My paternal grandmother was
born in 1905 on a farm in Pickett County, Tennessee. She came from a family with roots in Colonial Virginia. They were part of the great migration of settlers who came through the
Cumberland Gap into Tennessee and Kentucky in the late 1700's and early 1800's, when that part of the country was first opened to white settlers. When she died, I lost a direct link to a way of life that no longer exists. Grandma was one of the last of her kind: a sweet, simple woman born
into a southern mountain culture with roots extending deep into our pioneer past.
Her later years spent living in a northern industrial city did little to change her essential character, shaped growing up in the hills of Northeastern Tennessee. She had a big heart filled to the brim with love of God and family. She was the archetypal old-fashioned grandmother: kindly, innocent, loving, and accepting.
Grandpa noticed Grandma at a church dance both attended in nearby Wayne County, Kentucky, where my Grandpa lived. One day after that fateful encounter he decided to ride his horse across the state line to where Grandma’s family lived in Northeastern Tennessee. Grandma did not really know my grandfather at the time, and she certainly was not expecting him to visit. When he arrived she was not at home, so her brother rode off to find her. Grandma said she was mortified that he had come to her house, but pleased nonetheless. Not long after that visit, Grandpa talked her into eloping. They escaped on horseback and were married in the middle of the road by the preacher in December 1923. Grandma was a naive and sheltered 18 year old. Grandma’s wedding kiss was her first. She said she had no idea about sex. She got wide eyed and then laughed in her modest, grandma way when she told me that.
Her mother was angry and cried when she found out that Grandma had run off to get married. I would have cried, too.
Her later years spent living in a northern industrial city did little to change her essential character, shaped growing up in the hills of Northeastern Tennessee. She had a big heart filled to the brim with love of God and family. She was the archetypal old-fashioned grandmother: kindly, innocent, loving, and accepting.
Grandpa noticed Grandma at a church dance both attended in nearby Wayne County, Kentucky, where my Grandpa lived. One day after that fateful encounter he decided to ride his horse across the state line to where Grandma’s family lived in Northeastern Tennessee. Grandma did not really know my grandfather at the time, and she certainly was not expecting him to visit. When he arrived she was not at home, so her brother rode off to find her. Grandma said she was mortified that he had come to her house, but pleased nonetheless. Not long after that visit, Grandpa talked her into eloping. They escaped on horseback and were married in the middle of the road by the preacher in December 1923. Grandma was a naive and sheltered 18 year old. Grandma’s wedding kiss was her first. She said she had no idea about sex. She got wide eyed and then laughed in her modest, grandma way when she told me that.
Her mother was angry and cried when she found out that Grandma had run off to get married. I would have cried, too.
Next time I will share a letter Grandma wrote to my daughter (her great-granddaughter) in 1981, telling her about what life was like when she (Grandma) was a young girl.
Here is a photo of my grandparents taken in 1924 when my grandmother was pregnant with my father.
I love stories of women, women who went before us and forged a path, even a small one, for their daughters and great daughters.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the letter!
Thanks Birdie. I know you are into genealogy, too.
DeleteI love the stories. I have done so much genealogy research on my family, but never answered my most burning question.
ReplyDeleteOkay, Joanne! You need to tell us what that most burning question is. You have my complete attention.
DeleteYour grandmother is sweet, and there is sweetness in your grandfather, too. What courage both of them had to take the risk of loving at that young age, when so often things don't turn out well. I love stories of young love that lasts a lifetime. I had a older neighbor who was from Tennessee. She had that kindness in her Tennessee voice that she hadn't left behind when she left Tennessee with the young man she married. They lived most of their married life here in Washington State. I met her some years after her husband had died. One Valentine's Day she showed opened the locket she always wore around her neck and showed me a tiny photo of him. Another story of a love that lasted. I, too, have distant cousins in Tennessee that I have discovered through having my DNA tested. They are most likely related to me many generations ago in England, Scotland, and Ireland. During World War I, while my grandfather was serving in the Army in France, my grandmother took my toddler mother and her brother (8 years older) to Gulfport, MS, to stay with relatives until the war was over. We have yet to figure out the identify of those relatives. My grandmother was born in Boston. Her mother was born in New Hampshire. Her mother's mother was a born in County Cavan, Ireland, and came with her family to Quebec in the mid 1800s. Genealogy fascinates me, and I love looking at old photos, whether the people are related to me or not. Thank you for this post!
ReplyDeleteEach family has a unique story to tell. I am fascinated by it all, too.
DeleteYour grandparents are a nice-looking couple. I like that she told you and your daughter about her life and the way things were then. That kind of family history is so important.
ReplyDeleteIt really is. I think her stories made history come alive for me.
DeleteYou are so lucky to have these stories. Through research and DNA, one can find out names but unless stories or letters are passed down, little can be known of the lives of our ancestors.
ReplyDeleteThat's the hardest part, not really knowing how the lives of some of these ancestors turned out. We can only imagine.
DeleteThat is such a wonderful story. You are so lucky to know this history so well. I can't wait to read that letter.
ReplyDeleteThanks Robin. You won't be disappointed.
DeleteWhat an amazing life and wonderful courtship. I want to know more. In my mind I see a movie with horses and a beautiful couple rifing into the sunset. Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteI think she was happy with her life. It wasn't a fairy tale, but she had more good than bad. My grandfather was a difficult man. Life was not easy for those mountain people, poverty and prejudice awaited them in the North. However, enough of them moved up there to work in the automobile factories that they developed communities, cultural islands where they felt they belonged and could be themselves. Bittersweet.
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