Ephriam Waller, and three of his brothers, rode in Gen. Joseph Wheeler s Confederate cavalry, Waller said. Here s a picture of grandfather. I remember he always referred to Wheeler as Little Joe. Cotton was the main crop for Jefferson farmers until well into this century, Waller said. There was a large black population who worked the cotton, but they gradually moved away and the economy changed.
Farmers quit cotton and went into the dairy business.
It s mostly covered by the lake now. At some time, which Waller could not recall, the village acquired the sobriquet old. It wasn t the same place as Jefferson. Maybe that s how it got people started saying Old Jefferson. When Priest Lake changed the Rutherford County landscape, it was necessary for many families to move.