The Golden Book of
Yoknapatawpha County

Wife of Roskus Gibson. Mother of Versh, Frony and T.P. Cook at the Compson Place. Moved to Memphis after Caroline Compson died in 1933 and her son Jason Compson IV sold the house, since she refused to go further (Frony lived in St. Louis at the time but joined her in Memphis). Near blind in her last years.

Died before 1928. Husband of Dilsey Gibson, father of Versh, Frony and T.P. Servant (his tasks included driving and milking) at the Compson Place. Had bad rheumatism.

Youngest (?) child of Roskus and Dilsey Gibson. Servant at the Compson Place. Took Maury Compson to the graveyard each Sunday in a wagon pulled by Queenie, passing the monument of the Confederate soldier on Jefferson’s square to the right. Who wore on Memphis’s Beale Street the fine bright cheap intransigent clothes manufactured specifically for him by the owners of Chicago and New York sweatshops.

Eldest (?) child of Roskus and Dilsey Gibson. Servant at the Compson Place, attendant of Maury Compson in his first years. Used to go out hunting with Quentin Compson (III) all day.

Son of Mr Gillespie.

Father of Mack Gillespie. Farmer. In July 1927, allowed the Bundren family to camp at his farm and store the coffin containing Addie Bundren’s corpse, which they planned to burry in Jefferson, in his barn. During the night, the barn was burned down by Darl Bundren in a failed attempt to incinerate his mother’s corpse, although his cow, horse and mules were rescued.

United States marshal in Jefferson in 1925. Lean clean tobacco-chewing old man.

Died 22 June 1929. Moonshiner, common law husband of Ruby Lamar and father of an unnamed boy. Entered a relationship with Ruby before 1915, when he went to the Philippines for a year to serve as a cavalry sergeant. In early 1916, five months before the end of his stay, killed a fellow soldier over a black woman. Sent to Leavenworth upon his return, where he was visited by Ruby every second Sunday, then to World War I France to fight with the infantry, earning two medals, then back to Leavenworth, until his lawyer got a congressman to get him free. Beat up Ruby upon finding out she had paid the lawyer through prostitution. Their plans of formal marriage were forestalled by a lack of funds. At some point (probably before 1915) also served on the Mexican border. Started moonshining at the Old Frenchman Place in 1925, accompanied by Ruby, his father, Tommy, Van and at some point, Memphis gangster Popeye. His and Ruby’s son was born in 1928. Arrested for Popeye’s murder of Tommy and rape of Temple Drake on 12 May 1929. Defended by Horace Benbow in the subsequent court case, but wrongfully convicted on 21 June after Temple Drake falsely identified him as the perpetrator, and lynched (for Temple’s Drake rape, not for Tommy’s murder) between 00:30 and 01:00 hrs in the following night, by being burned alive in a vacant lot in an alley next to the jail.

Died after May 1929. Father of Lee Goodwin. With him at Old Frenchman Place in the years up until Lee’s arrest and subsequent lynching in 1929. Blind and deaf.

Born 1899–1900. Common law wife of Lee Goodwin and mother with him of an unnamed boy. Entered her relationship with Goodwin before he went to the Philippines as a cavalry sergeant in 1915. A previous boyfriend (Frank) was shot by her father after refusing to stop seeing her. When Goodwin went to the Philippines, stayed behind in San Francisco, got a job and lived in a hall room, all the while staying faithful to him. When she found out about the return of his company, had to quit her job to meet him at the harbour, where she found out from another soldier that he had been imprisoned at Leavenworth. Had to get another job for two months to save enough money to join him at Leavenworth, where she lived in a single room for two years, cooking over a gasjet, and worked night shifts at Child’s as a waitress so she could see him every other Sunday afternoon. Prostituted herself to a lawyer for two months before finding out that he couldn’t do anything for Goodwin, him being a federal prisoner. When Goodwin was sent to fight in World War I France, moved to New York and worked in a munitions plant, ‘staying straight’, despite ample romantic opportunities both in the factory and from soldiers returning from the war. When Goodwin was again sent to Leavenworth after the war, prostituted herself to pay for a lawyer to get a congressman to get him released, for this beat up by him. Lack of money prevented their formal marriage. From 1925 until Goodwin’s arrest, wrongful conviction and lynching in May and June 1929, went to live at the Old Frenchman Place with him, where he moonshined and she looked after the household, having to walk a mile six times a day to get water, and where she delivered their son in 1928. If she had her way, would hang every man that makes whisky or sells or drinks it, every God’s one of them.

Born 1928. Son of Ruby and Lee Goodwin. In poor health.

Born with a club foot. Raised in Jefferson, attending the same school as Horace and Narcissa Benbow. Drove first a grocery wagon, then a truck, then went to Oxford State University to study law. During his first year, waited on tables at the commons, and he had the government contract for carrying the mail to and from the local post-office at the arrival of each train, hobbling along with the sack over his shoulder: a pleasant, open-faced young man with a word for everyone and a certain alert rapacity about the eyes. Left these jobs during his second year. Participated for three years in poker games organised in Mr Harris’s livery stable office, a fact that only became known after his graduation.

In 1919 an acquaintance of Bayard Sartoris (III), frequenting Deacon Rogers’s shop.

Elected District Attorney in the winter of 1928/9. Obtained on 21 June 1929 the wrongful conviction of Lee Goodwin for the murder of Tommy and the rape of Temple Drake.

Friend of Eustace in 1919, served on the British front in the spring of 1918.

Died 1837. Huguenot, younger son. One of Yoknapatawpha County’s three original settlers. Came riding across Tennessee from the Cumberland Gap in the late eighteenth century along with Samuel Habersham and Alexander Holston. Brought the first slaves into the country and was granted the first big land patent and so became the first cotton planter. His plantation, Frenchman’s Bend, was vast, and half of it fell outside Yoknapatawpha County. His main residence came to be known as Old Frenchman Place.

Farm worker for Mr Snopes in 1927.

Proprietor of a hardware store in Mottson in 1927.