Parksley cowboys found fortune, fame

By 1872 the lure of the American West reached as far east as Accomack County. The call was answered in January of that year by three young men from Lee Mont who headed west to seek their fortune. "Crate" Justis was 24, his friend Oliver P. T. Ewell was 23, Oliver's brother Augustus D. F. Ewell, a doctor by trade, was 34. The Ewell brothers were from a family with a penchant for longer-than-usual names. Among the more distinguished relatives of O. P. T. Ewell and A. D. F. Ewell were ministers and doctors named O. B. B. Ewell, G. R. S. Ewell, and the popular Rev. J. E. T. Ewell. Even more distinguished was Crate's full name: Major Socrates Justis. The fact that he was known as "Crate" suggests that he might have been called So-crates, not Soc-ra-tes, as the ancient Greek philosopher's name is usually pronounced. The three undoubtedly left the Shore by boat, for the railroad had not yet come to the peninsula, and it took them four days to reach St. Louis. There they crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry, then headed 400 miles farther west and by the summer of that year had staked a claim seven miles north of Caldwell, Kan...read more