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You'll find out why shortly. Here to tell the story is J.D. Phillips, who runs the great YouTube channel, The Appalachian Storyteller. Take it away, J.D. Charles Chess McCartney.
was born on July 6th. 1901 in Sigourney, Iowa. Chess was your typical farm boy. The sparsely populated town he grew up in. Meant that there were more animals than people, and Chess spent his days tending to them on the family farm.
His favorite animals were the large herd of goats that his father raised.
However, In 1915. A traveling circus came to town, complete with animals, freak shows, trick riders, and an assortment of curiosities. and Dumern won part of the show. A beautiful Spanish knife thrower. ask for a volunteer from the audience to put a balloon on the top of their head.
so she could throw razor-sharp daggers at it. Taken by her sheer beauty. Chess immediately threw his hand in the air and within a few moments. He was tied to the board with a balloon on his head. She flung two knives at lightning speed through the air as the crowd held their collective breath.
Chess's eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of the knives tumbling towards his head. Beep oh. before hearing a large pop and the eruption of the cheers from the audience. That's how it happened, at age fourteen years old. Chess left its family farm and ran away with the circus.
becoming a target for the Spanish beauty. and also becoming her lover. Um The two were married each night. the couple would visit some tavern or bar. Her chest would take down the dartboard, and his wife would throw 25 razor-sharp knives at his head.
After four years of tour in America, the Spanish vixen retired, so that she could raise a family. Yet Chess was just eighteen years old. No, he wasn't ready to settle down.
So, one night, as his beautiful wife slept, He grabbed his clothes and left her forever. Chess McCartney returned home to Iowa, where he worked in logging camps through the roaring 20s and the 1930s. He eventually remarried twice more and even had a son. But it was during the Great Depression that a tragic accident took place. Chess was cut in timber deep in the forest for the Works Progress Administration when he cut a tree.
that fell in an unexpected way, landing on top of him. When the search party finally arrived, they presumed he was dead and took him to the local funeral home. And as he was lying there on that cold metal table, the mortician stuck the embalming needle in Jess's neck. And just then, he suddenly sprang back to life. Uh From that moment on, Chess was a changed man.
He dedicated the rest of his life to telling anyone he met. How God Had Saved His Life.
So, in 1939. Chess set out to building a makeshift wagon. It was a homemade affair. Covered with tan. Hold rubber.
tattered dingy cloth, with ropes and broken harnesses tying it all precariously together. Two or three kerosene lamps were tied around the sides with odd sized reflectors. Tied together in clusters around the sides, and a huge dusty red flag attached to it all. A peek inside disclosed a folding camp chair. Another wooden chest, a few utensils, and some bedding.
As for horsepower, Well Chess had tied up 12 goats. To the front, and two spare goats trailing up the rear of the wagon. His wife took one look at the thing and just like that, Chess was divorced. Thus free from all the interference of women, Chess and his son set out on the road, both dressed in goatskins. Indeed, Chess was a sight to behold.
His long, flowing beard and rugged appearance made him look like a prophet straight out of the Old Testament. They averaged traveling about three to seven miles a day. across America, traveling US highways long before the interstates and packing up traffic for miles. Folks said that the goat man's smell would roll into town long before he ever did. Wherever he went, he drew attention.
As his caravan approached town, coups would quickly spread. The Goat Man is coming. Folks would line the streets to get a glimpse of him. and some towns would even cancel school classes.
so children wouldn't miss the big event. Once the goat man arrived in town, he would find an empty field on the outskirts to let his goats graze. Then he would start a large bonfire of tires. that he had collected off the side of the road, And of course, the black smoke would attract a large crowd. Before long, people would start pouring in, and adults would pause their daily routines to see this strange curiosity.
News journalists were always on the scene to capture his story, and once he had a good crowd, the goat man would spring into action, mounting his wagon and launching into a passionate speech about the coming of the Lord, urging everyone to repent of their sins and trust in the Lord with all their heart. When asked how he made a living, he would immediately pull out a stack of postcards from his overalls that featured pictures of him and his goats, and he would begin selling them for $1 each. Heck, for fifty cents you could even get your picture made with him. Between the postcards, the pictures, and selling scrap metal that he found along the highway, or even donations, the goat man managed to purchase enough food to get by on. During the 1940s, as America faced rations on everything from food to gasoline, the Goatman crisscrossed America.
And during the 1950s, he visited Alaska, Canada, and went up and down the eastern United States. Each winter, He would spend it in Georgia or Florida, where it was warmer before setting out once again in the spring. Long before Forrest Gump ever went for his long run, The goat man roamed the highways and the byways of America. Fueled by little more than wonder lust, his fame and legend continued to grow, and as might be expected, there were a number of erroneous tales circulating about him. During World War II, Rumors started that Chess was a Nazi spy who had a shortwave radio hidden in his wagon.
And as silly as it sounds, a sheriff in Virginia searched that wagon looking for the mystery radio. Others said that the goat man was actually a very wealthy man, with hordes of money hidden in his wagon. Nonetheless, by 1960, the Goatman was fed up with the direction America was heading.
So, he threw his hat into the ring to be nominated for the President of the United States. Even taking his goat parade to Chicago to the Democratic National Convention. He promised that if he was elected, he would quickly reduce government spending. The first thing he said he would do was fire all the White House gardeners and replace them with his goats. and he would place the Ten Commandments on the wall in the Oval Office.
Remarkably, The Goat Man traveled all across America. from 1939. to 1987. nearly a half century. It's said that he traveled over one hundred thousand miles to every state except Hawaii.
However, most of his travels centered around Appalachia. Even today, there are scores of people from small towns in East Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia who remember when the Goat Man came to their town. preaching about the coming of the Lord. The roads he traveled were not just pathways through towns, but through the lives of those who met him. For many, a glimpse of the Goatman was a cherished memory, a story to be told.
And retold. Sadly, not everyone loved the Goatman. And throughout his travels, Jess McCartney encountered numerous adventures and misadventures, from getting caught in a snowstorm on Peabody Mountain. to narrowly escaping a deadly brewery truck accident that killed eight of his goats and sent him to the hospital. The time he was mugged in Los Angeles trying to visit actress Morgan Fairchild.
and that time in Oklahoma, when his wagon was set on fire with Jess sleeping in it, barely escaping death with half his beard burned off. Chess finally came off the road for good in 1987. he sold all his goats to Disney World, and then he settled in Twiggs County, Georgia. where he purchased a few acres of land. At first, he lived in a small house that he had built that was just as eclectic as the wagon that he roamed America with.
But, alas, it too was burned by some one. After that, he lived in a school bus. And he even preached at a nearby church called the Free Thinking Christian Mission. By 1990, age had finally caught up with old chess, and he spent his final years as a local celebrity at a nursing home in Macon, Georgia. The Goat Man, Jess McCartney.
passed away at the age of 97. Leaving behind a legacy that continues to captivate the imagination. And a special thanks to J.D. Phillips, who runs the great YouTube channel, The Appalachian Storyteller. And what a story you just heard: Americana at its best.
The story of the Goatman, his born-again experience, and what he did with it, how he evangelized in a caravan of one. pulled by goats. Here on Our American Stories. People don't listen to radio ads. While you're driving or making a sandwich, your subconscious pays full attention.
So relax. Let it take over. Sunday makes yard care simple with a custom plan based on your soil, climate, and yard size. No pesticides, no harsh stuff. Custom Sunday Lawn Plan.
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