Ol’ Ches McCartney (Goat Man) was a free-spirited road person long before it became fashionable to be a Hobo or even a Hippie. With a longing in his heart to be somewhere else, he and his goats traveled up and down the highways of our country. He was a man of very few earthly goods but managed on what the Good Lord blessed him with. Even as a youth, people thought Ches was a little different but he proved that it takes all types of people to make this old world go ‘round.

Why, Ches could talk his way in and out of just about anything. Claiming to be a licensed evangelist preacher for the Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ, he could bless you, marry you or preach your burial service all in the same day.

Being a good philosopher and being well-read, he decided to try being a politician. He said the Republicans had their elephants, the Democrats their Jackasses, but he had his goats. Why, he actually ran for president twice — the last time against John F. Kennedy. Ol’ Ches met Kennedy somewhere on the political trail and really took a like’n to the young man and decided that he would throw in the towel and back Kennedy for president.

Ches also had his ups and down in his personal life. Why, he divorced his first wife for desertion and married two more times. Ches always said “the Good Book states that before the end of time, the earth shall be inhabited by seven women to each man, further stating that “if this time is already here, I’m not playing that hand. I am leaving four more wives available for some man who needs them more than I do.”

The Goat Man endured many good and bad things while traveling. He said people would ask him why he was going up and down the road. “Well, it’s none of their business where I go. A lady asked me when was the last time I took a bath and I told her probably when my parents bathed me 65 yrs. ago. Won’t none of her business anyway; I know I’m dirty, but I ain’t got no bankers job.”

Although he often returned to Iowa in the summer time, he made his home — when not on the road with the goats — on a small tract of land he owned in Jeffersonville, near Macon, Georgia. He and his son Gene lived in a school bus parked along Hwy 80. “Won’t much but it was home,” said Ches.

In 1985, Ol’ Ches somehow fell in love with an actress in California by the name of Morgan Fairchild. Don’t ask me how this happened but the Goat Man made his way to California by hoboing and hitchhiking all the way to the west coast, even though he was in his middle eighties. His plan was to bring the young actress home to Georgia and marry her.

Three months went by and nobody in Georgia had heard a thing from the Goat Man. It seemed as though he had disappeared off the face of the earth. Then one day, a call came in from a hospital somewhere in California. They said a Chester McCartney had been in their care for a month and that they were putting him on a train and sending him home to Macon.

It seemed during his time in California someone mugged him, robbed him of some saving bonds and just about killed him. Thus, he ended up in the hospital for a month.

Although Ches had never paid in any Social Security, someone took him to Washington, D.C. to see President Mixon (Nixon), as he called him. Why, it won’t but a few months before he received a small monthly check from the government. I reckon he became a Republican from then on.

Age and time spent on the road finally caught up with McCartney, better known as the Goat Man.

Some folks say Ol’ Ches and his goats died when an 18-wheeler hit their wagon while going down the highway, but that proved to be untrue. Fact is that he spent his final years in a rest home not far from his home. Although he was close to a hundred years old, he still liked to tell stories of his life plus he and an older female resident of the rest home were like two young love birds.

The stories of the Goat Man are endless but nonetheless, Ches McCartney (Goat Man) remains “A part of American folklore” for all to remember.

J.A. Bolton is a member of the N.C. Storytelling Guild, the Anson Co. Writer’s Club, Anson and Richmond Co. Historical Society.

https://ansonrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_BoltonPRINT-4.jpg

Contributed photo Chester McCartney, known as the Goat Man, used to travel the country with his team of goats, including making stops in Richmond and Anson counties.
https://ansonrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_goatman1-1.jpgContributed photo Chester McCartney, known as the Goat Man, used to travel the country with his team of goats, including making stops in Richmond and Anson counties.

J.A. Bolton

Storyteller