572-577

Eagles and hawks soar aloft;
Sinking in the belly:
Good is the salamander,
Evil is the gruel.
As if in pairs,
As if threading their way,
Barn owls and night owls,
Red flesh,
Oppressing.

The Dragon descends into the mud.
The Knight advantageously uses his grip.

In this patriarchal it is usually much easier tracing a family history through the male line. One then has a common surname to guide by. My whole name is Robert Hardin Price. The name, Hardin, is my mother's maiden name and can be traced back to the Huguenots in Rouen, France when the name was Hardouin. My ancestors, Marc Hardouin and his wife Mary Hogue Hardouin fled persecution of when Louis XIV issued the Edit of Restoration on October 20, 1685 which revoked the Edict of Nantes which revoked to Protestant minority's right to worship. They settled in England or Wales where their named was Anglicized to Hardin.

578

Hard traveling;
Efforts injurious.

Soon after, they moved to the New World first settling in Canada but, because of the harsh winters, they moved to Prince William Co., Virginia. The progeny descending from this couple have been quite diverse ranging from Col. William Everett Hardin, who served in the American Revolution to the infamous John Wesley Hardin ''who was so mean he once shot a man just for snoring.'' One of the Colonel's sons, Swan Hardin, and his boys were having a feud with the Porter Family in Tennessee. Expecting an attack by the Porters, they decided to ''beat them to the punch'' and initiate the fighting themselves. They killed two of the Porters while fighting in Columbia, TN where Joseph B. Porter was the county clerk, his brother was the Sheriff, and another family member was the prosecuting attorney. The Hardins did not feel that they could get a fair trial and left the county before being arrested.

579-581

The enveloping dusk in flight
Folds within its wings
Desires that would fill a palace;
Yet no sight of a maiden.

Eventually they were arrested and the jury found Swan an accessory to manslaughter and was branded on the ''brawn of the left thumb'' and imprisoned in jail for three months. His sons, Benjamin Watson Hardin and William Hardin escaped before being tried in Rutherford Co. where many Porters lived also. The Hardin brothers then fled to Texas where they became leaders and officials in the Atascosito District before extradition proceedings were initiated by the Porters in 1828. The brothers were never caught due primarily to the protection of their neighbors. They remained outlaws in Texas. John Wesley Hardin was the son of Benjamin Watson Hardin.

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