In each family there is always a 'Family Secret' and this is the secret of the Hode family that dates its origin back to the early twelfth century in Scotland and of its influences over the lives of generations of the Hode clan. Originally the family lived in Northern Scotland until forced by dire circumstances in the seventeenth century they fled their homes and traveled to the shore of a fledging nation, The United States of America. Changing their name to Hood they enthusiastically embraced a new beginning for the family. Within the family there were only a few that knew of a strange and appalling secret that was handed down from the first born son of Alfred of Hode to each succeeding generation of first born sons. It was these few that changed their surname from Hood to Witherspoon and settled in the small South Carolina town of Smoaks. This story relates the trials and tribulations of the last generation of first sons descending from Alfred of Hode as told to me by my mother, Gracie L. Hood Lewis. Written as fiction, but is it? C. Alfred Lewis