Someone Ought To Write A Book About This

2 years ago, while I was visiting my mother, she produced a historical artifact that literally changed my life. She said she received this from her dying cousin, Argell Walker.

Argell, or "Pee Wee" Walker as he was known, was as famous as anyone could be from East Texas I suppose. He had won fiddler's contests all over the country and had played nearly every dive and honky-tonk in the South. When I bought my first "new" car, the salesman told me how he and his then wife would dance all night in their favorite bar with Argell's band playing the night away (I don't know how I got on the subject with a car salesman). It turned out, as we talked, that he wasn't lying to me. It only proved just how famous Argell was. Argell played the East Texas bluegrass circuit probably all of his natural life. He was a fiddler extraordinaire. In the words of Ray Price, a big name in bluegrass, "he was the best fiddle player I ever knew." The word was that Argell had to quit Ray's band in order to care for his ailing wife, Pat. Still, even until his death, when there was an announcement that Argell would be playing anywhere in East Texas, it was standing room only.

But, this story isn't about him. It's about the artifact my mother showed me. It is called a harmonia by the family. It's a crude kind of a hybrid banjo-fiddle thing. It has a fretted fingerboard with the frets spaced out awkwardly along the surface of the neck, not like the measured fretboards on instruments today. It has four strings and tunes like a fiddle or mandolin. The wood on the body is very dark about half an inch thick. It is thought to be either pecan or walnut wood, which for instruments is not the best choice. It's usually brittle and does not allow for good resonation. However, it is a very pretty instrument. But, that's not important to this story.

My grandfather gave the harmonia to my cousin Argell before my grandfather died around 1965 or 1966. He knew that Argell was musically talented and would likely be able to appreciate the instrument, as opposed to others in the family. As the instrument changed hands between my grandfather and my cousin, my grandfather told him the story that surrounds the harmonia. Later in life, Argell's mother, my grandfather's sister, told him the story again so he could write it down and keep it with the harmonia for posterity. Here's the story as it was told by Argell's mother, Delilah Walker:

It was made by a man from Clarksville, Texas (about 1 1/2 hours east-northeast of Dallas) around the turn of the century. He was a very talented man in arts and crafts, but was a lazy laborer. He was given to lavished living which could not be supported by his craft. After being married to a fine lady, he began to dabble with making counterfeit paper money. His wife, being the fine person she was, found out and strongly disapproved of his activities. After warning him to stop making the money, she said she was going to the police. It was said that he killed her either by choking her or beating her to death. Nobody knows for sure. He buried her body in the garden behind their house.

Some time later, the man's father-in-law came by to visit his daughter. The man told him that she had run off and did not say where she was going. Her father knew this was not her way, but he left the man and went on his way. Some time later, the father-in-law returned to the house while the man was away. He noticed onions growing in the garden behind the house. They were growing in the fall, after everything else had been picked. He also noticed a foul smell and some clay mixed with topsoil in the middle of the garden. He went into the garden with a rod and proceeded to poke and prod the ground around the onion plants.

The girl's father uncovered her body and called the police. But, word spread around town that the man had killed his wife and disposed of her in the garden. A mob gathered and set out to find him. They caught him at a neighbor's farm just down the road from his house. The mob beat and whipped the man and hanged him in the Clarksville city square.

The story goes that on the night the man killed his wife, he sat on the porch and played the harmonia throughout the night. Neighbors all around heard the music as he played. For several nights afterward, the man would sit out on his porch and play until it was late.

In the time after the man murdered his wife and before his death, the man fell into debt to my grandfather. The only thing of value the man owned was the harmonia. It was given to my grandfather in trust until the debt could be paid, but never got the opportunity to repay the debt.

The man's name has long since been forgotten. The folks who knew him and what happened have all passed away. The only thing left is the old harmonia and it remains with our family.