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WILLEFORD, LAWSON H.
AT THE REQUEST OF OUR OLD friend and brother, L. H. WILLEFORD, we publish below his Last Will; hoping it may be many days yet before it will be required to be probated:
LAWSON MAKES A WILL
Know all men by these presents, that I, LAWSON H. WILLEFORD the elder now of Lowndes County, Miss. but born in the State of Georgia, of which I am proud, prior to the Earthquake or the falling of the stars, knowing that I am old, and growing older every day, of full age and believing I am partially sane, knowing by common course of nature that I will soon have to leave this earthly clime and settle in some unexplored regions, I dislike the change, and having but little left except a few good friends and very considerable poverty, I hereby give, and would say grant, but for my utter detestation of the name of Grant, to my Georgia friend, JOHN B. DARNELL, my good old Fiddle which was presented to me by my lamented friend, Col. JAS. M. WYNNE, who was also from Georgia, on condition that he, the said DARNELL, will on the 20th day of June next, play on said fiddle a tune known as "On the Road," or "H---H broke loose in Georgia," in the presence of my special friends GABE SHIRLEY, HENRY BARRENTINE, W. E. GIBBS, ALEX. COBB, of Vernon, Ala., ISAAC HEARON, and DOCT. M. CAVANAUGH, I being dead or alive, God being willing and weather permitting.
If others (orthodox or unorthodox) than hereing (sic) especially named desire to attend they must volunteer (no conscripts) and must furnish their own spirits and speak only when they are called on.
Being born near Darnell's Ferry on Broad River in Elbert County, Georgia, on June the 20th, 1809, hence a quiet spoken man but of few words, I will indulge a remark or two more and close.
I love JEFF DAVIS and Mrs. DORSEY, and revere the name of GEN. ANDREW JACKSON.
I inveterately hate Radicals, Roffue and Rats and shall so continue until called from this territorial sphere.
L. H. WILLEFORD,
At peace with mankind.
Signed in presence of E. C. RICHARDS of Miss., J. P. BILLUPS of Georgia, H. BARRENTINE of Georgia, M. CAVANAUGH, without nativity, at Columbus, Miss., on the 5th day of January 1880, 59 years after said Willeford's advent in Columbus.
[From The Vernon Clipper, Lamar County, AL, Jan. 30, 1880 - Transcribed and submitted by Veneta McKinney]