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From me, Emily Maitlis. And me, John Sopol. With Global's award-winning podcast, The News Agents dropping daily, covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs. And The News Agents USA in the race for the White House. Listening to The News Agents on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.
Open your free iHeart app and search The News Agents to start listening. Roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own. Make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV or bring a Roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like iHeart Radio. Stream your favorite playlist with the Roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you. Make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV, streaming players and smart lights.
Head to Roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm. And we return to our American stories. Up next, we have the story of Chesma Cartney, otherwise known as the Goat Man.
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 Chesma Cartney was born on July 6th, 1901 in Sigourney, Iowa. Ches was your typical farm boy. The sparsely populated town he grew up in meant that there were more animals than people and Ches spent his days tending to him 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 during one part of the show, a beautiful Spanish knife thrower asked 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, Ches 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. Ches's eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of the knives tumbling towards his head.
Before hearing a large pop and the eruption of the cheers from the audience. That's how it happened. At age 14 years old, Ches left his family farm and ran away with the circus, becoming a target for the Spanish beauty and also becoming her lover. The two were married. Each night, the couple would visit some tavern or bar where Ches would take down the dartboard and his wife would throw 25 razor sharp knives at his head. After four years of touring America, the Spanish vixen retired so that she could raise a family.
Yet Ches was just 18 years old. No, he wasn't ready to settle down. So one night, as his beautiful wife slipped, he grabbed his clothes and left her forever. Ches 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. Ches was cutting 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 Ches's neck, and just then he suddenly sprang back to life. From that moment on, Ches 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, Ches set out to build a makeshift wagon. It was a homemade affair, covered with tin, old rubber, and 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, Ches had tied up twelve 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, Ches was divorced. Thus, free from all the interference of women, Ches and his son sat out on the road, both dressed in goat skins. Indeed, Ches 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 U.S. highways long before the interstates and backing 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, news 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 50 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 goat man 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 wonderlust, 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 goat man 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 100,000 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, preached in 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 goat man was a cherished memory, a story to be told and retold. Sadly, not everyone loved the goat man, 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.
Jess 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 someone.
After that, he lived in a school bus, and he even preached at a nearby church called the Freethinking Christian Mission. By 1990, age had finally caught up with old Jess, 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 goat man, 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.
Hi, this is pro football player Damar Hamlin. You probably know my story about perseverance and never giving up. That's why I joined the team at Don't Quit Protein Drinks. Whether I'm training hard on the field or in the gym, Don't Quit helps me recover with 33 grams of protein, 26 vitamins, and with none of the artificial stuff. Don't Quit Protein Drinks also taste great.
They are not chalky and have no bad aftertaste. My signature line of cookies and cream is my absolute favorite. Get yours now at Amazon.
Visit infiniteicon.com to order the album. Sponsored by 11-11 Media. There's a lot of pros to drink in Hell Fade Kombucha.
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Look for the brown bottle with an anchor on it and try Hell Fade Kombucha today. Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world. The News Agents. We're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why.
From me, Emily Maitlis. And me, John Sople. With Global's award-winning podcast, The News Agents, dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs. And The News Agents USA in the race for the White House. Listening to The News Agents on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.
Open your free iHeart app and search The News Agents to start listening. Roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own. Make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV or bring a Roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like iHeart Radio. Stream your favorite playlist with the Roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you. Make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV, streaming players and smart lights. Head to Roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm.
