No. 7 Edgar Oakes

Mathison Edgar Oakes was born in July 1891 in Rocky Valley, Jefferson County, TN. He was the third child born to Jacob and Elizabeth Oakes and a brother to Elmer B. Oakes, my grandfather. Ed was eleven years old when my grandfather was born so he was one of two significantly older brothers. He shows up in the family photo shown previously in this blog as in other family and military photos. He served as an American soldier in World War I while in his twenties. He shows up in uniform in two pictures. In one he is with an unknown buddy from the Army. Uncle Charles Oakes said that Ed and his family only got together with them once every year or two so they grew up knowing very little about him. During my genealogical research I came up with the name Caladonia Reid as his first wife. Charles does not remember that. There is a chance that I am mistaken on that count. Charles does remember Maude Goodman was his wife when they were growing up. Charles Oakes' first memory of Ed was when he was about five years old. The family went from Pond Creek Community over to Loudon where Ed and Maude lived. On this occasion Luther Oakes was very sick. Ed and Grandpa (Elmer) were going to leave their families in Loudon at Ed's home and go up to Jefferson County to check on Luther. Charles remembers that he was "petrified" (his words) of the indoor commode that Ed and Maude had. He wouldn't go near it. On that trip as a young boy he remembers an old Fordson tractor with steel wheels and cleats would come by. It would backfire and scared him too. The good things he remembers was listening to a short wave radio that Ed had. Charles remembers listening to the BBC broadcast and Ed telling him that they were listening to Big Ben, the famous clock in London. Ed gave him a balsam wood airplane with a wind up propeller. This was a nice gift for a young boy. Ed and Maude lived in a house on Kingston Pike in Knoxville for a time. This was an interesting house. Ed laughingly told them he and Maude could lay in bed and read the newspaper off the walls. This was because the walls were papered with newspaper. Charles recalls that Ed had a single plow with handles and a large front wheel. Ed would pull in place of a mule and Maude would plow with the handles. While at Kingston Pike Charles remembers Ed driving he and his father over to place not to far off where there was a hamburger stand. Charles ate the first hamburger he'd ever had that day. On one occasion Ed and Maude traveled to Pond Creek to visit them. While there he whittled a propeller about 30 inches long out of cedar, installed some good bearings in it and mounted it on a pole in the yard at the old Methodist parsonage where they were living at the time. When the wind got up it would really turn. The last place they lived was in the Paint Rock community of Loudon County where they farmed and worked in a lumber mill. On one trip Charles remembered that Ed had a dog named "Ring". He was a smart dog. Ed had some mules out in the bottom land along the creek. He could tell Ring to go get the red mule and put him in the barn. Ring would take off in a flash and do it. He could tell him to get the black mule and he'd do it too. On that trip Ed gave Charles four little ducks. When he got home they learned to follow him like he was their mother. Charles remembers Ed and Maude coming to Kinser Branch in Monroe County to visit them. He showed Grandpa a one hundred dollar bill he had saying, "I bet its been a while since you saw one of these." Ed and Maude never had children. Ed died in 1948 at the age of 59. Charles remembers that a young man came down to Kinser Branch to tell them about Ed's death. He can't recall a funeral service or a burial though he believes Ed is probably buried in a military cemetery in Knoxville. When they returned to Kinser Branch Maude gave Ring to Charles. At that time they had ten head of cattle that they grazed over in a pasture across the creek and hill in front of the house. Charles was responsible for taking them out and bringing them back to the barn later in the afternoon. Ring would go with him. One day Charles told Ring to go get the cows. Ring took off like a scalded dog and was gone for 20 minutes or so. Charles though he'd gone off chasing rabbits but here he came with the cows and drove them to the barn. Charles never had to go get the cows again until after Ring died. After Ed passed away Maude and the rest of the Oakes family never saw one another again. They lost touch with her. There are still many questions to answer related to Ed. I hope to find his service record in order to learn more about his time in World War I. I hope you enjoyed these stories of Uncle Ed, my great uncle.