Billy Weems

Billy Weems. Memories of a Loved Local. Upon the death of Nina “Bird” Garvin Montgomery in 2000 there were two items in her possession that stirred the emotions of her surviving kin. One was a little paring knife, its handles worn thin by close to a century of peeling potatoes and apples for one of the town's most hospitable tables. The other was a yellowed picture of Billy Weems., As the rocking chair historians have told it, Billy's mother was a Scottish wayfarer prone to outbursts of cursing in a language they decided must be Gaelic. “Josawolaweech and apeechins!” she would screech at offenders. The youngsters in the town made those words their own and remembered it for a century. The woman was known to sleep in graveyards, shielded from the wind by a tall headstone. And from here, she herself one night departed. Left behind were the infant Billy and his older brother., Adeline Weems heard the baby crying amongst the gravestones and reportedly rescued, then raised both children. The older brother is remembered by some Central elders as an admirable singer and musician, though none asked could recall his first name. “He was quite a person … really bright,” says Central local Tom Folger., But Billy was different … he decided he was a horse., Billy Weems did chores to earn both his meals and his first wheels. With his head [obscured] Billy pranced out to seek his fortune with his wagon. Merchants sent their freight parcels to the depot by Billy Weems express. Passengers arriving on the train found him waiting to take their baggage. If Billy were expecting people needing a ride, he would come pulling a buggy and was known to toss his head and paw the dust in his path., Once, while transporting one of the local doctors on his rounds, Billy approached the railroad crossing as a train was roaring by. He bucked and kicked his heels in equine terror, leaving the buggy capsized and the passengers with a few broken bones. Even so, Billy was proud and people both respected and took care of him. Herman Werner and a group of children built Billy a makeshift house on the old Garvin place. He even went to all of the local churches no matter the denomination., “"It was the delight of small boys to steal a ride on Billy's cart,” wrote town historian Mattie May Allen. “This pleased him sometimes, and sometimes it didn't. Then a battle ensued. Many a little fellow got a switching when he got home for riding Billy.”, Local Teny Moore remembers a day when she could tell Billy was upset. Her grandmother offered Billy a glass of milk and some sweet potato custard, and she soon told her what was wrong. When Billy was coming down the street he greeted a passing businessman who looked the other way. “When anybody gets above the I'm above bein' below him,” a hurt Billy Weems told Teny and her Grandmother. At some point, Billy left Central for a period of time. Whether he took his wagon is unknown, but it was said that he lived in Mississippi and worked on the levees as a loustabout. When he came home to Central, his neigh was gone along with his former relish for fried fish. The sight or smell of fish forever after made him ill., It was about 1908 when Billy suffered final decline and died. Herman Werner, who once helped build Billy a shelter, went with Ben Young and Henry King to stay up one night with the corpse. The town of Central buried Billy, to the best of recollections, in Mount Zion Cemetery.