Memories

by Cornella M. Davidson

 

Taken from Cornella Davidson's notes, as typed from her handwritten notes.

Cornella Morrison Davidson passed away on December 5, 1997; 26 days before her 102nd birthday.

 Written during 1992/1993 in Tamarac, Fl

 

"Memories"

So far I have traveled many miles down "Memory Lane" and I'm hoping to travel many more- at least past the year 2000 when I would be 104 years old. One of my Great or G. Great Grandmothers, - "Grandma Story" lived to be 104 years and I see no reason why I can't do the same.

 

I was born around the middle of the afternoon on January 01, 1896 to my father James Gaston MORRISON, and mother Eliza Frances SHEPPARD Morrison in their home two and one half miles NW of Trenton, TN, the county seat of Gibson County. Doctor J.T. FAUCETT delivered me and Molly WARD, a black woman that lived near the railroad (The Mobile and Ohio) bathed and dressed me. She always loved me and said she was my "black mammy". I had a little brother, James Alvah MORRISON who was born August 29, 1892, and a sister, Beulah Lucille who was born February 21, 1894. My parents named me Ethel Cornellah. ( I dropped the "H" from my name before I became a teenager, I think.) Grandma HIGHTOWER was there with us, she had come from Ben Lomond, Arkansas to stay with us for quite awhile to help my mother with the three little ones.

 

Later in the afternoon Dr. FAUCETT went back to his home on Church Street in Trenton, and Molly WARD went back to her home. After supper all the rest went to bed, but Mammy could not go to sleep. A crowd of Negro's had gathered together in a log cabin just across the road (that was owned by Mr. Charlie E. BOXLEY) for some kind of celebration or entertainment of the New Year. They were making so much noise - laughing, singing, yelling, beating drums, etc. About eleven o'clock Pappy went over there and asked them to "please don't make so much noise - my wife just had a baby and she can't sleep, she needs her rest and sleep." Around midnight or later Grandma was suddenly awakened by someone trying to push the door open right near the bed where she was sleeping with Sister. Grandma yelled "Jimmy, grab your gun quick someone is trying to get in the house" - he ran away - leaving the door open several inches. Pappy got up and closed the door. The reason the door wouldn't open any more - Grandma had changed Sister's diaper earlier and pitched the wet one on the floor and it wedged under the door. The sixteen foot square open hallway was between the two front rooms of the same size. There was a light now that came earlier that night, and the next morning there were his tracks on the floor. Of course my Dad had no gun so the very next day he went to town and bought a double-barrel shotgun and a box of shells. Jimmy, my son, has the gun now, and I have one or two shells for it that I have had at least fifty years or more.

 

My Dad, James Gaston MORRISON, was born July 10, 1862 in Trenton, Tennessee, on the corner of Third and Church Streets to James Alexander MORRISON and Matilda Ann KIMBRO Morrison - the fifth of twelve children, six boys and six girls. Three of them died while still young. Grandpa MORRISON was born in Statesville, North Carolina where he lived for many years. He married (her name is unknown to me) and he had a son that he left NC when he came to West Tennessee in the late 1840s. His second marriage was to Matilda KIMBRO on September 17, 1853 in Trenton, Tennessee. She was born January 30, 1837 near Trenton, the second daughter of John "Jack" KIMBRO and Rebecca Ann BRANSON Kimbro. She died February 17, 1893 near Hickory Plains, AR at the age of 56 years 18 days.

 

My mother was born August 5, 1856 in Alabama somewhere near Wetumpka, or Opelika ( I have never known just where) the first child of James T. SHEPPARD and Martha Jane WILLIAMS MILFORD Sheppard. Her father died July 12, 1860, twenty four days before her fourth birthday. Her parents had both been married before, her father had a little daughter, Mary SHEPPARD, and her mother had two sons, Edmund "Eddy" S. MILFORD and George B. MILFORD. My mother, Eliza Frances SHEPPARD had a brother, Thomas C. SHEPPARD, born July 1, 1858, and died July 26, 1876; and a sister, Emily Jane SHEPPARD, born September 28, 1860 and died July 29, 1868, at the age of 7 years 20 months. Thomas C. died at the age of 18 years and 25 days.

 

So far I have been unable to know when my Grandfather SHEPPARD was born, or his parents names or if he had any brothers or sisters. He and my Grandmother, Martha Jane WILLIAMS were married December 28, 1854 in Alabama. After my Grandfather SHEPPARD died July 12, 1860, my Grandma married D.J. HIGHTOWER - date unknown to me.

 

While the children were all young, my mother had the misfortune to lose half of one of her fingers. One of her brothers, I think it was the half brother, Eddy MILFORD, was cutting chips of wood with a hatchet, having my mother put them on the block for him to cut, and he cut her middle finger of her right hand off at the middle joint- and threw it under the house so their mother wouldn't know it - for fear she might whip him. Mammy did a lot of sewing, piecing and quilting quilts in her lifetime using a thimble on the finger next to her little finger.

 

In the spring of 1870, before my mother was 14 years old, the whole family (except Eddy MILFORD) left Alabama and traveled all the way by boat to Ben Lomond, AR to make their home. They were one month making the trip. The reason Eddy MILFORD stayed in Alabama, being 20 years old at the time, he had gotten a job in Opelika, later he bought one half interest in the company. He died August 7, 1883, at the age of 33 years 2 months and 19 days.

 

As I stated earlier in this writing, my father was born on Church Street in Trenton, Tennessee on July 10, 1862, one of 12 children.

My grandfather MORRISON, born in 1812 was too old to serve in the Civil War. He was elected Registrar of Deeds of Gibson County. His office was in the Court House. He served only five years, from 1865 to 1870. His salary was not enough to support his big family, and there were no jobs for boys at that time in the small town of Trenton, so he sold the home there to George BOURSH in 1870 and moved near Hickory Plains in the Eastern part of Arkansas where he homesteaded 160 acres of land, cleared part of the timber, built the house, barn and outbuildings and farmed there for the rest of his life. My father was only 8 years old then, and that was the same year that my mother moved by boat from Alabama to Ben Lomond, AR. in the southwest part of the sate about 30 miles NE of Texarkana, By the year 1878 (or possibly before) she was married to a Mr. CURTIS, I never knew his first name or how long he lived. She spoke of him to us many times and always called him "Mr. Curtis". I don't know when or where she and my father met, but they were married December 28, 1888 in Prairie County, AR. I have their marriage license. They lived in Beebe, Arkansas for awhile before going back to Tennessee. My Dad was the only one to go back to Tennessee to live. All the other children stayed in Arkansas, except Aunt Minnie, she married George B. Bartholomew in Arkansas and moved to Binghampton, NY and they lived there until 1920 when they moved to Los Angeles, CA. Aunt Minnie was the youngest of the 12 children. My father worked for several years with a surveying crew, surveying right-a-ways for railroads in Arkansas. He saved his money and about 1890, bought 62 1/2 acres of land 2 1/2 miles NW of Trenton, TN that his Grandfather John "Jack" KIMBRO had deeded to his mother Matilda Ann KIMBRO on November 3, 1876 and on that same day he deeded about the same number of acres to his other children and one grandchild and to his 5th and last wife. He also gave the land for the Kimbro Hall School. (more about this school later.)

 

After my father bought this land he cleared off part of the timber, built the house, barn, smokehouse, hen house and made a well about 30 feet deep, with stone curbing on the back porch near the kitchen door, on the East side of the house. That is where we lived until we moved to 1 1/2 miles NE of Trenton on March 29, 1909.

 

I believe it would be of interest to some of you to know more about Dr. FAUCETT and the house in which he lived on the corner of Sixth and Church Streets. Dr. John Thomas FAUCETT was born in the year of 1853 near Covington, Tipton County, TN. After receiving his degree from Vanderbilt Medical College in Nashville from which he graduated as an alumnus in the first Medical Class of Vanderbilt University, where his name is still on the records at headquarters of the Alumni Association of the University now located on the campus at West End Avenue and 23rd Avenue North. He later married Everette Mabel KYLE, whose parents, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas A. KYLE, also lived near Covington. After his marriage, Dr. FAUCETT began the practice of medicine at Idaville, Tipton County, TN, remaining there until 1889 when he moved to Trenton, Gibson County, TN at the suggestion of Ben KYLE, a brother of Mrs. FAUCETT, who operated a drug store in Trenton. He built a home on Church Street which he occupied until the time of his death on Feb. 2, 1913, followed by the death of Mrs. FAUCETT on December 20th of the same year.

 

An accomplished musician, he played the violin and tuba, also sang tenor by note in the First Baptist Church Choir. Mrs. FAUCETT was a talented pianist and all of their children were musically inclined and the entire family frequently gathered in the parlor to play and sing together.

 

Dr. FAUCETT became an ear, nose and throat specialist after taking courses in Chicago and New York. During his general practice was noted for his devotion to the medical profession and interested in the progress of his patients to an extent that evidently shortened his life, because of making so many calls regardless of the time of day or night or adverse weather conditions. For a number of years he was district physician of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. His six children were Thomas Benjamin FAUCETT, Martha (who died in infancy), Dr. Paul H. FAUCETT, John Gayle FAUCETT, Everette K. FAUCETT, and Ruth FAUCETT. Ruth was first married to Mason Ingram and had a son, Thomas William INGRAM, who in his early manhood became a famous concert pianist. Ruth and Mason were divorced when the son was young, and in the middle of 1930's she married John L.D. WADE. She taught piano lessons in Peabody Elementary School for a number of years.

 

Dr. FAUCETT's home was sold in 1914 or '15 to Arthur ROGERS and wife Bennie. He was a lawyer and she was a six-grade ( I believe) school teacher. One day she took a class out to Forked Deer river near the bridge on the Dyer Highway for a swim, and one of the boys, Robert Wade, drowned.

 

Arthur ROGERS and wife moved to Milan in 1918 and Joe. A. HAMMOND and wife Annie bought the house and lot. They lived there the remainder of their lives. "Uncle Joe" died in 1941, and "Aunt Annie" died in 1954. The house was then sold to Weldon HOWELL (the City electrician) and wife. Since their deaths it has been sold several more times.

 

This writing brings me back to the house where I was born, and to Dr. FAUCETT who delivered me. I will attempt to describe some of the things that I can remember so well.

 

The first thing I remember is the extremely cold weather of December 1898, and Jan. and Feb. or 1899. On the Monday morning at five o'clock Feb.13, 1899 the mercury in the US Government thermometer dipped to 29 degrees below zero, which was the lowest on record in the state of TN. I don't remember just that one day; but the winter as a whole. As I mentioned before, the rooms were very large, and only a fireplace to have any heat. My Dad and Mother had cut a lot of firewood and stove wood early in the fall, and it was nice and dry. They didn't have a wood shed, so my father stacked a lot of it in the open hallway between that room and the kitchen. Pappy stapled some smooth fence or clothes line wire up on the ceiling to make a small room around the fireplace, and hung quilts that reached from floor to ceiling, fastened with clothespins. Brother and Sister each had a little rocking chair, and I sat on either Mammy or Pappy's lap, and with a big, hot fire we all kept nice and warm all through the days, and at nights the quilts were taken down and put on the beds. Pappy kept the big fire going all nights. In the mornings the quilts were put up again.

 

The next that I remember is the spring and summer of 1899, when I was sick with what Dr. FAUCETT called "The slow fever". I think it is the same as Typhoid in later years. I was in our beautiful solid walnut base rocker cradle, and they sat by me day and night for the six or eight weeks. Dr. FAUCETT told my parents that I would have a sinking spell when the fever left me, and to have some whisky ready and make a toddy to give me; hoping that would revive me. I can remember taking it, and just drifting away on a cloud. They told me that after a few moments I opened my eyes and smiled. I was still alive. Some time after that, Dr. FAUCETT said I could have some solid food - I had been given only liquids - milk and broths. Mammy asked me what would I like to have: I was just lying in the cradle - I held up my left hand and measured on my boney little fingers and said "A 'ittle piece of melted cornbread about dis big". I was just skin and bones. My mother could always make the best egg cornbread. She would bake it in a large pan so it would be a thin layer then she would cut it into square pieces of different sizes, split the piece open and put butter in between them, the butter would melt and soak into the bread, and that was why I called it "melted cornbread".

 

Having lost all my strength, it took me several weeks, or maybe months to be able to walk alone again.

 

Another thing that happened to me that I remember so well, is when I fell in the fire and burned my right hand. Mammy was fixing to give Sister and me our baths and she had pulled out some red hot coals of fire onto the brick hearth and put the wrought iron tea kettle on them to have warm water to add to the pan of our bath water. She had Sister on her lap bathing her and I was sitting in Sisters rocking chair waiting my turn. The hearth had in former years dropped down a couple inches or so below the floor. I started to rock and because the rockers were part way over the edge of the hearth it tipped and I fell out on the hearth, my left hand landed on top of the tea kettle and my right hand went into the hot coals of fire. My hand was burned so badly that each finger had to be wrapped separate to keep them from growing together as they healed. Our nearest neighbors were Charlie E. and Alice LOVING BOXLEY. Mrs. BOXLEY's mother, "Grandma LOVING" also lived with them. Grandma LOVING also had two sons, Wil, who lived west of Trenton between Hickory Grove Church and school house and Eaton, with his wife Ida, and her two daughters, Lall and Allie B. and one son Horace. Her other son, Lee, a bachelor, lived in Dyersburg. Each year about a week before Christmas he would send his mother a large box of all kinds of fruits, nuts, raisins and candies. She would always bring an apron full of them down to we three children, on Christmas morning, which made us very happy.

 

Another thing I will never forget is the time I took a big bite of hot pepper. Mammy had been to the garden to gather some vegetables. She put the peppers on a table on the back porch and went into the kitchen. I saw the pretty red things and I tip toed to reach one and took a bite. I stated crying and Mammy came running and picked me up and called to Mrs. BOXLEY to "come here quick". She came running, and they took some butter and rubbed it on my tongue and all through my mouth, and it stopped burning.

 

I loved to go to Mrs. BOXLEYS. She was a good cook and always had cakes, pies and all kinds of goodies baked, and she never failed to give me something to eat. One time when I went to see her, she was rolling out pie crusts. She would put one crust in a pie pan, then spread a piece of cloth over it, then another crust, a cloth, another crust and so on until she had six or eight crusts in each pan, then put them in the oven to bake. They had a big range stove. When I went home Mammy asked me "What was Mrs. BOXLEY doing?" I said, "She was making rag pies".

 

Mrs. BOXLEY always kept a hired hand that would live there with them to work the farm and help milk the cows. Mr. BOXLEY would take the milk, butter and vegetables from their large garden to sell to the people in Trenton. They had several milk cows and a 20 gallon barrel churn to churn the milk. Mrs. BOXLEY had a large carpet loom and would weave carpets and rugs. When they moved to town in about 1910 or 1911, they moved the loom with them and she would weave for the public.

 

Of all of our family, Sister was always partial to father. One day, when she was about 3 1/2 years old Pappy was going to town, and she wanted to go with him. He said no, and drove off in the buggy, not looking to see if she went back to the house. When he was about half way to town, he met Mr. Bill TALLEY going home from town. Soon he saw Sister as she was following Pappy, running and crying. He stopped and picked her up, put her in his buggy and carried her back home. Sister was always jealous of me because she thought that Pappy thought more of me than her - and Mammy more of Brother. She felt like she was left out. She fought me for many years, slapping me on my face so hard that my whole cheek would turn blue. I would try my best to hit her, but never could, she being two years older, much taller, and arms much longer. She cold always stay just out of my reach. She never tried to fight with Brother. Many years later Sister told me more than once, that the only reason that Alph DAVIDSON married me was because I could play the piano.

 

I don't know - maybe she was right.

 

One of the things we all enjoyed so much was the delicious sorghum molasses that was made from the cane grown on our farm. The men would bring the sorghum mill to our place each year to grind the cane and cook the juice. Pappy bought a 20 gallon wooden barrel and placed it in the smoke house and put enough molasses in it to last us until the next year. In the winter it would get so thick, it would hardly run out of the faucet near the bottom of the barrel.

 

I have loved music all of my life. When I was real young I would make believe I was playing the organ or piano, on the table, window sill, back of a chair, or any place. I would always sing too. My father saw my love for music, but it was not until 1905 when I was nine years old that he had saved enough money to buy the Cornish Parlor organ. He also ordered six months of music lessons from the U.S. School of Music. He helped Sister and me with the lessons. The only thing Sister ever learned to play was the song, "Jesus Lover of My Soul". My father could play the harp very well, and both he and Mammy could sing. He was Superintendent of the Sunday school at Grier's Chapel, for several years, and was also choir director and song leader. He taught me and Sister all the children's songs, which we would sing at Sunday school and church services. We all were members of the Church. Mammy made us white robes with wide flowing sleeves to wear when we sang. At first we both sang soprano, then later Sister learned to sing alto. After we grew older, I learned to sing alto and she changed back to soprano. After that, I always sang alto in the choirs until I was past 80 years old. Alph and I sang many duets, many times. He had a tenor voice, and he sang the soprano and I the alto. The six months music lessons by mail was all of the training that I ever had.

 

In the spring of 1909, Pappy sold the farm and bought the Charles N. WADE farm that was 1 1/2 miles NE of Trenton, and moved to it on March 29th. On Jan. 11,1910 he bought the solid mahogany upright wheelchair cabinet grand piano from Ben LANDIS for $175.00. That made me so happy, and from then on it was practice, practice, practice and more practice, which I loved so much to do.

 

I well remember my first day of school in 1902. The school house was built in 1876 on land that my great great grandfather John "Jack" KIMBRO gave for the school, which was named "Kimbro Hall", in his honor. It was about 1/4 mile from our house. My first teacher was Mr. John C. WRIGHT - an old man that had served in the Civil War. He had me sit with Nannie Warren RANDEL ( 3 years older than I ) on the front seat near where he always sat. From my first day, I was always his pet. He had a mustache and whiskers, and chewed tobacco and always had tobacco juice on his beard. He would call me up to him, pick me up and sit me on his knee, and hug and kiss me. It would make me so mad, but he would do it anyway. The second year he gave me a gold medal for deportment. ( good conduct) I still have it and also the note that was with it.

 

There was one stove in the building and it was in the center of the room. Mr. Wright's chair was near the stove. In extreme cold days he would keep the stove red hot. The boys and girls who sat on the back seats near the windows and double front doors would get cold and start coming up near the stove to get warm, and he would say "Go back to your seats children, the room is pleasant." He was so close to the red hot stove his pants legs would be almost scorching. Both my brother and sister had curly hair which I would comb and curl before going to school each day. Brother wore his curls until he was about eleven years old.

 

Brother and Sister's first teacher was Miss May McREE - a sister of Miss Lucille McREE that taught at Peabody High School until the year 1941 - 1942 when she retired - or died. Jimmy's (son) first grade teacher was Sarah Joe BASS at the new elementary school. Anyway, our teacher after Mr. WRIGHT was Mr. Lee KERNODLE, no one liked him. The next one, Mr. Ezekel "Zeke" RAWLS, we all liked. He was very nice and a good teacher. The last one we had before moving in 1909 was Miss Missie LANDRUM - my favorite of all teachers.

 

We then went to Peabody High School for a couple of months or so. It was the old building that faced the north. Brother and I were very happy there, but Sister was unhappy there, so we changed and went to Laneview College, which was 3 1/2 miles away, and we walked. Most of the way was woods, hills, and a creek to cross. On the way, we were joined by the three GREER girls, Grace, Alma, and Carrie; Jimmy CATHCART, and then the DRINKARD bunch, Carrie, Carl, Homer, Bernard, Berdie, Grace, and Gladys. In 1917 the old Peabody High School building was torn down and a beautiful new building was build on the same place with the front facing East on College Street. At that time Mr. John ELDRIDGE, Clifton "Clip" HASSELL and Alph DAVIDSON had the contract to grade the roads in the 12th district of Gibson County. The huge grader was pulled by a 6 mule team, Clip HASSELL riding the lead mule ( the front one on the left side ). John ELDRIDGE on the drivers seat with lines to each mule, and Alph at the rear, operating the huge curved steel blade that was about 3 feet wide and 10 or 12 feet long. They were hired to dig out the dirt for the foundation of the new school building. While it was being built, the Fitzgerald-Clark school building on 10th Street was used. The old high school building that was torn down was the Andrew College Building that was built in 1876. The first graduation was in 1879. In the new Peabody High School building, built in 1917, the first classes were in Feb. 1918, and the last classes were in December 1979. The present Peabody High School was built off of 45 Bypass and was in use in 1980. Jerry MAITLAND and his two sons bought the school building and land on College Street and restored it into an apartment complex, known as "Peabody Place". It is on the National Register of Historic Places. One of my most prized possessions is a 16 X 20 oil painting of the school building that I painted in 1986 from a small picture I had taken of the building in 1970.

 

Now back to the years spent at our home. Mr. and Mrs. Tyler SIMS were neighbors that lived nearby, and he enjoyed coming to our house. He taught us how to play "Mumble Pig", a game that was played with an ordinary pocket knife with two blades in the same end. It was played on the smooth ground... no weeds or grass. It took four to play, as in playing Rook. The little blade was opened out completely, then the big blade was opened half way. The first player would put the big blade on the ground, and with a finger under the end of the handle would flip it over several inches into the air. If it landed with the big blade in the ground and the handle touching the ground, it counted as 25 points. If the handle did not touch the ground, it was 50 points. If both blades were in the ground, 75 points. The little blade alone was 100 points. The two that reached the score of 1000 points first were the winners.

 

Mr. BOXLEY grew a lot of wheat on his farm and in the fall of each year the wheat thrasher came to his place and stayed for several weeks and the people for miles around would bring their wheat to be thrashed, and people would come and fill their straw beds with new straw. They were used under the feather beds which most people had. The huge pile of wheat straw was plenty for all that wanted it. It was never used for fed for horses or cattle. The old steam engine made so much noise it could be heard for quite a distance. Back in those days we had no window screens or screen doors, and the house flies were plentiful. To keep them away from our food at mealtime, my Dad would cut a small branch from a tree, strip off all the leaves, take a newspaper, fold it over the limb, and sew it up close to the limb with needle and thread, then with scissors cut the paper into one inch strips to near the limb. We had no fly swatters either - they came years later.

 

My brother ( James Alvah MORRISON ) loved to go hunting, fishing, and setting steel traps and he always wanted me to go with him and help him. He caught many raccoons, and opossums, but rarely ever a mink. They were hard to catch. They would come up to the house at night and get the young chickens from the coops in the backyard. Hawks always got a lot of the small chickens in the daytime. "You couldn't win for loosin". Pappy and brother would skin the coons and possums and stretch the hides over boards to dry out and be sold later. We ate the meat of the coons and possums. Mammy always discarded most all the fat from the possums before she put them in the roasting pan and surrounded it with plenty of sweet potatoes before putting it into the oven to bake. We had squirrels and rabbits whenever we wanted them as they were plentiful. We also had plenty of fish to eat as Pappy made his own fish traps. He would nail strips of wood together to make a frame about 2 1/2 ft. square and 6 to 8 ft. long and cover it with small mesh chicken wire with the trap door in one end. Small fish could go in and out through the small openings of the wire. The bait was made with a mixture of cornmeal, flour and a lot of cotton (to make it stick together longer in the water) and mixed with boiling water, then baked in the oven. He caught a lot of nice big fish. Some weighing 8 to 10 pounds. He would fasten a chain to the trap, then fasten the chain to a heavy stake driven deep in the riverbank, to keep the trap from going down the river. My dad never had much money, but we always had plenty of good wholesome food to eat. My favorite of all meats is a slice of country ham cut from the thick side of the ham and broiled on red hot coals.

 

We never had to buy cornmeal to make bread - Pappy always grew white corn and he would shell a bushel of it and take it to the mill in town and have it ground or else exchange it for meal already ground. We had our own firewood, saved all the ashes and put them in the ash-hopper, pour water over them - set a pan or bucket underneath to catch the drippings (lye) which Mammy mixed with grease to make soap that she used in washing clothes. It would be slightly thick and brown in color. In later years a large firm bar soap "Big Deal" came on the market that cost 5 cents. We used the old fashioned washboard, washtubs, and a 30 or 40 gallon wrought iron wash kettle to boil the clothes in the backyard. After I married and kept house alone, we bought all of these things which I used until 1942 when we bought a Maytag washing machine, a Frigidaire refrigerator and range after we got electricity in 1938 on the farm. At hog killing time the big iron pot was used to cook the fat and make the lard. The cracklings were so good to make cracklin' cornbread.

 

In July of 1901 when the present Gibson County Courthouse was built in Trenton and dedicated in the large courtroom on the 2nd floor. R.Z. TAYLOR was Master of Ceremonies. My father offered to give them small willow oak bushes to set around the new courthouse and Mr. Will TALLEY went down the lane to our bottom field near the river in his two horse wagon and dug them up. I remember it like it was yesterday. Mr. Talley carried them on to town and set them out. Most of them are still living, and are almost 100 years old.

 

At 8:00 a.m. on April 5, 1905 and accidental dynamite explosion occurred in Trenton. Three men were killed and five wounded. I was out in the yard swinging on one of our swings when I heard a loud noise. A clerk in J.H. HEFLEY's store on the south side of the courthouse square sold a rifle to a man that lived near Eaton the day before. He thought it wasn't working right, so the next morning he brought it back to the store. The clerk said "I will take it to the back door and try it out". He shot into (as he thought) an old vacant shed building, not knowing someone had stored two kegs or boxes of dynamite in the old shed.

 

A sad thing that happened was the murder of Captain Quintin RANKIN of Trenton on the night of Oct 19/20 1908, at Walnut Log, near Reelfoot Lake by the Night Riders. Captain Rankin and Colonel R.Z. TAYLOR - both lawyers of Trenton - were in the T.C. WARD Hotel. About midnight, Taylor was roused by a knock at the door. When he opened the door, a dozen black masked men thrusts pistols at him and pushed into the room. The two men were ordered to dress, and led by the masked men to the road, where there were more masked men. At 1:30 a.m.., they reached the bank of a slough. A rope was tied around Rankin's neck and thrown over a tree fork. As he was drawn up, the fired into his body. As the masked men centered their attention on Capt. Rankin, Taylor jumped into the water and escaped. For a day or two it was feared Taylor's life had too been taken. Gov. Malcolm R. PATTERSON interrupted his campaign for re-election and headed for Union City with 100 militia following from Nashville, with another 100 summoned from Memphis.

 

The year 1909 brought many changes to our lives. In March we left the home I loved so much and moved to our new home 1 1/2 miles northeast of Trenton. It was almost like moving to a new country, but we soon got to know our new neighbors, the PARTEE Family, who we all liked very much. The mother was Mrs. Matt Partee; Miss Kate, Mr. Bulow, Mr. Hal, Miss Pearl GALLOWAY and Mr. Hillary.

 

The fall of 1909 at the County Fair, I had my first automobile ride. The fair ground was on the east side of town, with the big racetrack behind it extending to where the 45 bypass is now. The racetrack was a circle one mile around. A man was there with his Ford touring car and charged 10 per person to ride one trip around. On my trip I sat on the front seat near to the driver with Jettie May ROGERS on my lap. On the back seat there were six or eight (maybe more) people. The first Fair I remember going to was about 1/2 mile west of town, where each year there was a balloon ascension, that we watched from our home northwest of Trenton in the early 1900's.

 

1910 was a wonderful year for me. On Jan 11, my Dad bought our beautiful mahogany upright piano, which made me so very happy. I practiced and played it every spare moment that I had, and could soon play 6th grade music. I soon learned a lot of popular songs. The very first piece of sheet music was "Oh, You Beautiful Doll". We started school at Laneview in 1909 and I came to know a lot of the students. Among them was a quartet composed of Alph DAVIDSON, Irvin PHELAN, Irby HUDSON, and at the moment, I can not recall the last person's name. Anyway, each day after we ate our lunch, they would have me go with them to the music room and they would sing and I would play until the bell rang. Some of the many songs they sang were "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Down By The Riverside", "Were You There", "Jacob's Ladder", and others.

 

Then came Haley's Comet, in the spring. For several weeks we saw it in the east. Our Dad would wake us about two or two thirty a.m. and we would go out into the backyard to see it. As it got closer and closer it looked real scary. The head was larger than a full moon and sort of orange in color. The broad tail extended far into the northern sky. We watched it in the east, until the night of May 18th, about an hour or so after dark, when the tail "swept around the earth". We all went out to the road in front of the house (west) to see it. As it crossed over there was a big flash. Then we saw it in the western sky for several weeks.

 

I remember the news of the sinking of the Titanic; the steamer that hit a big iceberg in the North Atlantic in April of 1912. There were only enough life boats for some of the women and children, and over 1500 men were lost with the ship, at the bottom of the ocean.

 

In April of 1912 our whole class at Laneview School graduated and received our Diplomas.

 

In the late 1800's Pappy dug holes in our yard and Brother planted Pecan trees. One for himself, one for me, one for Sister, and one extra. He was about 4 years old at the time. The trees are still living, very large and still bearing pecans.

 

Trenton had the first mail routes in 1905, and Pappy was offered one of them. He didn't accept it because he didn't have a new buggy and a younger horse to drive. One of our neighbors, Mr. Luther YATES, took the job. He bought a house and lot on High Street and moved into town and carried the mail for years and years. They had two sons, Hector and Cecil at that time, and two or three years later another son was born on the day the "Heganbeck-Wallace" Circus was in town, and they named the baby Wallace. Wallace lived to be grown and married and had one son. Hector never married and after graduating from college, he went to Texas and was connected with some big oil company and got rich. When he died, Cecil got everything, all of Hector's money, the house in town and their father's and mother's home on the Grizzard road, which extended to the Dyer Hwy and that is what he donated for the "Gibson County High School". Cecil was a millionaire. I never knew why Wallace's son never got anything from his grandfather's estate. Mr. Yates death was a freak accident. He was traveling along in his car going to Jackson when he met a big log truck piled high with huge logs, on top of the hill going out of Humboldt (a curve in the road) when one of the logs fell off the truck, hitting Mr. Yates, killing him instantly. Another tragedy in the Yates family occurred many years ago when Alsie Yates, age 8 years was killed when a mule kicked him on his head. Alsie was the oldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Chess Yates ( a brother of Luther Yates, that lived across the road from each other.)

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