Must Run In The Blood

Roy Terry

I can recall my father spinning some tall tales as I was growing up. He was a fount of short little stories, silly little songs, and witty retorts.  Which was strange because he did not talk much most of the time.  Sometimes, though, like a coffee pot boiling over things came to the surface.  I have always blamed his mother's Irish roots for his bouts of spontenaity and her German side for his silence!   Every generation had some kind of Celtic roots - be it Ireland or Scotland - and so the basic idea was always possible they were the cause of those tall tales and stories.

For many years, I have been a storyteller traveling here and there sharing tales with children, adults and families in a variety of settings (schools, churches, community events, and libraries).  Imagine my delight when doing some family history research I uncovered a brother to my father's great-great grandmother.  The Ennis family had come from County Westmeath, by way of Dublin about 1730.  Elizabeth Ennis was the only daughter of James Ennis, b. in Virginia and had brothers Zachariah, Ezekiel, Martin, William, John, Jesse, and perhaps others.

In the History of Greene and Jersery Counties, Illinois (1885) contains a sketch on what is believed to be this same Jesse.   Imagine my delight as a I read.  "Mr. Ennis, while a strictly honest and conscientious man, was rather noted in this locality for his aptitude for pretty tough yarns.  One of these was, in describing the timber of this country, he said that he had cut down a sumach tree, from he split out some fourteen joists for a house. At another time he related a long story about taking the fiddle and sitting down near some rocks commenced to play, whereupon thousands of snakes came out of their dens, as they will, and that laying about with a club he killed some three thousand of them Many other stories he did tell all dealing in the same exaggerations." (80).

Anyone familiar with Irish folklore can detect the corpus of tales about the Irish Hercules, Cú Chulainn and numerous other familiar motifs which had no doubt fed his imagination as a youth and entertained the community as an elderly man.

ROOTS IN THE OLD COUNTRY: ATHLONE AND THE ENNIS LINE

Traveling to the 'auld country' was a rare and almost spiritual experience. Feeling the wind of Ireland kiss my face, seeing my first stone wall circling a small field, feeling my heart throb to the beat of the bodhran...it was as they say so often - 'grand'.

I had grown up hearing tales from my father of one of his relatives who still had a burr in his speech, then learned tales of courage, escape, and struggle in a new land. I listened wide-eyed and with imagination soaring.....

This family line lived in Athlone,Westmeath, Ireland. They owned land and property (or was part of a family owning such land or property). One day the man was out riding his lands and happened upon a British soldiers (or in another family's version a groundskeeper) abusing one of the farmers. Stepping in to halt the beating, one thing led to another, and a fatal blow was struck. Knowing he would surely be punished severely for the act, he hurried home and arranged for himself and his three-year old son to be smuggled to America.

He settled in Virginia and commenced establishing a new life in a new land...

That small boy, the story goes, grew up to be JAMES ENNIS of VIRGINIA, Revolutionary War Hero, known as Captain James ENNIS (1735-1778), son of Sir John Ennis of County Westmeath,Ireland.

He enlisted in February of 1776 with the 9th Regiment of the Virginia Line of the Continental Army.

Captain James Ennis was captured by the British Army at the Battle of Germantown, contested on the outskirts of Philadelphia (Oct 4, 1777), and would die of smallpox the following year while a prisoner of war (perhaps on one of the era’s notorious ‘prison ships’ employed by the British).

Ennis is noted in M. Lee Minnis’ book, “THE FIRST VIRGINIA REGIMENT OF FOOT, 1775-1783″ as an officer of Colonel Charles Harrison’s First Regiment of Artillery in the Continental Army (page 240). (www.genforum.genealogy.com/ennis/messages/1445.html; family history; various researchers)

From this line came one Barbara Ennis who married William Terry, son of John and Esther Brown Terry of Botetourt Co., Va.

The traditions of the homeland stayed in place in surprising ways. In the 1930's one the direct Ennis line living in Northern Arkansas testified to her lineage. Her language was full of the rich heritage of an oral tradition when she said " these are the generations as I have been taught them..."

Their accuracy? Nearly 100 percent - not too unusual when one understands the role of oral history in ancient Irish society. So the story of the movement from Ireland may have more than a kernel of truth in it. After all, it is very important you get your generations in order. So, between the Ennis, the Riddle, the Ray, the Reed, the Kirkpatrick, the Boyd, and all the others....is it any wonder we are dancing? As my father showed me more than once, there is nothing like a barefoot kitchen jug. 'Tis grand!