Early 1800's were interestin' time for Po'Dunk, seein' as there was yet to be a Po'Dunk. It was a bit of what you might call a transitionary period in Newton County. The Osage got kicked out, and the Cherokee got thrown in as the United States was want to do at the time, shufflin folks willy nilly. And somewhere between them points a man named Duncan Poe allegedly showin' up. Now he's a figure that yarn-spinners and story-whittlers love, cus the only documentation of this fellar's existence wasn't even written down until generations after he was dead. He was just kind of a story passed by the Strom, Horn, and Leeds families as that feller that was just there when they showed up and settled the place.

As their malleable words went, he was a one-eyed gruff that called his residence a cave near the top of Eagle's Beak Mountain, or rather what would become Eagle's Beak Mountain. Some families says he had a daughter, and some says he had himself. I tend to fall in the former camp, as I would have to question where a daughter might have sprung from. Though I figure it is possible there were still some Osage folks not yet left or Cherokee folks just now arrived. 

But as oral tradition is the historical version of a game of "rumor has it" Duncan Poe has grown into mythic grandeur.  My daddy told it as his daddy might of told it. Duncan Poe was on the run from one of the trading posts after he lost a sharpshootin' bet. And when I say lost, he in fact won the bet, but lost an eye when he bragged at the bet loser, who then gauged out his eye and challenged him again. Duncan took the challenge and won again, even with the single eye. At that point the challenger chased him in an attempt to take the other eye. And attatched to his remain' sight as he was, Duncan took to becoming a hermit out in the woods, stumbling into Eagle's Beak Mountain, a place he called home.

Now in the practice of being forthcoming, there are other versions of Duncan Poe's exile. Be it that he was a murderer on the run, a loony who loved the trees just a little too much, or a kidnapper (another popular explanation of his supposed daughter), or just plain didn't like folks. I figure mine's the best story, and thus most worthy of being true.

To keep this brief, I'll summarize what else I know. Now he lived out in what is now called, Duncan Cave, White Tree Cave, or Fox Hole (only the first name has history relevant to this story) and was first encountered by what is generally agreed to be a member of the Strom clan, as they were one of the inital (if not the initial) families to come and settle what would become our cozy little hamlet. He warned folks not to traverse past his part of the mountain, and most of us figure that to be in fear of the Wild Woman or Pink Eyes or even the immortal Greenville, if'n those stories even go back that far. But I figure my history of Po'Dunk should remain to the exaggerated facts and not the complete hawgwashed ones of the supernatural. Ask a preacher for god, a hippie for spirituality, and a loon for ghosts. I just got the possibly true facts.