Show CHAMPION OF THE WORLD CHAPTER I. I 4 I lel Fighting That the Jeffries Family Fam Fam- ily ily ib Did Before My Time er r at the start I want to say that Ian i American all tho the way through s born i in America and so were all allY my Y forefathers for two full cen cen- s ahead of mei me ing an American I dont don't care a i ian for titles or heraldry A man is what he makes makE's of himself and I tr I ng ing else counts That's why Ive I've Iver Brer r given out before a few private A k w ils of the Jeffries family history Im I'm going to set down here Dere ye always s been a great book read read- i When I was a youn youngster ster I used to toa toa toa Ie a candle under my bed in in my own owna n a and light it as fis soon as I was left Je Jeand e and melt the bottom end and andI jit tit it on my bed bedpost ost Then Id I'd lie lieI I ed reading until the birds began I ing g in the- the earl early mornin morning In those II 11 never thought t of writing a book Jf For that reason I never made IJ ota oth of the things Ive I've read about Jeffries family in my fathers father's old oldIs tS Is or of the stories Ive I've heard him fiB ut the most interesting things I Ji k still stick in my memory e original stock of the tho Jeffries Sl was Scandinavian or Norse Vik- Vik S t I vr ics MV OF CO has h. been hoon traced back hook to No Norin North Nor Nor- I in th tho th thear year ear or just about S In i 1066 1060 my ancestors went to toon I na l on a fighting trip with ViI Wil- fc e Conqueror The family names name 13 s relied according to the tho owners owner's Jin In in those days At first it wasI was I ius then Godfrey and Later it went through new gs s. s Jefferey I Jeffreys J Jeffray effray J Jeffris and J Jef Jef- ef- ef I Ith a few other otner variations fere ere is is a tradition that a certain rEy fought in the crusades and 21 Slaved saved the life of Richard Coeur de when hen he was attacked by a bear in IUS Js near the city of Jaffa killing be e far r with his sword I never I much inch about bear hunting in Pale Pal Pal- t l e but th there must have been bears n U early earY dt days s 's or where did the theme theome Some ome me from that bothered the 1 pet Elijah 1 And if there was a 3 l in that country you vou vou could depend anybody an body connected with the Jef Jef- family to find it OId Goeffrey may mayor or may not E been an ancestor of mine and Ill I'll ry to fill these pages with rec rec- extending back a thousand years tart rt with the the first of my family iame aIlle to America He was Robert es es named after some Norman Ii h ancestor away back in the year I. I hose namo was S 'S spelled Rolf olf r roy y This Robert J Jeffries was Tin lU in Wiltshire England in in 1656 ther ather was John Jeffries of Wilt- Wilt L LL land ng-land a country gentleman proprietor whose family its descent directly back to the century and a cousin of Judge e or Jeffereys or Jef Jef- I I aron aron of Wem Wern chief justice of LI n nd under King King- Charles II ir and andI I I chancellor under James II who the tower of London in 1689 n as s a terror and took delight in Itin inning ining people to death eath or torture t ches thes of a dozen at a time ert rt Jeffries came to America in in 1 par 1681 and settled at Uplands li er ster Pa where he died in in 1739 a large family Several of his 2 afterward moved to Virginia ahey became large largo plantation I j v AJ A GRA c ls qs a aid i d slave holders and took h aristocratic pleasures of the tho hey They fought bravely through I vo ution and the war of 1812 and things were dull did a little In fighting and a lot of hunting in lids Ids been the pride of the that no Jeffries has hast hasi t ee i known to break his word My MyS S William Jeffries d a his whole whole fortune to save save his i He was a planter living on a fat plantation at the head of the tho doah doab valley valy Ho lie had several v d broad acres of the finest land inia and thirty slaves lived in m iiii ers l HP lip wa wa not of a s aborting orting r lf but hut most of the young arou id him were welO youn young bloods who considered it rather rathe a point of pride to gamble large sumon sums sum on horse races One of these cavaliers cavalier fiot got heavily into debt and asked Wi Winn Wilham Wil- Wil ham OI nn f 1 Je Jeffries nes t to go his surety for 90 which was an enormous sum i in inose those ose days My great grandfather gave his IS word to do so The young Virginian Virginia could d not pay and my ancestor felt fel himself bound in honor to make th the amount good although h he could easil easily ha have e slipped out of it With the resolution reso reso- lotion lution of an old Roman he sold his grea great pl plantation put ut his slaves up at auction paid the other mans man's debt and started life over o a again am His wife broken heart heart- hearted ed at the disaster and crushed at pan part art arting ing with the old slaves that had long iong Ion been in the family died e All e All is lost save honor said my great-grandfather great grimly He got a bi big wagon and six horses and with little else but his rifle trekked out into what wha was then the wi wilderness with his motherless moth moth- erless children After terrible hardships hardships hard hard- ships he settled in Fairfield county Ohio It was a wild country then H lIe cleared awa away the virgin forest to make mak his farm He e married again after i a time and reared many ch children dren ou out there on the frontier His eldest son who had acquired a a. little education i iVirginia in Virginia in the prosperous days was wa regarded with awe lwe we by oy the frontiers frontiers- men He lIe could kee keep books and it was wa told as a sort of a legend around that tha country that he could write a whole volume without making a single blot My own grandfather James Jeffries for whom I was named named was one of th the children who made the the journey from Virginia in the tho six horse pram prairie schooner He was born across acosS tn the street from old Culpeper courthouse a at Culpeper Va and was S 8 years old when the family went to Ohio He lIe wasn't a scholar like his elder brother but even among the husky border men of his day he was renowned for his prodigious strength When he ie e was 6 years old oid he could drive a horse four-horse team When he grew up he was 6 feet 2 inches t tall tal talland ll lland and weighed pounds and no one in all that country could equal his f feats eats of ot lifting He lIe was noted too for for the the fact that he never drank swore or lied in his life He to was wasi iii ir great demand for setting the heavy fogs logs when the tho settlers met to build buna cabins for each other in in the friendly way of that day His llis favorite sport was wrestling and no man in in his part of the country could throw him He champion lathey la- la S the acknowledged was they says that his fists were much bigger big big- ger per than mine My grandfather stayed on his fathers fathers father's fathers father's fath he ers er's farm until he was 24 when married Mary tho daughter of another frontier farm farmer r a and d set up pi S I a home of his own In their log chil children sixteen feet square their fourteen dren then were born The fourth son received received re reo the highly romantic name Alexis Cehon Jeffries This was my father He grew big and powerful like tik all all' the theother other men of the Jeffries e family When my father married he and his wife went twenty miles away from theold the theold old folks to a home of their own on 01 ona ona a half cleared farm of acres no not far from Carroll 0 O. There they built builta a log o cabin of two stories My father was a devout churchgoer for many years but finally turned evan evangelist evangelist evan gelist geist and preached in In the open air declaring that churches were a useless expense and that the money spent on them should be devoted to the poor in inI in in- stead I was born in in- inthe the old log log- cabin on 01 the Ohio farm like my brothers and sisters So I suppose i if I hadn't taken S up fighting as a profession I might have have had a good chance to become president president presIdent dent of the United States as Abe Lincoln Lin coIn coln James Garfield and other log cabin men On my mothers mother's side I descend from the earliest Holland Dutch settlers inthis in inthis inthis this country My mothers mother's home was in in Boyertown Pa and her name was Rebecca Re Be- becca Boyer Her father was Christopher Boyer and he was a strapping big big- fellow too He was a natural fighter and they say that when he died over fifty years ago he le carried the scars of many a hard ring battle fought for the fun of itlie it lie He le was a member of the militia His home lome was at the foot of the Blue moun moun- ains in in the Schuylkill valley Ho Housed Housed Housed used to attend all the annual musters in n Schuylkill and Berks counties The musters were great occasions Crowds came in from the country all around and everybody celebrated One of the usual events was a fight for the local championship Sometimes the fighters were WE're just surrounded by a ring ring- of men Sometimes a regular rope ring was erected and they fought on the turf in old London prize r ring ng- ng style My grandfather grand grand- father ather fought often and alid if he was was ever Ive I've heard of it beaten eaten never Hes He's still remembered by old timers in Penn Penn- sylvania S This ancestor of mine had a lot of Dutch obstinacy and that that's s 's a good trait traitor for or a fighter He was fond of getting into an argument ar ar- and he had a peculiar system In n the first lace he presented his side very clearly and mud carefully If the other man man contradicted him once once hed he'd take it quietly and repeat his argument But if f he was contradicted the second time ho he 10 let his fist fly without another word wen I As there here were ere few who could stand tand up against him he always won his point i If a man cant can't see the tho sense of a alam plain lam argument he used to say theres there's no use uso in wasting words on him im I haven't any doubt douM that this obstinacy na acy nacy y runs in m ig the family and I have haye my share hare of it It is a handy thing thing- to have ia e in m a long battle So I suppose fighting is in my blood and nd I come conic by the fighting instinct nat nat- rally At any rate having a few fighting ancestors has always furnished me with a good argument and a good excuse at home S CHAPTER II I Make Maka a Good Start When I was born In the old log cab n nat at t Carroll O. O on the of April 1875 1815 my fighting weight was just fourteen pounds My parents were farming people peo- peo pie le and they never suspected at the time that lat they were bringing up a future world champion of the ring During the first year of my existence I developed develop d a habit of swinging my fists and nd all alt my farmer relatives took this as asgood asa asa a good sign and predicted that Id I'd be a wonder with a scythe when I grew glow up My y father who had a leaning toward re region religion religion re- re ligion gion argued that It was more the moon motion motion mo mo- tion on of pounding a pulpit and that the early arly samples of my lung power Indicated a brilliant future as an exhorter My mother always hoped that Id I'd be a good preacher readier like my father To develop me gradually they started by y making a strong healthy farmer boy of f me father always contending that thatto to o round out a natural life a man should worl ork hard until 40 years of age and after that tat should turn to the cultivation ot of t In the spirit On this theory he lie has never given up hope for me In spite of my ring ca ca- ca- ca reer Ive I've always been grateful for tho the right kind of a start for If Id I'd been brought up In a city like some boys with no healthy and natural out of door life Ilfe I might not have haye been worth much as a fighter Im I'm afraid that my parents appreciate this a little less than I do On the night when I beat Tom Sharkey key In San Francisco Fran Fran- olsen cisco a reporter for a Los Angeles paper hired a horse and galloped out to our ranch It was after midnight when he reached the house Ringing the bell he aroused my mother who went to a window window win win- dow to see what all the racket was vas about Very much excited the reporter told of m my victory Well s said my mother I suppose my Jim will keep pm on fighting ini until he ml is beaten but hes he's a II good boy and I know by that time hell he'll find a better sion zion It was In 1881 1581 that my father took his family to California where we settled down on a ranch Just outside the city of Los Angeles Father built bunt a fine room fourteen-room house and laid out ninety ninety- I S ji j. j S gfa j y reEN ci MIL MILA tt tS A P S seven acres of fruit trees Our place was ivaS wasat wasat at Arroyo Se SeCco Sedco co canyon Arroyo Secco means dry river Old Spanish names are used all through southern California even now that the last traces of the old Spanish settlements are disappearing disappearing- This was a grand home for us There I were my two older sisters and one younger Lizzie Alameda and Little and my brothers Cal JoTin Jonn Tom Tm and Charlie afterward known as Jack We all lived ived in the big house and great times S we used to have I We Ve all grew up out of door people people- that was one thing my father insisted upon all the time He had learning I enough for the whole family and he didn't S think schooling was the most Important S thing hing in the world although It is a good goodS S help for any boy lie Ste used to say that I to o be happy a fellow must have perfect health He was always tickled when we went out hunting and came bac with S some quail or small game When I was wasa wasL a little fellow he supplied me with fishing L tackle ackle and as soon as I was big enough to o carry a gun he kept me in ammu ammu- I dont don't think any of us stunted our growth working on the ranch When father ather went away to town In the morning hed he'd e d send me out to do some work In the field eld After a little tittle while th the sun would get ret up and the sand would bb bi pretty hot Then Id I'd go back to the house and tell mother It was too hot to work Id I'd explain explain ex- ex plain lain that the sand was too hot to stand In n barefooted and I didn't want to wear my shoes Then Id I'd get out m my shotgun and ana stuff a lot of cartridges Into my pockets and start tart for a hunt Id I'd walk fifteen or twenty wenty miles mlles barefooted through sand and gravel ravel as hot as the top of ot a boiler boller and over ver rocks and brush and come home with a few tew quail or some nice fat tat doves Father rather would be at home Hed He'd look at me severely and say Jim I suppose you finished your work this his morning No sir It got too hot Was Vas it too hot to go hunting No sir not not In the shade hum A hed he'd say And did you get anything Then Id I'd go out to the kitchen and bring ring In the game Hed He'd frown a a. little to o show he hadn't forgotten telling me to work worl In the field but then hed he'd smile for or he was a man mn very fond of game and he e couldn't resist the charm of a brace of f plump quail At the worst I could always depend upon pon my mother She could never see anything wrong In what her boys did And that makes me think that there was a preacher named Cobb living near neal us s. s I suppose he was a good enough sort ort of a man In his own way but hut he lie surely did have it in for tor me If It hed he'd been jeen an out of door man too and had taken aken a shotgun and gone out for a hunt hUlt with u us boys now and d then or had apo ri edu ed hall ball with us lI like so some preachers cl e Ive I've ve seen we would have had more respect re- re for him But instead of hobnob- hobnob bin bunz |