Crossville chronicle. [volume] (Crossville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1915-05-19
OLD RESIDENT LETTER.
Has Lived In County So Years and Re-
members the.Rawhide Sieve

lsollne, Ienn., May1 z, 1915.
i. Editor Chronicle: ! will write you
few facts concerning my past life, as
| am numbered among the old men.
| My parents emigrated from North
Carolina to Tennessee and settled on
Obed river at the place now known as
Adams Ford. 1 was born in 1882.
People had a very hard time to live
here at that time. There were very
few inhabitants here then people who
lived eight or ten miles away were cal
led near neighbors.
There weren't any mills in,the roun-
try to grind grain and no railroads or
wagon roads to bring it frOm other
places. The only way we had to get
bread was to hollow out the end of a
block of wood and beat our corn into
meal with a MALL There were no
sieves in this country and the people
separated the meal from the bran by
! stretching a raw hide over hoop and
through the hide.
Later or people got to making what
we called hand mill; made in the
same shape as a grist mill. We fed
the mill by hand. That was the way
we got our bread for many years.
People raised few cattle, sheep and
hogs. There fell a snow IN March,
lS43. There was not much raised the
summer before for people or stock to
/yNo txna
deep and lay on tie ground until some
time in April. Stock nearly all died
and people had hard time to get
another start w eleven years o'd
in April after this S! ow tell in March.
At about the age of fourteen took
great interest in hlir ting and killing
wild game, which was very plentiful. |
l would work in the spring and SUM-
mer and hunt IN fail and winter on up |
to 1855, when | Was married to Mary |
E. Wyatt, daughter of James Wyatt |
There were born to this union nine |
children. five boys and four glirs, all
of whom are living at this time and all |
living short distance from me-
After was married hunting was
still the order Of the day in fall and
winter.
The war came on in 1861, but l was
neutral. | took no hand In the war
| stayed at home and tended to my own
affairs ami was not bothered by any
body. But the war caused harder
times than people had ever seen here
before or since and hope we will
never have another.
After the war was over served one
tern as justice of the peace in the
court. My wife and lived
quiet and peaceable life. She Was cal.
led away in 1904, at the age of sixty. {
nine years. ! have forty-six grand
children and twenty seven great-grand
children.
could not tell how many people
there are in Cumberland county that 1
are related to the Adams family, un- s
less | was taking the census.
/ am now living with my youngest
'on. within one and one-halt miles OF
he place where | was born. | have {
always lived within the bounds of /
cumberland county. an. now eighty. ;
hree years of age. Twas never in but
'even counties beside Cumberland. /
lave never had a case in court. t
| have seen many changes for the +
,etter along all lines of progress and
people are having an easier time and
more convenlences than they had fifty
'ears ago. r
| am not a subscriber to the Chron- +,
Gle, but some of my neigbhors are and L
hey loan it to me. like it very much. a
With best wishes to the Chronicle t
md the people of the county. i
W. J. Adams.