Mottstown|Mottson in "Hand upon the Waters" (Location)

Tyler Ballenbaugh purchases life insurance for Lonnie Grinnup in Mottstown. "Mottstown" (which Faulkner sometimes spells Mottson) is the seat of Okatoba County, "just across the river" to the south of Yoknapatawpha (78). It is located on Faulkner's map in Absalom, Absalom! by an arrow pointing south of Jefferson and the notation "To Mottstown, where Jason Compson lost his niece's trail, and where Anse Bundren and his boys had to go in order to reach Jefferson." Okatoba County in "Hand Upon the Waters" appears to be the site of commerce for Yoknapatawpha residents who are wary of economic institutions: "Stevens knew of more than Ballenbaugh who owned land in one county and bought their cars and trucks and banked their money in another, obeying the country-bred man's inherent, possibly atavistic, faint distrust, perhaps, not of men in white collars but of paving and electricity" (78).