Remembering Markham Hill, by Hugh Kincaid
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Community Radio show aired on KPSQ 97.3 FM: |
My earliest memories of Markham Hill were really those of my grandparents, Emory and Neita Gose. They lived in Texas but came to Fayetteville with their families in the summers to get away from the Texas heat. Their sons (my uncles), Jim and Emory Gose, Jr., attended summer camp on Markham Hill, and my grandparents rented rooms in the Big House and slept outside on the large porches.
I became friends with Joy Markham during my college years. I'd been teaching horseback riding in a boys' camp in Wisconsin in the summers, and she asked me to help with riding classes for youngsters. She rode (sidesaddle, as I recall) well into her 80's when she suffered a debilitating fall from her horse. The wooded trails wound all over Markham Hill and were incredibly beautiful. I remember long fireside chats with Joy on winter afternoons. I remember riding horseback, even in snow, in a winter wonderland on those trails when I was blowing off steam during my law school days. By then all the horses were gone except for ones she kept for me to ride.
Hugh’s children Bill and Kathryn with Tippy
After graduation from law school, and a stint in JAG and the justice department, I came home to practice law and renewed my friendship with Joy. I had always dreamed of having a collie dog. Joy always had collies. Hers had a litter, and Joy gave me my first collie, a beautiful puppy we named Tippy. Joy maintained that Tippy was a descendant of the original Lassie, of movie fame. He was an extraordinary companion for my family.
When my children, Bill and Kathryn, became old enough to ride, I started them out bareback on a pony Joy had acquired after I returned to Fayetteville. I remember leading them along a trail that I had not been on before when we came across the ruins of the old swimming pool that had existed when my uncles were campers.
One last memory dates back to the filming of "The Blue and The Gray" , a movie made for television. My son, Bill, now an attorney in the UA's general council’s office, was a Confederate trooper in the Robert E. Lee surrender scene with his troops. The scene was filmed in Joy's pasture on top of Markham Hill.
Markham Hill in all its beauty is forever linked to our family and many happy memories.
