USA > Tennessee > Monroe County > Sweetwater > History of Sweetwater Valley > Part 20
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Mr. Mayes died as he had lived, simply. He who has lived theatrically often dies so.
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Henry Mayes' death was calm and peaceful. There was no posing. It was merely the last incident of a well spent life. Every thing he ever did was done quietly and in order.
I have thus emphasized his distinguishing characteris- tic, the disinclination to be the central figure, because he did more to make Sweetwater the town it is than any man who ever lived in it except one, and that one was his most particular friend and with him in business mat- ters he always consulted.
Henry Maves was married to Nancy Maginnis at Thorn Hill, near Bean's Station, Grainger County, Tenn., April, 1837. As he was born at Bean's Station on April 15, 1817, he was just 20 years old. They soon thereafter moved to Sweetwater Valley and settled on the southwest quarter of section 35, township 2, range 1, east. He afterwards acquired from the Chancery Court of Grainger County two other tracts of 160 acres each, the southeast and northwest quarters of section 34 of the same range and township. He built a two-story frame house, then rather scarce in this part of the val- ley. They were usually either log or brick, mostly log. The reason for this was that at that time steam engines were very expensive and in this immediate section and Sweetwater Creek did not have sufficient fall in its course to furnish water power for sawmills. This house was near the site now occupied by the residence of J. H. McCaslin in the town of Sweetwater. The stage road ran directly by the house and this was a popular and convenient feeding and stopping place. The stage driv- ers were well known characters. They had regular sched- ules and ran pretty well on time. When the bugle sounded for the stopping places those in the neighbor- hood would collect to hear the news and see if there were any distinguished passengers on board. Rube Crabtree and Andy Davis were popular drivers.
The nearest neighbors of Maves were Owen, Biggs, Heiskell, Ramsey, Fine, Bunch, Henderson, Snead and Fryer. The tract on which he lived joined Owen, Biggs, Lenoir, Fine, and on the west another Mayes tract. At that time the site of the town of Sweetwater was timber lands and virgin soil.
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Thus Henry Mayes being married to a lovely, attrac- tive and domestic woman, living at an ideal situation, surrounded by agreeable neighbors the future seemed ex- ceptionally bright; he was blessed according to his de- serts.
True, church and school privileges were not all that could be desired. The school-house was a small log af- fair one-half mile southwest in the bend of the creek, and there was teaching only from three to four months in the year. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church, named Mt. Lebanon, of which Mr. Mayes and his wife were members, was located one mile to the northeast. This as has already been related was afterward moved to the town. The children of this union were:
Letitia, born in 1838, and died in infancy.
James H., born 1840; died at Atlanta, Ga., 1867.
Mary Louise, born 1843; died at Sweetwater 1859.
Noble I., born May 6, 1845. Now living in Chatta- nooga.
E. Virginia, born 1854 and died at Knoxville on Octo- ber 10, 1910.
Mrs. Nancy Mayes died at Sweetwater 1857 and was buried at Mt. Lebanon.
The Mayes place was a lovely one to visit even in those early times. They had enough slaves to do the house and farm work and it was a rare thing that they sat down to a meal without some one present other than the members of the family. 'Those were times when peo- ple felt free to go to see each other garbed as they hap- pened to be at the time, whether in store or home-made clothes did not matter. The fashions remained much the same from year to year till the coming of the rail- road.
The Mayes family were fond of music and innocent amusements. Mrs. Mayes herself played the old time music on the fiddle. She did not play often but only for particular friends, as some of the "unco guid" thought it not exactly in form. Dancing too was frowned upon as now but was not considered one of the unpardonable sins.
The family were looked upon as a particularly fortu- nate and happy one. Ignorance of sanitation by one who
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should have known better was the cause of much trouble. Sometimes an unforeseen circumstance, call it luck, fate, Providence or what you will, can materially change the whole outlook of a family.
Dr. M. C. Parker, about the time of the first settle- ment of Sweetwater, built him an office and started in the practice of medicine. He might have known the com- mon practice then recommended by the old practition- ers but that would be thought antiquated now.
He became afflicted with tuberculosis, which afterward proved fatal. He was boarding before and during his sickness with the Mayes family. They waited on him with great care throughout his illness.
Thus was sown the germs of the disease and was the cause of much sickness and some fatalities. It was not a well established fact at the time that this disease was communicable. Instead of living and sleeping in the open air as much as possible and leaving the windows of the sick room open it was thought best for the patient to be confined in a close room and so as to prevent tak- ing further cold,-thus causing him to breathe over and over again the same vitiated atmosphere. This hastened his disease and made it much more dangerous for any one waiting on the tuberculosis patient.
The practice here when I was a boy was as far wrong in case of fevers as in tuberculosis. When I was six or seven years old there was an epidemic of scarlet fever in the Valley. Several of the Bow- mans, our nearest neighbors, died of it. I took it. My father was absent from home in the mountains of North Carolina. My mother sent for Dr. Parker. He promptly proceeded to bleed me freely. He prescribed the most nauseating compounds for me to take; he left particular instructions that I should have very little water to drink, and under no circumstances cold applications. Owing to my violent rebellion against such methods the instructions were not strictly car- ried out.
My longing for my father to return, the intolerable thirst from bleeding and high fever is a fearsome thing for me to contemplate even to this day. I grew rapidly worse. The third or fourth day my father got back. I was truly happy. In about three minutes I had plenty of cold water to drink and a pitcherful or two was poured on my head. Had he been delayed many more hours "little Willie" would not be here now trying to write the history of Sweetwater Valley people. I resolved there and then I would never allow any one to suffer as I had those three or four days if I could prevent it. It seemed to me greatly worse than natural thirst. I have told this to show what unnecessary tortures ignorance can inflict on humanity. The doctor did only what the books he happened to have told him to do. My mother, whose father was a physician, did not dare to
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disobey instructions. She had a reverence for tradition. He (her father) bled his patients sometimes and charged five dollars for it too.
This was the price for that service (?) during the thirties in Nashville.
A friend of mine once told me that a man told him that Dr. W. G. E. Cunningham, a former missionary to China and well known educator and editor of Sunday-school literature, is reported to have said that the manner of employing physicians in China was radically different from what it is in this country. There the doctor is hired and paid to keep you well and see that your household does not dis- obey the laws of health. If you get sick he is obligated to give you his medical services free of charge and, in addition to this, to pay you a reasonable sum for loss of time during the illness. Thus the M. D. resolved himself into a medical aid, sick benefit, acci- dent insurance and benevolent society and sanitary commission all in one. This custom, if adopted here, would revolutionize the method of procedure in the United States. This statement of Dr. Cunning- ham, if he made such, might have been true of the Mandarins and the higher class Chinese, but that it is generally a fact, applying to the common millions, there is much reason to doubt. Dr. Hattie Love, a medical missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Soochow, makes no mention of such a state of affairs in her letters home.
I am not able to qualify as an expert on Chinese customs, yet I have seen enough of them in my travels in this country to form and express an opinion. I was an honorary member of the order of the Sons of Confucius at college; I have looked on in the Rue Royal at New Orleans, where a great many Chinamen were playing "keno" (this is a game somewhat similar to baseball; the one gambols on the green and the other gambles on the "green"; one is sward and the other cloth). I have in my possession a receipt, written in the Chinese characters, for clothes washed in Chicago; I have seen the "yellow perils" shoveling sand off the railroad track in the deserts of Nevada; I passed the time of day with a "Chink" at Portland, Oregon (I asked him what time it was and he passed on without a word); a quarter of a century ago I walked along several of the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco and I saw enough in the day- time from the outside to know that I did not wish to visit their opium dens and sinks of iniquity at night; I left that for the "slum- mers" and the philanthropists. From the knowledge obtained as above, I am positive that the Chinese resident here is not controlled by any medical director, and that there is nothing sanitary about him from his queue to the soles of his wooden shoes; whatever may be his condition in his own Celestial Kingdom, or, as they call it now, republic.
There is no profession, the members of which have half the temp- tations and opportunities to deceive and fake as the medical. The physician thrives on the ills of humanity; it is money in his pocket for people to stay sick. When he prevents epidemics and diseases he is taking the bread out of his own and his children's mouths. He is the depositary, too, of more people's secrets than any one except a Roman Catholic priest. Thus a physician is usually the best and most unselfish or the very worst of men. His opportunities for good and evil are incalculable. In my experience I could point to many in- stances both ways, but to much more in the way of good. It is rare that he abuses his professional knowledge or intentionally lengthens illness to obtain a fee. When he varies from the truth it is when
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he thinks it is for the good of the patient. I believe this is the rule and not the exception. "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man has will be given for his life." Many a man since Job's time has cursed the day on which he was born on account of bodily afflictions. Then it is not hard for the designing to make capital out of his circumstances. I thus apparently digress to pay a deserved tribute to the medical fra- ternity, as some things I have said heretofore might be taken as a reflection upon them. I do this also more cheerfully for the addi- tional reason that among the most reputable physicians medical ethics does not allow one of them to say anything about himself in public print, except in the medical journals, which are not read by the general public. In these days of advertisement, when so many blow their own trumpets or hire it done, this is an anomalous posi- tion, however fortunate it may be for the patent medicine vender.
DESTRUCTION OF NEW MAYES RESIDENCE BY FIRE.
In the destruction of the new Mayes residence by fire, I think in about the year 1870, the family records were partially destroyed; there- fore, it is difficult now, in some instances, to arrive at the exact dates of births, deaths and marriages. Under the circumstances we can only approximate. We have to rely on our own memory and that of the living members of the family. The Athens Post for many years was the nearest newspaper published anywhere in this section of the country. Then, too, the personal happenings and neighborhood affairs were not considered important enough for publication. In the early days I doubt if the passing through of President Polk on the stage line would have been chronicled unless it had some political signifi- cance. From the year 1875 forward should be easy sailing to write the history of our Valley, provided one have access to the daily and weekly papers.
In say about 1856 there had scarcely been a death in the Owen, Biggs or Mayes families. The Mayes house was up on the top of the hill; the Biggs at the foot of the hill near the large spring and north of The Mascot Ho- siery Mills. The brick is a very old house and is still standing. The meadow land near was practically a swamp overgrown with calamus, watercress and bushes. The overflow of the creek also was much more than at present, there being many more obstructions in the bed of the stream. The Owen residence was in a low place near a large green pond and not far from the bank of the creek. From the situation it would appear that the site of the Mayes house was the most healthful of the three. After results did not prove this to be so.
MAYES FAMILY IN 1856.
In 1856 the family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Maves, a son, James H., aged 16, very much resembling his
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father in looks and disposition; a daughter, Mary L., who bade fair to be a handsome and accomplished wo- man, at that time 14 years or more old; a son Noble of- 11, and Virginia, an infant of 1 year. They were a happy family and very much respected and loved. Mr. Mayes was a serious minded man and rarely ever joked, but he was not one of the "killjoy" kind; he could for- get his own troubles to try to give pleasure to you.
In 1857 Mrs. Mayes died of tuberculosis, supposed to have been acquired waiting on Dr. M. C. Parker during his illness. In 1859 the daughter Mary died of the same disease.
James Hamilton Mayes was a railroad man. He died at Atlanta, Ga., July 7, 1870.
He m. Leila Viola Stoy, of Atlanta, October 20, 1868. They had a son, James Herbert, who was b. June 13, 1870; d. in Augusta, Ga., in 1906. He m. Ellen Roach April 11, 1894. Their children were:
Lelia, b. May 10, 1895; Francis, b. February 7, 1898; John Herbert, b. April 10, 1901.
Noble Irving Maginnis, second son of H. and N. Mayes was b. at Sweetwater May 6, 1845; m. Bettie Cornelia Goddard, oldest child of J. W. G. (whom see). They re- sided in Sweetwater for several years and then moved to Plainville, Ga. In 1885 they moved to Chattanooga. Mrs. Mayes died in Chattanooga on November 18, 1915. Children of N. I. and Bettie C. Mayes were :
1. Belle Goddard, b. September 24, 1872; m. Wm. G. Hartley July 31, 1901.
2. Margaret Bland, b. June 8, 1874. She is a D. D. S. Formerly worked in Dr. S. B. Cook's office, Chattanooga.
3. James Henry, b. at Chattanooga, January 20, 1877. Was killed in a railroad accident on December 6, 1889. 4. Mildred Louise, b. August 25, 1889; m. Thos. W. Miller, of Columbia, S. C., on November 12, 1913.
The fifth child of H. and N. M. Mayes was E. Virginia ; m. Captain J. P. Edmondson (then) of Blount County, September 5, 1885. He was b. October 16, 1844. Was sheriff of Blount County August 1872-6. Department U. S. revenue collector 1880-5. Postmaster at Maryville 1890-4. Moved to Knoxville 1901. Residence, 1319 High- land Avenue. His wife E. V. E. d. at residence October
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10, 1910; buried old Gray Cemetery. One child Irene d. January 5, 1914; aged 16 years and 5 months.
HENRY MAYES' SECOND MARRIAGE.
Mr. Mayes' second wife was Mrs. Ada Treadway. They were married at Athens, Tenn., April 6, 1860. She was the daughter of Peter Reagan, a half brother of General J. H. Reagan's father. (See J. H. Reagan Sketches.)
Henry Mayes was particularly fortunate in both his marriages. When he married Mrs. Treadway, he had been deprived by disease of his first wife and eldest daughter, Mary, who had gotten to be of an age when she could have been a great help and comfort to him. He had a family who sorely needed a mother and the second Mrs. Mayes filled the place as well as any one could. True he had slaves at the time who could do the house and farm work but even then there were rumors of war and insurrections that caused a feeling of uneasi- ness through the South as regards that kind of property. John Brown had already made his raid on Harper's Ferry, been captured by Colonel Lee, been tried, dis- posed of and was being sung about. As has been stated in 1860 Mr. Mayes married Mrs. Treadway. She was such a capable, lovely woman as rendered the conditions during the Civil War and the reconstruction period much more tolerable to him. He was a rebel or southern sympathizer, but was exceedingly prudent in his conver- sation and conduct. He did not fall out with others for a difference of opinion. He desired that the Union men should be protected in life and property during the oc- cupancy of the country by the Confederate army. To keep free of malice and passion was no easy thing to do when this section was occupied by first one and then an- other and continually fought over.
The feeling was sometimes stronger between the non- combatants at home than between the soldiers in the army. The rancor became so great in some sections of East Tennessee that it amounted to a system of reprisal and extermination. This however was happily not the case in the town of Sweetwater and the country imme- diately surrounding. At the breaking out of the war the town had about 400 inhabitants. It remained about
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the same during the war. When the hostilities of ar- mies were practically over the troubles of rebels were by no means ended. Then came the reconstruction period. Then none but men of approved loyalty were allowed to vote or sit on juries. The administration of justice was a one-sided affair. Even Mr. Mayes, whose well- known Christian spirit did not suffer him at any time willingly to give offense to others, was harassed by dam- age suits in the courts. Nor had he or any of his fam- ily ever engaged actively in the rebellion. What partial- ly saved him from being broken up was not this, but the fact that the plaintiffs in the causes never had had any- thing to be taken by rebel raiders, and in many instances the cases were put off until there was a change in the complexion of affairs. The real horror of war is that when the fighting is done the evil results last for a cen- tury.
Henry Mayes, I understood, was not a highly educated man but there was nothing rough about his conversation or manners. He would not have attempted to discuss the binomial theorem, or solve examples by logarithm or compute the age of the world by its geological forma- tions ; but he never used such expressions as "I taken," "I seen," "me and him" did so and so, please "set down," though it is possible he may have said "ain't;" fairly well educated people do that sometimes.
He was a remarkably close observer of animals, plants and weather conditions, and had a retentive memory. I recollect distinctly of his explaining to me the meaning of the passage in Ecclesiastes: "The wind goeth to- ward the south and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually ; and the wind returneth again according to his circuit." The explanation was that the wind turns to the right like the hands of a clock and goes from the south to the north by way of the west and then to the south by the east. It usually travels the half cir- cuit from the north to the south more quickly than that from the south to the north. If the direction of the wind is from the west, it is almost certain to come from the north before coming from the east. He also called my attention to the fact that whirlwinds and whirlpools gyrate in the same manner. Such things as these, not
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then found in books, was what he frequently told me and interested me much.
MUCH OF SWEETWATER ON MAYES' LAND.
The town Sweetwater is built, much of it, on the Mayes land. A line drawn from the middle of the Heiskell lane on the east side of town to the middle of the public road, going west toward Pond Creek, would show the division line between the Mayes and Lenoir lands. Hen- ry Mayes died at Sweetwater on August 13, 1873.
MRS. ADA REAGAN MAYES.
Miss Ada Reagan was born at Rome, Ga., December 1, 1828. She married Thos. J. Treadway, January 23, 1851. He died November 3, 1856. Mrs. Treadway mar- ried Henry Mayes on April 10, 1860. She died at Ashe- ville, N. C., on May 5, 1901.
Cuba Treadway was born February 8, 1855. He was a railroad man. He died August 20, 1885.
Oscar Reagan Mayes was born April 10, 1861. His post-office is Hurst, Ill.
Carrie Lee Mayes was born at Sweetwater on Septem- ber 16, 1863. She married John H. Weaver, of Ashe- ville, N. C., November 22, 1888. Dr. E. E. Wiley of- ficiating. Mr. Weaver, formerly of Weaverville, is a prominent merchant of Asheville, N. C. Their residence is 119 Cumberland Avenue.
The children of Jno. H. and Carrie Lee Weaver are:
1. Eugene Mayes Weaver, b. March 22, 1891; m. Mrs. Lillian Daniels Dryser.
(1) By this marriage one child, Oliver Dryser. He died and she m. E. Mayes W. Children of this mar- riage are:
(1) Constance Alene, b. March, 1914. (2) Lillian Doris, 1916.
2. Henry Cedric, b. November 24, 1894. In mailing department New York Times.
3. Mary Adalena, b. November 28, 1897.
4. Carrie Lee, b. September 15, 1900.
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THE TAYLORS.
Hughes and Betsey Cannon Taylor, his wife, came from Virginia and settled in Grainger County. They reared a family of twelve children:
H. Woodson, Elika Adams, Mrs. Emma Witt, Grant, Mrs. Eliza Boatwright, Jabin Snow (see Fine), Mrs. Rachel Witt, Mrs. Amanda Patton (see Francis A. Pat- ton), Thomas, Elbert E., Mrs. Edna - (name of husband not known to writer).
Elika Adams, second son of Hughes and Betsy Can- non Taylor, was born in Grainger County, Tenn., July 30, 1811. He married Elizabeth Mayes, March 30, 1830, in Grainger County, who was born February 4, 1813; died February 26, 1889. Her father was James Mayes. Her mother's maiden name was Jane Howel. Mrs. E. Taylor was a sister of Henry Mayes, of Sweetwater.
They moved from Grainger County to Pond Creek Valley in the first civil district of Monroe County in 1839 or 1840. He resided there until his death on May 10, 1903, in the 92nd year of his age.
There is a deed of record at Madisonville, Book "NK," p. 487, of a purchase of 80 acres of land from John Glaze by E. A. Taylor, the same having been bought by him (Glaze) of Lindsay Roberts. The date of the deed is January 27, 1840.
In September, 1842, E. A. Taylor and wife Elizabeth, were received by experience into the Baptist church on Pond Creek. This church was located about one mile south of the Taylor residence. The membership of this church afterward met in the town of Sweetwater and the name was changed to the "First Baptist Church at Sweetwater."
It is related in the church records of the then Pond Creek Baptist Church that they were baptized in Sweet- water Creek near John Fine's. Presumably the rite was performed by Rev. Robt. Snead as he was acting as pastor of the church at the time. The reason the bap- tism took place in Sweetwater Creek was that there was not "much water" in Pond Creek especially at that time of the year.
In March, 1845, E. A. Taylor became clerk and was
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clerk of the church until October, 1860, when his son, William H. Taylor, was elected church clerk in his place.
In June, 1854, the church decided to build a house of worship in the town of Sweetwater, which was then be- ginning to be a place of some importance, hoping there- by to largely increase their membership. Mr. Taylor was one of the active members in bringing about this change. However, the church house was not completed until the fall of 1860. The first record of meeting in it was the first Saturday in December, 1861. At this meet- ing Thos. D. and Martha L. Taylor joined the church and Wm. H. Taylor was church clerk.
In the year 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War El- der Hughes Taylor, of Beach Spring in Grainger Coun- ty, was pastor; his brother, E. A. Taylor, was a deacon. Wm. H. Taylor was church clerk and Elizabeth, Wood- son, Thos. D., Martha L., and Minerva Taylor, were members of the church. There joined the church after- ward of the Taylors-James H., Mrs. Emily S., Zach- ary, Eliza, Sarah, Elizabeth and William.
E. A. Taylor as a clerk kept the books of the church neatly, correctly and in good diction. The same was the case of two sons who afterward were also clerks, viz: Wm. H. and James H.
E. A. Taylor was an educated man in this sense, that education consists more in the ability to apply what you know to the duties and circumstances of life than the amount of knowledge acquired. When he (E. A. Tay- lor) knew anything, he knew it as well as anybody could know it. He could converse on the Bible as interesting- ly as any one I have ever known. He was an authority on Baptist doctrine. He was also one of the most pro- gressive farmers in all this section of country. Being a reader and having a receptive mind he could not help but be versed in the political history of the nation. He was a fluent talker and was never at a loss for a word. He was always enthusiastic in the advocacy of what he believed. He was always anxious for others to believe as he did. Usually one who wears himself out in the reformation or service of others does not attain to old age. He is a notable exception to this rule.
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