The Golden Book of
Yoknapatawpha County

Husband of Rachel Samson. Maried 1912. Started trading with Stuart MacCallum in 1915, having known him from boy up. Not good with names.

Wife of Mr Samson. Maried in 1912.

Born 1838–9, Carolina, died Summer 1862, Virginia. Brother of John Sartoris (I) and Virginia du Pre. Rather a handful, even for Sartorises. Not so much a black sheep as a nuisance all of whose qualities were positive and unpredictable. Aide du champs of General Jeb Stuart in the Northern Virginia Campaign, shot dead prior to the second battle of Manassas by General John Pope’s cook while trying to capture his anchovies.

Born September 1849, died c 18 December 1919. Son and middle child of John Sartoris (I) and Mrs Sartoris, brother of Miss Sartoris (I) and Miss Sartoris (II). Father of John Sartoris (II). Born in the same month as Marengo Strother, fed at the same breast (…) slept together and eaten together. Hunted possom together during Indian Summer nights. And together they shot dead with the family musket the best horse of a Federate troop that passed the Sartoris Place in July 1862. After another regiment burned down the Sartoris Place he traveled with his grandmother Rosa Millard, Marengo Strother and Joby Strother to Alabama in June 1863 to ask for compensation from Colonel Nathaniel Dick, who arranged for a requisition order signed by General Smith for 110 mules, 110 negroes, ten chests and provisions. In the following period, until October 1864, he helped his grandmother with the scheme to acquire 138 more mules through additional, forged requisition orders. After her betrayal by Ab Snopes and murder by Grumby in December 1864, he, Marengo Strother and (initially) Theophilus McCaslin pursued Grumby’s group of bandits for over two months. In late February 1865, they were confronted by the bandits, who handed over Grumby with a pistol to settle the matter. After Bayard Sartoris shot him dead, they took his body back to the abandoned cotton compress where he had killed Rosa Millard and nailed it to the door, and brought his hand to her grave in Jefferson. Studied Law in Oxford, lived with Mr Wilkins from 1870 until at least 1873. Enthralled by his father’s second wife Drusilla, and the odour of the verbena she would wear. After his father was killed by Ben J Redmond, Bayard confronted him in his office, but refusing to draw his weapon. Redmond fired twice but missed, and then left Jefferson. First Sartoris to reach beyond the age of sixty. Developed a malignant growth on his cheek, which in 1919 was diagnosed as cancer by Dr Alford when at last he consulted him at the insistance of Virginia du Pre. Died in a light car accident a week before Christmas 1919, presumably of heart failure, when his grandson Bayard (III) lost control on the icy road. His last two horses were called Roosevelt and Taft.

Born 16 March 1893, died 11 June 1920, Dayton Airfield. Son of John Sartoris (II), elder twin brother of John Sartoris (III). Father of an unnamed son with his first wife Caroline, and of Benbow Sartoris with his second wife Narcissa. Started school at seven. At some point schooled in Virginia. Went to England in 1916 to fight as a pilot in WWI. Temporarily returned to teach at a pilot school and to marry Caroline White, who died in labour along with their son. Returned from the war traumatised by the death of his brother John. Nearly died in a car accident on 3 July 1919 but saved by the boy John Henry. On 26 August 1919 married Narcissa Benbow. Had a light car accident a week before Christmas 1919 when he lost control on the icy road, in which his grandfather died of heart failure. Never returned home afterwards. After a week spent in the MacCallum household, set off for a headless trip throughout America that ended when he died on the Dayton Airfield, crash landing an experimental aircraft, on the same day that his son Benbow was born. Did not care about books. In 1919 had a pony called Perry.

Bory. Born 11 June 1920. Son of Bayard (III) and Narcissa Sartoris. Born on the day of his father’s death. Was to be named John if Virginia du Pre had had her way, and she went on to call him that anyway.

Died 27 October 1918, Sartoris Place. First wife of Bayard Sartoris (III). Died in childbirth, along with their son.

Dru. Born 1841–2. Daughter of Dennison (I) and Louisa, sister of Denison (II) Hawk, second wife of John Sartoris (I). Tomboy. Best woman rider in the country. Was to marry Gavin Breckbridge, who gifted her her horse Bobolink, but he was killed in the battle of Shiloh. When Federate troops came to Hawkhurst in early Summer of 1863 and tried to confiscate Bobolink, she managed to escape by holding it hostage, the troops proceeded to burn down the main house. In January 1864 she disappeared, only telling her family in mid December of that year that she was in Carolina, fighting with John Sartoris (I)’s regiment. She came with him to Jefferson in February 1865 and only informed her mother of her whereabouts later that Spring. Her mother was convinced and horrified that she had become Sartoris’s common-law wife, and after she too had come to the Sartoris Place later that Spring, demanded their marriage. The ceremony was delayed as John and Drusilla were busy thwarting the election of Cassius Q Benbow as Marshall of Jefferson, but afterwards, they were driven by Martha Habersham (personally) to the Minister.

Wore sprigs of verbena in her hair as she claimed it was the only scent you could smell above the smell of horses and courage. Enthralled Bayard Sartoris (II), her second nephew and son of her husband. After her husband was killed by Ben J Redmond in October 1873 and Bayard refused to shoot him, left Jefferson on the northbound train to join her brother in Montgomery. tU

Born 1823, Carolina, died October 1873, Jefferson. Brother of Bayard (I) Sartoris and Virginia Sartoris du Pre. Husband of Mrs Sartoris and Drusilla Sartoris, father of Bayard (II) Sartoris, Miss Sartoris (I) and Miss Sartoris (II) (with Mrs Sartoris). Short stature.

Moved to Jefferson in 1839, with slaves and gear and money. In Mexico in 1845, possibly fighting in the Mexican–American War.

Following the outbreak of the civil war, arranged for his daughters to stay in Memphis and raised with his own funds the 23rd infantery regiments in Mississippi (number two in the roster) that served in James Longstreet’s corps. According to Will Falls, his horse Jupiter was the best horse of the Confederacy, but one. The following year, after the second battle of Manassas, he was demoted to the rank of Major by his regiment and replaced by his second-in-command Thomas Sutpen, whom he thoroughly disliked. Amadeus McCaslin and his followers resigned in solidarity and followed him back to Mississippi. Oversaw the making and gathering of a harvest on his plantation, before he got bored and formed with McCaslin and his men an irregular cavalry unit of around one hundred, joining General Forrest in Tennessee. In the summer of 1863 narrowly managed to escape with Jupiter a Federate troop, which had been alerted to his arrival at the Sartoris Place by his slave Lucius Strother. In December 1863, informed his family that he was fighting in Carolina.

Returned to Jefferson in February 1865, together with his comrade-in-arms Drusilla Hawk. Her mother followed her that Spring to demand they marry, being convinced and horrified that she had become his common-law wife. The ceremony was delayed as he shot dead the Brothers Burden to thwart the election of Cassius Q Benbow as Marshall of Jefferson through the participation of black voters, and relocated the polling station to the Sartoris Place and appointed Drusilla as voting commissioner. Following these events, they were driven by Martha Habersham (personally) to the Minister.

Developed the idea for Jefferson’s railway, and in 1869, started construction together with the carpetbagger Ben J Redmond and General Jason Lycurgus Compson (II). The latter was bought out following a quarrel. The relationship between Sartoris and Redmond, who had initially been friends, also quickly turned very sour, transforming into a feud, steadily fueled by reminders from Sartoris that Redmond had not fought in the Civil War. While no longer on speaking terms, they managed to agree a second buy-out by Sartoris through the assistance of Judge Benbow. The first engine, which Sartoris named after his younger sister Virginia, ran into Jefferson on 9 August 1872. In August 1873, on the back of the success of the railway, Sartoris defeated Redmond in the election for the state legislature. In October, shot dead by Redmond in what may have been an ambush or a duel where he himself refused to shoot.

Died 1901. Son of Bayard Sartoris (II), husband of Lucy Sartoris, father of Bayard (III) and John (III) Sartoris. Died of yellow fever and an old Spanish bullet wound.

Born 16 March 1893, died 5 July 1918, France. Son of John Sartoris (II), younger twin brother of Bayard Sartoris (III). Started school at seven. Shot his first bear at twelve in the river bottom near MacCallum’s. Went to Princeton. Went to England in 1916 to fight in WWI. Shot down over France.

Wife of John Sartoris (II), mother of John (III) and Bayard (III) Sartoris.

Born 1847. Eldest daughter of John Sartoris (I) and Mrs Sartoris, sister of Bayard Sartoris (I) and Miss Sartoris (II). Sent to Memphis at the outbreak of the Civil War, returned afterwards. Was to be married in June 1870.

Born 1852. Youngest daughter of John Sartoris (I) and Mrs Sartoris, sister of Bayard Sartoris (I) and Miss Sartoris (I). Sent to Memphis at the outbreak of the Civil War, returned afterwards.

Died September 1849. Daughter of Rosa Millard, first wife of John Sartoris (I), mother of Miss Sartoris (I), Bayard Sartoris (II) and Miss Sartoris (II). Died while giving birth to Bayard Sartoris (II).

Born 1892–3. Daughter of Will and Julia Benbow. Sister of Horace Benbow, although their relationship was at times more like husband and wife. Piano player. Friend of Virginia du Pre, and through her made the acquaintance of her future husband, Virginia’s great-grandnephew Bayard Sartoris (III), whom she had known all her life but with whom she had spoken less than four words before his return from WWI. They married on 26 August 1919 and she gave birth to their son Benbow Sartoris on 5 June 1920, the day of Bayard’s death, although he had already deserted her in December 1919.

Continued living at the Sartoris Place, where throughout the years she received several suitors, including Herschell Jones (until Spring 1928) and Gowan Stevens (Spring 1928 – May 1929). Turned down a proposal by Gowan Stevens in May 1929 because one child was enough for her.

Aunt Jenny. Born 1838–9, Carolina, died after 1929. Youngest sister of John (I) and Bayard (I) Sartoris. Danced a valse with General Jeb Stuart in Baltimore in 1858. Married Mr du Pre in 1860 (at 21), widowed exactly two years later. Joined John Sartoris (I)’s family in Jefferson in January 1867. Started the garden of the recently rebuilt Sartoris Place, having brought calycanthus and jasmine with her from Carolina. John named Jefferson’s first train engine after her and had her name engraved on a silver oil can in the cab.

On Confederate Decoration Day 1900, unveiled the marble war monument depicting a Confederate infantryman on Jefferson’s town square, initiated and financed by the United Daughters of the Confederation.

Survived all of John (I), John (II), Bayard (I), Bayard (II) and Bayard (III) Sartoris, living together with Bayard (III)’s widow Narcissa (already her friend before the marriage) and their son Benbow from 1920 onwards. Had a mild stroke in 1924, since then spent her days in a wheelchair beside a window....

From St Louis. Undersized. Preached in a Jefferson black church service on Easter 1928 (8 April) that Dilsey Gibson, Frony, Luster and Maury Compson attended.

Had the key to the old opera house in Jefferson in 1928.

Operator of the switchboard at Dr Brandt’s specialist clinic in Memphis on 9 July 1919.

Lived in a cabin in the hills, together with a woman. Asked by John Sartoris (I) to look out for his family, after a Federate regiment had burnt down the main building of the Sartoris Place in 1863. Between August 1863 and October 1864, helped Rosa Millard con Federate regiments to obtain mules using requisition orders faked by Marengo Strother, and in particular sold them back for her to different Federate troops, for a grand total of 6724 dollars. Then sold her whereabouts to one of the regiments they had previously conned, who confiscated their remaining mules. Then, in December 1864, convinced Mrs Millard to go to the abandoned cotton compress where the group of bandits known as Grumby’s independents was stationed, to try to requisition their four horses with a forged order from General Nathan Bedford Forrest, after he had already done so himself. Grumby panicked and killed Millard, and the group was pursued by Bayard Sartoris (II), Marengo Strother and Theopihilus McCaslin. After gang member Matt Bowden discovered that they were after Snopes in particular, they left him tied to a tree. He was subsequently taken back to Jefferson by McCaslin.

Bookkeeper at the Sartoris bank in 1919. Author of anonymous propositional letters to Narcissa Benbow, which he dictated to Virgil Beard. Lived at the Beard Hotel until June 1919, when he became so haunted by the presence of Virgil Beard that he went to live with his cousin I. O. Snopes.

Son of I. O. Snopes. In June 1929 Mississippi state Senator for Jefferson. Sold first to Horace Benbow, then to Mr Drake, the information that Temple Drake was being held in Reba Rivers’s Memphis brothel, which was finally also beat out of him by a Memphis lawyer working for Eustace Graham.

‘The first Snopes’ in Jefferson and something of a patron for the extended members of his family that followed from Frenchman’s Bend. During the first few months after coming to Jefferson, stayed with his wife and baby in a tent at a restaurant, which he later came to own. Eventually became manager of the Jefferson light and water plant, and since 1916 Vice President of the Sartoris bank. In 1902 imported a herd of Texas ponies, which he auctioned off for two dollars a head and nobody but old Lon Quick ever caught his.

Father of Clarence Snopes, cousin of Byron Snopes. In 1919 proprietor of a small restaurant, living near the Jefferson railway station. In 1928 part of a group of men who bet on the cotton market.

Born 1896. Volunteered to fight in WWI in 1917 but turned down on account of his heart. Then travelled to Europe anyway joining the YMCA, together with Horace Benbow, but did not return.

Nephew of Flem Snopes. Farmer near Frenchman’s Bend in 1927, on the north side of the river. Owned three-four spans of mules.

Came with Fonzo to Memphis in May 1929, to do business for a month or so at the barber college. Stayed at Reba Rivers’s brothel, mistaking it for a cheap hotel.

Sheriff in Jefferson in 1869. Came to Sutpen’s Hundred in the evening of 12 August 1869 after Wash Jones’s murder of Thomas Sutpen, unable to prevent him from also killing his granddaughter Milly Jones and the daughter she had given birth to that morning.

Born late 1830 or early 1831. Eldest child of Gowan and Temple Stevens.

Born c 1886. Husband of Maggie Stevens, uncle of Gowan Stevens. Lawyer. County amateur Cincinnatus. Educated at Harvard and Heidelberg. Country Attorney. Champion not so much of truth as of justice, or of justice as he sees it, constantly involving himself, often for no pay, in affairs of equity and passion and even crime too among his people, white and Negro both, sometimes directly contrary to his office.

Unsuccessfully defended Nancy Mannigoe in November 1836 in her trial for the murder of Gowan and Temple Stevens’s daugher, but in March 1837 succeeded in getting Temple Stevens to confess the full circumstances that led Mannigoe to her act. While Mannigoe was in prison, sang church hymns with her on Sunday nights and on all but one of the nights in the last week before her execution.

Born 1908–9. Single child of financially secure parents. Nephew of Gavin Stevens. Husband of Temple and father of Bucky Stevens and an unnamed girl. Attended the University of Virginia from 1926 to 1929, where, despite his protestations, he did not learn to drink like a gentleman.

Suitor of Narcissa Sartoris from the spring of 1928 until May 1929, when he unsuccessfully proposed to her. Simultaneously dated Temple Drake from at least October 1928. In May 1929, became stranded with Temple at the Old Frenchman Place after crashing his car, where he had been meaning to buy more alcohol, having been a customer of Lee Goodwin since 1926, choosing, despite Temple’s pleas, to stay there and to again get drunk, leading to the murder of Goodwin’s associate Tommy and her rape by Popeye, and her continued imprisonment and rape over the course of the following month by Red in Reba Rivers’s Memphis whore house.

Quit drinking. Dropped out of university without graduating and married Temple Drake the following Winter at the American embassy in Paris, where she had been staying, with a reception at the Crillon and a honeymoon at a rented hideaway built for his European mistress by a Mohammedan prince at Cap Ferrat. Once back in Mississippi, moved into a new bungalow in Jefferson.

The couple had a son, Bucky, in early 1931, whose paternity he soon began to doubt, and a daughter in March 1936. The daughter was murdered on 13 September by their nurse Nancy Mannigoe in a desperate attempt to stop Temple from eloping with Red’s brother Pete, so Bucky would not remain behind alone with him.

Wife of Gavin Stevens.

Born May–June 1912, Jackson. Daughter of Mr Drake. Wife of Gowan Stevens, mother of Bucky Stevens and a younger daughter. Student at the Mississippi State University in Oxford in early 1929, and seeing Gowan Stevens. Became an unintentional guest at the Old Frenchman Place when on 11 May 1929 Gowan’s car broke down; raped there the following day with a corn cob by Popeye Vitelli and witnessed his murder of Tommy, who had tried to protect her. Subsequently taken to Reba Rivers’s Memphis brothel. Held there during the next six weeks, forced to have sex with Vitelli’s associate Red so Vitelli could watch the act. Fell in love with Red, writing him saucy letters, until Red was shot dead by Vitelli on 17 June when he attempted to visit her in private. Released from captivity by Vitelli to falsely identify Lee Goodwin as her rapist and Tommy’s murderer in court on 21 June, leading to his conviction and lynching.

Spent the rest of 1929 in Paris. Married Gowan Stevens that Winter at the American embassy, with a reception at the Crillon and a honeymoon at a rented hideaway built for his European mistress by a Mohammedan prince at Cap Ferrat. Once back in Mississippi, moved into a new bungalow in Jefferson.

Gave birth to their son, Bucky, in early 1931 and took on thereformed dope-fiend Nancy Mannigoe as a nurse to have someone to talk to with similar experiences. Gave birth to a girl in March 1936.

In the Summer of 1936, Red’s brother Pete attempted to blackmail her over her letters to Red, but she fell in love with him, writing him more saucy letters. Planned to elope with him on 13 September, unhindered by Mannigoe’s attempt to stop her by hiding her valuables and unconvinced by her pleas to remain in order to protect the children. Finally thwarted when, out of desperation, Mannigoe smothered the daughter, sacrificing her for the sake of Bucky.

Wife of Simon Strother, mother of Elnora and Caspey Strother.

Husband of Louvinia Strother, father of Lucius and Simon (I) Strother. Grandfather of Simon Strother (II). Slave and body servant to John Sartoris (I), followed him from Carolina to the Sartoris Place in Mississippi.

Wife of Joby Strother, mother of Lucius and Simon (I) Strother, grandmother of Simon Strother (II). Slave then servant at the Sartoris Place.

Loosh. Son of Joby Strother, brother of Simon Strother (I), husband of Philadelphy Strother. Slave, then servant at the Sartoris Place. His head resembled a cannon ball. In 1863, alerted a Federate troop to the arrival of John Sartoris at the Sartoris Place, as well as to the family silver buried in the garden, allowing him and his wife to pursue the promise of freedom. Returned to the Sartoris Place some time after the end of the war.

Ringo. Born September 1949. Son of Simon Strother (I). Slave, then servant at the Sartoris place. Born in the same month as Bayard Sartoris (II), fed at the same breast, (…) slept together and eaten together for so long ” that he too called Rosa Millard granny. And together they shot dead with the family musket the best horse of a Federate troop that passed the Sartoris Place in the Summer of 1862. Although he was always a little bit smarter than Bayard, that was never an issue.

After another troop had burned down the Sartoris place, confiscated their two mules and taken the family silver, he, Bayard Sartoris and Joby Strother accompanied Rosa Millard to Alabama in June 1863 where they obtained a requisition order from General Andrew Jackason Smith for 110 mules, 110 negroes, ten chests and provisions. During the following year, until October 1864, he scouted out Federate army regiments and tailor-forged additional requisition orders, with which they conned the regiments to obtain 148 more mules. At the same time, he helped Rosa Millard with the meticulously controlled distribution of the proceeds to members of the local church. After her betrayal by Ab Snopes and murder by Grumby in December 1864, he, Bayard Sartoris and (initially) Theophilus McCaslin pursued Grumby’s group of bandits for over two months. In late February 1865, they were confronted by the bandits, who handed over Grumby with a pistol to settle the matter. After Bayard Sartoris shot him dead, they took his body back to the abandoned cotton compress where he had killed Rosa Millard, nailing it to the door, and his hand to her grave in Jefferson.

Wife of Lucius Strother. Slave at the Sartoris place. Followed her husband to pursue the promise of freedom in 1863, even though she admitted she knew they would be worse off.

Son of Joby and Louvinia Strother, brother of Lucius Strother, father of Marengo Strother. Slave at the Sartoris place. Succeeded his father as body servant of John Sartoris (I), accompanying him into the civil war. Stayed behind in Tennessee when John Sartoris was deposed by his own regiment and temporarily returned to Mississippi, but they were later rejoined and returned together at the end of the war.

Born 1859–1860, died June 1920, Jefferson. Son of Simon (I) or Lucius Strother. Wife of Euphrony Strother, father of Elnora and Caspey. Driver and servant at the Sartoris Place. Deacon in the local baptist church. Lost 67.40 dollar he had been entrusted as treasurer for the to be established second baptist church, in all likelihood spent on Meloney, in whose house he was found with a smashed-in head.

Cavalry leader of General Lee, rode with Bayard Sartoris (I) in Virginia.

Lived with Turpin about half an hour’s ride outside Frenchman’s bend. Friend of Byron Snopes, with marriage at least at one point a possibility.

Grandfather of VK Suratt. His leg was amputated by Lucius (I) Peabody while he laid back on the kitchen table with a demijohn in his hand and a mattress and a cheer acrost his laigs and fo’ men a-holdin’ him down, and him cussin’ and singin’ so scandalous the women-folks and the chillen went down to the pasture behind the barn and waited.

Grandson of Mr Suratt. In 1919, worked as a sewing machine agent. Knew nearly every soul in the county. Offered to drive Bayard Sartoris (III) home after his attempt to ride a wild stallion ended in a crash and unconsciousness — a ride that turned into a wild drinking bout. By 1927 was selling talking machines.

Clytie. Born 1834, Sutpen’s Hundred, died December 1909, Sutpen’s Hundred. Daughter of Thomas Sutpen and an unnamed slave. In her childhood, slept in the same room as her younger half-sister Judith, sleeping on a pallet, although Judith would often come down and she at least on one occasion slept with Judith in the bed.

Had never travelled farther than Jefferson until in December 1871 she travelled to New Orleans to collect Charles (II) Etienne Saint-Valery Bon after the disappearance of his mother. After Judith’s death in 1884, used the next twelve years to raise Charles (II)’s son Jim Bond and scrimped and saved the money to pay off the second part of Judith’s debt to Jason (II) Lycurgus Compson for Charles (I)’s headstone, and when he tried to refuse it, she set the rusty can full of nickels and dimes and frayed paper money on the desk and walked out of the office without a word.

From late 1905 looked after Henry who had returned to Sutpen’s Hundred. Unsuccessfully tried to prevent Rosa Coldfield from discovering his presence in September 1909. In December, set fire to the main house after Rosa had come with an ambulance to pick up Henry, fearing he might be arrested for Charles (I)’s murder. The fire killed both Henry and herself.

Born 9 October 1817, Tennessee, died 23 January 1863, Sutpen’s Hundred. Daughter of Goodhue and Mrs Coldfield, wife of Thomas Sutpen, mother of Henry and Ellen Sutpen.

Her family moved to Jefferson in 1828. Married Thomas Sutpen in June 1838, swayed, according to her sister Rosa Coldfield, by just his face, because she was a blind romantic fool who had only youth and inexperience to excuse her even if that. Gave birth without gentleness to their son Henry in 1839 and their daughter Judith in 1841.

If she had had the fortitude to bear sorrow and trouble, might have risen to actual stardom in the role of the matriarch arbitrating from the fireside corner of a crone the pride and destiny of her family.

Over the course of 1860, engineered an undefined and never-spoken engagement between Julia and Charles (I) Bon, unaware that he was her half-brother. Took to bed on Christmas day and remained there after the engagement was forbidden by her husband and Henry repudiated his birthright. Died two years later. First person to be buried in the graveyard of Sutpen’s Hundred.

Born Haiti, died 1861–2, New Orleans. Only child of a Haitian sugar planter of French descent and a mixed race mother who was said to be Spanish. Married Thomas Sutpen in 1827, after he had broken a siege by slaves of the plantation house. Gave birth to their son Charles in 1831, whereupon he discovered that she had negro blood and divorced her, leaving her with the entirety of their possessions. Moved with her son to New Orleans, enlisting a lawyer to administer her wealth and act as a steward for her son, hoping to groom him into a tool of revenge against Thomas Sutpen, without knowing exactly how. Disappeared in 1861 or early 1862, possibly murdered by the lawyer who had fled with her remaining wealth.

Born 1839, Sutpen’s Hundred, died December 1909, Sutpen’s Hundred. Son of Thomas and Ellen Sutpen. Had with his sister Judith a relationship closer than the traditional loyalty of brother and sister even; a curious relationship: something of that fierce impersonal rivalry between two cadets in a crack regiment who eat from the same dish and sleep under the same blanket and chance the same destruction and who would risk death for one another not for the other’s sake but for the sake of the unbroken front of the regiment itself.

In his youth, his entire cosmopolitan experience consisted probably of one or two trips to Memphis with his father to buy live stock or slaves, of sojourns at other houses, plantations, almost interchangeable with his own, where he followed the same routine which he did at home — the same hunting and cockfighting, the same amateur racing of horses on crude homemade tracks, horses sound enough in blood and lineage yet not bred to race and perhaps not even thirty minutes out of the shafts of a trap or perhaps even a carriage; the same square dancing with identical and also interchangeable provincial virgins, to music exactly like that at home, the same champagne, the best doubtless yet crudely dispensed out of the burlesqued pantomime elegance of negro butlers who (and likewise the drinkers who gulped it down like neat whiskey between flowery and unsubtle toasts) would have treated lemonade the same way.

In 1859, Started attending the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Fell under the spell of Charles (I) Bon, imitating his dress and speech and switching to law mid-term. Invited Charles home to Sutpen’s Hundred that Christmas and introduced him to his sister Judith, not knowing that he was their half-brother. Repudiated his birthright when on Christmas eve 1860, their father Thomas Sutpen forbade an engagement between Charles and Judith, revealing Charles’s identity. With Charles in tow, rode through the bright cold of that Christmas day to the River, from where they took the steamboat to New Orleans. Confronted Charles, who refused to renounce the engagement until their father confronted himself.

In the spring of 1861 they returned north, into Mississippi, secretely enrolled as privates in the University Grays Company of the 11th Mississippi Infantry and hid, and only joined the company after it departed in June. In April 1862, either he or Charles was shot through the shoulder during the battle of Shiloh at Pittsburg Landing, carried to safety by the other on his shoulders, and recovered in a private house in Corinth, apparently for the sole purpose of being watched for two years more. Otherwise, the war failed to settle the matter by killing either of them.

Then finally, in March 1865, while retreating through Carolina, Charles decided to write to Judith, which he grudgingly accepted. He was then told by his father that Charles was of mixed race descent, instilling him with renewed rejection. He still refused to stop Charles with force, until finally on 3 May 1865, upon their return from the war, he shot Charles dead at the gates of Sutpen’s Hundred.

In late 1905 returned to Sutpen’s Hundred to die. Hid there, looked after by his half-sister Clytemnestra, until in December 1909 he died in the fire started by Clytemnestra when Rosa Coldfield came to pick him up with an ambulance.

Born 3 October 1841, Sutpen’s Hundred, died 12 February 1884, Sutpen’s Hundred. Daughter of Thomas and Ellen Coldfield Sutpen. In her childhood, slept in the same room as her elder half-sister Clytemnestra, often coming down to her pallet, and at least on one occasion letting her sleep in her bed. Had with her brother Henry a relationship closer than the traditional loyalty of brother and sister even; a curious relationship: something of that fierce impersonal rivalry between two cadets in a crack regiment who eat from the same dish and sleep under the same blanket and chance the same destruction and who would risk death for one another not for the other’s sake but for the sake of the unbroken front of the regiment itself.

At Christmas 1859, was introduced to her brother’s friend Charles (I) Bon, unaware that he was their half-brother from her father’s first marriage. Over the course of the following year, entered into an undefined and never-spoken engagement with Charles, engineered by her mother. This engagement was forbidden the following Christmas Eve by their father Thomas Sutpen, who had traveled to New Orleans and confirmed his identity.

Save for a single letter in March 1865, had no more contact with Charles as he and Henry left to fight in the Civil War and Henry killed Charles upon their return in May 1865.

After her father’s death in August 1869, buried him in the graveyard of Sutpen’s Hundred. Continued his crossroads store until, in 1870, she managed to sell it with the help of Jason Lycurgus Compson (II), using the proceeds to buy a headstone for Charles. In December 1871, sent her half-sister Clytemnestra to New Orleans to fetch Charles’s son Charles (II) Etienne Saint-Valery Bon, and made a down payment of 100 dollar to Jason (II) Lycurgus Compson for a future headstone for him.

In January 1884 took Charles (II) into the main house at Sutpen’s Hundred to nurse his Yellow Fewer. Contracted the disease herself and died before him.

Suffered the Indignities and Travails of this World for 42 Years, 4 Months, 9 Days.

Fourth person to be buried in the graveyard of Sutpen’s Hundred. Whoever buried her must have been afraid that the other dead would contract the disease from her, since her grave was at the opposite side of the enclosure, as far from the other four as the enclosure would permit. Her headstone was arranged for by her aunt Rosa Coldfield.

Born 1807, West Virginia mountains, died 12 August 1869, Sutpen’s Hundred. Husband first of Eulalia and later of Ellen Coldfield. Father of Charles Bon (with Eulalia), Clytemnestra (with an unnamed slave), Henry and Judith (with Ellen) and an unnamed girl (with Milly Jones).

Born into a large Methodist family of poor white Scotch-English stock. His mother was a mountain woman, a Scottish woman who .. never did quite learn to speak English.

In 1817, at the age of ten, over the course of perhaps a year, moved with his family down into Tidewater Virginia. Learned the difference not only between white men and black ones, but he was learning that there was a difference between white men and white men not to be measured by lifting anvils or gouging eyes or how much whiskey you could drink then get up and walk out of the room.

At thirteen or fourteen, sent by his father to a one-room country school for about three months one winter, in a room full of children three or four years younger than he and three or four years further advanced. Had not learned to read his own name at the end of the Winter.

Ran away from home in 1820, at fourteen, after being told by a slave to only approach the house of a plantation owner at the back entrance, leaving him unable to fulfill his errant. This set in motion a train of thought culminating in his becoming aware of and thereby losing his innocence, and the realisation that to combat all the human puny mortals under the sun that might lie in hammocks all afternoon with their shoes off, you got to have land and niggers and a fine house to combat them with. Set about for the rest of his life to fulfil this design.

Subsequently embarked as a sailor to the West Indies, to which he had learned in school poor men went in ships and became rich, it didn’t matter how, so long as that man was clever and courageous. In the course of the following six years, settled on Haiti, where high mortality was concomitant with the money and the sheen on the dollars was not from gold but from blood, and where he became overseer or foreman or something to a French sugar planter and learned Patois and French.

In 1826 or 1827, broke an eight-day siege of the plantation house by the plantation’s slaves when the house ran out of water on the eighth night, but was severely injured in the process. Not able to bear sugar since due to the rank sweet rich smell of the burning fields. Married the planter’s daughter Eulalia in 1827, after he had recovered. A virgin until that time. Renounced her and their son, when, upon his birth in 1831, he found out that she had negro blood. Nonetheless chose both a first and a last name for him: Charles Bon.

Seeking some place to hide himself, came to Jefferson on a Sunday in June of 1833, bringing with him twenty to thirty male Caribbean slaves and a captive Parisian architect. Sought the guarantee of reputable men to barricade him from the other and later strangers who might come seeking him in turn, and Jefferson gave him that. In July 1833 contributed the labour of his slaves to the construction of Jefferson’s improvised first courthouse.

Initially penniless, obtained money from an unknown source and took land from the Chickasaw nobody knows how, establishing the plantation of Sutpen’s Hundred. Jason Lycurgus Compson (II) lent him the seeds with which he started his plantation, and he became the nearest thing to a friend he ever had in Yoknapatawpha County and this friendship may have helped him to gain a foothold.

Spent the first two years building a big house following the design of his architect. In the Summer of 1834, when they had finished all the brick and had the foundations laid and most of the big timbers cut and trimmed, the architect made one unsuccessful attempt to escape into the river bottom, disappearing in broad daylight. Led a search party in his pursuit that consisted of his slaves, dogs and a number of neighbours including Jason (II) Lycurgus Compson. Ran down the architect in the late afternoon of the third day, more than thirteen miles from the house.

Beginning in 1834, also let the architect oversee the construction of Jefferson’s town square, new courthouse and refurbished jail. Became father of Clytemnestra with a slave in 1834. In 1835, his residence was completed save for the windowglass and the ironware which they could not make by hand, and he paid some compensation to the architect and let him leave.

Then he needed respectability, the shield of a virtuous woman, to make his position impregnable even against the men who had given him protection, and it was Goodhue Coldfield who gave him that. Married his daughter Ellen Coldfield in June 1838. She came not from one of the local ducal houses but from the lesser baronage whose principality was so far decayed that there would be no risk of his wife bringing him for dowry delusions of grandeur before he should be equipped for it yet not so far decayed but that she might keep them both from getting lost among the new knives and forks and spoons that he had bought Became father of a son Henry with her in 1839 and of a daughter Judith in 1841.

Still invited parties of men for hunting, playing cards, drinking and organised fights between his slaves, in which he himself would occasionally participate at the end of an evening.

By 1848, had got his plantation to running smoothly and had employed as his overseer the son of the same sheriff who had arrested him on the day of his betrothal. By the time of the Civil War, had become the biggest single landowner and cotton-planter in the county, through a singleminded unflagging effort and utter disregard of for his actions which the town could see might look and how the indicated one’s which the town could not see must appear to it. He was not liked (which he evidently did not want anyway) but feared, which seemed to amuse, if not actually please, him.

At Christmas 1859, his son Henry brought home Charles, whom he had become friends with at university, and introduced Judith to Charles, unaware that he was their half-brother. As they entered into an undefined and never-spoken engagement engineered by their mother, he went to New Orleans in June to confirm Charles’s identity. At Christmas, he confronted Henry about Charles and forbade the engagement, prompting his son to refuse to believe him and relinquish his birth-right.

In the spring of 1861, after the outbreak of the Civil War, departed with the 23rd Mississippi Infantry. Major and second-in-command in John (I) Sartoris’s regiment, who thoroughly disliked him, in James Longstreet’s corps. Following the second battle of Manassas, the regiment elected him as their new leader, promoting him to the rank of Colonel and demoting Sartoris.

In the summer of 1863, his regiment was in Virginia and he got word from Judith of the death of Ellen. He ordered a pair of tombstones from Italy, the best, the finest to be had — his wife’s complete and his with the date left blank: and this while for all he could know, before his order could be filled or even received he might be already under ground and his grave marked (if at all) by a shattered musket thrust into the earth, or lacking that he might be a second lieutenant or even a private yet he not only ordered the stones and managed to pay for them, but stranger still he managed to get them past a seacoast so closely blockaded that the incoming runners refused any cargo except ammunition and for the next year the stones were to be a part of the regiment, to follow it into Pennsylvania and be present at Gettysburg, moving behind the regiment in a wagon driven by his body servant through swamp and plain and mountain pass, the regiment moving no faster than the wagon could, with starved gaut men and gaunt spent horses knee deep in icy mud or snow, sweating and cursing it through bog and morass like a piece of artillery, speaking of the two stones as ‘Colonel’ and ‘Mrs Colonel’; then through the Cumberland Gap and down through the Tennessee mountains, travelling at night to dodge Yankee patrols, and into Mississippi in the late fall of ‘64, to Sutpen’s Hundred, where he put one of the stones over his wife’s grave and set the other upright in the hall of the house and drank the parched corn coffee and ate the hoe cake which Judith and Clytie prepared for him and kissed Judith on the forehead and said ‘Well, Clytie’ and returned to the war, all in twenty-four hours.

In March 1865, while retreating through Carolina, confronted Henry again, who had then grudgingly accepted that Charles continued the engagement with Judith. Unable to dissuade Henry, revealed to him that Charles was of mixed race descent, which succeeded in leading Henry to shoot Charles dead upon their return from the war.

Returned home in January 1866, finding Sutpen’s Hundred destroyed. In March, refused to join Sartoris’s group of nightriders which aimed to thwart the organisation of the black vote. In April, became engaged with Ellen’s sister Rosa Coldfield, who had come to Sutpen’s Hundred the previous year, but in June she broke off the engagement and moved back to Jefferson after he proposed that they conceive a child and only marry if it turned out to be a boy.

Attempted to rebuild Sutpen’s Hundred without help from anyone but had to relinquish most of it, as he realised that what he had left of it would never support him and his family and so running his little crossroads store with a stock of plowshares and hame strings and calico and kerosene and cheap beads and ribbons and a clientele of freed niggers and white trash.

In 1867 started a relationship with Milly Jones, the fourteen-year-old granddaughter of his associate Wash Jones. On 12 August 1869, she gave birth to an unnamed girl, whereupon Wash Jones killed him with a scythe. Buried by his daughter Judith in the graveyard of Sutpen’s Hundred.

Proud man, but not a gentleman: didn’t want to be one, or even be taken for one. It was said that he not only went out to meet his troubles, he sometimes went out and manufactured them.

Born 12 August 1869, Sutpen’s Hundred, died 12 August 1869, Sutpen’s Hundred. Illegitimate daughter of Thomas Sutpen and Milly Jones. Killed, along with her parents, on the day of her birth, by her great-grandfather Wash Jones.