ENDICOTT, Mary F. - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

In 1875 there lived in Franklin Township, near Shannondale, a veteran of the late civil war named W.H. Endicott. Mr. Endicott had gone to the front when his country called, and bared his breast to the storm of rebel bullets. He escaped injury until the opposing forces met in battle upon the bloody field of Chickamauga. There he was wounded. From that day he was unable to labor, and became a pensioner on the kindness of neighbors for the necessaries of life. These were the days when a pension could not be procured on account of ingrowing toe nails and lost teeth from the coffers of a generous government, and more generous politicians in the halls of congress, who were bidding for the soldier vote. This wounded man had a wife and four helpless children and at the wash tub she toiled day by day to procure for them their clothes and victuals to sustain life. This woman was also an advocate for temperance and a worker in the lodge at Shannondale in which James A. Mount, now the republican candidate for congress, was a prominent worker, then as now, endeavoring to ride upon this top wave, which then was temperance, now relief for the overburdened overtaxed farmer. By and by came off the election of officers for the lodge and Mrs. Mary F. Endicottt, the invalid soldiers wife was candidate for the position of Vice Templar. A lady relative of James A. Mount was also a candidate for the same position and before a vote was taken Mount made a speech in which he called attention to the fact that as there were several candidates, it was the duty of the lodge to see to it that only the best people were elected, and his speech pointed strongly to the idea that his lady relative was much better than was the wife of the destitute veteran opposed to her. This caused a revolution of feeling in the lodge and Mrs. Endicott was elected by an overwhelming majority. Mount being thus set upon and flattened out, sough revenge by the circulation of stories in reference to the character of Mrs. Endicott. When these came to her notice she fastened them where they belonged on James A. Mount and employing Kennedy and Brush she called him to appear in the circuit court to answer to the charge of slander. The case appears on record as No 2,401 under the title of “Mary Endicott, et al vs. James A. Mount, slander.” The record can be found by inquiring friends or enemies on order book No 17 pages 504, 558 and 579 and on order book No 18 page 161 when it was finally disposed of by a verdict in favor of Mary F. Endicott giving her $250 damages on her complaint for slander and fastening the costs of the suit on James A. Mount. The record also appears on Fee Book No 7 page 34. The case was disposed of at the November term of the Montgomery Circuit Court, 1875 and the papers therein are on file, or should be in the office of the clerk of the Circuit court. This is pretty salty in view of the fact that James A. Mount is now the outspoken friend of the soldier, for votes. One would not imagine that he was ever guilty of slandering the wife of a comrade and was convicted of the same in the circuit court and forced to pay $250 and costs for indulging in pestiferous tongue wagging, such as is indulged in only by those who are very, very small men, so mall indeed that their consciences would rattle in a poppy seed. - kbz