KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL FEBRUARY 14,1947 “The Courtship of Doc MacNeill” by Rob Allen The story I am about to relate to you is a true story. It happened a long time ago in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee in a tiny hamlet called Cutter Gap. If you looked on a map the name would not appear. It is the place where I was born. Neil MacNeill was also born in Cutter Gap. He became a doctor, and returned to those mountains to be the only physician within a fifty mile radius of Cutter Gap. A few years later another physician began to practice in the town of El Pano, which was seven miles away. He rarely came into the mountains. That’s the way they both liked it. Doc MacNeill was a native, Dr. Davis was a flatlander, someone who came from the level lands, an outsider. Doctor MacNeill was married to a city gal, but she didn’t take to the mountain way of life very well. She preferred the noise of the city to the sound of crickets chirping in the night. When a typhoid epidemic swept Cutter Gap, she gave birth to their son prematurely, and both mother and child died. Doc MacNeill mourned his terrible loss, but he did not leave. Instead, he was more determined to eradicate the causes of illness and diseases in the Cove, as Cutter Gap is affectionately called. We also had another canker. Feuds. Blood feuds between families spanning generations. One long standing feud was between the Taylor’s and the Allen’s. (My family, dear reader, and that is another story for another time.) There was a Mission in Cutter Gap. It had been established by Dr. Jacob Ferrand, who had begun many missions throughout the mountains, up and down the easter part of our country, bringing religion and education to the remote areas of this part of the land. The preacher at Cutter Gap was the Reverend David Grantland. His sister, a spinster named Ida was his housekeeper. The other resident of the Mission was Miss Alice Henderson, a Quaker woman and a mid-wife, who had come to Cutter Gap to minister to its people. She was a very good friend of Dr. Ferrand. Her daughter Margaret had been Doc MacNeill’s wife. I hope that you have been able to follow my scenario. I have one more character to introduce to you. Dr. Ferrand engaged her to teach at the Mission school. Thirteen grades, Kindergarten through Twelve. Over seventy students. The year was 1912. She was nineteen years old, just a few years older than I was at the time. Her name was Christy Huddleston and she would change our lives forever. She was a diminutive young woman. Her enthusiasm for teaching was as boundless as our mountains. She embraced us all, and tried to fire up our need for understanding and learning. She recognized my desire to write stories. She encouraged me to write and pursue avenues that would allow me the freedom to write. I balked at going to college. I did not have enough worldly experience. I missed opportunities. One day, without my knowledge she submitted an essay I had written to this Knoxville paper. The editor contacted her and asked if I had more material. There had been such an overwhelming response to my essay that the editor wanted more. She rode a lame mule to my father’s mill to bring me the good news. There was a check written out to me for five dollars. My father and mother shook their heads in astonishment. They had never dreamed that my story would fetch such a princely sum. I was overwhelmed. She had such great faith in me. I still adore her, to this very day. Only now she goes by the name of Christy Huddleston MacNeill. I will now relate to you, dear reader, how this feisty, young, wet-behind-the-ears school teacher managed to win the heart of our arrogant, stubborn, but much beloved Doc MacNeill. The path to true love does not run smooth, and they had more bumps along the way. Miss Christy arrived on a rainy day, all the way from Asheville, North Carolina. There was no one from Cutter Gap to meet her. My father Bob Allen, was supposed to be there, but he had been seriously injured while on his way to El Pano. With undaunted perseverance, Miss Christy managed to follow the postman Ben Pentland seven miles through the mountains. As they approached the Spencer family’s cabin, Miss Christy lost her balance and slid down the incline. When she stood up Ben introduced her to my uncle, Jeb Spencer. While this was taking place my cousin Isaak came running to announce that his father, one of my other uncles Tom McHone had discovered my father’s body while he was hunting. With that, Tom arrived carrying my Pa. He placed him on the ground. Miss Christy crouched down to examine Pa’s head wound. A few minutes later Doc MacNeill arrived on the scene. He knelt down by my Pa and looked directly into Miss Christy’s eyes and told her to stand aside. My Aunt Fairlight, Jeb’s wife, said that a person can fall in love at first sight. She believed that is exactly what happened to Doc MacNeill. There was a whole big to-do as to whether or not Doc should operate on my Pa’s head. My Uncle Ault was against it but my Ma prevailed. If an operation could save my Pa’s life, well she was for it. Ault, who was head of the Allen clan back then, agreed. Doc wanted Miss Christy to help him with the ether, but she didn’t have the stomach for it. Doc planned to drill a hole in my Pa’s head. She got dizzy and nearly fainted. That was Miss Christy’s first day in Cutter Gap. No one would have blamed her if she turned around and went back to El Pano. She stayed. She was a shining inspiration to most of her students. The sparks would fly whenever she would meet Doc MacNeill. They were like flint and steel. Watching them was the best entertainment for us all. Why they would go at each other saying things so fast that we’d miss half of their remarks. They always ended the same way. They would start out with a question and answer and then Doc would get his dander up and then they would start shouting at each other. Then he would stomp off or out of the room and she would walk away all huffy and puffy. She was sure a pretty little thing when she got like that. More than half of us boys had secret crushes on her. Things were hard that first year. Late seasonal rains rotted the harvest. Reverend Grantland found a secret stash of moonshine and called in the marshal and the revenuers. Bird’s-Eye Taylor, our notorious moonshiner, had a new target. He tried to burn down the Church/School building. Doc and the mission folk were on opposite sides of that issue as well. Doc kept coming around though, to teach us science lessons. He was drawn to Miss Christy like a magnet. Way back then, as I watched the two of them bickering, each trying to be right, I realized that they were dancing around the truth. They loved each other, but could not bring themselves to face the truth. Back then we would receive large doses of reality. Sometimes it was sickness, like a scarlet fever epidemic. It could be food shortages or famine, due to failed crops. Miss Alice once offered her own Daddy’s saddle as a prize for the person who killed the largest turkey for Thanksgiving. My brother Creed shot the biggest turkey that year. When sickness came, it would just overtake the Cove. Typhoid killed my Aunt Fairlight and Lundy Taylor. In its aftermath, Miss Christy accepted the marriage proposal of the Preacher. Most of us were in shock. Why any fool could see she loved Doc MacNeill. A week after she accepted Reverend Grantland’s proposal, Doc left for Baltimore. Left us high and dry! We were all speechless. How could Doc leave Cutter Gap? He’d come back from school in Scotland and in Pennsylvania to practice medicine here in the Cove. Would Miss Christy leave? Did she love the Preacher or did her heart belong to the Doc? Continued on Page 14. Well dear reader, this is Valentine’s Day. Therefore my story should have a happy ending. How could tragedy be averted? The solution came from a most unlikely source, Miss Christy’s mother. She called Doc MacNeill on the telephone all the way to Baltimore and asked him about terminal illnesses. He asked who was sick. She told him Miss Christy. He got all upset and wanted to know her symptoms. Mrs. Huddleston told him that Miss Christy’s heart was broken. She wanted to know if Doc MacNeill loved her daughter. If he did, he could fix her heart. He finally admitted that he did and had been too proud to admit it before this. She told him he’d better go home and do something about it. In the meantime, Miss Christy gave the Preacher back his ring. She realized that she did not really love him. A week or so later Doc MacNeill arrived in Cutter Gap for a visit. He needed to get one of his medical logs from his cabin. What a lame-brained excuse! Miss Christy all but ignored him. If he walked into a room, she walked out. It they were stuck in the same room, she’d ask when he was going back to Maryland. Didn’t he have things to do there, that were much more important than here in the Cove? We all watched them. We could feel the tension. We could feel the sparks and heat building up until it became unbearable. Now Doc had talked to both of Miss Christy’s parents. They both knew that their daughter loved him. During a working at my Pa’s mill to repair damage to the water wheel, Miss Christy made a sarcastic remark to the Doc. No one heard it but him. But everyone heard and saw what followed, I grabbed a pen and notepad and wrote it all down. It was a classic repartee between the two of them. "Who do you think you are, Neil MacNeill?" "I am a doctor, Miss Christy Huddleston." "You are more like a caveman! Who do you think you are telling me that I am your woman. Caveman tactics. Why don't you just hit me over the head with your club and drag me back to your cave." "I do not live in a cave, Lass. I live in a cabin built by my ancestors. And while I do not carry a club, I will be happy to carry you to my cabin." With that he picked her up, slung her over his shoulder and began to carry her away. "Put me down you beast." Her fists pummeled at his back as his arms securely encased her legs. "Let me go, Neil. I demand that you let me go!" "I do not take orders from females." "Excuse me?" "You heard me. I do not jump at your command. I do not ask you how high?" "You are in trouble now, Neil MacNeill." "How so?" "You are kidnapping me. My father is a lawyer. He'll come after you." "I doubt that, Lass. I doubt that very much." "What do you mean?" "I have your father's permission to court you." "Is this your idea of courting? Slinging me over your shoulder like a sack of flour and carrying me away?" "It's a matter of preservation. You've been buzzing at me like an annoying mosquito." "Oh Neil, I am swayed by your romantic descriptions. Be still my heart. A buzzing mosquito? You will eat your words, Dr. Neil MacNeill. Mark my words. You are in deep trouble." "I am quaking in my boots." "What are people going to think? This is so undignified." She pummeled him again." He dropped her to the ground. She tried to take a swing at him. He grabbed her fist and kissed it. The men started to whistle. Her cheeks flamed red. “Neil,” she hissed, everyone is watching. “Serves you right. Now everyone can be a witness.” “What are you talking about?” With that he swept her against him and kissed her. I mean he really kissed her. The toe curling kind of kiss that women read about in their dime store romance novels. He let her catch her breath, and then went in for the kill. She did not have a chance. Neither did he. Of course all work stopped. The women all sighed, and looked at their husbands, all dewy eyed. There was an increase in population in the Cove nine months later. Miss Alice was certainly kept very busy then. That was thirty-five years ago, dear reader. They were married by Dr. Ferrand, founder of the Mission. Everyone in Cutter Gap attended. Many of Miss Christy’s relatives from Asheville came. The MacNeill’s chose to live in Cutter Gap. After all, their hearts and souls belong there. The mountains are their lifeblood. Their love for each other is as solid and dependable as the mountain on which they reside. Seven out of ten children survive with their assorted spouses and children. Sixteen grandchildren in all! Doc and Miss Christy chose to be married on Valentine’s Day. I am sure that a very large party will be celebrated today in the MacNeill household. Eternal love, fidelity and friendship. It takes a lot of patience and devotion to make any marriage work. When I look at Doc and Miss Christy, well, I see a success story. If this tale began with “Once upon a time,” it would have to end with, They all lived happily ever after.” The End. Disclaimer: The story of Christy belongs to the Marshall-LeSourd Family. This fiction is written for my own personal enjoyment. This story uses themes from the book, and the CBS series.