In 1899 Thomas Jefferson Bunn described the events around the courthouse on a market Saturday to Madame Annette.  “Saturday was a general holiday, when everybody came in town from miles around, and there was a regulation routine of sports carried out as faithfully as a modern concert program.” The first event was the display of the farm horses in a parade around the courthouse square. The second event was a foot race and then a game of “town ball,” which was a precursor of baseball. The fourth and all important event was the fight before dinner. “There were four or five old families living round the grove that had family strifes from one cause or another, and settled they must be pugilistically, as it were.  . . . They never had to be urged, rather waited their ‘chance’ to settle the neighborhood difficulties.” TJ Bunn declined to name names, excusing himself on the account that these men had risen to political heights and put those differences behind them.