CIVIL WAR VET RESTS IN DEEP CALHOUN WOODS - Paulcer McCune's Legend Lives On

(05/13/2024)

Rebel soldier Paulcer McCune rests in deep woods on Husk Ridge

By Bob Weaver

Paulcer (Paulser) McCune's life and times was an oft-told tale in the Village of Hur, his Civil War adventures and his alleged AWOL from the Rebel army, returning to his homestead in Buckhorn Hollow down the valley from the Village of Hur.

Paulcer is a direct descendant of Calhoun original, "Ole Peter McCune."

The Rebs came after McCune, but hearing of their arrival fled his house across the Husk Ridge to hide out for about a year in a cave in a deep hollow off Rowels Run.

The peak above the Paulcer's Cave has long been known as Paulcer's Knob, one of the highest points in Calhoun County.

We returned to the McCune Cemetery this week, not the easiest walk from the Husk Ridge, to pay our respects. It is one of at least seven backwoods cemeteries on the Husk Ridge, a stretch of land which is uninhabited.

The cemetery is located on a high point above his former abode on Buckhorn, thick woods and no sight of human habitation. Amazingly someone has kept the small cemetery cleared, even placing flowers on the graves last Memorial Day.

A few years ago a government marker was obtained to mark his burial spot, with only one other grave having an official headstone.

Likely buried next to Paulcer (Paulser)could be his wives.
About a dozen flagstones mark the graves of the unknown

The other lone marker is for his son Gilbert Leadie McCune and wife Maud Wilson.

Also buried there, Willard McCune (who was killed in a saw mill accident) and his daughter, who was accidentally shot when a gun discharged, and another daughter that had died of typhoid fever.

Relative Bernard Wyatt recalls:

Willard McCune was the son of Leadie and Maude Wilson McCune He was 22 years old when he was killed on the saw mill. John Nutter was showing off how fast he could make the carriage on the saw mill go back and forth, when a 2x4 piece of lumber got caught and it knocked Willard into the saw mill.

Willard's two sisters are buried in the cemetery.

Leadie McCune had been out hunting and when he came in and broke his shot gun down but the bullet did not eject, so he left the gun broke down and hung it up. It was Willard's brother, Mallie, that got the gun down and pointed it out the door and closed the gun not realizing the shell had not been removed and the gun went off when he closed it.

One of Paulcer's sisters died of typhoid.

Paulcer McCune married Susan Weaver in Lewisburg about 1864 and Susan is probably the wife that is buried by Paulser and maybe Clarinda Kerns, his other wife could be buried elsewhere.

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