Widow of the late J. Roy Rogers

"I KNOW MORE about the family who lived on an adjoining farm farther south. It belonged to my great-grandfather Abraham Stakely. He came from Pennsylvania with his two brothers. John took up residence in the Bethlehem community and William, who lived in the town of Madisonville and had the first, or nearly so, store in Madisonville.

My great-grandfather was schooled to be a Doctor of Medicine, but probably because of the scarcity of effective drugs, he went back to school and became a dentist. He worked in an office in Sweetwater with another dentist. He made his wife some dentures which Mamma said were the prettiest, most becoming she had ever seen. He filled teeth and also extracted them without benefit of anesthesia.

YOU REALLY HAD to have a "rip-roaring" pain in your teeth to give you the courage to go to a dentist like that. That is perhaps what happened to great-grandmother.s visitor. She was at home while great-grandfather was away for an extended period. A stranger rode in on a horse and knocked on the door. Great-grandmother went to the door. He asked if the Doctor was in. Grandmother told him he was not. He asked when he would be home. It was a longer time than the man thought he could bare the pain. Without a "by-your-leave," he ran past her through the door into the house and literally fell into the bed. She only weighed about 90 pounds, but she was nervy. She rose to the occasion by setting about trying to ease his pain.

Great-grandfather had two daughters and two sons before he married my great-grandmother. (He had previously married Mary Henderson. I think I.m correct.) John O., who never married, and Matt who married Lucy Lee. They had two children, Fred, who married Nillie Coltharp, and Lillie, who married John Stiles. John and Lillie had three children, Lowry, Shelton who married Johnnie R. Wilkerson, and Lucy Lee, who was named for her grandmother. Lucy Lee married Joe Grubb. When Joe died Lucy Lee married a Mr. Bryant from Sweetwater.

GREAT-GRANDFATHER HAD two daughters by his first marriage, Ellen and Addie. The McCaslin family was well-to-do and able to outfit wagons and provide food and other necessities for a trip to the "Bleeding" State of Kansas. Addie and Ellen married Philip and John McCaslin and set out for Kansas. They were among the people who pioneered the settling of the West. When we realize that it was around 1860 we can know how young this nation is. Years later, when Grandfather was old, he came rushing into the kitchen, yelling for Grandmother and others to come quickly. He was weeping and saying, "Ellen is here!" They asked, "Ellen who?" He replied, "It.s our Ellen!" She was leaning against the wall in the hall sobbing. I believe that is the only she ever came back to Tennessee. Aunt Addie never came back that I heard about. Ellen had a daughter named "Addie." She married Bob McSpadden, a brother of Arch McSpadden and Mrs. Emma Miller, (Dr. Calvin Miller.s grandmother). I remember a "letter-edged-in-black" that was in a box of pictures at my grandmother.s house. I remember them calling the name "Addie McSpadden" but I don.t really know whether it was Addie McSpadden or her aunt Addie McCaslin who had died."

"GREAT-GRANDFATHER MARRIED Mary Horner the last time and had three children. One was my grandmother, Oceola Idasusan (Osie), and her sister Callie, who married Jim Lee and had Rankin, Bob, Cora Mae (Mrs. L. O. Hicks), and Ella (Mrs. Embree Smith). Ida and Ralph died very young.

Great-grandfather.s son, Joe, married Meade Hicks and had Carrie, Mary, and Charlie.

The land they chose in Monroe County, after having lived in Hawkins County a while, had the unhappy situation of being alongside the Old Federal Road. During the Civil War it was ravaged by both groups of soldiers.

Great-grandfather was Trustee of the County and went from place to place collecting tax money. He had $800 of the tax money at home. I suppose there was no courthouse. One night he had to be away from home. He gave great-grandmother a gun and told her to guard the money. Things were in such a state of stress that lawless people wandered about taking what they could get. The law was probably non-existent or couldn.t be enforced. She heard a noise outside and walked out on the portico and fired the gun. Things grew quiet and she went to bed. Next morning she went out to find the "body." She did . it was a sheep she had killed in the barn lot. Upon looking around she found tracks under the portico on which she was standing. There had really been somebody preparing to rob her of the money.

ON ONE OCCASION the Union soldiers came by and forced her to cook their dinner. In so doing she used a five dollar pound of coffee and perhaps most of her food. When she cleared the table there was a dollar bill under every plate. While they were eating, some Stephens boys tried to go to the mill for some much-needed meal. Great-grandmother saw them coming to the Old Federal Road and went to the front yard and waved her big white apron frantically. They quickly understood and turned back towards home, running. If they had met the soldiers they would have probably have taken their horses . at least. It was a time of great distress. Great-grandfather had one shirt left. My grandmother said she and her brother, Joe, carried corn bread, spread with stewed apples without sugar for their school lunch. Times were so bad that Great-grandpa could collect tax from few people. He had to pay it himself, which impoverished him. His bondsman refused to help him. Great-granddad owned two shafts of the Copperhill Copper Mine. They were sold after my mother was born. She remembered when he sold that. On the other hand, a Mr. Torbett died. Great-grandfather owed him some money. Mr. Torbett.s son,"

(To be continued next week)

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The preceding is from a clipping, from a newspaper in Monroe Co., Tennessee called "The Town Crier."   The date was not given.   The author lived in Sweetwater, TN.  Photocopy was supplied by Elsie (Harder) Stakely.   No other copies were given that continue this story.