by the escaping steam and boiling water. Dr. Marler did the most sensible thing he could think of He sent a "runner" after Granny Messick (she was 102 years old at the time) even though she was known as a witch, the doctor knew for himself that she had the power to draw the heat from a burn and could stop profuse bleeding.
Every comunity had it's "Blood Stopper", a person who could stop the flow of blood by the laying on of hands and repeating a certain verse in the bible. This power was passed down from female to male and back to female and so on, on the next passing on of this secret. It could not be revealed to a blood relative and was usualy a deathbed request to choose the next recipient of the power.
My grandmother, Faye Harvey, and the gr. gr. grandaughter of this "Granny Messick" also had the power of the "Blood Stopper" but this was not told to me untill after her death. If this was passed onto someone else, it was done in secret, just as it was suppose to be done.
Granny Messick outlived her son, and is buried beside him in the Messick family cemetery in Mt. Home Arkansas. It is also said that she periodically haunts the gnarled grove of trees, that harbors her ivy covered grave.
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This is passed along to us from Ray Alexander **
His great grandfather Andy Messick as a little boy had to sleep in the same bed with his grandmother, Ruby Catherine Messick, he said she smoked a corncob pipe, and was a little nutty. This story was passed to Andy's daughter, Jessie Mae and then on the Ray.
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