Note: no "armchair caching", please: we
believe a player must visit a cache site in person in order for it
to count as a find.
His parents and his large extended family called him Charley.
Friends called him Choc. By what names did newspapers and lawmen
refer to him? You won't find any of those names here, but if you
can't figure out who he was, we'll tell you. To claim this
cache, e-mail us a brief description of the trees planted directly
to the west of his headstone, and include one of his more
well-known nicknames, if you know Charley's public persona. (Go
ahead and claim your find; it may be a week or more before we can
answer your e-mail, and waiting is no fun.)
One of his ancestors fought against the Spanish Armada and was
knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. Another distant relative signed the
Declaration of Independence. His little brother became a respected
county sheriff. Twenty-seven family members attended the local
First Baptist Church. None of that explains the crowd that turned
out for his funeral, estimated at 10,000 to 50,000!
It was not a dignified turn-out, either. The sheer press of
people trampled graves and turned over headstones. Some enjoyed
picnics, using tombstones for tables or seats. Special guards tried
in vain to keep photographers out, while deputies struggled to keep
a path clear and chairs reserved for the mourning family. Charley's
sister Mary yanked a newspaper photographer out of a tree, as the
family fought their way through the crowd to the grave side. Before
he spoke the eulogy, minister W. E. Rockett rebuked the bystanders,
telling them to show respect for the dead man and his family.
After the funeral, people scrambled for clods of dirt from the
grave, to take home as souvenirs. They stripped leaves and bark
from the trees in the cemetery, and tore the curtains from the
hearse. Every one of the thousands of flowers on Charley's grave
was stolen, to be pressed and preserved in family Bibles. You can
see that the headstone has been chipped at by vandals. It is not
the original; several stones have been destroyed over the years by
souvenir hunters, and the entire stone was stolen once. (You will
be watched while you are here, but no one will bother you if you do
no harm to the place.) Take photos if you wish, but please be
respectful of this place, and we ask that you do not post any
spoilers here.
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