USA > Tennessee > Sullivan County > Historic Sullivan; a history of Sullivan County, Tennessee, with brief biographies of the makers of history > Part 21
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"Nothin'."
"What did you bar me out for?"
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ABEL J. BROWN.
"To get a treat."
"What kind of a treat do you expect?"
"We want two bushel o' apples and five pounds o' candy."
The little fellows stood close to the teacher, shocked at Lee's audacity and, as they had never had enough money to buy more than half a dozen apples at one time, they thought his demands outrageous.
Turning to some one near him, his face showing no signs of anger, the doctor said: "Go down in town and get me two bushels of apples and ten pounds of candy." As the news spread on the inside there went up a great shout and the boys surrendered. He staid long enough to distribute the apples and candy, then-wishing the boys a merry Christmas-went home.
That same schoolhouse door has been battered with axes and the window-sash and panes have been crushed by irate teachers who forced an entrance on like occasions, and then compelled those who engaged in the innocent sport to submit to a severe whipping. But those men deservedly won and kept all their lives the contempt of the entire school.
The old academy and Dr. Brown fell about the same time. One became a crumbling mass of mortar and brick-while the other lay beneath a little mound of clay and climbing vines. But above the pyre of dead and gone years rises the venerable form of the kind hearted teacher and friend and all about him are structures of character imperishable.
JAMES D. TADLOCK.
A BIOGRAPHY.
James D. Tadlock was born at Mill Brook, Greene county, Tennessee, August 4, 1825, and died in Bristol, Tennessee, August, 1899.
In his youth he worked on his father's farm and at- tended school at Washington College, later completing his education at Princeton Seminary. He then became professor of mathematics in Washington College and afterwards conducted a school for girls at Jonesboro.
When King College was founded by James King in 1867, Tadlock became its first president. This school, however, was run as a high school the first year.
He remained president of King College for eighteen years. In 1885 he was called to the chair of ecclesiastical history and church government in Columbia (S. C.) Theological Seminary, where he remained thirteen years. In 1898 he returned to Bristol and again filled the chair of mathematics at King College until March the following year, when he was taken sick. He died in August of the same year.
Along with school duties he did ministerial work. Although at one time he preached regularly at the Cold Spring church and frequently in Bristol and other places it was always in connection with school work. His best remembered sermons are, "No Night There," "Let The Redeemed Say So," "Security of the Believer," "The Final Confirmation," "The Vision of Dry Bones," "Quit Ye Like Men." The latter was the subject of the first baccalaureate sermon preached at King College, he having been chosen by the graduating class to deliver it. That sermon followed those young men all through their lives.
His sermons combined the ornate and profound with
JAMES D. TADLOCK
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JAMES D. TADLOCK.
such rare completeness that, despite a poor delivery, they were impressive and persuasive.
But he loved the schoolroom. He loved the society of young men. His knowledge of a young man's needs and ambitions and frailties was gained by his every-day labors with them. He took them aside and talked with them, and, while always frank and occasionally almost severe, there were other times when his criticisms took a whimsical turn.
One Friday afternoon, during chapel exercises an advanced student read an exhaustive treatise on a current topic. He dealt in rounded periods and hyperbole, and, at the conclusion, left the stage as though he had com- pleted his work-left but little to be said. His thesis drew extended discussion from the faculty, but when it reached Dr. Tadlock he simply remarked, "Mr. --- the portico was bigger than the house-call the next speaker."
On another afternoon one of the younger students read an essay on "Idleness". It closed with, "Idleness is the most indolent thing I know of." The only comment offered by Dr. Tadlock was, "Mr. a hog is more like a hog than anything I know of- call the next speaker."
In his chosen field-mathematics-he had mastered all the difficult problems and made others. He worked out problems on the blackboard with a rapidity that amazed the students. Mathematics caused him to live much in the abstract-away from people, away from earth; and while in a domestic way he lived one of those old fashioned, happy, home lives, this abstraction often carried him far away from his family as it did from his associates. One of his little daughters, desiring to get something that she did not especially need, sought the aid of her mother, "Mama, you ask papa for the money, I'm not well acquainted with him."
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HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
His mind was a labyrinth of logarithms. Sometimes, when taking a stroll, he would pass a friend and never see him. He has been known to walk half a mile with a congenial companion and not say a word.
"Dr. Tadlock, if I treated people as you do, I wouldn't have a friend in the world," said one of his faculty in friendly rebuke, and yet that professor knew that every boy in school idolized Dr. Tadlock. Among them he was affectionately called "Old J. D."
It makes little difference whether a man seeks friends or not-if he be proficient in what he professes and lives up to what he teaches there will be no need of trenches for his defense. Napoleon, with all his austerity, found breastworks made of the dead bodies of the Old Guard, when his life was in danger.
Dr. Tadlock would not make debts. He would go with- out provisions-coffee or sugar or meat-before he would go in debt for them.
He was not understood by the poor people. They believed him to be aloof from them and yet no man had more consideration for them.
A newly married couple of moderate circumstances, living near the college, was once serenaded by the students. They used tin pans and horns and kept up a horrible noise. The next day Dr. Tadlock kindly admonished them- "Young men, don't do that. They are our neighbors; they are poor and your act may have hurt them. Their privileges are few, their wants are many; respect them, don't mistreat them."
The one great lesson he tried to teach young men was manliness.
A young man was once added to the faculty of King College, whose ability was never questioned, but whose youth invited censure because a portion of the students felt he was prejudiced and had gone beyond the bounds of the faculty privileges in taking sides with one literary society against the other. This feeling reached
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JAMES D. TADLOCK.
a climax when the young professor declined to pass a member of the rebellious society on a senior examination.
The students mutinied. They would have the professor put out of the faculty, and circulated a petition to this effect. It reached Dr. Tadlock, and holding it up before the students at chapel exercises one morning he said, "I see on the petition the name of - , a noisy little 'Prep,' who never recited a lesson to Prof.
in his life and yet he asks that this man be removed." Thus he presented the ridiculous side and shamed them. Then, in concluding, he arose to higher appeals-"Young men,"-and when he thus addressed them every listener knew he appealed to every bit of manliness there was in them-"Young men, this young man is just beginning his life-work as you will soon go out to begin yours. You will meet difficulties as he is meeting them here today; you will meet men who will try to drag you down as you are trying to drag this young man down. Don't throw obstacles in his way; you will regret it in the years to come. Young men, stand by this young man." The petition was withdrawn.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL.
Our first settlers were not enthusiastic on the subject of education. They brought their religion with them and the minister was always welcome, but they looked upon learning as little needed in the development of their forest homes. Woodcraft was more valuable to them than statecraft. There were some, however, like the Shelbys, Seviers and Bledsoes who had higher ideals than the every-day logic of the log cabin, and the teacher who finally straggled into the settlement found lodgement with them. The schoolhouse was the last building to be erected and often the meeting-house was pressed into service for school purposes-later, however, the separation of the school and the church was marked by the erection of separate buildings. The schoolhouse was left half finished; the spaces between the logs were not chinked, being left open to admit light-also they admitted the rain and snow.
A big fireplace, heaped with logs, tempered the cold within. The benches were made of riven trees, placed with the splintered side up, at the proper or perhaps rather improper height, with wooden pegs for legs- they had no backs. On these rude benches the smaller children would sit, bent over their tasks, their feet not touching the ground; there were no floors in the schoolhouses.
The salary of the teacher was paid in whatever currency the cabin could afford and such as the higher state officials did not refuse-cloth and skins and other products of the loom and farm. It was the time, too, when he "boarded round"-each patron taking his turn at "finding him." A week was the length of time he was allowed at each home and according to his ability to help in the work about
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1
1
OLD FIELD SCHOOL-TEACHER'S CONTRACT
John Russell agrees to teach the children of Holston Valley, at Cawood's plan- tation, for twelve months and is to receive fitty cents per month for each "sebolar". Half of this salary is to be paid in "Goodl Bar Iron to be delivered at the school- house." Also, "We the sd. emplovers do agree to find sd. Teacher in his Bording Washing &c." They also furnished firewood. He is to instruct in "first letters Spelling, Reading, Writing And Arithmetic so far as his and their Capacity Will admit of."
James George pays part of his subscription in advance. The other subscrib)- ers are John Booher (written in German), James Blevins, Agatha Cawood, Armisted Blevins, John Cawood, Sr., Sally Cawood, Sam L. Brownlow. John Cawood, Jr., John Morrell, John Blevins, John Russell, Thomas Majors, Robert Cowan, William Blevins, John Blevins, Peter Hugh, Walter Blevins.
The number of "scholars" sent to the school by each patron is shown opposite their names.
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THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL.
the farm or house was he popular and welcome in the community.
Among the young boys where the master boarded it was considered a great honor to "sleep with teacher," and they would perform extra tasks under promise of this privilege. It was an honor unsought by the teacher, however, who foresaw that he would toss the early hours away in bread-crums or perhaps awake and find himself imbedded in a full-grown sweet potato, as the boys always carried a meal to bed with them.
There were no text-books in the early schools. What- ever book "come handy" to the young student was used, and many a youth has received his rudimentary train- ing from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the Bible and other works familiar to all households. Sometimes the teacher would make his own text-books and teach therefrom.1 These were often made in splendid imitation of print-easy to read and serviceable. In con- sequence of the various number of books used and the lack of uniformity, each pupil composed a class by him- self and the same rule governing the service at our tavern tables-first come, first served-applied to the wilderness schoolhouse. The pupil first to arrive in the morning was the first to receive attention whether he be a student of Bunyan or the Bible.
As the years advanced so did the school life advance and a more regular system was introduced. The increase in the scholastic population made necessary the adoption of uniform text-books and the organization of classes. However, educational facilities of that period were still far behind those of today.
A degree of advancement was not reached by grades, but a student's progress, beginning at his abecedarian days, advanced to words of two syllables like "b-a-ba-
1At the Johnson home on the Reedy creek road I was shown a copy of a text-book "used :by; George Wilhelm, an old pioneer teacher. It was an arithmetic. In the family Bibles during his visits, "boarding 'round" among his patrons, he made some attempt at rhyming verse, usually of a religious nature.
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HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
k-e-r-ker, baker," until the reading period began, then he was promoted to "readers" first, second, third and on to the sixth. When these were completed the Latin and the Greek classics were taken up provided the teacher was himself advanced far enough to teach them.
Then, too, there were the sciences, but at times these met with some protest. One mother objected seriously and wrote the teacher that she did not want her daughter to "ingage in fizziology" because she did not want her to "talk about her bones right before the boys."
"FRIDAY EVENING."
On Friday afternoons all recitations were abandoned and the time given over to composition and "speeches" or declamation. Each student alternated, offering a composition one week and a declamation the next. Among the girls these compositions usually took up some domestic economy or morals. The boys' discourses usually dwelt upon the sports, the seasons and now and then a deep theological thesis, which of course was copied. The declamations among the girls were tender selections like "Mary's Lamb," and "Death of the Sparrow," while the already "Busy Bee" put in some overtime.
The boys exposed the hero, Casabianca, on the deck early in the year and had weekly conflagrations with him until the close of school. The "benighted boy" was delivered in such a rambling sort of way one could hardly tell which was Harry and which was the guide-post. The deaf old sexton might not have heard the curfew, but it split the ears of the groundlings at the old field school and no doubt is ringing in memories yet. The barque, the prince, the sad old king who "never smiled again" and Bingen had their devotees. In their oratory they had little regard for the season. "Young Norvell" was kept on the Grampian hills with his flocks without
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THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL.
regard to temperature. "Come, come, the summer now is here" was often delivered in January, while "Old winter, alack, how icy and cold is he" was kept in a state of congealment during the warmest weeks of May.
The more advanced students delivered selections of more ambitious range like Hayne's spirited defense of South Carolina, but rarely ever attempted Webster's studied and stately diction in reply. Some of the efforts were not altogether without merit and, "When the beams of the rising sun had guilded the lofty domes of Carthage" was attempted-no matter how indifferently delivered- Regulus was sure of a respectful hearing. It was the inherited war spirit of the wilderness schoolboy that charged him with sympathetic listening interest.
GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS.
During the long school hours, which began at eight o'clock in the morning and continued until four in the afternoon, there were three intermissions-one, an hour at noon and two called recesses. The noon hour was for din- ner-the recess in the morning was at half past ten for fif- teen minutes and the recess in the afternoon was at three and for the same length of time. During these intermissions the old time games were played- marbles, quoits, prisoner's base, bull-pen, town-ball, cat-ball, fox and hounds and antne-over.
Prisoner's base was a running game. Two sides were chosen, each selecting a base-the distance between them varying according to the space convenient, usually from thirty to fifty feet. To run around a base without being caught won a game. To be caught or tagged away from a base made a prisoner of the one caught, who was im- mediately taken to a place of detention2 near the side
2For some reason the place of detention in prisoner's base was called the "stink." "That's not fair, he's on the stink" and other complaints were heard throughout the games. It was one of those words that belonged to a boy's vocabu- lary, whose etymology is best left unsolved.
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HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
capturing him. He could be retaken by his own side or exchanged as a prisoner of war.
Bull-pen was a sort of four-cornered ball game. The lucky ones on the four corners had the privilege of handling the ball. They tossed it to and fro and at an opportune time hit one of the boys in the pen. The corner men then retreated to a stand and the one who had been hit by the ball had a chance to secure a base by hitting one of the boys that occupied them.
Antne-over,3 a corruption perhaps of ante-over, was played over a building-usually the schoolhouse. The sides took positions opposite each other-the building between. The party holding the ball would shout "antne"-the ones opposite would respond, "over,"and the other again, "over she comes." If one of the party to whom the ball was thrown caught it the crowd then rushed around and captured, by hitting with the ball, one or more of the opposition.
Town-ball was the forerunner of baseball. There were three bases and a home plate. Instead of tagging out a runner with the ball he was crossed out, the ball being thrown between him and the base. In other respects it was similar to the present popular and national game.
Cat-ball was a timid game usually played by girls or small boys. It was a three-cornered game and a paddle instead of a bat was used to strike the ball.
3BOARD OF EDUCATION OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, TENNESSEE J. E. L. Seneker, Supt.
Blountville, Tenn., December 14, 1908.
Mr. Oliver Taylor,
Bristol, Tenn.
Dear Sir-
Yes, I remember well that years ago children at school in the country played "Antne Over," "bull pen," "prisoner's base," "black man,"-"What will you do when you see the black man coming?" (Answer.) "Kill him and eat him."
As to the etymology of the "Antne Over" I must say, I don't know. Perhaps it had its origin from the old verb ante which meant-"deposit your stake." This, you know, is required in games of chance. When ready to play the one holding the ball called out, "ante" or "antne" and they on the other side answered "over." Now this is only guessing on my part. Very truly,
J. E. L. SENEKER.
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THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL.
There were other games that did not require so much activity, such as "mumbly-peg" (mumble the peg) and others.
The games of the social life of the old field school were innocent, consisting of Tennessee Snap, Old Sister Phoebe, Twistification, Who's Got the Key, Weavely Wheat, London Bridge, Moll Brooks Come Out of My Orchard and others. Most of the games had a kissing penalty which rendered them very popular.
The older people contented themselves with the old- fashioned dances and the shifting of feet was accompanied by a squeaky duet on the fiddles, painfully drawing out "Old Jimmy Sutton," "Sourwood Mountain," "Arkansaw Traveler," "Rosin the Bow," "Liza Jane" and "Cripple Creek."
JOSEPH H. KETRON.
A BIOGRAPHY.
Every little boy has an ambition of some kind and it follows him all through life, however much he may be diverted from it. Joseph Ketron, when a little boy, longed to have Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. It was the biggest book he knew of and contained much wisdom. That yearning represented Ketron's life-he wanted a library and he wanted learning, and more, he wanted to impart that learning to others. He got his dictionary and imposed upon himself the task of memoriz- ing one hundred words a day. He got a library-one of the choicest private libraries in the state. He got learning and became one of the pioneer educators in this section.
But to attain these things he snuffed the candle at two o'clock in the morning, and he snuffed out many years of his life.
Joseph H. Ketron was born near Bloomingdale, November 12, 1837, and died there November 1, 1901, lacking but eleven days of reaching his sixty-fourth year.
With the little extra money he earned at the plow and with the hoe he attended the short sessions of an occasional school conducted near his home. But in the midst of his studies he was called to serve in the army during the Civil War. In the battle of Big Black River Bridge, near Vicksburg, May 17, 1862, he was shot in the thigh, which wound caused him much suffering at the time, his life being despaired of, and from which he suffered at times all his life.
After the war he took up school work again, becoming principal of Reedy Creek Academy, at Arcadia, in August, 1864. There he taught nine years.
Then, deciding to attend school again, he went to Wes- leyan University, at Athens, Tennessee, where he remained
JOSEPH H. KETRON
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JOSEPH H. KETRON.
a year and a half, studying and tutoring. In 1875-76 he attended the Illinois Wesleyan University, at Bloom- ington, Illinois, where he graduated with highest honors in his thirty-ninth year. After his graduation he spent one year teaching at New Market, Tennessee.
Then he faced the temptation of good salaries-salaries big enough to have furnished a substantial living without much responsibility-but he chose to go back to his old home, where he built a school and endowed it with best endeavors that a good education and a willingness and love for work and the memories of the old place could inspire. He named the school after the best man he knew, Bishop Kingsley-Kingsley Seminary. It was dedicated August 6, 1877.
He taught there for twenty-five years; until the end of his life. One thousand and four students attended the seminary during that time, and in his forty-one years of teaching he gave instructions to two thousand and ten boys and girls-young men and young women. Sixty young men prepared themselves for the ministry under his tutelage.
First of all Joseph Ketron was a scholarly teacher. "You may be called to preach, but I was called to teach," said he to a young man one day. He slept in his library; he lived in his library. Being such a hard close student he was not considered by some a practical man, but a close study of his life and habits will disprove this. In botany he could explain the morphological and phaneroga- mic and then go out into his yard and intelligently culti- vate his flowers; he trimmed the wicks of the lamps of architecture, and with a saw and a hammer and a jack- plane helped to build the house his parents lived in; he could write a song and sing it himself; he could teach the science of agriculture, the chemistry of the soil-how much potash, phosphoric acid or nitrogen was needed, and he could raise a good crop of potatoes and beans.
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HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
He believed in few acres and intense culture and once made a test of an acre of corn, raising one hundred and five bushels.
He could teach higher mathematics then go out and survey a tract of land-he was the surveyor of the neighborhood; he could tell you about metallurgy and then go into a blacksmith shop and make a horseshoe.
As a versatile teacher Sullivan County has never had his superior. He would have made an efficient head of an industrial school.
If you were to ask the students who were under his instruction at the seminary, what particular study Ketron excelled in, they would tell you all of them. He was a student all his life-he went to school to himself.
He was a man of careful habits and taught his students how to save time. As an example-he always laid down his pen or pencil with the point toward him so it could be picked up again, ready for use, without being turned around.
He was more than a teacher in the schoolroom-he was a living example.
When twelve years old he professed religion at the Reedy creek camp-ground, and his was a devotional life. While always loyal to the denomination to which he belonged his Christianity was never crinkled by sectarian prejudice.
When but a youth he was chosen superintendent of the Sunday-school at his home, which position he held all his life with the exception of the four years spent at college. He opened and closed the day's work at the seminary with religious lessons.
When his body was borne to the grave it was followed by a procession of school-children, each carrying a bunch of flowers.
One of his favorite songs was "Work for the Night is Coming."
On the day of the night of his death he worked-dispos- ing of his mail-he worked himself to death.
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JOSEPH H. KETRON.
For thirty years he kept a diary; a few days are given here:
January 1, 1868: Snow six or eight inches deep .- Brother John married to-day to Miss Mary J. Agee .- I feel impressed with the shortness of time; if spared this year, I intend to try to improve it .- Lord help me.
January 1, 1870: Surveyed a lot of land for Papa, planted some fruit trees, did a few other little jobs of work .- Read in the Bible and other books .- Drizzled rain a part of the day.
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