Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 21:27:13-0500 From: gordon harbison <[email protected] To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected] Subject: Mamie’s Memories of Tenn-Part I (Long Post) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Thought I would share this with the group. Mamie is the daughter of James Matthew Harbison of Dickson/Hickman Counties of Tennessee. James Matthew is of the Thomas Wrenn, Matthew M, William, Alexander(ii), Alexander(i) line. Hard to believe life was so different at the turn of this century in Tennessee.

Memories: The Early Years by Mamie Pearl Harbison Davidson

Matthew and Elizabeth Wren Harbison, I don’t know the date when they were married. Their children, that I remember, were Billy, Thomas Wren, Ida, and Jess. Jess married Ona Brown. Their children’s names were Ida, Anna Lou, Mary, Katie, and Eddie. Ida, Jess’s daughter, married a Hutchson and they had four girls. I don’t remember who Eddie married. He died very young. Ida, Jess’s sister, married Dock Dudley. They had two boys, Grover and Will, and four girls, Lucy, Nona, Maude, and Josie. Lucy married Jessie Kelly and they had one child (daughter), Opal. Lucy died in child birth or soon after. Lucy’s mother, Ida, took Opal to raise. Nona married Jack Lyle. Maude married German Stinson. Josie married Authur Clark. Thomas Wren Harbison, born October 4,1859, married Buelah Josephine Bell (she was a sister to Uncle Will Bell), born December 23, 1870. As all of you know they had eleven children, James Matthew, Clara Pearl, Anna (born June 2, 1893 and died June 19, 1893), Ernest Wren, Eva Bell, Billy, Clarence, Ruby, Della, Elizabeth, Lois. Buelah had three sisters and two brothers. Her brothers were Will and Homer Bell. Her sisters were Lizzy who married Alec Myatt, Fannie who married Walter Collins, Nannie married a Hamer and she died giving birth to a daughter, Zelma. Uncle Will and Aunt Willie Bell took her and brought her up as their own. I don?t think that they adopted her but they were Mammy and Pappy to her. Zelma and her husband, Leslie Estes were very good to them as long as they lived. Uncle Homer Bell was the youngest of the family. He married Fannie Redden who was a sister to Will’s wife, Willie. Homer and Fannie had four children, Etheline, Walker, Thomas, and Christine. (See picture of the old sawmill on Bear Creek where Uncle Homer worked). James Matthew (Jimmy) married Edna May Stinson on March 10, 1912 at Missionary Ridge Baptist Church in a buggy by the minister of the church, Brother Hester. I’ve heard Mother (Edna) tell about crossing a creek in a buggy, I assume that she was talking about Bear Creek and it was on their way home after the wedding. The water was very high because there had been lots of rain. As they crossed the creek, her luggage fell out of the buggy and she jumped in the water to retrieve it. Edna and her luggage got soak and wet. They started house keeping in a log house up the road from where Jimmy grew up. It was where his grandfather lived and brought up his family of four boys and one daughter. The boys were Jess, Thomas Wren (Tom), Bill, and Matt. The daughter’s name was Ida. She married Dock Dudley. Before marrying Jimmy, Edna had been keeping house and taking care of Mr. Monroe Holland’s wife, they were the parents of Ernest Holland who later married my Daddy’s sister, Ruby. (I got this bit of news from Uncle Ernest Holland). He said German Stinson, my mother’s brother, rode horseback and led another horse with a side saddle for Edna to ride home. Home for both Edna and German was at their brother, Robert’s house. Jimmy and Edna’s first child, a boy, was born on January 29, 1913, while they were living in the log house. His name was William Malcolm and he was named after Edna’s brother, German William. When Malcolm was about two years old, Jimmy and Edna along with German Stinson and his wife Maude bought a farm with a three-room house. It was located up the creek about four miles on what was known as part of the Harrison Plantation. After about a year, German and Maude sold their part of the farm to Jimmy and Edna. Not long after German and Maude moved, Jimmy and Edna had a second son named Robert Wren. He was named after Edna’s brother, Robert Stinson and Jimmy’s father, Thomas Wren. (For some reason the children had to be named after someone in the family). He only lived three months. He is buried at Missionary Ridge Baptist Church Cemetery. Robert Wren’s death was very heart breaking for Jimmy, Edna, and the grandparents. After returning from the funeral, Edna discovered that she had lost her wedding band. Everyone in the family looked every where, but couldn’t find it. About eight years later Medrith (Moochie), Jimmy and Edna’s second daughter, was in the garden with her mother. Edna gave her a hoe and carried her to a spot in the garden where there wasn’t any plants and instructed here to dig up all the weeds. All of sudden Moochie screamed out that she had found Mama’s ring. It was just as pretty as it was eight years earlier. Mamie Pearl born March 2, 1917. She was named after her daddy’s sister, Pearl Murray. Jimmy and Edna’s next child was a boy, Leamon Matthew. He was born on April 21, 1919 and he was named after his dad (Jimmy). Medrith Josephine was born on June 25, 1921 and she was named after her grandmother, Buelah Josephine. Medrith nickname became Moochie because Daddy couldn’t pronounce her name correctly. Elsie May was born on November 29, 1923. She was named after a very special cousin, Elsie Stinson and Mother (Edna May). Jimmy and Edna were both thrifty people. They worked very hard, and did without things that they really needed. They paid for the farm, built a large stock barn, and they also built a small rental house. The house was rented to share croppers. The only two families that I remember living there were the Estes, Lundy, Polly and their son Rye, and Marral and Dora Tidwell. Jimmy and Edna added another room to the back of house which extended and made the upstairs larger. The room that was added became the kitchen. They put in new windows and doors .He had the cistern dug and built the back porch. In the early part of January of 1927, Daddy came home from Clarksville after selling his tobacco. He said that he should be the happiest man because he was totally out of debt. Jimmy and Edna were both Baptist and any time a meeting was held within miles around, Jimmy would be there. There would always be a week long meeting at Missionary Ridge starting the second Sunday in August. They would have all the farm work done so that they could go to both services. They loved the Lord. On Saturday, May 7, 1927, Jimmy had been to church in the morning. That afternoon he went squirrel hunting. He told Edna that he would be home by 5 O’clock to help her because the next day was a big day at church. Jimmy was a man of his word. When 5 O’clock came and then 6 O’clock, Edna became very concerned. About 6:30 PM (dusk) our dog, Spot, came home and went up to Mother. He was wagging his tail and whining. Spot was a white collie with large black spots. About dark Mother sent me to our neighbor’s, Noah Harrison. She wanted Noah to go after Malcolm who was spending the night with Raleigh Tucker. Since there was no telephone or electricity, she begin to ring our large dinner bell. Very soon our yard was full of people. The men went to search for my Daddy. My mother was in shock. My oldest brother, Malcolm, age fourteen, went with a group of the men with Spot following him. Malcolm gave way to his feelings and began to cry. The men with him thought it would be best if he returned home. The search continued. About 9:30 PM, Major Pendergrass, Erie Overby, and his brother Aaron, decided to go around the fence row that bordered our farm. Around 11:00 PM, they found Daddy’s body on one side of the fence and his gun on the other side. I don’t know if they made a makeshift stretcher or how they brought Daddy’s body to the house. We were all in shock. There was an inquest by twelve reliable men and they decided that Daddy’s death was accidental. Paul Myatt and Hardie Dudley gave him a bath and cleaned the wound which was directly through his heart. Paul came to me and asked if I knew where he could get some clean rags. I know this may be just a coincidence (God works in mysterious ways) but it had been only few days since Mother had shown me where she had put a large stack of #24 flour sacks that she had bleached. I ran upstairs and got them for him. I’ll always have a soft place in my heart for those two men. I can remember being so sick to my stomach and I stayed in the kitchen while they were getting Daddy’s body ready. Sometime during the night, my Grandpa Harbison and I was on the front porch and he took me on his lap and he said “Your daddy is gone but you have a grandpa to take care of you.” As far as we know, Aunt Fannie Bell was the last person that Daddy talked to. He told her that it was farther over to Pappy’s house than it looked but he sure would like to take Eva some squirrels but that he had promised Edna that he would be home by 5 O’Clock. Mr. Ben Myatt went to Dickson in a surrey to get Daddy’s casket. There were no funeral homes in Dickson at that time. Mr. Clyde Fussell sold caskets in the back of his furniture store. (A few years before this happened, Mr. & Mrs. Percy Willey lived on the farm adjoining Jimmy and Edna’s farm but had moved closer to Dickson). Mr. Ben had to pass by their house on the way to Dickson. They saw him and stated that if that had been Jimmy Harbison, he would have stopped and told them who had passed away. There was no embalming in those days. He had to be buried soon. His funeral was late Sunday afternoon about 3:00 PM. I did not see Daddy’s body until the funeral. Uncle Robert Stinson, Edna’s brother, carried Mother, Grandpa, Grandma, and Elsie in his car. The rest of us went in our surrey. The minister, Willie Tidwell, pastor at the church conducted the funeral. I only remember one song that they sang and it was Going Down the Valley One by One. I was only 10 years old but I remember viewing my Daddy’s body and telling him that I would see him in Heaven. After the funeral, German and Maude Stinson, Edna’s brother and sister-in-law, and their family came home with us. They spent the night and most of the next day. There was an inquest by twelve reliable men and they decided that Daddy’s death was accidental. The families from both sides donated money to hire Cheatham McAroy to help us finish the crops. The afternoon that Daddy went hunting, he looked across the rye field and said that the rye will be ready to cut in a week or ten (10) days. As if he had a premonition that something was going to happen. The neighbors and relatives came and cut the rye which had to be cut by hand with a cycle or cradle. I remember Buford Murray and I helped to tie it up in bundles. The bundles would be put in stacks. When it was dry, a thrasher would come and separate the grain from the straw. They would be paid with a portion of the grain. We used the straw to make straw beds which were put on top of the springs and the feather beds would be put on of the straw beds. During the summer, the feather beds would be taken off and we would sleep on the straw beds. After each thrashing of the grain, the old straw would be thrown away, the container would be washed, and new straw would replace the old straw. Malcolm was in the 8th grade at Fraizer School, a little one-room school about two miles from our house. After Daddy died, He tried to take on the responsibility of the farming and he did not go back to school. There was a family, Cass Hood, that lived in a little house down the hill from us. The house was for sharecroppers that worked the Tucker land. The lady was a widow who had two grown boys, Wes and Raymond, and a daughter named Alice. I will never forget Alice. Every night about dark, she would come up and spend the night with us. She would always go home before breakfast. Mother would get up every morning and put on vegetables for dinner before she started breakfast. She would fry bacon, make about seventy five biscuits, and make at least a gallon of sweet milk gravy. There was always plenty of butter, sorghum molasses, and milk. Mother always cooked a large pan of cornbread, and she made sure that there would be plenty for breakfast, dinner, and supper. We always ate a cold supper. If we didn’t have any vegetables left for supper, we ate bread and milk. She always tried to have some kind of dessert. The table was large with a long bench where three of the children sat. It didn’t matter who turned over a glass of milk, it always ran toward Malcolm. My Daddy was the treasurer of the Church, and when he passed away, the Deacons asked Mother to be the Treasurer. I can just see her now riding one of the mules side saddle. To Mother, NO lady would be caught straddling a horse. She and my grandmother, Buelah, wore black because they were in deep mourning. I stated earlier that we didn’t have electricity so, we did all our laundry by hand. We had two large metal tubs and a cast iron kettle that would hold about 30 gallons of water. I hope that all of you know what I am talking about when I say we used a scrub board. If you don’t, I’ll try to explain. It was made of a good grade of metal about 18 inches wide and 24 inches long with grooves across. The grooved metal was put in a wooden frame with legs. Most people made their soap from scrap fat of butchered meat and lye.

Direction for Making Lye Soap 4 lb. Fat, Mother used the fat from the intestines of the hog. 1 can of Lye 2 gal Water-poured into container. Mother built a fire under the iron kettle outside and let it boil for about 45 minutes. If she used scraps of fat meat, the boiling time was longer, maybe one hour or until the meat was dissolved. At that time she raked all the fire away from the kettle so the soap would get hard enough to cut out in bars. Then she would put it in a dry place until it got much harder before using.

The Lye was so strong that your poor hands looked awful, sometime almost bleeding. After you had scrubbed the clothes on the board, you wrung them out with your hand, put them in the kettle with shavings of soap, then built a fire around the kettle and boiled them for about thirty minutes while punching them occasionally with a long stick. This stick wasn’t just an ordinary stick, it was carved just for the purpose of punching the white clothes while they were boiling. After the thirty minutes, the clothes were taken out of the kettle with the stick returned to the tub. Cold water was poured over them making them cool enough so you could wash them without burning your hands. After washing the clothes, you put them into another tub of bluing water. This solution made them whiter. After rinsing in the bluing solution, the clothes were ready to be hung on the line, except the ones that needed starching. We made our starch from flour, salt, and boiling water. The men and boy’s dress shirts, overalls, women and girl’s dresses and underskirts were starched. When the starched clothes were dry, they were brought in from the line and sprinkled down with warm water then rolled up very tight and wrapped with a sheet. The ironing was usually done the next day after they were washed. While the noon meal, dinner, was being cooked, the heavy irons were put on the stove to get hot for the ironing. After dinner, a fire would be built outside to heat the irons until the ironing was finished. It was very difficult to clean the ashes from the irons after heating them outside. “Girls how would you like to do all of this just to have clean clothes?” As I’ve said before, my mother was very practical. We would roll up old magazine, tie them in the center with a string, and use them for hangers for our dresses, blouses, and shirts—this worked really good. Each evening after I got home from school and changed clothes, I went to the corn crib, shucked and shelled about two gallons of corn to feed the chickens. After feeding the chickens, I would help Mother milk the cows. In the summer after the milk was strained and put into clean buckets, it had to be carried to the spring, placed in cold water up to within two inches from the top. After the cream come to the top, it would be skimmed off with a large spoon or cup. When it clabbered, it would be made into butter and buttermilk by putting it into a stone or wooden container with a lid that had a hole in the center. To complete this contraption was a stick about three or four feet long with a dash at one end. Now you were ready to churn it up and down until the fat was separated from the milk. The fat was spooned out of the milk, then salted and the excess milk worked out; then it was pressed into a one pound mold. Mother sometimes sold seven or eight pounds of butter per week. This was up and above what we ate. With the sale of eggs and butter, Mother would buy the things we needed that we did not raise on the farm. We raised tobacco for our money crop. In the spring past laying season, Mother would sell about $150 to $200 worth of hens (female chickens). She would use the money to buy each of us a new pair of shoes and material to make the girls a new dress. In November of 1929, the stock market fell to rock bottom. So many people who thought they had a good job making good money were laid off. By the middle of 1930, the people who had gone to Detroit from the south were moving back in the house with their parents, others were renting farms and began to farm. These were called “The Hoover Days” by the politicians. I don’t know as much about history as I would like , so I won’t be able to state what caused such hard times. Also, there was a drought across the Southern part of the United States reaching from Arizona to North Carolina which included all across the state of Tennessee. On the 3rd Sunday in May, it begin to rain early in the morning, it rained all day long. Mother had a large bunch of young chickens that weighed about one pound each and we thought that they were all drowned, but she brought them in the house, built a fire, and begin drying them off. In about an hour they were all up walking around. Ezra Davidson, Alrice’s brother had an old Overlan touring car. He tied to ford Bear Creek in his car. The water was so swift that he could not get across. In the middle of the creek, he jumped out and the car was swept down stream. I don’t think that Ezra ever retrieved the car. That was the last rain that we had until the third week in August. That was the drought of 1930. The weather got so hot that the temperature of 104o was recording in Nashville. We read in the paper that they fried an egg on the sidewalk. Crops burned to a crisp. We cut our corn and tied it up in shocks to feed the cattle in the winter. I remember some of our relatives came down from Michigan and decided that they would go back because it looked like starvation everywhere. School began in August, of course we all went bear footed. The boys would run in front and stir up the dust which was 5 or 6 inches deep. We would be wet with perspiration and very dirty when we got home. Did we get a shower? Of course not, there was no running water except what ran out of the spring down to Bear Creek, any way, there were chores to be done. Mine was getting corn from the corn crib, shucking and shelling it. We did have a corn sheller and that made the chore some easier. After I was ten years old, I begin helping with the milking. I remember one of my cousins, Evelyn Harbison, spent the night with me and we slept on a quilt on the floor. When we heard it raining, we jumped up and ran outside and began to clap our hands while running around—it felt so good. The weather had been so hot and dry. My daddy’s brother, Clarence, his wife, Effie, and their son, Douglas moved back to Dickson. Uncle Clarence and Uncle Baxter Murray, who was married to Daddy’s sister, Pearl, started a laundry and dry cleaning business. It didn’t last long—I don’t know just how long it was before Uncle Clarence and his family moved back to Detroit. We raised tobacco for a money crop. Mother told me that when the tobacco was sold, she would get me a new dress. Well, I don’t remember how much was left after expenses were paid, very little I’m sure but Mother had bought two pieces of material. One was light grey and the other dark grey. I was disappointed but I knew she did the best that she could. Very few of my friends had anything better because there just wasn’t any money. Elsie May was the youngest child. I remember when she was born. They sent Leamon, Medrith and me to the neighbor’s house. It think it was Ben and Maude Myatt’s house. Alice Hood came and stayed with us while Mother was recuperating from the birth and staying in bed for a whole week or more. When Mother was able to be up a bit, Daddy asked her if she felt like making some cornbread because everyone liked Mother’s cornbread. Elsie was a very pretty baby with her big brown eyes. Everyone including the doctor thought that she was a healthy baby but at the age of about 3 years old she began having trouble walking and had to be carried. I don’t remember if anyone doctored her except Dr. Suggs, however, she recovered but she had to learn to walk again. After Elsie got older, she ran all the errands for Mother. The errands usually included going to the neighbor’s house to borrow things. Malcolm thought that he could make some extra money raising sheep. When Medrith was bout 9 years old, one of the sheep gave birth to a lamb and the mother sheep would not let the lamb nurse. Malcolm gave the lamb to Medrith. She fed it with a bottle, and took care of it. When the lamb was about half grown, our dog, Spot, ran after it and the lamb ran to Medrith for protection. The lamb ran into Medrith and broke her arm. When Medrith was 12 years old, she became very sick. She ran a high fever and was vomiting. Doctor Suggs had been out to see her. Mr. Noah Harrison had started to Dickson to get some ice and other thing that she needed. He met Doctor Suggs coming to see Medrith. Doctor Suggs told Noah that he was carrying Medrith to St. Thomas Hospital. I also remember Noah signing a note for Mother for $200.00 at the First National Bank. When Medrith returned from the hospital, Doctor Suggs requested that she stay in Dickson for a while so that he could watch her. She stayed at Aunt Pearl’s house. She always went to Aunt Pearl’s but I went to Uncle Ernest and Aunt Tina’s. In some ways Uncle Ernest took the place of my daddy. I’m so sorry that I didn’t ask him more about things in the past. During the depression, Uncle Ernest and Aunt Tina moved to Grandpa’s farm in Hickman County. Their son, Wren was 1 years old. Later Aunt Tina went back to work at the shirt factory. I’m not sure, but I think that she stayed at Aunt Pearl’s. I went to Grandpa’s house and took care of the children. Juanita might be able to tell you more about that because she helped me so much. Ernestine was about 4 years old—(I’ve stated earlier how long it took to do the laundry)—she would begin to get hungry before the washing was finished. She didn’t talk plain and she would say “How much do you like being finished just inking and staking (rinsing and starching)?” Not long before Uncle Ernest died, he put his arms around me and said, “I don’t know what we would have done if you not come and helped us out.” As I’ve said before, Uncle Ernest was almost like my Daddy. I will never forget the only time that Daddy whipped me. He had worked hard all of the morning. After eating dinner, he laid down on the back porch to rest for a while and went to sleep. I drew a cold bucket of water from the cistern. I can remember how funny I thought it would be to pour a small amount in his face. Well, the fun backfired. He jumped up and had me by an arm, and when he finished with me, my back side was burning. Leamon had a different personality from Malcolm. He had a witty answer to anything you ask him. We had some kitchen chair with the bottoms made of sea grass twine and they had become very worn. One day Mother smelt something burning, Leamon had set fire to one of them. I don’t remember what she did to punish him, but it was not many days until he noticed another one that has begun to unravel. He said, “there’s another one that someone should burn.” Leamon had a beautiful voice and like to sing very much. I remember going to a party at Cheatham and Albert Dudley’s house when Leamon was about 12 years old. A bunch of the teenage girls had him surrounded and asking him to sing different songs. He was eating it up! Later on when he was older, he and Medrith (Mooch) went to a square dance. He came home and told Mother that Mooch just embarrassed him to death. She was out on the floor just kicking up her heels and you could almost see her panties. When we were growing up, he always kept us laughing.

OBITUARY: Mamie P. Davidson
Funeral services for Mrs. Mamie P. Davidson, 85, were held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 4, 2003 at Walnut Street Church of Christ in Dickson. Burial followed in Bon Aqua Church of Christ Cemetery. Brother Mike Root of Antioch Church of Christ officiated. Pettus-Owen & Wood Funeral Home in Nashville handled the arrangements.
Mrs. Davidson died Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Her husband, Alrice Davidson, preceded her in death. She was a retired nurse and had worked at Baptist Hospital and at the hospital in Dickson.
Survivors include sons, Spydell, Tommy and Hooper Davidson; daughters, Anah Weathers, Alra Maddox and Sherry McMilleon; sister, Medrith Booker, Dickson; brother, Leamon Harbison, of Detroit; 14 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; other relatives and numerous friends.
572

Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 14:39:25-0500 From: gordon harbison <[email protected] To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected] Subject: Mamie’s Memories, Vol II Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Mamie is the one of the older matriarch’s of our family. Since I heard no feedback, I gather no one is upset with me for posting Volume I to the discussion group. Enjoy.

More Memories By Mamie Pearl Harbison Davidson (continued)

If you remember across the road in front of mama’s house, there was a hill that went down into a hollow. It went straight into the woods. The boys made two or three sleds out of wood planks. The planks were about one (1) yard long and 11⁄2 feet wide with a two-inch strip across the front that made a brace for your feet. There were also grapevine swings on the hill. On Sunday afternoons, the hill would be crowded with children. Among the group would be the Harrisons: Warner, Webster, and Douglas; the Stinsons: Robert, Lola, Ima ,and A. W.; and of course the Harbisons: Medrith, Leamon, Elsie, and me—just to mention a few. (Malcolm was four (4) years older than me and since Daddy’s death, he felt such a responsibility for the family that he didn’t take much time for playing). At first the sled ride was kind of rough, but soon the path down the hill was slick—and was it fun! We all carved our initials on the trees in that hollow. Mother liked to see us have fun. When she fixed supper on Sundays, she never knew how many would be crowded around her table to eat. It was not easy growing up between two brothers. They were always teasing me about something. One thing they teased me about was my walking so fast. There was a boy that lived up the road about one half mile that I did not like to be teased about. As we were walking to school, Malcolm and Leamon would say, “Slow down, Raymond will wait for you.” If the wind was blowing, they would say, “That’s not the wind, it’s Mamie passing through causing the trees to sway.

The One Room School House Fraizer School

How would you like to go to school in a one room building about thirty feet (30) wide and fifty feet (50) long with a large wood stove in the center? In the winter, there were long benches on each side of the stove. Everyone would sit on the benches near the stove to keep warm. “I’m going to tell you a “little” secret on myself—one day I jumped out the window to go to the bathroom which was in the bushes.” I don’t think that Mrs. Lois Luther even missed me. Since there weren’t any inside bathrooms and not even an outhouse, the girls went to the bathroom on the right side of the schoolhouse and the boys went on the left side. Don’t worry! The playground was in the front of the school.

The Chicken Coop

When Mother had hens that started to set and she didn’t want to have any more baby chickens, she would put them in a coop for eight (8) to ten (10) days. One day Leamon asked her, “why do people get married?” She told him, “When hens wanted baby chickens, they starting setting and when people wanted children, they got married.” He said, “Will you please put me in a coop.” When Leamon grew up, he went to Detroit, Michigan and soon met Vivian Swayze. They fell in love, married and were blessed with two beautiful daughters, Virginia Lee and Loretta Ann. Aunt Tina Harbison said, “Bless his heart he went to far away from home for his mother to put him in a coop.”

Bon Aqua

In the middle of the twenties, Bon Aqua was a booming little town with three grocery stores. One of the stores was Ed Potts’ General Merchandise. They sold clothing, shoes, hardware, and groceries. Every fall we would go there to get our winter shoes. The shoes were high tops almost like boots. Bon Aqua had mineral springs (sulfur, mineral, and fresh water) and is still known for its water (Bon Aqua is French for good water). I remember my mother-in-law telling me that when she was a little girl, people who had money would come and spend the summer resting in the sun and drinking the mineral water for their health. Bon Aqua also had a hotel and a dance hall for people who liked to square dance. There was another dance hall just up the hill from the hotel for people who wanted to round dance or waltz. Every 4th of July, Daddy would carry us all to Bon Aqua Springs for a picnic, and that was where I had my first ice cream cone. The adults would sit around talking, and the children would play. I remember John T. Davidson, who later became my brother-in-law, getting his first ice cream cone. After eating the ice cream, he rushed back and said, “Mister, here’s your little horn, would you please fill it up again?”

School Days

Mother taught us that the young man would do the pursuing and if they wanted to date us, they would let us know. The year that I was in the 7th grade our teacher, Lillian Vinegard, carried the 7th and 8th grade classes to Nashville sight seeing. There were four girls and two boys. She was driving a 1928 Ford Coup with a rumble seat. The girls were Doy Myatt, Clara Hood, Opal Estes and myself and the two boys were Homer Owens and Hassell Hood. I rode in the rumble seat with the boys and the other girls rode up front. Mother was not happy about this! She said that one of the other girls could have ridden either going or coming. One time during that same year, Miss Lillian went back to school after everyone had gone home. She found one of the girls, Kathryn Tucker, and Homer Owens in the loft. Of course that was the talk of everyone. Mother was very concerned that we keep a good reputation. Later that year, we went to the funeral of Mr. John Donegan. The funeral was at his home. I was sitting in the car with Katheryn. Mother came down to the car and told us to come up to the house that it was almost time for the funeral to begin. She later reprimanded me for associating with Kathryn. She was a firm believer that you are or will become who you associate with.

Grandpa Harbison’s House

Once when we were at Grandpa Tom Harbison’s house, we all went to the creek to go swimming. Aunt Effie instructed her son, Douglas who was about six years old, not to get in the water. When we got to the creek, Aunt Bea (Elizabeth) called us all together and told us what she would do to us if we told anyone what she was about to do. She had Douglas take off his clothes except his underwear and then she put him in the water. He had so much fun! When he got out of the water, Aunt Bea had him to take off his underwear and put on his pants. She rung out his underwear and fanned them until they were dry. I believe Aunt Effie died never knowing this incident had ever happened.

Cousins and Aunts

Aunt Lucille, Uncle Billy Harbison’s wife, would travel from Michigan to spend summers with relatives in Tennessee. She and the children would always stay a week with us. Just about every night we would sing songs—mostly country and sometimes some gospels. Aunt Lucille would yodel. John stuttered and he would say, “Sasass that’s where mom’s hot on it.” When I was about 14 years old, Alrice Davidson told a cousin of mine that he wished I were a little older. If I were older, he would ask me for a date. About a year later, I attended a box supper at Mt. Gossett School. Alrice asked me if he could walk me home. I told him yes—never dreaming that this was the beginning of a long courtship, eventually marriage, and six wonderful children. And you know what—I still walk fast. Alrice told me after we were married that the reason I walked so fast that night of the box supper, I was in a hurry to get home to tell my mother that he had walked me home.

When Aunt Dell was thirteen years old, she lied about her age and got a job at the cigar factory in Dickson. She later went to Detroit and lived there the rest of her life. She married Raymond Russell who died, and later Aunt Dell married Bill Zanders.

The War Years

One year prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all the young men had to go in the service. It helped them to understand what it was all about. Keith Harbison was in the Navy, and he let his family know that his train would be coming through Dickson about 2 AM. All the family went to the Dickson Railroad Station to stand at the railroad tracks so they could see Keith. An Army train came through going very slow. When the Navy train came through, it was going very, very fast. Keith was on the caboose waving a lantern and yelling (as we all remember, Keith could yell very loud) as loud as he could. I’m sure that was very sad for his family thinking they might never see him again. Medrith and Odell Booker’s first child, Linda Ray, passed away on March 9, 1943 and buried on March 11, 1943. The next week Odell got his draft notice and a week later he was sent to the induction center at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. From there he went to Camp Stewart, Georgia. He stayed at Camp Stewart for about seven months. Then was sent to East Tennessee somewhere around Manchester for maneuvers. He stayed there for about four months. Medrith went to Georgia around the first of June, 1944 and stayed until October. Odell was on a ship going overseas on October 9, 1944. He was stationed at Luxinburg, Germany. He returned home in 1945. During this time Grandma Beulah Harbison had five grandsons in service at the same time; not only in service but stationed in the Pacific. My brother, Leamon; Buford Murray, Aunt Pearl’s son; Keith Harbison, Uncle Ernest’s son; Gene Holland, Aunt Ruby’s son; Douglas Harbison, Uncle Clarence’s son. Douglas never returned, he was the only relative to give his life for the freedom of our country. So many things were rationed during the war. The things I remember being rationed were sugar, coffee, meat, and gasoline. There were books with coupons in them that you gave the clerks when you paid for your purchases. New cars were not available and older ones were very expensive. All the manufacturing industries were making war supplies. There were blackouts in so many of the larger cities across the country. I remember sitting on our front porch in Nashville and everything going black. There wasn’t a light anywhere. They said that the blackouts were practices in the event of an air attack. We went to Detroit for Alrice to find work. Elsie and her husband, Carl, lived in our house while we were gone. When we came home a few months later, I looked in the refrigerator. I said, “Elsie, there is a slice of cabbage that I left when we went to Detroit.” She replied very solemnly, “I wanted you to find everything the way you left it.”

The 1950s

On November 7, 1951 my husband, Alrice was carried to the hospital with a mental breakdown. One week later Grandma Beulah Harbison died in Detroit. Malcolm and Douglas Holland came to Tennessee in a truck and brought the flowers. On Sunday morning, Malcolm decided to go to Dickson and rent a car to drive to the funeral. He was in a car accident before he got to Dickson. The ambulance that was carrying him to a Nashville hospital had an accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Malcolm was a very ambitious man. He went to the Mayo Clinic for rehabilitation; came back and entered into politics. He was elected as the Register of Deed and was re-elected for several terms. Mother was a very strong person, and she had so much faith in God. It was the strength she received from the Lord that helped her withstand all the troubled times as she gave comfort and support to others. Elsie had to save for months to buy Christmas presents for Carlton, Faye, and Ronnie. Sometime in early December, they were playing upstairs and found their gifts from Santa Claus. They didn’t breath a word to anyone but Elsie and Mother knew they had found the gifts. We had a Santa Claus suit that belonged to the school. Someone in the family was going to play Santa at the school’s Christmas party. Back then, when a light bulb went out, you usually had to wait till payday to buy another one. Elsie took the front porch light out and I came down after dark and stood out in the yard and yelled HO! HO! HO!. When the children came to the door, I told them that I was Santa and my bag had gotten so heavy that I had leave some of the presents upstairs at their house and would they mind going up and getting them for me. I took the gifts and hid them in the corncrib. On Christmas Eve, Elsie retrieved the presents and the kids had a great Christmas.

Note from Faye McDaniel Vaughn

It has been a pleasure and an education in family history transcribing Aunt Mamie’s memories. She and Aunt Moochie are like second mothers to me and I love them dearly. You never realize what “family” really means until you see someone who doesn’t have any. We Harbisons are truly blessed and I thank God for that.