The tale of Pony Cash
Rooted in revenge
William West’s father, Thomas, owned this pharmacy in Oliver Springs
The town of Oliver Springs is full of stories that aren’t necessarily ghost stories, but they’re enough to send a shiver up your spine. The Oliver Springs Historical Society has preserved many of them.
“The thing about the Pony Cash story that’s so compelling is it has roots in the Civil War, even though it took place in 1904,” he said.
Cash was the first marshall after the town was incorporated. He was a Union sympathizer.
“The fella who he was at odds with, that ultimately killed him, his family was Confederate sympathizers,” Underwood said. “That was the first hint of bad blood that sowed the seeds of what happened.”
A man named William West was a “ne-e’r-do-well” around town, according to Underwood. He was always in trouble for one offense or another.
One night, he went down to the train station, as he often did, and “greeted” the ladies that disembarked from the evening train.
“He was inebriated and would catcall and flirt with them,” he said.
The harassment was too much for Cash, who went down to the station to run West off. West lived on Roane Street, according to Underwood, and pretended to go on home. But as soon as Cash was out of sight, he went right back to his heckling and harassment.
Cash knew what he was doing, so he went back to arrest him. West tried to fight him off, but Cash had a cast iron billy club wrapped in leather that he “whooped West upside the head with.”
“Then he drug West off and put him in jail,” Underwood said. That’s what started the whole feud. West never forgot that day and swore Cash was going to die for it.”
Then, one weekend, there was a big event going on at the hotel. The hotel was in its heyday, according to Underwood, and drew nationally known entertainers to town. Cash was headed to the hotel with his son, when he saw West heading down the street.
West’s father, Thomas, ran the local drugstore and was a pharmacist. West grabbed a pistol he had hidden under some newspapers.
His father tried to stop him but was no match for 39-year-old West.
“He made his way out the back and went to the railroad tracks,” Underwood said. “He took about four steps and then whirled around. He screamed the name of Pony Cash and shot four times. Each shot found their mark.”
Cash fell right there on the railroad tracks, mortally wounded.
Underwood had other stories to share as well, including that of the Richards sisters and 16-year-old Powder Brown, who were all murdered in their home.
That is still unsolved.
And while a historian may not go off on metaphysical tangents, others in town have been known to tell a tale or two, like hearing the crying of a small child near a house on the Morgan County line and a haunted abandoned barn.