LIVING IN EARLY VERSAILLES
By Carmine Jackson


"A man's work is from sun to sun;

A woman's work is never done."



This old saying was often repeated in the early days at Versailles and with goo, reason. During those long ago days, very few conveniences were in use for either men or women. Plowing the fields was done by using a turning plow, which, when pulled by a team of mules, guided by a man walking behind the plow, made only one furrow. This method required a long time to turn the soil in a large field. Disc harrows had not been invented. The rough soil turned by the plow must be polarized by using heavy shop-made wooden harrows with iron spikes protruding through to the under side. A heavy ship-made wooden roller was pulled over the field to help break the clods of dirt. When at long last the field was ready, one furrow at a time was opened by a man, a mule, and a small plow going to a stake with a white flag on top placed in a straight line at the far end of the field. The grains of corn were dropped by hand into this open furrow. Hubrid corn was unknown. Slow maturing corn was planted in March or April to reach maturity before frost. All other farm work was equally crude and slow.

The women, who had no conveniences of their won, did their best to help and encouraged the men. A most substantial early breakfast, cooked before the open fireplace or on a wood-burning stove, served by the light of candles or kerosene lamps, was provided so the men could begin work in the field by sunrise. The work of the men was given first consideration because they were the sole bread winners. No woman worked away from home, but helped the men in every way possible, fitting her own work in as best way she could.

Breakfast consisted of some kind of home produced meat, usually pork that had been salt cured, perhaps lye hominy made at home of dried corn, eggs supplied by the flock of chickens kept on the farm, a hot "hoe cake" of corn bread, hot biscuit, plenty of home churned butter, gravy, sorghum molasses that had been made on the farm, or jelly preserves, all home made, coffee ground at home by hand, and milk. As soon as breakfast was over, the men hurried to the field while the women would do the morning chores: milking the cows, feeding the poultry, washing the dishes, making the beds, sweeping the rooms and porches, and planning and beginning preparations for another big meal, called "dinner" in mid-day. The strenuous work in the field, with the men walking untold miles, required much nourishment.

If it were wash day, which usually came on Monday, many buckets of water would be drawn from the well or brought from a near-by spring, poured into a large black iron wash kettle kept in the back yard, a wood fire built around this kettle to heat the water, and the washing operation began. Hot water would be dipped from the kettle into a wash tub called a piggin made of red cedar staves. The white clothes were washed first. Soft lye soap, made of lye dripped from wood ashes and boiled with meat scraps until all the water had evaporated, was used. The clothes were scrubbed up and down on a wooden board with metal ridges on the top side. After this scrubbing, the white clothes were boiled in the wash kettle to bleach and sterilize. The colored clothes were rinsed through two or more clear waters, wrung by hand, and hung on the clothes line to dry. Starch, made by boiling flour in water, was used on the best sheets, pillow cases, and wearing apparel. The day after wash day was devoted to ironing the clothes by means of heavy sad-irons heated on top of an iron stove or before an open fire.

While some of the women were engaged with the washing, others had been preparing mid-day dinner. At 11:30 a bell, placed on top of a high pole in the yard, would be loudly rung to notify the men in the fields that dinner was ready. The mules were unhitched, given water and fed, while the men went to the house. A bucket of fresh water and several wash pans were on a shelf on the back porch; as yet pluming was unknown. The men would wash faces and hands, comb and brush their hair, and gather around the dinner table. This meal was really abundant and considered the main meal of the day. There usually was plenty of meat, three or four vegetables, hot corn bread and hot biscuit, or, perhaps, home-baked corn light bread of wheat light bread, home-made pickles, with freshly baked desert of pies or cake or fruit. Always a pitcher of sweet milk and a pitcher of buttermilk would be placed near the mother's seat at the table. It was taken for granted that everyone drank milk; individual preferences was asked whether sweet milk or buttermilk. Iced tea was unknown. As the meal progressed, the empty glasses were passed for refilling, even to three or four times. As a rule, the men were jovial and laughed and joked each other as they ate. After about an hour's rest, they hurried back to the fields to work until sunset. Quite often food was left from mid-day dinner to be enjoyed at supper with the addition of freshly cooked meat and bread. After a day such as this, bedtime came early; nine o'clock was considered late. The day was divided into three parts; morning, evening (now called "afternoon"), and dight. After dinner was over and the dishes washed, there was often visiting among the women, especially those who lived within easy walking distance. However, they returned home for the night chores before darkness settled in.

Diversion was limited as there were no telephones, radios, televisions, and only an occasional newspaper. Reading books was very popular as was all forms of music in the home. The young people had frequent parties, picnics and hayrides, always chaperoned. Often relatives would come unexpectedly on Saturday morning to stay until Sunday "evening" without having given previous notice. They knew they would be gladly received. Always extra food was prepared on Saturday with the exception of company on Sunday. It was the custom to invite the preacher and friends to home with you from church for Sunday dinner. During the winter, the women found great diversion and benefit in piecing quilts, sewing, and all kinds of fancy work.

This lack of diversion resulted in monotony for the farm women. One welcome way of breaking this day-to-day monotony was to have a neighbor come in unexpectedly to spend the day or the night or to share a meal. Neighbors were very friendly and lived much like one big family. Often the ladies would gather in a home to spend the day quilting or the men would have a log rolling to build a new house. Husking bees were also popular when both men and women gathered in a corn crib to pull the shucks from all the corn. There was great merriment when a pretty girl would pull the shuck from an ear of red corn; every one claimed the right to kiss her.

It was always delightful to have a Pack Peddler knock at the door. A Pack Peddler was a strange man, usually small in stature with a foreign look and accent, who would walk for house to house, carrying a pack of merchandise securely strapped to his shoulders. The pack contained many small desirable items such as needles, pins, buttons, thread, gloves, cloth, embroidery -- articles women wanted but who had small opportunity for frequent trips to a store. This pack could be replenished from a stock of merchandise securely locked in storage in a nearby town. This slow one man walking method of salesmanship was replaced by one man traveling in a horse-drawn buggy. An example of this was a peddler by the name of Katz, who drove an enormous horse, said to weigh 2000 lbs. About 1920-1935, Emery Covington operated a horse-drawn covered spring wagon constructed to hold much merchandise. Both driver and faithful horse, "Old Bob", were known and loved by all the customers served day by day and week by week. One feature of especial interest on the Covington Peddling Wagon was the egg candle used to test each egg for freshness. Price Smotherman operated a similar wagon from the Store at Versailles -- later Rockvale. As Price Smotherman approach the home of each customer, he would blow loud and long on a bugle to announce his arrival. As seems the way of progress, the one-horse covered wagons, which were in reality complete miniature stores on wheels. One such wagon was that driven by Phinder Burt from the Henry Burt Store at Concord and later Rockvale.

Although Puckett Store was located across the Tenth District line it projected into the Versailles area by means of a peddling wagon. This vehicle was a large, very substantial covered wagon with a door and steps at the back. There were shelves built inside and every inch of space was used to advantage to carry articles that customers might want If a need could not be supplied this week, it would be delivered on the next trip around. Alf Hudson was a driver and clerk. The peddler not only sold merchandise, but also bought farm products, such as eggs, chickens and butter.

About 1917, when the Rutherford County Creamery was established in Murfreesboro and cream separators came into general use, the men became interested in dairying, realizing that milk is a cash crop. Dairy herds were increased in size and men gradually took over the chore of milking. When tractors replaced mules and farm machinery for riding came into general use, farm work became less strenuous. The day to day living changed. A comparison of money value then and now may prove of interest.

Below are actual figures copied from old account books found in the Versailles area:

9 Nov 1905 Walter Knight plowed 1 day $ .50
Cynthia did the family washing 1.00
1 Jan 1908 Newt Underwood rented the tenant 2.00
House - per month
4 May 1910 1/2 bushel Irish potatoes .75
24 pounds flour 1.05
20 June 1906 Kine Underwood - 1 gallon blackberries .15
24 Aug 1910 1 barrel flour 6.00
11 Nov 1910 1 can salmon .10 -- 1 pound cheese .10
-- crackers .05 .25
27 Nov 1910 1 loaf bread .10 - 1 can oysters-.10
- crackers .05 .25
1 pound coffee .10
3 Oct 1910 1/2 bushel corn meal .45
21 Oct 1909 50 pounds lard 6.25
Eggs -- 1 dozen .20
8 Nov 1909 Steak .15 per pound - Roast .25 - Sausage .20
3 Sept 1909 Wendell Burris came here to board
-- per month 14.00
1917 Firestone Tires 31 x 3 1/2 12.50
Smooth tread 14.00
Non skid grey inner tubes 1.65
Menzer spark plugs -- each .40
16 Oct 1922 Renewed Subscription to News-Banner 1.50
3 May 1915 Renewed Subscription to Nashville Banner 3.00
15 Mar 1935 Cannon's Market, M'boro 100 pounds sugar 4.80
18 Feb 1928 Bought new buggy from C.B. Farris 65.00
1 July 1916 Bought Overland Touring car 650.00
(automobile) - C.H. Byrn
27 May 1905 Smith & Cason, M'boro --
1 pr oxfords 3.50
Knox & Freeman, M'boro -- 1 pr shoes 2.50
11 Oct 1919 H.J Nance, Rockvale -- 2 prs shoes 11.00
23 July 1914 Taz Brooks, Blacksmith shop--
Putting 3 new shoes on horse .60
12 Jan 1942 Franklin Implement Co --
Model M Tractor 919.80
9 Dec 1943 Tobacco -- Williamson Co Market 42-46 cents


The Smoke House in Early Versailles

Information from first-hand
actual experience of older residents


Day by day living in early Versailles would not be complete without a careful tour of the smoke house. The smoke house derived its name from the taste preference of persons who liked the taste of smoke on meat. The early settlers, who traveled on foot or by wagon train, shot wild animals for food. This meat was cooked over a campfire so, naturally, smoke reached and flavored the meat. The floor in the old smoke house was always the bare ground so a slow burning fire of hickory wood and corn cobs could be kindled on the floor and the smoke curl upward to the meat, which had been salt cured, and hung row after row above the fire. This smoking process continued day by day until the degree of smoke desired was obtained.

Besides a year's supply of salt cured pork -- bacon, shoulders, and hams -- there was also a barrel of homemade lye soap found in the smoke house.

There were other barrels and kegs and stone jars in the smoke house. One barrel was filled with a year's supply of sorghum molasses made during the fall from juice extracted from sorghum cane and boiled to the right consistency. Nearby was another barrel filled with apply cider vinegar. This was made from home-grown apples, which had been carefully washed, ground in a cider mill, and the juice pressed out, strained, and left to turn into vinegar. Two kegs stood nearby, one filled with sauerkraut made from cabbage grown in the vegetable garden; the other containing cucumbers preserved in a brine made by mixing water and salt in proper proportions. These cucumbers could be taken from the brine as needed, washed, soaked to remove the salt, and made into pickles, using the apple cider vinegar. Stone crocks (jars) were filled with home-made preserves, each jar set in a pile of wood ashes to prevent ants climbing into the jar to eat the sugar. At this time, sealed fruit jars and insecticides were unknown. Each southern plantation was sufficient unto itself with a great variety of healthful home-produced and home-preserved food.


Churning

The churning of milk was a major household chore in the days of early Versailles which is worthy of especial mention. Every family, at that point in time, kept at least one milk cow to supply the table with sweet milk, buttermilk, and butter. Margarine and creamery butter were unknown.

The fresh milk, taken from the cows by hand, was brought into the kitchen in an open bucket, where it was strained through a metal strainer sold on the market for that especial purpose, or some house keepers strained through clean cotton cloth. The milk passed from the strainer into shiny buckets or into stone jars which had been carefully washed with lye soap, rinsed, scalded with boiling water, and aired in the sun. The jars were preferable to the buckets because they held heat better which would hasten the clabbering of the milk. Under normal conditions, which was about 70o Fahrenheit, the natural healthful bacteria in the milk would grow until the milk would thicken into a condition known as clabber. The cream had already risen to the top of the milk. During warm weather about thirty hours were required for this process to be completed; then the milk was ready to be churned. There were many different types of churns. The oldest and most familiar is the cedar churn made of cedar staves firmly fitted together and held in place with brass hoops. A dasher was placed on one end of a long round wooden rod which reached from the bottom of the churn through a hole in the tight fitting lid. To move this dasher up and down, up and down many, many times would agitate the milk sufficiently for the globules of butter fat, which were in the cream, to stick together and make it possible to take the butter from the milk. The milk left in the churn was buttermilk, a slightly acid but a most healthful and satisfying drink. Many house keepers had such ample supplies of milk that some buttermilk was given to neighbors or fed to pigs or poultry. The butter, when taken from the churn, must have all the milk worked out by using a spoon or a wooden paddle, washbed in several cold waters, lightly salted, and molded into pound cakes, round, square, or oblong. Much experience was necessary to learn how to manage milk to bring it to the proper degree of temperature and acidity, especially during cold weather

Some of the clabbered milk was made into cottage cheese; some of the fresh milk was made into American cheese. It required much time, energy, and experience to be successful with milk and milk products. The best way was from mother to daughter, but, rest assured, the results were most rewarding and well worth the time and effort.


Elections

Election Day in Versailles and later Rockvale brought out most all of the men. Women stayed home until about the time of World War II. After the Amendment was ratified giving women voting rights, a slow but sure increase in women at the polls took place.

Elections were held out in the open under one of the two huge oak trees on the south side of the store. There was no registration list until much later. A poll tax receipt was required for years. Prior to the poll tax requirement, a voter had to be a landowner. Not many blacks voted prior to the 1950's although this right existed for years.

To describe the scene is difficult. There were buggies, wagons, horseback riders, and later early model cars, coming and going all the time the polls were open from 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Election officers guarded the poll or voting box as though it were gold or some other precious metal. All day long groups of two or more were off away from others discussing the candidates and for whom to vote, the stronger trying to influence the weaker. Vote buying occurred but was not prevalent. Money or whiskey was used for this influence. It worked on a very few.

At Versailles the two Nance wives understood they had to prepare lunch (dinner) for several, especially the election officials, all of whom remained with the ballot box at all times. During inclement weather, the voting moved inside the Versailles and Rockvale stores which made it most difficult for persons interested in plying a trade of voter influencing.

After the polls closed the election official had to count the votes by hand and make two identical tallies for proof of accuracy. Afterwards the count, tally and the box were delivered to the county seat.

The two precincts had voted Democratic in most national elections though recently there is a Republican gain.

These two precincts have now been combined and the voting takes place at the Rockvale School.

Both the old system and the new system of larger precincts and voting machines worked and continue to function. Who is to say which is the better! Each was best in its time. The accuracy of the composite vote for the well-being of the local, state and national governments is really what counts and these two precincts, compositely, vote for the well-being of our nation, each citizen in his own way.


Merchants

Frank M Carlton erected the existing building in the Rockvale Community in 1884. The first merchant was Andrew Jackson, followed by L.R. Hutcherson, H.P. Johns, T.F. Holden, Comer & Williams, T.P. Burns, Richard Williams (for 31 years), and then Paul Windrow.

The first Masonic building erected in 1890 and located across the road south, was and is a two story building. The Masons used the second floor and rented the first for a general store. It was first operated by Henry Turner & Son then by partners Will Smith and W.S. Winn. Henry Burt came next. This building burned in 1910. Burt moved on Highway 99 to a small building opposite the Snail Shell Cave Road entrance. This building was called "Pen Hook" and was on the Henry Manning farm. Previous to these moves, Mr Burt had a stock of groceries and supplies in his home at Concord and operated a peddling wagon.

Also early in the 1900's, I.P. Burns and son, Roscoe, operated a store on the Jackson Ridge road near the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. After his father's death, Roscoe continued the business until 1910. A post office drop point was in this two story building and Burns handled the mail. The office was better known as "Everglade". Later the store was operated by Henry Kelton and High Johns.

In 1919 A.A. Scott operated the Concord General store. He sold it to Price Smotherman. Some other owners who followed were Alf Carlton, Edgar Frost, Tom Williams, T.P. "Dock" Burns (three times), Richard Williams, Herman Clark, and the John Hills. It is now closed (1982).

The store in the Second Masonic building completed in 1911, across from the first General Store, was operated by N.L, "Fang" Brown, then Jack and Sumner Holden, H.J. Nance, Rob Lamb and last by C.G. Bowling. This building was also destroyed by fire in 1934. The building was replaced immediately and Cecil Bowling continued operating the store until he retired in 1953.

Jim Cabler built a 20' x 50' store building on his property just west of the Masonic building and operated a store for about two years. This building was later annexed to the residence purchased to the residence purchased by J.F. McGee. The Fourth of July Picnic on the Rockvale School grounds has been more or less a day of "Homecoming" for former residents for more than fifty years. Most churches also have "homecoming" days in late summer and early fall.