Ever Moving
ONWARD - WESTWARD
and
HOMEWARD
As Told by
Mary Dunn
Life in the South
Our family history shows that
the Lee,
Lane, Hill and Fine families were all living in the Virginia and
Carolina
country in the Eighteenth Century. John Lee married Agnes
Jennings,
and their daughter Nancy married John Fine in October of 1800.
Their
first children were born on the French Broad River, North
Carolina.
The spirit of adventure and romance led them to the fertile valley of
Sweetwater,
Tennessee. John Fine went there about the time of the Hiwassee
Purchase,
and bought his home of an Indian, who as he pointed out the advantage
of
the place remarked, "Heap big town here some day. Fine house
stand there," being not perchance ignorant of the fertility of the
soil and of the white man's enterprise. Having selected his future
home,
Mr. Fine made arrangements to move from Grainger County to Sweetwater.
Starting from Newport, he loaded his household goods and his wife and
little
ones, Nancy being a babe of six months, and came by water to Lowden,
which
they reached the last of March, 1816. An unusually heavy fall of
snow covered the ground, but they came on in covered wagons to their
destination.
One incident of this trip that they used to recall was meeting an
Indian
with a mud-bespattered saddle of venison thrown across his pony, his
moccasined
feet barely missing the snow.
The fertility and beauty of the
valley
soon attracted a busy community that grew and prospered. Mr. Fine
built the first house that aspired to greater dimensions than the
primitive
log cabin, and it is an interesting fact that the glass windows were
brought
in a four-horse wagon from Augusta, Georgia. These were the first
glass windows in Tennessee. There was an "upping block"
of stone in front of the house for the use of horseback riders. I
had a picture of the house when I visited Sweetwater in 1901, and the
block
is still there. Also a pear tree that was bearing when I was a
child,
and I ate some of the pears. For a long time trade from this
section
was carried on with Augusta, wagons going down twice a year; and
occasionally
the molasses jug was sent and other similar dainties in which the
citizens
indulged were brought.
For
many years Mr. Fine's was a famous stopping place for travelers as the
tide of trade and immigration passed through East Tennessee on foot and
in wagons, on horseback and in carriages, to Georgia and Alabama.
At the time of his last illness, he owed a man one dollar, and he was
quite
concerned that it be paid before his death, which was done. The
fact
shows a heritage of independence and integrity of which his descendents
may well be proud.
The Fine cemetary is in the old
orchard.
The first burial was of a man who came from Boston and had the
small-pox.
Grandfather and grandmother both took it.
My remembrance of my grandfather
Fine
and the beautiful country around Sweetwater is still vivid. When I was
a little girl, Grandfather came home from a trip and called to
Grandmother,
"Nancy come here. I have something to show you." We were
all very much excited when he showed her some matches and told her that
she could start a fire with them, but that they were very dangerous and
that she must be very careful with them. I remember how
frightened
we all were to think grandfather would keep such dangerous things in
the
house, even though they were each wrapped in tin foil. We had
always
kept what was called a "seed of fire." If the fire did
go out, he would take a flint and strike it until the sparks would fly,
and the rich pine shavings catch.
A friend came to our house who had
been
visiting in Georgia, and while there she had seen a wonderful stove on
which all the family cooking was done. It was much cleaner than
the
fireplace; there were no ashes nor smoke to contend with, and one could
get a whole meal without having to change one's dress. Later
there
were some cook stoves brought into Tennessee, but I did not get to cook
on one until after we came to Oregon.
Once when I was small I went with my
Grandfather
Fine to visit a neighbor. She made some soda biscuits -- the
first
I had ever tasted, I thought them delicious. Grandmother
had
always burned corncobs to potash with which she raised the bread.
She would heat the corncobs in an oven, without burning them until they
could be powdered.
I remember the school house where I
first
went to school when I was only five yers old. It was a log cabin with
one
log left out to give light enough to see in the room. The old wooden
benches
had no backs; in the corner of the room was a wooden bucket with a
gourd
dipper. To this we made frequent trips to quench our thirst.
Across
each end of the room was an immense fireplace which furnished heat and
light.
The first day was a momentous one
for
me. The teacher was hard of hearing; and when he heard a noise he
could not locate, he took a switch and beginning at one end of the room
gave each pupil a cut as he went down the row. I watched him
coming;
and when his back was turned, I moved over to the side that he had
already
chastised. I can hear the boys laugh yet, and I came near getting
more than a passing cut. Later, one of my teachers was Jab Taylor
who married my Aunt Minerva Fine.
We had a happy time there in
Tennessee.
We went to quilting parties and husking bees. The young fellows
would
hunt for a red ear so they could have the privilege of kissing the
girls.
Every year there were wild grapes, plums, strawberries and raspberries
to gather. PaPaws and persimons were also abundant. We raised
flax,
cotton, corn, tobacco, potatoes, ducks, geese, peacocks and many cattle
and hogs. In the fall we gathered black walnuts and hickory nuts
to eat around the fireplace in winter. We smoked the hams of
young
bear and deer and preserved all the fish we wanted. A barrel of
brown
sugar, a barrel of New Orleans molasses and a roll of white sugar a
good
deal like our cube sugar but weighing several pounds, kept us supplied
with sweets. We had house raisings and log rollings. We went
miles
to church and camp meetings on horseback.
Last updated by William P. Russell onSaturday, 08-Sep-2018 09:40:30 MDT