The Rattlesnake Wills

by Kimberly, Rayburn

The Rattlesnake Wills deals with my reaction to my father as he faced learning that his mother had lied to him all his life. She promised him that in her will she would leave him the land he farmed for his parents in southern Ohio. Since a land grant for service in the War of 1812, the Knedlers owned and farmed a tract in Fayette County of more than two hundred acres, bordered on the north by Rattlesnake Creek. This sudden loss, followed by the loss of my father’s other job as a land bank officer, triggered a downward spiral in my father’s health and a change in my view of my strong father. The story takes place from my perspective, beginning at age seven, and in the present, as a mother myself. I examine the events that followed my grandmother’s deception and the pain it caused my family.