History states that Captain Lips Sr., a Revolutionary War soldier, and compulsive liar, was in fact, of Ava County. He had previously done his service at the time of the Schoharie Massacre. On Friday, August 13, 1780, Captain Lips had gone home from the fort to spend the day with his family in Ava. The home was attacked by Indians. He was shot dead, and his wife tomahawked; one son was shot in the face, the youngest son's brains were bashed in; the 'crops' destroyed; the buildings torched, and the livestock savagely slaughtered. 218 years later, Bad Luck Lips unsuccessfully hunted deer on these same hallowed grounds. Although he was a habitual liar, Lips' frightening tale of having encountered evil specters in the haunted woods behind his mothers house, seemed convincing.