McLEAN COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY NEWS
By Euleen Rickard
My daughter Caryl Wilson, who lives in St. Louis sent an article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch entitled “Here’s a town that hasn’t lost its marbles” by Sharyn Kuneman. The article was dated January 18, 2004 and the town was Tompkinsville, Kentucky.
Historians know Tompkinsville for the Old Mulkey Meeting House, built in 1804 and the grave of Daniel Boone’s sister but they were barely mentioned in the article, the game of marbles called Rolley Hole was the big subject. Rolley Hole marbles has been played through many generations in Tompkinsville and the surrounding small towns of that area. The writer wrote “It is a combination of golf, pool and everything” and “it is played on a dirt area that measures 40 feet in length and 20 feet in width.” The players use “locally crafted flint marbles as commercially produced glass varieties would be shattered by the powerful hits.”
This is not the old childhood game of marbles that I remember the boys playing in the yard of my home place and on the playground of Island School. That game was played with marbles called “cat’s eyes”, “steelies” “agates” and “drats.” The cat’s eyes were made of glass with colored swirls, steelies were steel ball bearings and “drats” were made of clay and had little value. The agates were colorful marble, highly prized and used as “taws” or “shooters.”
To play the game a circle about five feet in diameter was drawn in the dirt, then the players decided how many marbles they would play, say five players would agree on playing five marbles of the same value, twenty-five marbles total. Then the twenty-five marbles were clustered in the middle of the circle. To decide who played first, a line was drawn in the dirt and players lagged their shooting marble toward the line. The one nearest the line played first, then the second closest and so on. The idea was to shoot the marbles out of the ring while keeping the taw or shooter inside. When the taw hit right, a marble or marbles were knocked outside the ring and the taw remained inside. The player continued to play as long as he shot marbles outside the line while keeping his taw inside. If he failed the next player continued the game. A very good player could shoot the entire cluster out of the ring, while making his taw stay inside, taking all the marbles.
The rules varied and were sometimes made up on the spot. Most times the players agreed in advance if the game was to be played “fair” or “for keeps.” In “playing fair” all marbles were returned to the owners at the end of the game but playing “keeps” the winner took all. Most times if the rules were not agreed on the loser would be very unhappy and the saying “Losers, weepers, Winners, keepers” was often heard along with crying, especially if an older boy had taken advantage of a younger boy.
Long after my brother grew up my mother kept his marbles in a blue Mason jar and when I married my husband had a jar of marbles that his mother had kept. The game was not as popular when my son was growing up but he played and today his marbles are in a jar. Those marbles of yesteryears are no longer used in games but are treasures to be admired.
Keith Lawrence recently wrote of the marble tournaments of the 1920s and 1930s telling of “Tommy Raley, a 13 year old boy from Haweville who was runner-up in the National tournament in 1925.” Then in “1926 Willis “Fatty” Harper of Bevier in Muhlenberg County won the national tournament and in 1931 John Jeffries, a 12year old of Greenville beat 13-year old Harley Corum for the title in 1931.” There was great fan-fare for those young players when they returned to their hometowns and in that day and time according to Lawrence “the sports pages featured news of marble tournaments along with baseball coverage.”
In the 1930s Arville Arnold was the best player in Island. He went to the state tournament and as I remember won it but I have been unable to find a newspaper account of that tournament. If anyone has information on Arville Arnold and the Kentucky tournament that he won, please sent it to the museum