He was born the same year that Crazy Horse fought his last battle against the United States Cavalry – 1877.
Raised south of Houston, he learned the three R’s at Possum Trot school. He and his wife Martha (Shelton) are laid to rest on top of a steep hill at Oakdale cemetery. No, I didn’t know either of them, but I knew their son very well.
This past week, the Mrs. and I visited Oakdale as we sometimes do (it’s just a few miles from where we call home). Well, I looked down at Matt’s headstone, and wondered as I often have, of what had to be going through his mind on that cold December day.
How’s that? Who am I talking about?
Well, Matt Todd of course, and his run in with a…
Excuse me? You never heard of Matt Todd? Well, I do declare. Alright then, have a seat, I’ll pour a cup of coffee, and share a short story with you that old timers used to mention around these parts from time to time.
As is often the case with history, there are varying dates archived of the story, but I did some digging, and have traced it back to Dec. 4, 1921 to be exact. Yes sir, the ol’ fox hunter, Matt Todd, of Ellis Prairie, was slippin’ up the creek of Burton Hollow when his dogs bayed something they had never seen before. Now, I can just imagine the whoopin’ and a hollerin’ them hounds were making, because they knew that whatever it was, it sure weren’t no fox.
Well, quite the chase ensued, and the long-tailed critter took refuge on the shelf of a bluff – backed in – and began to fight. Records say, it was 38 degrees that day. With it being that cold, and the trees dressed for winter, I reckon them screams ‘n’ gnashing of teeth could be heard pert near to the Piney River. The kind of sounds that stiffen the hair right up the back of your neck, and make your hide look like a plucked goose.
Yes sir, those moments are when you’re wishing you had your .44 lever gun in your hands, with its mate hanging on your side.
Well, Ol’ Matt wasn’t one to shy away from a fight, and finally arriving at the scene, he lowered his double-barreled shotgun, put one round behind the shoulder, and then another into the black panther’s head. Black as night, six feet long and 65 pounds. Matt threw him over his shoulder, and headed for the house.
Yes sir, that is the kind of story you don’t want to hear right before you have to go shut up the chickens. Well, as I said, that was a time long ago; and, it was a true story, mind you.
But now I want to ask a question. The answer will seem as obvious as the spots on a Holstein cow; but, bear with me. My question: If Ol’ Matt had been blind in one eye, and couldn’t see out of the other, how could he have pulled the trigger on that panther? Obviously, he couldn’t have – for a man has to “see” in order to look down a barrel and take aim.
In saying that, I want to back up in time a whole lot further than 100 years ago; the year 1668 to be exact. There was a man in that era named Thomas Watson. Mr. Watson was a Puritan preacher, and, he had a mind as sharp as the edge on my Western L-40.
Well (taking a sip of my coffee,) he wrote something awful serious that I can’t get out of my head. No sir. Come to think about it, don’t reckon’ I want to. It’s one of them statements that a man needs to put on a shelf in his mind – and don’t let it get dusty.
Here, let me share it with you.
“The eye is both for seeing and weeping. Sin must first be seen before it can be wept for. Hence, I infer that where there is no sight of sin, there can be no repentance.” – Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance.
Folks, that statement right there is more serious than a cottonmouth hidin’ in your boot! For, that cottonmouth might send a man to his death, but it’s what happens after that which is important – mighty important. A man could ride a donkey from New York to California and back (although I don’t know why a man would go to either), and he still would not have spent one day in eternity. Do you get the picture?
Jesus came to open men’s eyes, that they may “see” (Acts 26:18). He even counseled one of the seven churches to anoint their eyes with eye salve, “that thou mayest see.” Why? So they would repent of their sin, that they were obviously blinded to (Rev. 3:14-19). Notice this was a church that Jesus was speaking to; people who professed Him as their Savior.
In closing, repentance is a word that has all but vanished from pulpits in modern time. Yet, without repentance (a turning away from sin), there will come a weeping and gnashing of teeth, that will make what Ol’ Matt went through pale in comparison. And it don’t matter one whit how many snake oil salesmen line up tickling ears to the contrary. These salesmen are the sort that I call “empty acorns.” Oh, they may look like the rest, but apply a little pressure to them (Biblical truth), and one will discover they are hollow inside.
Lord willing, until next time.
Michael Everett Jones is a Texas County native, old fashioned historian and purveyor of traditional Christian values. Email ozarksgrandpajones@gmail.com.