Front Row:  Silas, John, Amanda, and Allie Hughes

Back Row:  Norman, Ola, Mag, and Otto Hughes

Silas and Amanda Hughes, Scotts Hill, Tennessee

Silas Randolph and Amanda Milnor Hughes were married many years.  At least six children were born to the marriage.  Sometime after John was born in 1895, Silas and Amanda got into a disagreement which resulted in their not speaking to each other for about thirty years.

The disagreement was thought to have been over a trip Silas took to Missouri to visit his half-sister Nan (Nancy Jane Swift Hughes who was married to James Tate Swift, also of the Scotts Hill area).  There were two versions of why Amanda got upset with Silas over his trip.  One reason was that while visiting Nan, he loaned her some money.  When he returned home and she found out where the money went, Amanda just simply decided to not talk to Silas ever again.  The other version was that Silas simply overstayed his visit in Missouri and spent a year visiting his sister.  When he returned Amanda was so mad at him she refused to talk to him, and he, being ‘slightly stubborn’ himself, decided to return the favor.

The couple used their children to carry on their needed conversations.  Not even a simple ‘please pass the potatoes’ passed either’s lips in conversation with each other.  The children, and later the grandchildren, all played the part of go-between at one time or another.

It seems emergencies did not matter either.  One of their children even told the story of a storm passing through the area.  The couple and their six children went to the storm cellar.  When the storm blew over and they came out, Amanda made it to the wet porch and slipped and fell .  Silas simply stepped over her and went on inside with the children.  He did show a little sympathy when he turned to one of his children and told them to go back outside and ‘see about your mam; she might be hurt.’

In death, the couple is buried in the Scotts Hill Methodist Church cemetery, side by side.  Their shared marker states …….Love made us one…….  Maybe they did not feel it necessary to speak.

Information for this story was taken from an article in a newspaper that was given to me by Claudine Hughes Cline, a great granddaughter of Silas and Amanda Hughes.