SUMMERS COUNTY W.Va. (Hinton News) – This piece in my collection has ties with four generations of my family, as well as a connection to Summers County history in more than one way. In the 1960s, my Great Grandfather, O.D. Thompson, was doing some mechanic work in his garage, Thompson’s Garage in Talcott. The person he did the work for was from the Ballangee area and traded him this gun for payment.
Some time later in the 1970s, my grandfather Bernard Thompson acquired it for his collection. You see, a short time before this, he and my grandmother had started the Travelin Hillbillies in 1968 with their 1930 Model A Ford. Granddad decided to think of a way to work this antique mountain rifle into the Great Depression Age nostalgia he had designed the truck around.
One of granddad’s best friends was Dallas Templeton. His father was Ezra Thomas Templeton, who was born in 1912 in Kanawha County, so in the 1970s, he would have already been in his mid 60s. Dallas and Granddad were talking one day and concocted the idea of Ezra riding on the truck in period historical costume while carrying this antique rifle.
Mom can recall the plan working swimmingly, and Ezra loved playing the part. And his name fit right into character. I can’t find a photo of him with the gun playing his part with The Travlin Hillbillies, but I did find this one that shows the gun. It was taken around 1976 or so in Union, WV, at my Great Uncle Bucks’ house.
Granddad always went there to be in the Farmers’ Day Parade. He attended it for over 3 decades with this truck, up till me being a small child and participating in the festivities. The photo, L to R, is granddad (Uncle Jake) holding the rifle. Then my father was sitting on the running board with his moonshine jug ha. And then there is the photo of granddad by his father’s skin from one of his hunts on the side of his outbuilding, holding the gun. Granddad loved the attention and was really cheesing it up in this pic.
After granddad passed in 2018, mom inherited the gun. She recently gave it to me to add to my collection. I then used hand-forged-looking brackets to hang it over the dining room door in our log house. I have to think as I do with my entire collection, who will be the next steward of it. Hopefully someone who loves and is as passionate about family and local history as Mom and I are!
