Thaney & Betsy Houston

I have a better picture of Betsy and Thaney. I also found out a few more stories about Thaney.

Cousin Hazel said that "Uncle Thaney" was a very small fellow. "Aunt Betz" was big and dark. Sometimes he would fall out of the bed. He would get up and say, "well why did you let that happen?" Sometimes they would sit in the rocking chair together and she would rock him back to sleep.

Uncle Thaney carried the mail.

Once Devil John went to see Betsy's mother, Annie. Annie Wright was married to Fightin' Fred Fleming. Annie was his aunt, a sister to Devil John's father, Joel Ellis Wright. John had a big horse and wanted it to be fed. Thaney asked him how it should be fed. John said to feed the horse high. Thaney thought John might really mean that he wanted the horse to be fed a lot, but he asked John if he should put the feed in the tree so the horse could get high feed. John, not wanting to correct himself, said "yes, put the feed in the tree." Thaney did, and when reporting to John he said "I fed that horse and put that feed corn so high in the tree that I doubt he can even reach it, but it's certainly high." He was always pulling pranks.

Thaney would tell them not to marry too close in the family. He told them back off was fine, but if you married too close, you could tell it because the children would have an extra eye at the end of their noses.