In order to appreciate how it is or how it might be, our youth need a lesson in the “Old Ways.” Understanding what our ancestors endured will instill a greater respect for their survival and how they prospered.

Our first settlers were lucky to be able to build a log cabin with a fireplace built of local rocks and “chinked” with clay mud. Fire was kept year round because it was needed for cooking as well as heating water to “scald” the dishes and other kitchen utensils, or to scald a chicken so the feathers would come off. Clorox, peroxide and dish detergent, and the general store at which to purchase these items didn’t arrive until about the time the automobile arrived.

The hunters and gatherers provided our food. Rabbits, squirrels, quail, doves, wild turkey and fish were plentiful on the frontier. Wild greens–dryland cress “cressies,” dandelion, narrow dock, horse radish leaves and polk sallet was picked mostly by the women. When the hunters found a “bee tree” (manufactured bee hives had not been designed and built yet), they would mark it so they could return with a vessel to hold the honey and some means of “smoking” the bees away while they took the honey. Sap from sugar maple trees was collected in winter and boiled down to a delicious syrup. To plant a garden, the seed had to be gathered the previous season, dried and labeled. There was no store bought seeds. To have corn for food in winter, many families had ash hoppers and they removed ashes from their fireplace and placed them in the ash hopper. Rain on the ashes caused a fairly weak lye to drain from the hopper into a container and the solution when heated in water in an iron kettle would skin the hull from corn and hominy was made. Many families planted both white and yellow corn. The shelled corn was fed to the chickens, ducks and turkeys. Mature corn on the cobb was fed to the hogs along with table scraps in water called “slop.” A smaller grain corn called “Popcorn” was shelled and popped in a wire popper; or, if you didn’t have a popper, a large skillet with a lid could be used over the open fire in the fireplace to pop the corn. To have vegetables in winter, cabbage, pumpkin, cushaw, turnips and squash were holed up below the frost line to avoid freezing.

Juices were canned, and wine was made and kept in crocks in a cellar. Salt pickles were processed in large crocks and when ready to eat placed in a flour sack and left in the spring box a few days so they would not be so salty. A little vinegar, sugar, and dill could be added before serving.

Neighbors exchanged seeds and plants and vegetables when in season. Neighbors helped each other harvest crops. It was almost impossible to make it alone, and helping each other created a sense of community. When one family’s cow(s) went dry and their neighbor had milk, a family member would take a bucket to the neighbors to get milk. When a new mother could not nurse her baby, the daddy or other family would walk or take the new baby by horseback to another new mother who would nurse both babies. As the baby grew and needed to add to the milk diet, soft foods were mashed or in some cases chewed by the mother and then fed to the baby. I can remember my daddy mashing fresh fried fish between his fingers to make sure there were no bones and then feeding the fish to me.

Needs like cloth, sugar, spices and other goods were mostly brought in by river boat. Trade between Sharp’s Fort [near Big Ridge] and James White’s Fort [Knoxville] was frequent. News also came by river traffic; otherwise information was disseminated by word of mouth.

It was the late 1800s before the crank telephone arrived here. One could tell if the call was theirs by the number of rings. Eight party lines on dial phones were still with us into the 1950s. With the coming of TVA and Norris Dam in 1934, it still took about ten years to get electricity to all of Union County. While Maynardville got connected in early 1942 other areas took much longer.

Cobblers made people’s shoes from leather tanned at a local tannery while the area was still considered wilderness. After that the general store would carry common sizes of shoes and others could be ordered by drawing a footprint on a piece of cardboard and sending it by the grocery man on his next visit to purchase items for the store. Shoes were passed from older to younger children. One or two pairs of shoes per year was standard. Most children went bare foot in summer. Stockings were either knitted from wool or cotton stockings could be purchased. Little girls and women’s slips were hand made. Up to the time of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, men worked for a dollar a day or less, and I’m told that enough cloth for a woman’s dress could be purchased for five cents. Wealthier people had a loom, and the young women were taught to spin and weave. Linen was weaved from flax and wool from sheep and goats was “carded” then spun into thread before being woven into cloth.

There were no fire departments or police departments. The county courts assigned able bodied men to maintain the roads. There was a militia to keep order. Men with an 8th grade education became leaders and Superintendents of Schools. Tests were administered to determine eligibility to teach. School terms were of three months duration. Lunch might be a cold biscuit. Many of the schools were one room with no floor and heated by only a fire place. The school day was from 8 am to 4 pm for all ages, whether 6 years old or 18 years of age, sitting on benches with no back. There were no toilets–the boys went to the woods on one side of the schools and girls went to the other side.

Horse shoes and tools were made at Green Grove Iron Furnace in Hickory Valley and Loyston Forge at Loyston. Hay was cut by hand with a cradle or hand scythe. The hay was stacked in the field

As I understand it, the very earliest doctors ordered medical books, studied them and took tests to get a medical license. Early lawyers read law under the tutelage of an experienced lawyer such as Lafayette “Fate” Ledgerwood. The late Cossie Seymour worked the fields all day and read law under Fate Ledgerwood at night. He rode horseback to study at Lincoln Memorial University

Judge Seymour chaired the Union County Court for more than forty years.

Early settlers’ world was small, but they taught each other, helped each other, welcomed and took in strangers passing through. We owe our forefathers much for building the foundation of our land.