It's All in a Name

About 1915, Rev. Stephen Gardner took over the rectorship of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Washington, Beaufort County, NC.  A little later, one of his parishioners was sick and the Reverend set out to visit him. Gardner didn’t know exactly where the man lived, so he stopped a man who was walking alongside the road, and asked him.

 

Postcard, 1908
From East Carolina University's Digital Collections
http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/18

“Can you tell me,” he inquired, “where Mr. Alligood lives?”
“Which Alligood?” said the man, “There’s hundreds of ‘em around here.”

“Joe Alligood.”

“Which Joe Alligood? There’s dozens of them in this section.”

“The Joe Alligood with a wooden leg.”

“Which one—there’s two of them?”

Mr. Gardner finally described the man and learned where he lived.

[Taken from The State Magazine, March 28, 1942, page 3.]