A Mountain Forged Will

Kindly colorized by Dale Lewis

My great-aunt Alta Allen was born in 1921 in a very rural area of Eastern Kentucky called Teges. The community and two nearby creeks were named in honor of her 2X great-grandpa Adoniram “Tedious/Teges” Allen.

In her youth, she probably stood around five feet, ten inches tall, and was slender. When I arrived on the scene, she was a tall lady but she was no longer slender. She was a bit stout, wore her hair piled high, and presented a rather formidable physical presence.

Alta was a strong and strong-willed woman. She was raised by a strong-willed widow woman so I suppose that a strong will is something that she came by naturally. She grew up in the hills of Eastern Kentucky and I am sure that a weak-willed woman could not have survived there for long. Aunt Alta was a perfect storm of nature and nurture working together to forge a strong will!

Aunt Alta left her mother’s home and moved to Dayton, Ohio when she was in her early twenties in order to find work. She did find work in an automobile factory and there at work, she met her future husband, Olen Clarence Cantrell. She and Olen, who many called Bug, married and began their family.

                                         

            Alta Allen Cantrell and Olen Clarence "Bug" Cantrell

After they had their first child, Alta’s mother Mandy moved from Teges to live in Ohio with Alta and Bug. “Granny” cared for her grandchildren while both parents worked. Alta and Bug would go on to have three children.

Now, in 1950, Alta’s older sister Rachel would die, leaving her husband Boyd with seven children ranging in age from ten months to nine years of age. Boyd tried to keep the family together, but he just could not do it. His children were separated and went to the homes of various family members to live. Alta and Bug would take in the oldest, my mother Loretta, and the youngest, my Uncle Johnnie. Years later, Aunt Alta would tell me more than once that her biggest regret in life had been that she could not take in all of Rachel and Boyd’s children.

Johnnie Nolen, Linda "Kookie" Cantrell, Denny Cantrell and Dale Cantrell: Mandy "Granny" Mandy Moore Allen, Loretta Nolen Smith, Alta Allen Cantrell and Olen Clarence "Bug" Cantrell

So, Alta and Bug’s household included their three children, Granny, a niece, and a nephew. For a while, Bug’s widowed father even lived with them also. Now they did not live in a huge house. Initially, they lived in a small frame house on Knox Avenue and I imagine that it was crowded and nerves were often frayed but Alta and Bug persevered and made it work. Her strong will served her well.

                                         Knox Avenue Home

The family was able to move to a larger home on Calumet Lane after a few years. This home had three bedrooms, but more importantly, it had a few acres of land. That land had a chicken house, a barn, and ample area for a nice garden. Now Granny, Alta, and Bug all knew how to raise a garden and they kept a large garden every year. That garden was not only a source of pride, but it provided much produce to feed the family. Granny also raised chickens. Those chickens provided plenty of eggs for the family as well as the occasional chicken dinner.

Calumet Lane Home

                   Alta Allen Cantrell on her son's motorcycle

In 1968, Alta would suffer a great loss, the loss of her mother Granny. Granny had not only been a great support for Alta’s family over the years but she had surely been a source of pure sweet light for all who knew her. I have spoken to many family members over the years. I have even spoken with people who had been neighbors to Granny’s family in the past. None of them had a bad word for Granny except for one granddaughter. That one granddaughter said that Granny had been mean to her as a child and had knocked her onto the floor. Well, after some sleuthing, I found that Granny had indeed knocked her to the ground. The granddaughter’s nightgown had gotten into the flames of the fireplace and caught fire. Granny had pushed her to the floor to roll out the flames. That meanness had likely saved her life. This makes me wonder how many similar possibly wrong perceptions I have made over the years.

So Granny’s death was a great loss for many, including myself. How much greater must have been her loss to her daughter Alta. Alta continued on with life. Everyone experiences loss of loved ones so perhaps this is not a great sign of her iron will. After all, she had little choice but to go on.

            Alta Allen Cantrell and Olen Clarence "Bug" Cantrell

In January of 1979, she lost her husband of thirty-three years to cancer. Alta would never remarry and lived alone in the house that she and her husband had raised their children to adulthood in. She mowed her own huge yard. She would continue to grow a rather large garden and tilled it, planted it, and worked in it with only occasional help from others. She canned beans, tomatoes, and other vegetables. She worked corn to put into the freezer. She chopped huge cabbages from her garden to make sauerkraut. I am convinced that she made the best kraut in the world!

                             Alta Allen Cantrell in her garden

Sometime, in the ‘80s, I cannot recall exactly when Alta was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I can recall looking up pancreatic cancer back then and seeing the dire prognosis. My heart filled with dread, anticipating the loss of my great-aunt who was more like my grandmother. A person who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer was fortunate to live even a few months after that diagnosis.

Pancreatic cancer had never met Great-aunt Alta though! Alta had surgery to remove the cancer and she also did something else. 

Aunt Alta had several aloe plants around her house. Mom tells me that Aunt Alta mentioned to her that her attention kept being drawn to her aloe plants. This happened several times and then one time Aunt Alta said, “God, are you wanting me to eat some of that aloe plant, ‘cause if you do, I will?” After that, she began breaking off a little piece of aloe plant everyday and nibbling on it. 

Nearly a decade later, Alta would be giving her medical history to a new doctor. She told him about the pancreatic cancer and he told her that she must be remembering wrong. Uncle Johnnie and Aunt Donna were with her and they all assured the doctor that she remembered correctly. The next time she visited the doctor, he had received her old medical records. He apologized for doubting her memory and said that he had been certain that she hadn’t had pancreatic cancer because she should not be there that day if she had. Well, she had indeed had it and she was indeed there! Like I said, pancreatic cancer had never met a will such as Alta’s before!

Her life continued on. She bowled on bowling leagues with her friends and was quite good at it. After she retired from work, she started playing for her church’s softball team. When she was in her late sixties, early seventies, she broke her ankle sliding into base. Crutches slowed her down for a while and then she was back at it.

Once, she must’ve been in her 70s, she locked herself out of her house. The only window that was open was the one above the kitchen sink. Now this was a window above the kitchen sink and as such, it was rather shallow and it was high above the floor. Still, that window was the only one open. Alta dragged a bale of straw up under the window and climbed up on it. She pushed out the screen and made her way halfway through the window, feet not touching the bale, and her arms and trunk balanced over the sill. That is how Uncle Johnnie and Aunt Donna found her when they thankfully stopped by. Aunt Alta could not get completely into the window and she could not quite get her feet back onto the bale of straw.

In the ‘90s, Alta went to Kentucky with my mother and her siblings to visit the old Allen home place, the old neighbors who were still there, the graves of family members… While there, she fell and broke her hip. She went to the ER in Kentucky but instead of having surgery there, she had her nephew load her into the back of his van and returned to Ohio for the surgery. Her family and friends lived in Ohio and it made sense to have surgery there.

          Alta Allen Cantrell exploring the old Allen home place

Now, my mother fell and broke her hip last May when I was present. My mother is no wuss, but just moving her onto the stretcher and turning her in her hospital bed prior to surgery was excruciating for her and everyone moving her knew just how to do it. I cannot imagine the pain that Alta must have felt being loaded into the back of a van for a journey of four to five hours by her loving, but for the most part untrained family. She willed it so and it was so!

Alta had her surgery and stayed briefly with her daughter after her discharge from the hospital. Her daughter took great care of her and as soon as Alta had recuperated enough, she returned home. Alta liked to be in her own home and live on her own terms.

Alta was not invincible and over time, the years did wear on her. She developed osteoporosis and gradually her spine began to collapse and she began walking bent over. She lost a lot of weight and she began to look like a hunched over collection of skin and bones. She began to have to sit with a pillow behind her back at the kitchen table as her knobby spine developed a sore and she could not sit against the hard wooden backed kitchen chair without padding. She kept a small metal tin of badger balm and she would sometimes get someone to rub a bit over her bony back. She went from being a tall woman to being not even as tall as my children. She must have had pain, but I never heard her complain.

                          Alta Allen Cantrell with my children. 

                          She once would have towered over them

Still, Alta was not one to sit around and wait for help or call for help. Alta saw what needed to be done and she did it. If help showed up, they were welcome to help if they chose to. If they chose not to, well, she could usually manage on her own. She mowed her own large yard and tilled her own garden until just a year or so before her death.

She worked in her garden up until the year of her death. She had a mechanic’s creeper in her garden. She would lie on the creeper and push herself along the rows to pick her beans. Once the neighbor’s children saw her on her creeper picking beans and began to laugh. The neighbor quickly shushed them and told them that Alta had done more work in her lifetime than they would ever see together and to hush up!

   Johnnie Nolen, Alta Allen Cantrell and Lola Nolen Walton Gatliff

Johnnie and Donna visited her one summer day to find her crawling through her yard with a grocery sack toward her garden. When they asked her what she was doing, she matter-of-factly stated that she was going to pick her a mess of beans. They helped her back into her house and picked her beans which she strung, broke up, and cooked.

Aunt Donna and I were with Aunt Alta when she passed away at the age of 81. I am not certain what she actually died from; some disease, old-age...? I just know that when she died, she was in a hospital bed in the bedroom she had slept in for years. The photos on the walls had been there for decades. The knick-knacks and photos on the dresser and chest were long familiar. The only unfamiliar things in that room were the hospital bed she lay in and the mere shadow of the woman it contained.

Time had taken its toll on Aunt Alta physically, but she was still sharp as a tack. The preacher had visited with her a day or so before she passed and Aunt Donna had led him to Alta’s bedside so he could visit with her. As soon as he left, Aunt Alta let Donna know that she should give her her partial dental plate to put in before she let any other visitors in!

I recall sitting and watching my great-aunt Alta lying in that bed and praying that God would take her home. I knew that she could not rest easy here on earth, unable to slide into bases, unable to get stuck climbing into kitchen windows, unable to creep through her garden picking beans. So, I prayed that God would free her, and as we watched her breathing slow and then cease, He did just that.

The Appalachian Mountains are the oldest mountain range in North America. There are other mountains in North America higher than those in the Appalachians but the Appalachians were once higher than now. Time has eventually worn them down. I reckon that Aunt Alta was like the mountains that she came from. She stood straight and tall in her youth, but time eventually wore her down, at least physically. I don’t consider that time or even death conquered Aunt Alta’s strong will; rather, I consider that when she died she had just willed herself a well-deserved rest.

LAND!

I was born in Dayton, Ohio. My ethnicity estimates indicate that my ancestors came from across the Atlantic. Sometime in the past, they had to venture from there to here in order for me to be born here.

They came centuries ago. I imagine that some came because of religious persecution. Others came because of famine conditions in Ireland or other lands. Some came to escape neverending war. Perhaps a few may have simply had a strong case of wanderlust and adventure. The lure of great amounts of available land must have been a draw for most of these souls; souls dreaming of owning land and a home of their own.

I will be the first to admit, I am a landlubber and happy to have my two feet planted on dry ground or at the most in the shallows at the beach. I recall the first time that I saw the ocean; I could not believe its vastness. I KNEW that it was vast but I hadn’t really imagined just how vast, vast really is.

My ancestors "haunt" me and seeing the ocean in front of me brought them to my mind. I tried to imagine the greatness of the sorrows they were running from or perhaps the joys they imagined running to, in order for them to actually get on a boat and cross that endless horizon of ocean.

How would they have crossed that great breadth?  Now my ancestors may or may not have come over on the Mayflower, but most of us are familiar with the Mayflower that brought the Pilgrims to the New Land. The Mayflower was a wooden ship and likely measured about 100 feet from prow to stern and was about 25 feet wide at its widest point. That is relatively small. The length of a football field is three times as long as the Mayflower.

The Mayflower, about 1621

  

The Titanic, another well-known ship was just over 882 feet long and about 92 feet wide. It had four smokestacks and each of those was 62 feet tall, each almost 2/3 as tall as the Mayflower was long. 

The largest modern cruise ship in Carnival Corporation is the Regal Princess which is nearly a quarter of a mile or nearly 1320 ft long.

The Titanic, 1912

The Regal Princess, present day

                                          

So, what I am saying is that the ships that my ancestors came over the ocean on were more akin to a collection of glorified floating toothpicks than they were to modern ships!

I cannot imagine being willing to board a small wooden ship like that and set sail across that vast ocean but I try to imagine what that journey may have been like. What I imagine is akin to hell and I am pretty certain that my imagination pales in comparison to reality.

So, my ancestors decided that they were willing to risk the journey. Now, most of my ancestors were poor. In order to leave their country of origin and sail to America, they had to arrange for passage on a ship and that passage was not free. I suppose that some may have been able to purchase passage but most could not. Many had to enter into indentured servitude.

When a person became an indentured servant, they would sign into a contract with the person paying their passage. The contract holder would pay for their passage to the New World and provide for the person; in exchange, the passenger would agree to work for a period of usually one to seven years. At that time, the person was released from their contract and may have been given a suit of clothes, a horse, perhaps even some land.

If a person traveled with family, each family member would have a period of servitude. Children were usually released from servitude at the age of 21, regardless of how many years had passed.

The person who held an indentured servitude contract was free to sell that contract to another person. In this way, a husband could be separated from his wife, parents from their children… I cannot help but wonder at the desperate conditions that would have made this look like an acceptable alternative. A story goes that a couple of my young male ancestors had boarded a ship as stowaways. When the ship was at sea, they were discovered and were given the opportunity to agree to a contract for indentured servitude or be tossed overboard. Indentured servitude was a wise alternative in this case.

My ancestors, some with families, after assessing the risks and arranging for passage, boarded a small wooden ship, likely a third again longer than a smokestack on the Titanic was high. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 2750 miles and it likely took about two months to cross.

I imagine family members boarding the small ship to cross that vast ocean. I imagine them settling down below deck in a very tiny, dark spot; a spot that will likely be their home for two months. I imagine those family members below deck in the belly of that ship, day after day of their ocean crossing.

Food and water, never plentiful, are becoming depleted. Basic personal hygiene is impossible. There is sickness all around; disease from poor nutrition such as scurvy, disease from poor sanitation such as dysentery, normal childhood diseases such as measles…The smell of that disease, the stench of vomit, sweat, body wastes, the putrid stench of infected wounds… I imagine this almost suffocating miasma saturating the air.

I imagine mothers and fathers listening to the cries of their suffering children, hating the sounds of those cries and yet fearing that those cries would cease. I can picture family members watching the bodies of parents, spouses, children, slip below the waves when the sounds of suffering have indeed ceased.

I imagine the terror struck within the hearts of men, women, and children alike when storms roil the sea. I feel the ship tossing, rolling, water perhaps leaking down from waves crashing over the deck above, the boards of the ship creaking and groaning as though they would rend apart, the sound of terror in the cries of children, fervent prayers escaping desperate lips…

I imagine all of this and then I imagine the storm ending, the sea calming and how terribly, terribly sweet their relief must have been to finally hear the cry of “LAND! LAND!”

Most of my folks would end up owning their own bit of land. I have had great-great-greats… who owned hundreds, probably even thousands of acres. Back in the day when Eastern Kentucky and other areas of Appalachia were being settled, it seems that a person could pretty much go out, survey, stake and claim any unclaimed land. That is exactly what some of my ancestors did. It didn’t much matter that the native peoples probably held the original claim. It seems that they didn’t count.

In the early 1900s, I had great-grandparents and grandparents who owned a few acres of land. Most of it was in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky where narrow ribbons of bottomland were surrounded by steep hillsides. My grandparents used hand tools and mule-drawn plows to prepare the tillable land for their gardens. Sometimes, if there was enough of a level ledge on the hillside, they might even turn the earth and plant a single row of corn. That corn would literally be growing nearly parallel to the ground of the hillside.

                           

Grandpa and Grandma's place, Eastern Ky

These grandparents had large families and they coaxed their living from the land. Gardening was not a hobby, a pleasant pastime; the survival of the family depended upon the garden and knowing how to preserve the fruits from that garden. 

My ancestors also planted fruit trees and nut trees to provide more sustenance for hungry and growing families. They raised chickens for eggs and the occasional chicken dinner. They raised cows for milk, cream, butter. They raised hogs to slaughter during cool weather. They knew how to smoke, salt cure, sugar cure,, render and can that meat. Their preservation of the harvests of the bounty ensured their survival during the times of lean.

These same ancestors knew how to hunt, fish and trap to add to their diets. They knew how to forage plants, fruits, nuts,… from wooded hillsides. Those plants could add to their nutrition but could also provide medicinal benefits. This knowledge was passed down from father to son, from mother to daughter, over and over again.

These folks had little if any money. They may have raised a little tobacco base as a cash crop but their need for cash was not huge. They grew or raised much of what they ate. They did purchase coffee, sugar, flour, meal… but they could likely barter eggs, butter, a chicken instead of needing cash. These ancestors truly lived off of the land.

And after that living was over, their bodies would be prepared. The body would be placed within a pine box made by a family member or a neighbor. That pine coffin would lie in the front room of the place that the deceased had made home. Family, neighbors, friends would drop by to pay their respects. A mule-drawn wagon would come to carry the pine box to the little hillside cemetery that served the community and there it would be buried in a hole that had been dug by family and friends.

That ancestor had lived off of the land for his entire life and now he returned to her and she cradled him like a wee babe. Gradually over time, that pine box would disintegrate. The body would do likewise and gradually, it too would become a part of the land, a part of the richness that he had loved in life; a part of the land that might one day sustain and be cherished by future generations!

Upper Sadler Cemetery, Clay Co, Ky

Ecclesiastes 12:7

“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

Memories of High School

I graduated way back in 1978 from Cascade High School, which was a phoenix of a high school. It was located in Wartrace, Tennessee, but I think that it was really a bit closer to Bell Buckle.

It is fitting that it should be between Wartrace and Bell Buckle because Cascade existed because Wartrace High School and Bell Buckle High School joined together after Bell Buckle’s school burned down. For the remainder of that school year, after the school burned, Wartrace students attended the Wartrace school for an abbreviated day in the morning and the Bell Buckle students attended an abbreviated day in the afternoon. The next school year, 1972-1973, we were melded together, all attending at the same time. We went from being Wartrace High School Panthers and Bell Buckle High School Blue Devils to becoming Cascade Champions. Later Queen made a song just for us!

Since we had the same building but more people in it, a new school was built between Wartrace and Bell Buckle. So, a few years after we became Cascade we moved into this new school which housed all grades, K-12 from both schools and Normandy students, as well. The office was inside the front doors and the higher grades were to the right and the lower grades to the left. The lockers were out in the halls lined up on the walls between classrooms. My locker was almost an engineering achievement right up there with the pyramids. It was full of books and various other things. The books weren’t stacked neatly at all. Some were flat, some upright, some leaned diagonally across the width of the locker. That locker was a masterpiece of not just chaos, but organized chaos. I could slide a book from the bottom of the helter-skelter stack and nothing else would move. Perhaps my ancestors helped to build the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

During high school, some of the classes offered were: American History, Government, Algebra I, Algebra II, Advanced Math, Trigonometry, Home Economics, Bachelor’s Living, Industrial Shop, Woodworking Shop, Typing, English I–IV, Drama, Business, General Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Spanish I-II… I can’t remember what else. I am getting some of my college courses mixed with my high school courses. I can’t remember if we had Literature and World History in high school or if that was college. Anyway, that is a sampling of the courses.

Now, when I was in high school, I don’t believe that even the school office had a computer. Computers were things that NASA scientists used, not rural high schools. We learned typing on electric typewriters so we did have that!

Also in high school, at least at Cascade, you could get a smoking permit signed by your parents then you could go outside to the smoking area and smoke when not in class. Today, that seems strange when many places have smoke free campuses and you aren’t supposed to smoke on the grounds at all. I suppose they didn’t want someone to sneak and smoke in the bathroom and cause a fire when they hurriedly threw their cigarette into the trash if a teacher happened by.

The parking lot seemed to be a center for mischief. I recall one time coming out to have my windshield soaped. I cleaned off the soap really well and drove on home. I forgot all about my windshield getting soaped until the next time I was driving and it started to rain. I turned on my wipers and after a swipe or two, my windshield had quite a lather on it! I cleaned it again, being careful to rinse it very, very well.

One of our classmates drove a little two-seater sports car. One afternoon when school let out, we went to the parking lot and her car had been picked up and turned sideways in the parking spot. I’m not sure who did it, but I know that there had to be some partners in crime!

I remember kids at school did get into a bit of mischief, but it was all in fun and I don’t recall any malicious behavior. I don’t remember any bullying going on and it seemed like all of my classmates had friends to hang out with. I don’t really remember anyone who stuck out as being isolated. Maybe, I am looking through rose-colored glasses. I honestly can’t say. I only had about 27 folks in my graduating class. It was small and I knew everyone in it. There were a few friends that I was especially close to, but I knew everyone and I liked everyone in my class even if I didn’t chill with them. I have to say that I liked all of the teachers too. Of course, I liked some of them better than others, but I don’t think there was a bad one in the lot.

I did well in high school but it didn’t just come naturally to me. I didn’t possess a photographic memory so I did have to study. I lived in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors and three channels plus NPT on TV; there was not much to do so studying was an okay diversion.

A few of our classmates were very close. We also had a couple guys from the class below us who were part of our group of close friends. In study hall, sometimes the teacher would let us play cards; spoons, BS, speed… We had a good time together in school. We often got together after school.

I recall how my friends and I loved to go spooking. Most of our spooking happened in college but I can remember one time in high school two carloads of kids went spooking.

For as long as I could remember, I had heard stories about Wolf Meadows. I don’t know what part, if any, of what I had heard was true. As I recall, the story went that Wolf Meadows had been like a lunatic asylum and the lunatics were not treated kindly. They were kept chained to trees in the yard of the mansion and were given dog food to eat.

                                 
                                                                  Wolf Meadows
                                                   (The fence looks taller in the dark!)

Of course, we found this very intriguing and it sounded like a really fun place to investigate. So we had one truck full of kids. Lee Boswell was driving the truck with one or more kids in the cab. Eddie Coop and I were standing in the bed of the truck leaning over the cab as we began slowly pulling down the eerie dark lane that would lead us to our destination. There was another vehicle behind us and Timmy Ensey was driving it. I don’t remember who all was with him but he was lagging back following us. We finally saw a tall wrought arm fence surrounding a large old house. It was dark, you don’t go spooking in the daylight, so we couldn’t see too well.

Well, unfortunately, I came up with a bright idea. I told Eddie that we should start screaming and beating the Cab roof to scare Timmy and the others following behind us. So we did. Well, we heard Timmy peeling rubber, spinning gravel backing back toward the road. Unfortunately, we had forgotten to tell driver Lee our plans and he couldn’t read our minds. He too started backing back down the lane. I guess he thought that a lunatic hanging from the trees overhead had assaulted us. I don’t remember being thrown to the bed of the truck so Eddie and I must have been holding on pretty tight.

Well, we only caught the briefest of a glimpse of Wolf Meadows as we all kept backing up towards the road and headed back home. I think that Wolf Meadows has since burned down but it will always live on in my imagination. I just wish that I hadn’t had that bright idea to scare Timmy’s carload of kids. We might have even seen spirits of lunatics munching on dogfood. As it was, if we had looked, we might have seen them laughing their butts off at us scaring ourselves to distraction!

A few of the Wartrace kids would go on to MTSU after graduation and there we continued our spooking. Some of my fondest memories were going spooking in college with old high school friends and a couple of new friends from college. We had such great times trying to scare ourselves to death!

Cascade had several of the regular extracurricular school activities; football games, basketball games, baseball games, homecoming games. We just had those three sports teams; no soccer, golf, swimming... back then.

One highlight of games was being able to witness the Master of Cheer, Joe Lee Singleton. Joe Lee had already graduated but he was still one heck of a supporter of the Cascade teams. He would sit in the bleachers and lead us on in cheers. As I recall, he had a top hat and a black cape lined in orange that he would take off and swirl at points in his cheers. Joe Lee didn’t cheer those “Rah, rah, ree” type cheers. He made up his own and he would chant them out and have the crowd stirred up into a frenzy. I think of Joe Lee as a forerunner of rap because that is kind of what his cheers remind me of today. One that I can recall goes something like this: Joe Lee would yell, “When you’re up, you’re up; and when you’re down, you’re down. Who ya think you’re messing with, Bozo the clown!” Then the crowd would chant; “Hey, hey, let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go! Hey, hey, let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” Then Joe Lee, “When you’re one, you’re one; when you’re two, you’re two. Who ya think you’re messing with, Captain Kangaroo!” Then the crowd, “Hey, hey, let’s go; let’s go, let’s go! Hey, hey, let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” This would go several rounds. I think that everyone enjoyed Joe Lee except for the Bozos and Captain Kangaroos on the other team! Heck, they may have even loved him too! He was a Champion treasure. Maybe, he still goes to the games and stirs up the crowds? I hope so.

Back then, we didn’t even have a Jr/Sr prom; we had a Jr/Sr banquet where we dressed really well in our long dresses and tuxes to have a mediocre meal at a Murfeesboro hotel’s banquet room. We enjoyed it anyhow as we would hang out with friends after the banquet.

So, in 1978, I graduated from Cascade, the second class to graduate from the new school. I consider that I got a good education at Cascade. The year that I graduated, the guidance counselor told us that the top two ACT scores in the county came from our little rural school. Take that Shelbyville!

I can remember after graduation some of my friends and I went down to Florida for a week. We didn’t have much money so we had to plan around that. Philip Ayers was going to drive and we were going to take coolers and tents and camping stuff and find a campground to camp out. Eddie Coop and Philip Ayers were still juniors, but my friends and I hung out with them all of the time and they went on the trip. Since we had little money, we figured that we could afford to camp out. I think that Philip Ayers, Eddie Coop, Carol Grubbs, Lydia Brothers, maybe one other person?, and I went. I think that’s right. Some of us hung out so often, it is hard to imagine them not being involved in all of my adventures.
So we load all of this camping stuff into Philip’s car and then we load ourselves into the car. We were packed to the gills with camping gear and kids. As I recall, three sat in the front and the car was a standard transmission with the stick shift on the floor. I can remember every time the gears had to be changed that Philip had to yell shift so that the person sitting in the middle could shift so he could shift. I’m not sure, I may be getting that part confused with a spooking trip but I think that was the Florida trip.

So here we were, driving down to Florida, the windows down, the wind blowing our hair, the music blaring and us singing, or in my case trying to sing, along with to Journey, Kansas, Aerosmith, ACDC… with Philip occasionally yelling Shift! It was such a wonderfully, magical, carefree time!

We made it to St Augustine in one piece and we ended up having enough money to rent a bungalow right on the beach! That was the first time I had seen the ocean and I was blessed to be able to see it with friends that I loved. Even my ears got sunburned, but I so enjoyed that trip with them and I have never really had another trip quite like that one. We enjoyed our week and then miraculously made it back home in one piece!

So those are a few of my memories of my high school days. I can remember being anxious to graduate from high school, then college and then getting a job and my own place to live. I can remember, wishing all of those years away to skip to a future when I could be an adult and “do whatever I want”. LOL!!!!!

But now I look back and see how sweetly beautiful those times really were. Oh, we had some sad times. I can remember losing classmate Wayne Floyd to cancer before he had really had a chance to live. I can remember a young girl in another class, Joyce Richardson, succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning when high waters blocked the exhaust on the car she was in; at least, that was what I remember hearing. I can remember my good friend Carol Grubbs losing her brother Melvin while we were in high school. I can remember hanging out with friends, drinking a bit and ending up crying. I can remember breaking down into sobs and when they asked why all I could say was that my great-uncle couldn’t come to my graduation. He and my great-aunt had raised my mom and were more like my grandparents. My friends asked why they couldn’t come and I just could not tell them that he was dying from cancer. I guess in some weird way, I thought if I didn’t say it aloud, it might not be so…but it was.

So, there were times that were not all sunbeams and roses but we had good friends and did not have to deal with the sad/bad times alone. Together with those friends, we were stronger than we were as individuals. We were young too, and adult responsibilities had yet to furrow most of our brows. Somehow we survived, even those of us who thought we had mad Mario Andretti skills. I think that God was responsible for that. He only knows how many times He has saved our little Wartrace and Bell Buckle butts. We will never be able to recognize and appreciate all of those times He stepped in. I do recognize that He let me be planted into the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Wartrace, away from family. I was away from family but I had a wonderful school environment and I made wonderful friends. I may not keep in touch with everybody but I think about them often. My kids have all heard stories of my times with my friends in high school and college. I have awed them with stories about our silly and totally childish antics that some kindergartners might have been too sophisticated to enjoy.

Dave's Story

                                                            Dave's Story

                                                      April Smith Hajjafar

                                                 

                                     (David "Dave" Smith)

On December 11, 1894, David (Dave) Smith was born in Harlan County, Kentucky to Noble William (Billy) and Jane Thomas Smith. That same year a family of German immigrants would officially license the name “Louisville Slugger” for the baseball bats that that family had been making in their woodshop. David would join an older brother, George who had just turned one year old on December 4th. A couple years later, in 1896, the case of Plessy v Ferguson would establish the idea that “separate but equal” facilities for whites and blacks was fair and legal. Another son Clarence would be born to Jane and Billy on Jan 3, 1897. Although the radio would not be in family homes for decades, Guglielmo Marconi would have just recently patented the device.

               

(This is a photo that we are not 100% sure of, but we believe that this could be a pic    of Jane Thomas Smith holding Clarence “Flornie” Smith, George Smith standing  and Noble William “Billy” Smith holding Dave Smith.)

A mid-wife would likely have been called to Dave’s home to help in the delivery of Dave and his brothers. Childbirth was a risky undertaking back then. Doctors were few, and the few there were had to cover a large area in a time when transportation could be an arduous undertaking. Most women would give birth in their homes with the assistance of these mid-wives. Jane herself would become a midwife in later years.

Some family members have heard of a girl named Eula being born to Billy and Jane. I have not found records of her. I haven’t seen her on a census, but that just means that I was unable to find records. So Dave could’ve very well welcomed a sister into the family at some time, or perhaps Eula would’ve welcomed Dave into the family. I cannot say. Recently, my recently “found” 5^th cousin Karen Mefford Pickhover posted Jane’s obituary on our Family Quilt. This obituary listed a Mrs Eula Smith as a surviving daughter of Jane. Eula lived in West Virginia at the time of Jane’s death.

 (Clarence “Flornie” Smith, David “Dave” Smith and George Smith)

Early in Dave’s life, the United States would become a world power and would begin intervening in the affairs of other nations. This led to resentment and in 1898, the Spanish American War would break out. One of Dave’s uncles, George Washington Smith would die from disease while fighting in this war. He would die overseas in the Philippines away from family and would be buried in California.  

Dave’s father Billy would die on Sep 3, 1898 at the age of 26. I have found no death certificate so I cannot say the cause of death in one so young. My father says that he thinks that he remembers hearing that Billy may have gotten some bad liquor, but that is not documented as far as I can find. It seems like a plausible reason as many folks back then made shine and many folks drank it. It is certainly not unheard of for a batch of that shine to be “bad”. Many folks back then partook of it, and perhaps that is one reason why Gpa never, as far as I know, drank. If drink had taken his father, it may have left a lasting impression.

(This is a pic that was in a trunk that Gpa carried from Anglin Branch to John and Hortense Smith Allen’s home in Dayton, Ohio when Gpa and Gma moved in with them. It was not identified, but Glenna Allen and I were thinking that it could be a pic of Gpa’s dad Billy Smith. There is nearly identical pic on Ancestry given as being a pic of Billy’s brother Henry. This gent is at least family.)

So on September 3, 1898, Jane Thomas Smith became a widow. Dave, who was almost 4, and his brothers lost their father. I can only imagine that Billy’s death was a terrible shock. I imagine that Jane was probably numb but carried on with life to the best of her ability. I imagine that Dave and his brothers may have been left expecting their father to return home at any moment. But perhaps in those days, death was a common visitor and even children understood its finality.

Now in addition to Jane and the boys, Billy left his parents and nine siblings in Harlan. My dad has told me that he does not remember Gpa talking about visiting with Billy’s family. I do not know if that is due to Gpa’s natural “quietness”, if it is because he was so young when he visited them and just did not remember, or if it is because Gpa, his mother and siblings really did not visit with them. This only leads me to wonder why.

There was also a woman named Nannie Scott (Smith?) and a daughter Delora Smith listed on some family trees as Billy’s wife and child. These same trees do not list Jane, Gpa and his siblings as Billy’s family. Delora was born in 1896 between Gpa born in 1894 and his brother Clarence born in 1897. I cannot explain Nannie and Delora. I don’t know where she came from or if she really belongs with Billy. My weak research skills are not enough to figure out this mystery. Billy is just one mystery following another to me.

About a year and a half after Billy’s death, the state of Kentucky would be rocked by a crisis. William Goebel, the newly elected gubernatorial candidate would be shot. He would live long enough to take office but would die soon afterward. It would take the state months to recover. Dave’s family would very likely have heard the news, but I am unsure of just how it would have impacted them. I imagine that their lives proceeded on much as before.

Shortly after Goebel’s assassination, a baby girl would be born on Yocums Creek in Harlan County. On March 30, 1900, that baby girl would be born into the home of Calvin and Rhoda King Middleton. Her name was Nancy Middleton and Nancy would grow up and become Dave’s wife one day.

A couple of months after the birth of Dave’s future wife, the 1900 federal census was taken. Page 46, shows Dave’s mother Jane farming in Magisterial district 1 of Harlan County, Kentucky. Jane is the head of the household. According to this census, she resides with sons; 7-year-old George, 5-year-old David, 3-year-old Clarence AND 1 year old William. William had been born in Dec of 1898,  just three months after Billy’s death. So if this is accurate, Jane had been pregnant with William at the time of Billy’s death. This 1900 census shows that Jane’s 15-year-old sister Rhoda Thomas also lives with the family. Perhaps she is helping Jane out; the Lord knows that she would’ve needed it with at least four children ranging in ages from seven years old to one year old.

                                  (Harlan County, Kentucky)     

This census provides us with a little information about Dave’s mom, but it raises more questions than it answers. It lists Jane, not as Jane Smith, but as Jane Thomas; is that a mistake or does it mean something? This census also indicates that Jane can neither read nor write and it indicates that she has borne 6 children with 5 living. There are 4 children listed as living with Jane. Is that fifth child Eula and if it is, where is she? And has anyone ever heard of William? Many babes died at birth or shortly after in those times; the babe that did not survive is easier to explain than the one that lived but is absent.

Now, this same 1900 census shows on page 33 another family. That family belongs to 38-year-old divorced Garret King. Garret is farming his land and has his 3 children living with him; 16-year-old Euel, 7-year-old John and 4-year-old Liza. Garret can read, but he cannot write.

Now somewhere along the way, Dave’s mother Jane and Garret King met. They both lived in the same magisterial district in Harlan County, Kentucky, with only 13 pages between their households on the census. It is easy to imagine that they met on more than one occasion. Garret was a preacher, so perhaps Jane attended a service where he had preached. I don’t know if he preached at a regular church or if he traveled to various churches in the area.

How they met is pure conjecture, but at some point, Dave’s mother married Garret and their households merged. I am uncertain of the date of their marriage, but the 1910 census indicates that it most likely took place in 1902. I am sure that Jane and Garret loved each other. Their marriage produced three daughters and did not end until Garret’s death. However, often in those days, marriage could be the result of practical needs rather than love. Young widows with several children would often remarry immediately after the death of their spouse because they had no other avenue to support their children. Widowers with several children would do the same so that they would have a partner to help raise young children. When you have young children, it is better to have a team than to go it solo. Practicality would often be involved in a marriage in these days.

(George Smith, ??, Jane Thomas Smith King, Dave Smith and Clarence "Flornie" Smith)

Of course, children back in those days were expected to contribute to the family’s survival by doing chores themselves. They did whatever chores were appropriate for their age from just a few years of age. Their days would be filled with chores but there would be time for yard games when the chores were finished. Sometimes games would be made out of the chores themselves. From a young age, the children would know what work and responsibility were.

So sometime around 1902, the households of Garret and Jane had merged together. This was probably a rather big change in the lives of both families. An even bigger change would occur on a national level in 1903 when the Wright brothers flew the first heavier than air aircraft. Can you imagine the wonder that eight-year-old Dave and his siblings must have felt upon hearing that news? They probably envisioned flying up there with the hawks whenever they saw them after that! Another important thing happened in that same year. Henry Ford founded his motor company in Dearborn, Michigan. Dave’s family would not own a car for years to come, but the product was being produced and would be there one day in the future when roads were built to carry them and Dave’s family was ready to purchase one.

Now Dave, his siblings and step-siblings would greet a new half-sister sometime in 1906. Again, a midwife would probably come to the King home to assist in the delivery of Hassy King. The first radio broadcast was heard on Christmas Eve of that same year that Hassy was born. That first broadcast was a Christmas concert and was a huge step in improving communication technology. It would be decades before Dave’s own family would own a radio, but when they did, it would provide hours of enjoyment for the family. They would gather around that radio and listen to the Grand Ol’ Opry, serials such as The Lone Ranger, the news and other programs. Another half-sister Mary would join the household on May 17, 1909.

                                   

                 (Dave’s mother Jane Thomas Smith King and ??) 

Back in the time that Dave grew up, and really for years afterward, most houses did not have indoor plumbing. Folks took care of their business by taking a walk to the outhouse. Baths and showers like we know today were unheard of to Dave’s family and their neighbors. Sometimes water would be heated and a large galvanized wash tub would be filled as a makeshift bath, but more often, a washbasin would be filled with water and a rag, a little homemade lye soap and a little elbow grease would scrub off much of the grime of the day. In the summer, a skinny dip in the local swimming hole might suffice as a bath. Toothbrushes and toothpaste were not to be found in Dave’s household. Dave would find him a willow twig and chew the end until it was frayed. He would then use this “toothbrush” to clean his teeth.

The clothing and cloth goods of the family would most likely have been made of natural fibers such as cotton and wool. Denim pants and cotton t-shirts were good choices for folks who worked farms like Dave’s family did. Cleaning this clothing required Jane to heat buckets and buckets of water to fill a washtub.  The clothes would be soaked in that water with lye soap. They would be scrubbed on a washboard until clean and then they would be rinsed, wrung out and hung on the line to dry. Just keeping the family’s clothing clean was a major and tiresome job. We would do well to think of our ancestors the next time we would dare to complain about one of our chores today.

The 1910 Census shows the family farming on Ages Creek Road in Mt Pleasant, Harlan County, Kentucky. The family now consists of; Garret, Jane, Garret’s son John, Garret and Jane’s daughters Hassy and Mary, and Jane’s boys George, David and Clarence. It seems that Garret’s son Euel is in the Army and is stationed in Ohio. Jane’s son William is not accounted for on this census. Did he die? And Eula is not present again. This census indicates that both Jane and Garret can read, but neither can write. All of the boys in the household can read and write. John is a laborer doing odd jobs, George works outside the home doing farm labor and Dave and Clarence are helping Garret and their mother on the farm. Dave and his brothers all attended school during that year. Most likely they had walked to a local one-room schoolhouse and been taught by a teacher who managed to teach all grades in that one room. Dave’s step-sister Liza is not accounted for on this census. I can find no record of what happened to her. Perhaps she died as so many children did at that time.

       (This has been identified as Euel King, Dave’s step-brother)

On the night of April 14, 1912, the unsinkable RMS Titanic would strike an iceberg and indeed sink. As I have surmised before, the amazement at the sinking of the unsinkable with the loss of more than 1500 lives was perhaps overshadowed by the sheer audacity of folks to not just travel outside their counties, not just outside their countries, but across an iceberg laden ocean to an entirely different continent! The news of the Titanic must have been both heart-wrenching and mind-boggling to Dave, his family, and his neighbors.

Dave’s sister Mila, better known as Miley would join the family on May 25, 1912. Miley would be the last sibling born to Dave’s mother and stepdad.

The year following Miley’s birth, when Dave was 18 years old, the Lincoln Highway was constructed. It stretched from New York City in the state of New York to San Francisco in the state of California. Businesses started springing up along the highway. This highway really “paved” the way for making automobiles an attractive alternative to travel for folks. One day in the future, most members of Dave’s family would own a vehicle of some sort.

Dave’s life was proceeding right along, but to everything, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born and a time to die… Dave’s older brother George would die on September 24, 1914 at the age of 20, just shortly after WW1 broke out in Europe. His death certificate gives the cause of his death as typhoid fever with the contributory cause of hemorrhage. Outbreaks of disease were common during this period of time. The importance of good hygiene and a clean environment were becoming much more accepted. Vaccines were being developed to prevent diseases such as; tetanus, smallpox, diphtheria, and measles. Mental health was more and more recognized as an issue to be dealt with. Unfortunately, Dave’s brother George died prior to the medical improvements that were leading to increases in life expectancy.  I am certain that George’s death left a pall over the King/Smith household, but the season for death in those days was often shortened by the necessities of the season for living. There were other children to provide for, chores to be done, little time for grieving. Life went on.

In 1916, then-President Woodrow Wilson added his signature to a bill that set aside certain lands for the public in the form of national parks. The National Park Service was formed, ensuring that these lands would always be preserved for the public to enjoy. Prior to this, the military had been responsible for protecting and preserving these lands. This is one thing that I believe our government has truly done for the public good. I hope that these national treasures are never sacrificed so that special interest groups can make another dollar.

And across the ocean, WW1 raged on. The United States wanted to remain neutral and was reluctant to enter into the war, but in April of 1917, the United States joined the Allies. Under the command of Major General John J Pershing, two million US soldiers fought on battlefields in France.

Twenty-two year-old Dave Smith reported to Harlan to register for the draft on June 5, 1917. His draft registration indicates that he was mining for Cloverfork Coal Company in Ages, Ky at that time. The registration form had a question: Do you claim exemptions from draft (specify grounds)? Dave had written Felon in the blank. Now Cousin Darryl Allen is certain that he remembers Gpa Dave telling him that he had killed a man and had gone to trial for it. My dad Donald Smith and his brother Wallace Smith do not remember hearing anything about this.  I can just imagine Gpa putting Felon in that space and then passing that form over the desk to the registrar John King. (Is this John King Dave’s step-brother or perhaps one of our Kings?)  I can imagine a mischievous twinkle in Dave’s eyes as he waited for the registrar’s reaction when he read Felon. I can imagine Dave smiling and reaching across to slide the form back, cross out Felon and replace it with “none”.

Dave and his brother Clarence, as well as step-brothers John and Euel would all serve in the military during WW1. I can only imagine the worry that their mother Jane must have had while they were serving in the Army. She had lost their brother George in 1914 and I imagine that the possibility of losing Dave, Clarence and/or their step-brothers wore heavy on her mind. But she had little to fear. The War ended soon after Dave was sent to France. Dave would later tell his kids that he had been the Allies’ secret weapon. He would kid and say that if they had only sent him earlier, the War could’ve ended that much sooner!

(Clarence Flornie Smith on arm of chair; Dave Smith sitting in chair)

When Dave returned from the war, he suffered from what one doctor called muscular rheumatism. This doctor said that Dave had acquired the rheumatism in his legs and hips while soldiering in France. The doctor claimed that Dave was “at least ¼ disabled”. Dave never required hospitalization for this but was unable to be on duty for several days. Dave’s son, Donald Doris Smith does not ever recall his father complaining of pain except for occasional headaches. I cannot remember hearing complaints from Dave or Nancy. I imagine that they both saw things that needed to be done and just did them. Complaining would serve no purpose.

During the war, doctors had begun using a new very absorbent material when dressing wounds. This new material would be used for a very practical application following the war. It would not be used by Dave, but by his sisters, his wife, his daughters….. That product was rebranded after the war as Kotex sanitary napkins.

While WWI had raged on resulting in much loss of life, another tragedy struck the world, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. This flu infected roughly a third of the world’s population resulting in many, many deaths. Over 650,000 Americans alone would die from this disease which overwhelmed physicians, hospitals, and undertakers. Many public businesses closed up shop in an effort to prevent the spread of this dreaded disease. Dave’s own Gpa, David Hill Smith would die on September 20, 1918, in Harlan County from this flu. Few families would remain untouched by this disease.

                                                      

                            (Dave’s Gpa, David Hill Smith)

The years 1919 and 1920 would bring big changes on a national level. The 18^th Amendment or Prohibition would be ratified in 1919. The passage of this amendment would result in a period of such lawlessness and crime that another amendment would be passed to repeal it roughly a decade later.

1920 would bring the ratification of the 19^th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. Dave’s mother, his sisters, all of his female acquaintances of voting age could now legally vote. They would have a voice in how they were governed. I daresay that there would be woe to any man who tried to repeal this Amendment!

Now, I do not know when the family moved, but the 1920 census has the family living in dwelling number 90 on Road Run Road in the Allen Community, Clay County, Kentucky. The family consists of; Garret, Jane, 10-year-old Mary, 6-year-old Miley, 25-year-old Dave and 22-year-old Clarence. Dave and Clarence are both listed as being laborers in a mine. The mining and logging industries were the major industries in Eastern Kentucky at this time. Dave’s half-sister Hassy and his step-brother John are not accounted for in this census. I am not certain where they are. Perhaps they have married and moved away or perhaps they have left to find work.

Now the 1920 census gives us a bit of interesting information. Another family has moved from Harlan County and resides in dwelling number 92 on Road Run Road in the Allen Community, Clay County, Ky. That is the Middleton family consisting of Calvin and Rhoda King Middleton and their children; 19-year-old Nancy, 16-year-old Columbus, 14-year-old Fanny, 11-year-old Dezzie and 8-year-old Fred. Alice Middleton Madden and her family live in dwelling 93.

So, it is not difficult to imagine how Dave Smith and Nancy Middleton met. They were, after all, neighbors. They may have even met each other back in Harlan County. We know that they did indeed meet because on the 30^th day of October, 1921, Dave’s stepfather Garret King joined 28-year-old Dave Smith and 21-year-old Nancy Middleton in holy matrimony. Dave’s mother Jane and a Mr. Roy Campbell served as witnesses. Weddings for Dave and the folks he was acquainted with were usually very simple ceremonies. They were not anything like the lavish affairs that take place today.

                                   (Nancy Middleton Smith)

I do not know where Dave and Nancy lived to begin with, but I imagine it was in Clay County close to both of their parents as their first child Paul was born in Clay County on Jun 27, 1922. I imagine that Dave’s mother Jane could have been the midwife who helped Nancy to deliver some of her babies. Ms. Leola Middleton Becknell Baker has told us through her Stories of a Family stories about Jane serving as a midwife in the community.

So Dave and Nancy were blessed with a baby boy. Unfortunately, their joy would be short-lived, as Paul would die on Aug 28, 1922. He had lived just 2 months and a day. Dave and Nancy buried their little boy in a grave on the hillside behind the home of Nancy’s parents Calvin and Rhoda. Nancy would often get on a mule and ride to the home of her parents to walk up the hill to visit that small grave.

Dave and Nancy would be blessed with their second child Dale on July 5, 1923. They must have moved back to Harlan County for a short time as the Kentucky birth index shows that Dale was born in Harlan County. I’m not sure what the story is behind the rather short term move to Harlan County.

          (Dave’s half-sister Hassie King Hoskins Sturgeon and

             first husband Clay Hoskins, probably around 1924)                                                                                         

1925 would see a rather famous trial spring into prominence nationwide. That trial was the “Scopes Monkey Trial” and this case served an important role in the idea of separation of church and state. 1925 also saw the formation of the Frontier Nursing Service by midwife Mary Breckinridge. The service was formed in Wendover, Kentucky and was dedicated to educating midwives in Appalachia in an effort to make the birthing experience safer for both mothers and their babies. Dave’s granddaughter Glenna Allen would one day work for this organization as a nurse. 

When Dave and Nancy had their 3^rd child, another son, he was born in Owsley County. Sadness would visit Dave and Nancy’s family again when baby Glen would be found dead in his bed on December 9, 1925. Glen would be laid to rest beside his brother Paul on the hillside behind his grandparents’ home on Sextons Creek. Nancy would now have two graves to visit.

But seasons change and the season for death was replaced by the season for birth yet again.  Dave and Nancy would have their first daughter on November 16, 1926. Little Hortense would join three-year-old Dale in the Smith household. Another daughter Carmen would follow on July 16, 1929.

              (Dale Smith, Dave Smith holding Hortense Smith)

                        (Dave Smith holding Hortense Smith)

During the early part of the 20^th century, transportation was gradually evolving. Trains had been present in Eastern Kentucky for some time as a means for transporting the large amount of coal that was mined out of the Kentucky hills to other areas of the country. Folks could also be transported by trains. Of course, many folks had traveled by foot, mule or horse and continued to do so. As roads became better and more numerous, automobiles were increasingly utilized. More and more folks would begin to purchase automobiles for their personal use. Cities began having buses or electric streetcars for citizens to travel about. Rural Anglin Branch did not have a bus service though and the road was not the best even for automobiles. All of these improvements in transportation were not very noticeable to Dave and his family, at least not yet.

                     (Dave’s Step-dad Garrett King on a mule;                                                a common form of travel in those days)

In 1928, serendipitous circumstances would lead Alexander Fleming to invent Penicillin. Penicillin would save countless lives. It would be especially useful during WWII in the treatment of wounds and amputations. Prior to its invention, simple infections could spread rapidly and lead to death.

In October of 1929, the stock market crashed sending Wall Street into a panic. This event led to the Great Depression (1929-39) which was the “deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world.” Businesses went under. Folks lost their jobs.  Many people were touched in many ways and to varying degrees by the Depression. I am sure that Dave’s family was affected in some ways, but Dave’s family had never had a lot of money. They were, for the most part, fairly self-sufficient. They had simple needs, they had land and they knew how to coax that land to produce beans, taters, and corn. I imagine that they were touched by the Depression, but they were fortunate when compared to folks who lived in the city. Those folks were without land and had depended upon factory jobs to provide for their families. Perhaps Dave’s family did without some things, but I do not believe that they ever went entirely hungry. They were blessed because they lived simple Appalachian lives. Just like death, the Great Depression would have to take a backseat to the busyness involved in living and life went on.

The 1930 census shows Dave’s family farming on Anglin Branch in Owsley County, Kentucky. Dave and Nancy’s first home on Anglin Branch would be in a little log cabin in a holler across the road from the home of Lishie and Sarah Green. The family consists of Dave, Nancy, 6-year-old Dale, 3-year-old Hortense and 8-month-old Carmen. Sister Davilee would join the family on November 5th of the following year and brother Wallace would follow on Nov 26, 1933.

(This is Nancy’s sister Fannie Middleton Smith with her children. Dave and Nancy Middleton Smith would live in this house on Anglin Branch before Fannie and her family. Columbus Middleton and his family would later live in it.)

 (Dale Smith holding, perhaps Davilee Smith? and Hortense Smith)

On a national level in 1933, Franklin D Roosevelt would begin a series of federal programs that would be known as the New Deal. These actions were carried out in an effort to help folks who were sinking under the weight of the Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps was formed. This program benefited folks in Dave’s family. His son-in-law John Allen would become part of this program. John, while in the army, would also work in Alaska and help to build the AlCan Highway. The Works Progress Administration would provide jobs for many Americans at a time when employment opportunities were slim to none. They were controversial at the time but they may have kept more than a few Americans from going hungry. The New Deal continued on from 1933-1938.

As if the Great Depression was not enough for the nation to bear, severe drought and decades of damaging farming practices out west led to the Dust Bowl in 1934. Many families were forced to leave their homes as swirling blizzards of earth were continuously stirred up by dry winds. Many lost not only their farms but their health.

Dave’s family would grow yet again with the birth of Wanda on Feb 6, 1936. But the season of grief would revisit Dave’s family. Despite the birth of Wanda, 1936 was not a good year for the family. Wanda was not long for this earth and would die as an infant. She would be buried next to her baby brothers Paul and Glen. Dave’s stepdad Garret would die on Jun 29, 1936. Ms. Leola Middleton Becknell Baker recalls that he would be buried wearing his gold watch. That fact made a lasting impression on 4-year-old Lee. She also remembers family members stopping by Jane’s home on Sextons Creek to pay their respects after Garret’s funeral. Before her own family visited, Ms. Leola’s mother Ida had forewarned the children that Jane would offer them food. She admonished them to not eat anything because Jane would have many folks to feed and they could eat when they returned to their home not far away. Ms. Leola remembers her 2-year-old brother Delbert laying on the floor crying because he wanted one of the salmon patties Jane had prepared for her guests. I imagine that Dave and his family were probably with his mother that day. Dave and others attending Garret’s funeral would be unaware that Jane would die from pneumonia, not even a year later on February 8, 1937. Jane would be laid to rest next to Garret in the Middleton Cemetery in Clay County, Kentucky.

                          (Dave’s step-dad Garrett King holding

                                   Janet [Baker?, perhaps])

                       (Dave’s mother Jane Thomas Smith King)  

   (Mary King Baker, Flornie Smith, Mila King Sandlin Faulkner,

Jane Thomas Smith King and ?Lucinda Trent Lifer Thomas?. Jane's mother)      

On an international level in 1937, Amelia Earhart would disappear while attempting a solo flight over the Pacific Ocean. Five years earlier Amelia became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, but the Pacific flight has led to the mystery to this day of Amelia’s fate. Every so often evidence will come to light that seems to point to Amelia’s fate, but it has never proven to be conclusive. Dave probably heard news such as this on the family radio. Their home did not yet have electricity, but the family had a battery-powered radio that they would gather around to listen to the news and their favorite programs on.

It was around this time, that Dave would move his family a little piece up Anglin Branch to the narrow ribbon of creek bottom that some of us are familiar with. Nancy’s sister Fannie and her family would move into the cabin Dave and Nancy were vacating. When Fannie and Evan moved from that little cabin, Columbus and his family would move into it. Boy, if walls could talk, the walls of that cabin could’ve told us stories about many family members!

Dave’s family lived in a small structure already on the new property while the house that we knew and loved was being built. Just six months after the death of his mother Jane, Dave and Nancy would have another son, Donald Doris Smith. He would be born in August of 1937 and was the first baby born in their new home.

            (Dave and Nancy Middleton Smith’s second home on Anglin Branch; They would live in a small building behind this house while it was being built.)

    

                          (Dave and Nancy’s well on Anglin 

                        had the sweetest, coolest water around!)

          (Grandpa Dave Smith’s beautiful tobacco. The field was

               plowed using a mule-drawn plow and would hang

                         in the “new” tobacco barn on the right)

                     (Grandpa Dave’s old barn on Anglin Branch)

     (??, Wallace Smith, Davilee Smith, Carmen Smith and dolls!)                             

         (Wallace Smith and Carmen Smith holding Donald Smith)

   (Wallace Smith, Nancy Middleton Smith holding Donald Smith,            Dale Smith, Davilee Smith in front; Carmen Smith in back)

On July 7, 1937, less than a month prior to Donald’s birth an event involving remote countries occurred. This event led to Japan and China entering into war. Dave usually took a newspaper and so he and his family probably read the news of the event. If not they probably heard about it on the radio.  A little over two years after Donald’s birth, on Sept 1, 1939 another seemingly remote event occurred. At the time, it may have seemed too remote to take much note of. That event was the invasion of Poland by Germany. Britain and France would declare war on Germany two days later.

Meanwhile, life went on for Dave and his family on their remote creek bottom farm on Anglin. Sometime in the winter of 1938-1939, little Doris who had just begun to toddle around fell into the fire in the fireplace. He burnt his face , particularly around his left eye. For about a month, Dave’s family was uncertain if little Doris would live. I am sure that the entire family was worried about him and prayed for Doris. God answered their prayers and he did live.

Life eventually returned to “normal” and on Feb 17, 1940, Dave and Nancy would have a baby girl. They named her Janie Joyce. Janie Joyce would appear on the 1940 census with the rest of Dave’s family. The family now consists of Dave, Nancy and their children; 16-year-old Dale, 13-year-old Hortense, 10-year-old Carmen, 8-year-old Davilee, 6-year-old Wallace, 2-year-old Doris and 2-month-old Janie Joyce.

           (Wallace Smith and Dale Smith holding Donald Smith)

On December 13, 1940, less than two weeks before Christmas, Janie Joyce died. She was buried in the little hillside cemetery behind the home of Nancy’s parents on Sextons Creek. Now Nancy would have the graves of four babes to visit. Christmas was never the grand affair in Dave’s home as it has become in present-day, but I imagine that that Christmas was particularly low-key due to the death of little Janie Joyce. The apples, oranges, and nuts found in their Christmas stockings would probably taste a little less sweet that year.

             (Donald Smith in front; Davilee Smith and Wallace             Smith in middle; Hortense Smith and Carmen Smith in back)

But once again the minutia of living took precedence over the enormity and finality of death. Dave and Nancy had six young’ uns to take care of and life went on with little time for grief. There were never-ending chores to do; animals had to be taken care of, cows had to be milked, eggs had to be collected, gardens had to be raised, tobacco bases had to be cared for, food had to be preserved for winter, hogs had to be slaughtered come cool weather, meals had to be prepared, clothes had to be washed, coal had to be dug from the hillsides…… The endless minutia of living takes a back seat to no one or no thing.

At some point in this general time frame, Dave’s father- and mother-in-law would separate, I am really not sure as to why, but Ms. Leola thought that it may have been because Calvin wanted to be stricter with their daughter Fern than Rhoda tended to be. Calvin and Rhoda remained friends, but they would no longer live together as man and wife.

             (Dave’s in-laws; Calvin and Rhoda King Middleton)

And while all of that was taking place on Anglin Branch, those seemingly random events that had been happening across two different oceans were steadily drawing the world into WWII. The United States would enter the War after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. 

I can imagine the shock when Dave, his family and friends heard this news. Those seemingly remote events had turned very personal. The United States moved from providing assistance to the Allied forces to becoming an active participant in WWII as an Allied force. This was a very global war involving war on two separate fronts. Young men were enlisting or registering for the draft. Dave and Nancy’s oldest son Dale was one of those young men. Dale registered and then went on with his life as did many other young men in the family and in the area.

           (Brothers; Donald Smith, Dale Smith and Wallace Smith)

Now, Oscar and Laura Sandlin Edwards lived just down the road from Dave and Nancy on Anglin Branch Road. They had a daughter, Martha and a son Ralph Glen. They lived in a little white house that nestled back in a little holler. It was always surrounded by beautiful flowers that Laura raised, but it seems that the flower that had caught Dale’s eye was Oscar and Laura’s daughter Martha. 

             (Dave’s neighbors; Oscar and Laura Sandlin Edwards

                        with some of Laura's beautiful flowers.)

                            (Martha Edwards and Dale Smith)

Sometime prior to February of 1943, Dale would marry Martha Edwards. They would reside in the old Garrett King place on Sextons Creek Road not far from the homes of their parents. They would not be married long before Dale was called into service. Dale would serve in the Army from February 16, 1943 – Jan 8, 1946. Dale would serve in the Pacific theater of the war. This young man from the hills of Eastern Kentucky would see places as far away as Burma and China. The only trouble is that he would not get to enjoy his travels. He would seldom even speak of the sights he saw or his experiences abroad.

                 (Dale Smith and his bride Martha Edwards Smith)  

(Dale Smith)

Others would also serve in WWII; Berlin Middleton, Gordon Smith, Denver King, Fred King, Kester Allen, Kenneth Allen, Dewey Byrd, Ed Byrd, Bruce Moore, Opal Peters, Roy Davidson, Robert Saylor….. all folks related to, neighbors of, or known by Dave and his family. I am certain that Dave and his family said many prayers on behalf of Dale and all of the others.

    (Wallace Smith and Donald Smith, protecting the homefront!) 

           (Donald Smith and Wallace Smith; brothers, best friends,

                    defenders of the  homefront, partners in crime)

Now while Dale was in the service, Dave’s daughter-in-law Martha would move to Ohio to find work. Many folks from Kentucky would migrate to Ohio in order to make a living. She would remain there until sometime after Dale returned from the War.

Meanwhile on Anglin Branch, Dave and Nancy would see the arrival of their last child. They would have a son on Feb 1, 1944. They named him Gayle Edward Smith. Daughter Hortense would begin teaching at the school on Anglin after graduating from Oneida. Her brother Donald Doris would receive the only whipping he ever got in school from Hortense. I suppose that he learned quickly that he would have to toe the line in school even though the teacher was his sister!

  (Hortense Smith with her Anglin Branch school kids. Donald Smith is in the middle of front row in dark clothes, Davilee Smith is in back row, right of center,)

I would like to insert a side note into Dave’s story here. Education seemed to be a thing of importance to Dave and Nancy. Dave would subscribe to the newspaper whenever possible and kept himself educated on what was happening in the world. He seemed to want his children to be educated also and he and Nancy encouraged their children to go to school. I do not know dates and such, but all of Dave and Nancy’s children attended the schoolhouse on Anglin. Dale completed a couple years at Berea. Hortense and Carmen graduated from the Oneida Baptist Institute. Davilee finished a couple years at the Oneida Baptist Institute. Wallace finished his education at the Anglin Branch schoolhouse. Donald Doris would go to Oneida Baptist Institute for a couple weeks. Kids who went to the Oneida Baptist Institute lived there and did work to earn their keep, so to speak. Doris’ work was farm work. The farm work would usually take longer to finish than the other Institute chores and was a distance away from the dining hall. He says that by the time he and the farmworkers had finished their chores, everyone else would’ve already eaten their supper and there would be little left for the “farmers” to eat. It only took a couple weeks with little supper to show Doris that Oneida was just not the school for him. He returned back to Anglin Branch and went on to graduate from Owsley County High School. Son Gayle went to Owsley County High School also. Sometime during his sophomore year, they quit running the bus to Anglin and Gayle refused to go anymore. A week or so later, they resumed the bus route and tried to get Gayle to come back, but Gayle balked and refused to return.

          (Oneida Baptist Institute where some of Dave and Nancy’s                              kids attended; Hortense Smith is on right)

Dave’s only surviving brother Clarence was a merchant in Harlan County. He lived with his wife Nell and his two sons, Billy and Robert. On Jan 20, 1945, Clarence would be shot at a café he owned and would die from that gunshot wound. He would be buried in Resthaven Cemetery in Loyall, Harlan County, Kentucky. I am not certain of how Dave received news of his brother’s death. Perhaps a neighbor with a phone would have been called with the information. Dave attended the services for Clarence in Harlan County, but once again, there was not much time for grief.

                                   (Clarence "Flornie" Smith)

Dave and Nancy lived on Anglin and were quite isolated, but Dave subscribed to the newspaper and they also had a radio to listen to. They would hear and read of world events. I imagine with son Dale and so many others away fighting in WWII, Dave’s interest in world events was heightened. I can imagine his horror at hearing the atrocities attributed to the Nazis. I can imagine his confusion at the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent into camps. I can imagine the shock at hearing that an atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and then another atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki on his son Doris’ eighth birthday. I can imagine the horror he felt upon seeing pictures of those cities afterward. I think that the war not only scarred those who fought in it, but those left at home also. I can also imagine the joy felt when the headlines finally proclaimed that the War was over, first in Europe and then in Japan! The war was over but there was much healing to happen.

On February 1, 1946 Dave’s daughter Hortense would marry a young man who she had most likely met in church. That young man was John Allen from nearby Teges in Clay County. Hortense and John married on Hortense’s baby brother Gayle’s second birthday. Hortense and her new husband would move to Dayton, Ohio where John would work in the automotive industry. Hortense and John would give Dave and Nancy their first grandchild when their son Gerald Allen was born in December of 1946. Over the years they would bless Dave and Nancy with three more grandchildren; Patricia (Sissy) in 1949, Glenna in 1953 and Darryl Wayne in 1960.

                                      (Hortense Smith Allen)

                 

                       (John Allen and Hortense Smith Allen)

                                          

                 (Gerald Allen; Dave and Nancy’s first grandchild)        

Dave’s son Dale would return from the War early in 1946. He would remain with Martha in Ohio for a short time before they both returned to Kentucky to live on Sextons Creek Road right where Anglin Branch Road teed into Sextons Creek Road. He and Martha would give Dave and Nancy their second grandchild Lynn in April of 1947.

Sometime in the winter of 47-48, Dave and Nancy would send ten-year-old Doris to stay with the family of Hortense and John in Dayton, Ohio. He went there to have surgery on the area around his eye that he had burnt when he fell into the fire as a toddler. He would have a second surgery after the first of the year. The doctor wanted to perform a third surgery, but Doris would have nothing to do with it. He stayed with Hortense’s family for 3-4 months before returning to his parents on Anglin. I am sure that Dave and Nancy were glad to have Doris back. I am also certain that brother Wallace was happy to see him again. Wallace and Doris were and still are, not only brothers but good friends.

Sometime in the late forties or early fifties, Dave and Nancy would get an old truck. This would prove very useful. They would no longer have to walk or ride a mule to go to the smaller local general stores. They could go to the larger stores in Booneville or Manchester in neighboring Clay County. They had a means to go places more easily than before.

              (Dave and an old truck would make travel much

                              easier for Dave and his family)

(The old truck would allow Dave’s family to shop further away than nearby Davidson’s.)

The development of the atomic bomb during WWII  and the realization of its destructiveness led to a nuclear arms race and an uneasy relationship between the United States and the USSR. Fear had been planted into the minds of people everywhere of the possibility of nuclear annihilation. This made it easier for folks like Senator Joseph McCarthy to go on witch hunts for Communist sympathizers. From 1950-1954, McCarthy and others like him accused people left and right without credible evidence. They fed on fear, fear that made the nation ripe for such nonsense. This was a dark period for our country.

The flames of the fear of the spread of communism led the United States to become involved in yet another war. That war was the Korean War. The US sent troops to South Korea to prevent communist North Korean troops from invading South Korea and spreading communism to that country. One of the soldiers who served in this war was Jesse Byrd, Dave’s neighbor. Several soldiers from Kentucky distinguished themselves in the Korean War. “The 623^rd Field Artillery was the only front-line unit in the Korean War from Kentucky and received the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation.” The Korean War ended pretty much in a stalemate with Korea permanently divided into communist North Korea and non-communist South Korea.

It was sometime around 1952-1953 that Dave’s son Donald Doris would run electric to Dave and Nancy’s home. This would enable them to purchase a refrigerator and allow them to store food for longer periods of time and under safer conditions. The couple would no longer have to rely on lamps or candles to provide light in the evenings. They would be able to purchase an electric stove, They would not have to worry about chopping wood to keep the oven and stove hot. Electric must have been a very welcome improvement to the couple.

In 1953, as the Korean War was ending, a man named Jonas Salk developed a working vaccine for polio. Polio was a devastating illness that had touched folks from all walks of life. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had even suffered from the disease resulting in lifelong weakness. The development of this vaccine was a huge thing. Jonas Salk could have made a lot of money from his vaccine, instead, he provided an example that big pharma should be trying to emulate today. Rather than making lots of money, he considered his vaccine as a public service. If only the world had more Jonas Salks!

The Supreme Court would deliver a landmark decision in 1954. Up until this point, it was deemed that separate but equal was an equitable and fair solution to the reintroduction of freed blacks into society following the Civil War. But in 1954 a man named Oliver Brown would sue the Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas on the grounds that separate but equal was, in fact, anything but equal. The Supreme Court agreed and desegregation would begin in the country. Though the decision was handed down, the rift between white society and black society was anything but bridged. Tensions would remain for years. Again, as in other earth-shattering events, I doubt that this landmark decision changed much in the life of Dave and his family on Anglin Branch.

Life continued on Anglin, much the same as before. The family raised their garden, they cared for their animals, they gathered eggs, milked the cow, drew water, tended tobacco bases…..did all the same chores they had done before. At some time Gma would get an old wringer type washer, so the laundry chore had gotten a bit easier, but most other chores remained pretty much unchanged.

                                (Dave Smith milking the cow.)

            (Nancy Middleton Smith, probably checking the laundry

                                after feeding the chickens.)

      (A visit back home: Gayle Smith, Dave Smith and Gerald Allen in front; Hortense Smith Allen holding Patricia “Sissy” Allen in back)

           

                   (Gerald Allen in wagon, Gayle Smith in back)

Nancy would continue to go to visit the graves of her babes and she would always visit her mother Rhoda on the way. She may have seen her brother Fred’s family sometimes too. At some point Fred had moved into the larger home that Calvin and Rhoda had raised their family in and Rhoda had moved into a small cabin close to her old home. So Dave’s wife Nancy would see her mother nearly every Sunday when she visited the graves of her babies. Dave’s family also attended the Anglin Church down the road, but Dave and Nancy otherwise generally stayed at home.

                             (Anglin Branch Meeting House)

-

The seasons were due to change though. Dale’s wife became ill with Hodgkins disease. Martha would die on July 5, 1954, on Dale’s thirty-first birthday. This happened to be her younger brother Glen’s birthday, as well. She left Dale and a seven-year-old daughter Lynn. Martha would be buried in a lone grave on the land of the farm where she and Dale had lived. Tragedy would strike once again the following year when Rhoda King Middleton passed away on October 23, 1955. Rhoda would be buried in the same little hilltop cemetery that Dave and Nancy’s four babes were buried in.

                        (Lynn Smith in front; Dale Smith and

                             Martha Edwards Smith in back)

While son Dale had returned to live near Nancy and Dave, other children were spreading their wings and flying further. Daughter Carmen had graduated from Oneida and moved to Ohio in search of work. Carmen would meet and fall in love with Jim Fuller and they would marry. They would bless Dave and Nancy with a granddaughter, Donna Jean in July of 1948. Carmen and Jim would eventually relocate to Winchester, Kentucky. Jim would die in an automobile accident in 1963 and Carmen would eventually relocate to the Washington D C area and marry Walter Meinzer.

                              (Carmen Smith Fuller Meinzer)

                 (Carmen Smith Fuller and Jim Fuller’s wedding)

Daughter Davilee also moved to Ohio for work. There she met Sherlock Sutherland. Davilee and Sherlock would marry and give Dave and Nancy two grandchildren; Larry David in 1949 and Karyn Sue in 1957. Davilee and Sherlock would eventually divorce and Davilee would marry Kenneth (Kenny) Clark. Davilee would live in a home next door to her sister Hortense for years and would remain in the Dayton area for her lifetime.

                                          

                             (Davilee Smith Sutherland Clark) 

                              (Davilee Smith in Dayton, Ohio)

               (Sherlock Sutherland and Davilee Smith Sutherland)

Meanwhile back on Anglin. Dave and Nancy had their boys Wallace, Doris and Gayle still at home. Life continued on Anglin Branch much as it always had. There were myriad chores to do, just as there had always been. It would not be long before Wallace also moved to Ohio for work. Son Donald would follow his siblings to Ohio shortly after he graduated from Owsley County High School.

Now Dave and Nancy were still there on Anglin Branch. The only child who remained with them was their youngest, Gayle. Sometime in 1951 or later, a young boy named Billy Nolen would come to live with Dave’s family. Billy was the nephew of John Allen, husband of Hortense.

            (Maude King Middleton, Hassie King Hoskins Sturgeon,

                           Calvin Middleton and Gayle Smith)

John’s sister and Billy’s mother Rachel had died in December of 1950. When Rachel died, she left her widower Boyd with seven young children. The oldest Loretta was only nine and the youngest Johnnie was only ten months old. John’s brother-in-law Boyd tried but just could not manage to keep the young family together. Loretta and Johnnie went to live with the family of John’s sister Alta. The backs of John and Hortense’s home and the home of Alta were separated only by a field. Billy and his sister Fannie would live briefly with Uncle John. Billy would later live with Dave and Nancy for over a year one time and a few months another time before going to the Kentucky Children’s Home to live. He and Gayle were about the same age so Billy was probably good company for Gayle while he had lived with Dave’s family.

                               (Billy Nolen and Gayle Smith)

     

                                (Billy Nolen and Gayle Smith)

                                       (Gayle Edward Smith)

                      (Nancy Middleton Smith and David Smith)     

Dave’s son Dale would remarry in 1955. He would marry Leona (Naomi) Edwards Sandlin, a young widow who had lost her husband the year before. They would stay nearby and give Dave and Nancy a grandson, Roger Dale, in September of 1957. Dale and his family would stay in Owsley County until moving to a farm in  Wartrace, Tennessee sometime around 1962.

                

                 (Dale Smith and Leona “Naomi” Edwards Smith)

  (A rare outing; Dale Smith, Naomi Edwards Smith and Larry Sutherland in front; Nancy Middleton Smith, Dave Smith, Davilee Smith Sutherland and ?Calvin or Columbus Middleton?)

Dave’s son Dale was very forward-thinking for his day. He was running television cable before there were even cable companies. Before moving his family to Tennessee, Dale ran a television cable to Dave’s home. The family would be able to add a television to its growing list of home improvements. Dave would be able to see news actually happen from the comfort of his living room on Anglin Branch. Whenever the picture got snowy, Dave would walk up to the top of the hill checking for anything that had fallen onto his cable interfering with his picture. He would clear the line and return to his show.

Dave’s son Wallace would marry Alpha King in December of 1956. Alpha had grown up on Sextons Creek, not far from Anglin Branch. She was also some kind of cousin. It is easy to see how Wallace and Alpha met. The couple would reside in Ohio and still reside in Loveland, Ohio today. Wallace and Alpha would bless Dave and Nancy with grandson Anthony (Tony) in November of 1971.

                          (Wallace Smith and Alpha King Smith)

Donald (Doris) would meet Loretta Nolen somewhere along the way. Remember, Loretta lived across the field from Hortense and John’s home with John’s sister and was John’s niece. She naturally would have visited her Uncle and Aunt’s family. Donald would also naturally visit his sister Hortense and her family.

Donald and Loretta did indeed meet as they would marry in December of 1957. They would also reside in Dayton, Ohio. For a while, they lived in a little trailer behind Davilee’s home and later they lived just a couple streets over, within walking distance from Hortense, Davilee and her Aunt Alta. Donald and Loretta would give Dave and Nancy another granddaughter, April in February of 1960. They would have a son David Gayle in February of 1962. In 1968, Donald’s family would move to Wartrace, Tennessee and live only about a mile down the road from his brother Dale’s family.

           (Wedding Day; Donald Smith and Loretta Nolen Smith)

  (Loretta Nolen Smith, Donna Jean Fuller and Carmen Smith Fuller)

               (Dale’s Wartrace farm; Naomi Edwards Smith, 

                             Dale Smith holding Roger Smith,

                               David Smith and April Smith)

At the time of Donald’s marriage, Dave and Nancy remained on Anglin with their son Gayle. In 1958, Dave’s wife Nancy would suffer a cerebrovascular accident or stroke. Dave did not have a telephone at this time. He could not pick up the phone and call an ambulance. The weather was rather bad at this time too. Anglin Branch Road was basically a dirt road. Anytime it rained, the slick mud would make it very difficult to travel. Somehow, they managed to get Nancy into the truck and get her to Oneida Hospital. Nancy would remain at the hospital for at least two weeks and perhaps more. She was really not expected to make it. I am certain that Dave and the rest of the family worried and prayed that God would help Nancy to make it. Prayers were answered and Nancy did survive, After at least two weeks in the hospital she was able to return to Anglin with Dave. When she first returned home, her son Donald would drop off his wife Loretta to stay and help Dave and Nancy. By this time Nancy was able to walk and talk. Her memory seemed to have suffered the most from the stroke. Loretta would stay a few weeks with Nancy and Dave. When she returned to her home back in Dayton, Ohio, Dave and Nancy’s daughter Hortense came to stay with them. She would have her young daughter Glenna with her. They stayed with Dave and Nancy for a while before returning to their home in Dayton, Ohio.

Throughout the 60s and beyond into the 70s, the US became involved in a war against communist North Vietnam. This war was the first to be televised, and most of the soldiers involved in this war were drafted into service. The horrors depicted on the screen and the fact that most folks had not volunteered to fight created a deep chasm in American Society. Most Kentuckians supported the war initially. “Company D, Ranger, 151^st Infantry, was the only Kentucky regiment to serve in the Vietnam War, and soon became one of the most highly decorated units.” When the war dragged on and on, support lagged until the war became downright unpopular. The war ended when North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon in 1975. The US had lost the war.

Dave had family who served in Vietnam. His grandson Larry David would serve in the Air Force in the war. His grandson-in-law George Corey would lose his life in the Vietnam War, ensuring that Dave’s first great-grandchild George Kevin Corey would never meet his father. Clayton Middleton would lose his life in Vietnam. I’m certain that Dave knew several others that fought in Vietnam.

                                    (Larry David Sutherland)  

                                     (George Edward Corey)

   (Dave and Nancy’s first Great Grandchild; George Kevin Corey)

When the soldiers returned from Vietnam, they were treated atrociously by many of their fellow Americans. They were treated as though the entire war and its loss had been their fault. This was in spite of the fact that most of them were forced to fight in this war. And even if fellow Americans had welcomed these soldiers home, the US was ill-prepared to care for these veterans who had been both physically and mentally damaged. Many soldiers who returned from this war would go to their graves never daring to speak of the horrors they had seen, in many cases, the horrors they had been expected to commit. The Vietnam War was a loss on so, so many fronts.

While the Vietnam War was still young, the United States obtained intelligence that the Soviets were sending nuclear missiles to Cuba. The Cold War was still causing increased tensions between the US and the USSR. Americans feared that nuclear missiles on Cuba would enable a nuclear attack upon American soil. Then President John F Kennedy set up a blockade so that Soviet ships would be unable to deliver their nuclear cargo to Cuba.

I am certain that this tension even made its way to Anglin Branch. Memories of those scenes from the atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki probably haunted Dave and many others during this tense time. I imagine that Dave scoured his newspapers and listened carefully to radio news programs hoping to find news of a peaceful resolution. The US ships and the Soviet ships had an uneasy standoff for 13 days before the Soviets agreed to dismantle weapons already located in Cuba. I imagine that the entire world sighed in relief at that news.

The 60s were a very turbulent era. On the 22^nd of November, 1963, Dave would hear the news of JFK’s assassination. He would undoubtedly see photos in his newspaper and scenes on the television of JFK’s wife Jackie climbing upon the back of the convertible they were riding in after her husband was shot. He would most likely see photos of Vice President Johnson being sworn in upon a plane. He would no doubt see little John Jr. saluting his father’s casket on the television.

The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. This act “outlawed all racial discrimination in employment, education and all public places”. This act did not completely alleviate tension between the races, but it was a beginning. Leaders still spoke out advocating racial equality. In 1968, Dave would hear news that a known racist, James Earl Ray, had assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. MLK was a well-known and respected civil rights advocate. He spoke out encouraging non-violent protests for racial equality. James Earl Ray’s bullet may have silenced MLK’s voice, but his words are still known and loved today and his dream has not died.

1969 would bring some rather unbelievable news to Dave. He would see on television the convergence of around 500,000 people at a music festival in upstate New York. It would probably seem very strange to see all of these young folks who had traveled so far to listen to music that Dave may have had difficulty even recognizing as music. He may have thought back on his own youth and remembered the rows of corn and beans that would’ve gone untended had he done such a thing. I kinda think that Dave might have somehow enjoyed those young folks just bein able to do something so impractical without worrying about chores.

Woodstock may have dropped Dave’s jaw a bit. But if Woodstock hadn’t dropped his jaw, watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon probably did. Dave had heard of man’s first flight back when he had been a young boy in Harlan. That first flight had awed him and now man was walking on the moon; what wonders Dave had witnessed in his life!

Now as the Vietnam War was being fought, Gayle was the only one of their children left with Dave and Nancy. He was not one to sit still; he was always out and about. Somewhere along the way, he met a young woman named Elizabeth (Betty) Farmer. Gayle and Betty would move to the farm his brother Dale had bought in Tennessee and live there for around a year. Dale had bought the farm which had dairy cows on it. Dale’s family would not move to the farm for about a year after they purchased it. Gayle and Betty would live on the farm and take care of the cows and the farm until Dale was ready to move his family there.

After Gayle and Betty returned to Kentucky they would live with Dave and Nancy and begin their family there on Anglin Branch. They had their first child Philip in February of 1963. On the eleventh of July following Philip’s birth, Dave’s father-in-law Calvin Middleton would die. He would be buried in the little cemetery behind the Corinth Baptist Church.

Gayle’s family would continue to grow. Philip would be joined by Deborah in 1964, Paul in 1967, Dianne in 1969 and Rhonda in 1972. Gayle’s family would live with Dave and Nancy until moving to Teges. They would live there for a while but would return to live once again with Dave and Nancy on Anglin Branch.

             (Paul Smith and Debbie Smith in front; Philip Smith             and Betty Farmer Smith holding Dianne Smith in back)  

         (Dianne Smith, Debbie Smith and Rhonda Smith in front;

                          Philip Smith and Paul Smith in back)                          

At some point while Gayle’s family lived with Dave and Nancy, Dave would experience a nosebleed. Dave would occasionally have nosebleeds, but they would usually stop without incident. On this particular occasion, Dave’s nosebleed would just not stop. Philip recalls his Gpa Dave holding a washbasin under his head to catch the blood. Someone asked for Nancy’s brother Columbus Middleton to be fetched. One of the children ran to a neighbor who had a car. The neighbor brought Columbus back and Columbus asked for someone who believed to say a Bible verse with him so that Dave’s nose would stop bleeding. Dave’s daughter-in-law Betty said that she believed. Columbus and Betty said the verse and immediately, Dave’s nosebleed stopped!

(Columbus Middleton and his second wife Maude King Middleton)

Dave’s son Gayle and his daughter-in-law Betty would eventually divorce. Gayle would marry Sue Adams Mills in 1981. Sue had also been previously married and had several children. When the two families joined together, they resided in London, Kentucky.

Now except for Gayle’s family, most of Dave and Nancy’s children lived a distance away from them. The families of Hortense, Davilee and Wallace lived in the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio area. Carmen lived near Washington D C. The families of Dale and Donald would live in Wartrace, Tennessee. Though Dave’s family was spread a distance away, the families would try to return to Anglin to visit as often as possible.

Anglin Branch Road was a dirt road and then later it was gravel. When we visited Gma and Gpa, in my young mind, it seemed that that road actually took us back in time. Sometimes if it was raining when we were visiting, we could not even drive our car up the muddy and slippery lane. We would have to get out and walk part of the way. We would travel around a curve here, over a slight rise there….and then down on that narrow ribbon of creek bottom on the left would be Gma and Gpa’s little white frame house.

When they knew we were coming, I think that they listened for our car to come up the road. Gpa Dave would more than likely be standing out on the porch, anticipating company. When we got there we would run up the stone steps onto the back porch to be greeted by two of the humblest and sweetest folks to ever live. Gpa Dave would be wearing his old fedora hat and either bib overalls or his khaki-colored work-type clothes. Gma would be barefoot and wearing a cotton housedress and a bib apron with her hair pulled back in a bun. We would excitedly greet our grandparents with hugs and kisses before making our way into the green vinyl tiled kitchen. The screen door would slam as we all got inside and the overhead circular neon light would be humming a familiar tune. More than likely we would be thirsty from our drive and run into the dining room and grab the dipper from the metal water pail and drink water before passing that communal dipper to the next in line. Gma would probably have a simple but delicious meal prepared for us. Gpa Dave had heart problems as long as I can remember. He had to use salt substitute while the rest of us would pinch a bit of salt from a dish to sprinkle on our food. There would be plenty of fresh milk and butter that Gma had made from the cream she would skim from the top of the milk Gpa had coaxed from the cow.

Gpa Dave and Gma Nancy did not have a television or a telephone for years. When they did have TV, there were only a few channels and even fewer programs of interest to a child. They did not have an indoor bathroom. Cellphones, video games and computers were things that we had not yet dreamed of, but when we visited Gpa and Gma, I don’t ever remember being bored. There were animals; chickens, hogs, a milk cow, a mule, a horse….. There was a creek to wade with minnows and crawdaddies to catch. There were flat rocks to try to skip. There was the steep hill behind Gpa Dave’s house that was a challenge to try to climb. There were two front doors connected by a long front porch outside and two front rooms inside. It was ever so fun to chase my brother or a cousin in one of those doors and out the other over and over and over, the screen doors slamming every time! There was the walk down the path to the outhouse and the toilet paper that you ripped out of a catalog instead of tearing from the roll. There was just sitting in a slat-backed woven bottomed chair on the front porch listening to the music of rain on the tin roof watching Gpa Dave send curls of aromatic cedar to the porch floor. There was watching the mists rise from the hills that surrounded Gpa and Gma’s house and learning that Gpa Dave had a giant friend who lived in the hills. When I could see that mist rising, Gpa’s giant friend was smoking his pipe. There were lizards to stalk on the stone steps or on the sides of the well. There were board games and games of rummy to play. There was keeping an eye on Gpa when the hand was over to make sure that he didn’t try to pull in the discards among his points. All the while he’d have a little grin on his face and a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. There was dirt in the lane leading to Gpa’s house to mound into piles and make into mud pies. There was watching Gpa or Dad or Uncle Gayle take out a pocket knife and slice off a chaw of tobacco and then listening to the ping of the juice against the side of an old coffee tin. There were scary tales to listen to when Cousin Glenna happened to be visiting at the same time. There were old iron bedsteads piled with Gma’s quilts and listening to popping coals in the grate in the winter. There were cool sheets and the touch of a slight breeze coming through the open windows in the summer. Sometimes there was even a mad dash to pull down those windows when a rain blew up. And when that rain came, there was the wonderful perfume of rich moist earth hanging in the air. There was even a kind of excitement in squatting over a big lard can in the middle of the night and hearing your pee pinging against the side of the can. There were occasional “rides” on the mule or the horse Silver. And the best part of it all was being with a family that you loved and that loved you in return. Yes, some might have felt that there really wasn’t much to do there on Anglin Branch; but when a place is magical, the ordinary becomes the extraordinary and the mundane becomes an adventure, especially for a young city-slicker grandchild!

So Dave and his wife Nancy lived there on Anglin. They lived there doing all of the chores that needed to be done, taking care of the busyness of living. Gma pretty much stayed there at the home place most all of the time. Gpa was there most of the time except when company came and drove him to either Booneville or Manchester to go to the general store. There he would buy sugar, coffee, meal, flour, Bob’s candy sticks….. Occasionally Nancy would ask him to pick up a card for a birthday coming up and then he would study all of the cards in search of just the right one. Except for those few excursions, both Dave and Nancy would, for the most part, be at their home there on Anglin. They would both anticipate those visits from children, grandchildren or neighbors. Dave would always listen for the mail to come up the lane so he could walk up to the mailbox and retrieve the newspaper and maybe a letter with news from one of the children. Dave and Nancy probably both hungered for those visits and those letters.

Over time, Nancy began having “mini-strokes”. She would recuperate physically, but her memory began to worsen every time she had one of these episodes. After one such episode, in the summer of 1971 or 1972, Dave and Nancy’s daughter Hortense came with her youngest children Glenna and Darryl. They stayed for some time to help Dave with Nancy. Glenna remembers that they stayed so long that Glenna had not brought enough clothes with her. Dave and Nancy’s neighbor Nell Allen searched through clothes that her daughters had outgrown to give Glenna so she could have more clothes. But Hortense had to return home eventually and Dave and Nancy remained there on Anglin.

Sometime around this period of time, an indoor toilet was put into a little closet off of Dave and Nancy’s living room. I am sure that this made it easier for Nancy, but Dave’s granddaughter Glenna has told me that Dave told her once that he could just never feel right about using the bathroom in the same place he lived. A telephone would also be added to Dave’s home around this time. Now, Dave would have a phone to call for help should he ever need it.

VISITING GRANDPA AND GRANDMA

 (Larry Sutherland and Lynn Smith

Gayle Smith, Dave Smith and Davilee Smith Sutherland in back)

                       (Donald Smith and Loretta Nolen Smith)

                                      (Patricia “Sissy” Allen)

     (Donald Smith on step; Nancy Middleton Smith in background)

                    (Philip Smith, David Smith and April Smith)

        (Philip Smith in front; April Smith and Karyn Sutherland 

               in middle; David Smith and Darryl Allen in back)

(Nancy Middelton Smith in front left; Davilee Smith Sutherland, Dave Smith and Dale Smith in middle; Carmen Smith Fuller, Hortense Smith Allen, Gayle Smith and  Donald Smith in back)

                       (Nancy Middleton Smith and Dave Smith)

      (A couple of our primo gardeners; Gayle Smith and John Allen)

                (Dave Smith wearing his classic fedora and overalls)

      (50th Anniversary; Nancy Middleton Smith and Dave Smith)

(50^th Anniversary get-together; Dave Smith, Nancy Middleton Smith, Davilee Smith Sutherland and Dale Smith in front; Carmen Smith Fuller, Hortense Smith Allen, Wallace Smith, Gayle Smith and Donald Smith in back)

(50^th Anniversary get-together, the grandkids; Philip Smith walking across; Dianne Smith, Debbie Smith and David Smith in front row; Karyn Sutherland, Lynn Smith Free, Glenna Allen in front of Sissy Allen, Donna Fuller Corey Graves, Darryl Allen and April Smith in second row; Roger Dale Smith and Gerald Allen in back)

                  (Dave Smith in his classic Dickeys and fedora hat)

       

                        (Dave Smith in foreground playing cards; 

                          Grandson David Smith in background)

                   (Playing in the creek was a favorite activity 

                                when visiting Gpa and Gma;

                             Darryl Allen and David Smith)

(Patricia “Sissy” Allen sitting on the footbridge over Anglin Branch)

In March of 1974, a series of devastating tornadoes would hit Kentucky and would become the worst storm disaster in Kentucky history. Twenty-six tornadoes touched down across several counties in the span of nine hours. This series of weather disasters caused 31 deaths and over 220 injuries. It led to the development of Doppler radar so that people would have an earlier warning about approaching bad weather.

But Dave was facing a personal storm during that same year. Caring for Nancy gradually began to wear on Dave. Nancy began to wander off and Dave had to constantly be aware to prevent Nancy from being hurt. In the latter part of 1974, Dave and Nancy would go to Tennessee to live with their son Dale’s family. It must have been very difficult to leave that magical place on Anglin Branch, but it seems that even the magic of Anglin could not clear the fog in Nancy’s mind and memory.

Dave and Nancy stayed with Dale until sometime during the first part of 1975. Nancy kept talking about wanting to go home, wanting to go home the whole time they were at Dale’s house. Any time Dave and other family members got Nancy’s mind off of home, before you knew it, Nancy would be talking about wanting to go home to Angin Branch again. Sometimes Nancy would take off walking up the hill behind Dale’s house in search of Anglin. Dale’s wife Naomi would follow her to be able to eventually guide her back to the house. Eventually, Nancy wore Dave down and he agreed to go back to Anglin.

(In Tennessee: Clockwise from left; Jennifer Free, Dave Smith, Roger Smith and Dale Smith; standing; Naomi Edwards Smith, Lynn Smith Free and the other folks may be Duane Free’s folks, don’t know where Gma was)

So Dave and Nancy returned home to Anglin Branch. But the magic of Anglin Branch was still not enough. Dave tried to manage. I’m sure that he would have loved nothing better than to be able to give Nancy the gift of staying home, but it was not to be. Dave called his son Donald and told him that it was just not possible for him to keep Nancy safe. He asked Donald if he could come pick them up. Donald told him that he would be there on the weekend. Donald and his wife Loretta went to Angin that weekend, but when they arrived Dave and Nancy were not there. Hortense and her husband John had gone to Anglin, picked up Nancy and Dave, and returned to their home in Dayton with them. So Dave and Nancy would now live with their daughter Hortense’s family on Maeder Avenue in Dayton, Ohio.

Now Nancy would still talk of wanting to go home. Sometimes she would even get outside and wander up the road in search of Anglin. Someone was always around to follow her. Now Nancy’s mind was not good, but her body could still travel a right smart piece. Darryl her grandson said that sometimes he would walk with her thinking that she would soon tire and be easily led back to the house, but this was not often the case. John would eventually put a chain-link fence around their yard in an effort to keep Nancy from being able to sneak off. So for 2-3 years, Dave and Nancy lived there on Maeder. They would be able to see the day to day lives of some of their grandchildren there on Maeder. Dave would see his granddaughter Glenna go off to nursing school. Glenna remembers how after seeing her dissection kit, her Gpa would ask her on weekends when she came home if she had cut any throats that week. Dave would be able to spend much time with his grandson Darryl and would share stories with him. Dave and Nancy would be visited by many folks there on Maeder; they would even be visited by Santa there on Maeder. They would be able to see many more folks there on Maeder than they ever would have on Anglin. There would always be someone around, but I am sure that their home on Anglin Branch was a sweet memory not only for Nancy, but for Dave, as well.

          (Nancy Middleton Smith, Santa Terry Rex and Dave Smith;

                   at John and Hortense Smith Allen’s on Maeder)

                   (Dave Smith at John and Hortense’s on Maeder)

Dave’s mind was always sharp. He kept his rather dry sense of humor for all of his life. That mischievous twinkle would shine in his eyes for all of his life. He kept that twinkle until he and Nancy went to bed on the night of January 12, 1978. Sometime during that night, the heart that had given Dave trouble for so many years but that had been such a very, very good heart, that heart just gave out. Dave left many folks behind who loved him; children, in-laws, grandchildren, great grandchildren….and I imagine that in the memories of those who knew him, his blue eyes will forever shine with that mischievous twinkle.

David (Dave) Smith was buried in Bear Creek Cemetery. His wife Nancy would continue to live with Hortense’s family until her own death on April 24, 1984. She would be buried there beside Dave and she would finally be home with her husband Dave and those babes they buried all of those years ago and so many, many other family members. Both Dave and Nancy would be home with those they loved.

 

                                      (Bear Creek Cemetery)