Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
As told by John V............
When my great grandfather and his brother Thomas Jackson Rape were young
> and lived on Pigeon Mountain in Walker County, Georgia there was a beautiful
> water fall which is now legendary and the story is that when the whites
> first moved into that part of northern Georgia that the Cherokee would
> sometimes be known to show up at some market with silver ore to use for
> barter. Legend was that they knew of a secret cave behind a waterfal on
> Pigeon Mountain and it was beleived that only the Cherokee knew of this
> silver in the cave or where exactly the cave was.
>
> Well, I am not sure if our great grandfathers knew about the legend but
> one of them certainly knew about the cave and kept his secret from the other
> brothers and everyone else. All of his brothers wondered where he got his
> money from and they knew that everyso often he would some how get lost on
> purpose from them. One day, they noticed he got some distance between them
> and himself to they made an effort to follow him as he ran through the
> woods. Suddenly they noticed he had disappeared behind a waterfall and they
> waited until he came out and sure enough he had silver ore. Now they knew
> the secret of Thomas Jackson Rape. This story was passed down not only to
> Mr. Marshall Rape a grandson of Thomas Jackson who told me the story as he
> had heard it from his father. At first I foolishly dismissed the story as
> just a passed down story which may have had not truth in it.
>
> However, a few months later while talking to a first cousin of my Dad, who
> was Leon Rape then of Sapulpa, Oklahoma and Leon began to tell me a similar
> story to the one previously told by Marshall Rape. So dedicated to genealogy
> and trying to get truth not stories about our ancestry, I had not told Leon
> about Marshall Rape's story about the silver ore. But sure enough, the next
> thing I know Leon began to talk about how my great uncle, his father had
> talked about how my great grandfather, John Augustus Rape had often told his
> sons about a brother in Georgia who used to disappear into the woods and
> somehow found some money or some way to pay for various items which they had
> no way of knowing where his money came from. Although, Leon, did not tell me
> the same exact words as Marshall, I could not help but become very excited
> as I was then hearing a famly story which came from two separate parts of
> the United States. Two places but both home to my great grandfather.
>
> John V.
http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/REEB-ROOTS/2006-10/1161871986
When my great grandfather and his brother Thomas Jackson Rape were young
> and lived on Pigeon Mountain in Walker County, Georgia there was a beautiful
> water fall which is now legendary and the story is that when the whites
> first moved into that part of northern Georgia that the Cherokee would
> sometimes be known to show up at some market with silver ore to use for
> barter. Legend was that they knew of a secret cave behind a waterfal on
> Pigeon Mountain and it was beleived that only the Cherokee knew of this
> silver in the cave or where exactly the cave was.
>
> Well, I am not sure if our great grandfathers knew about the legend but
> one of them certainly knew about the cave and kept his secret from the other
> brothers and everyone else. All of his brothers wondered where he got his
> money from and they knew that everyso often he would some how get lost on
> purpose from them. One day, they noticed he got some distance between them
> and himself to they made an effort to follow him as he ran through the
> woods. Suddenly they noticed he had disappeared behind a waterfall and they
> waited until he came out and sure enough he had silver ore. Now they knew
> the secret of Thomas Jackson Rape. This story was passed down not only to
> Mr. Marshall Rape a grandson of Thomas Jackson who told me the story as he
> had heard it from his father. At first I foolishly dismissed the story as
> just a passed down story which may have had not truth in it.
>
> However, a few months later while talking to a first cousin of my Dad, who
> was Leon Rape then of Sapulpa, Oklahoma and Leon began to tell me a similar
> story to the one previously told by Marshall Rape. So dedicated to genealogy
> and trying to get truth not stories about our ancestry, I had not told Leon
> about Marshall Rape's story about the silver ore. But sure enough, the next
> thing I know Leon began to talk about how my great uncle, his father had
> talked about how my great grandfather, John Augustus Rape had often told his
> sons about a brother in Georgia who used to disappear into the woods and
> somehow found some money or some way to pay for various items which they had
> no way of knowing where his money came from. Although, Leon, did not tell me
> the same exact words as Marshall, I could not help but become very excited
> as I was then hearing a famly story which came from two separate parts of
> the United States. Two places but both home to my great grandfather.
>
> John V.
http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/REEB-ROOTS/2006-10/1161871986
