No. 10 Elmer Burchell Oakes

Elmer Burchell Oakes was born 6 April 1902 in Jefferson County, Tennessee. He was the last child to survive in the Jacob and Elizabeth Coile Oakes family. Elmer, my grandfather, grew up in Rocky Valley near Strawberry Plains. He is shown in a previous blog picture as the baby sitting on his mothers knee in a family portrait. Here he is shown with his older brother Ed Oakes. Your first thought is that this is a little girl. It isn't. It was common to dress little boys in dresses when they were toddlers. I have lots of stories about my grandfather and will tell many of these in future blog entries. For now I want to introduce him and hit the high points in his life. Elmer's parents died while he was still in the home. His father died when he was about six years old and his mother died when he was fourteen. After his mother died he went to live with his sister, Emma Oakes Palmer. At that time they lived in Loudon County. While living in the Pond Creek area he met and later married Hula Bryan Barr, my grandmother. They moved to Knoxville where he worked in the mill until the Great Depression forced them to return to Loudon County and farming near his in-laws. While in Knoxville their first child was born, Charles Elmer Oakes. While back in the Pond Creek community my mother, Margaret Genell Oakes, was born. In 1938 the family, along with the in-laws, sold the farm on Pond Creek and purchased a farm land in Monroe County. Elmer and Hula purchased the land next door to the Barr's and settled down. Over the course of a few years they bought some more neighboring land until they had an 88 acre farm on Kinser Branch. I spent week long vacations and one longer summer vacation on the farm in the summer. Most of my favorite childhood memories revolve around my visits to my grandparents. In 1980 Elmer had a stroke and began a gradual decline resulting in their having to sell the farm and move to Athens where he went into a nursing home and my grandmother purchased a house. On 29 January 1983 Elmer passed away. I remember receiving the sad news. I was a Captain in the US Army stationed in Mainz, Germany. Fortunately I was able to travel to Tennessee and be present with the family at his funeral. I have missed my grandfather so much over the years. I look forward to seeing him again someday.

No. 9 Christmas on Kinser Branch

Dolly Parton has a song entitled, Hard Christmas Candy. The title refers to the simple but sparing Christmas that was all to well known in the difficult times during and after the Great Depression in the Tennessee Mountains. My mother and my uncle have taken the time to tell me about what Christmas was like for them growing up on Kinser Branch. Compared with the over abundance of gifts most families exchange today their story of growing up in the Liberality community makes me think of Dolly Parton's song. Yet what I heard from them speaks more to the simple, happy times that happy families strive for at Christmas.

Christmas meant going to the fields on the farm and finding a small cedar. The smell of cedar still brings back thoughts of Christmas according to Charles. Grandpa would nail the tree to two boards as a base and stand it up in the living room. There was no electricity so no lights on the tree. Grandma had some tinsel strands to wrap around the tree. Then they would pop some popcorn, string it and put it on the tree. There were no other ornaments to hang. Mom and Charles remember that there was always candy and fruit to enjoy. Normally they'd have coconut bonbons, orange slices, chocolate drops and a grocery store mix of candy. Another treat that they didn't get during the rest of the year was oranges, bananas. grapes and raisins. The raisins came attached to the stem in clusters, just the way they were grown. Sometimes they would have a coconut to crack open and eat. The Christmas candy and fruit were the highlight of Christmas back in the 1940's. Every year after St. Mary's Methodist Church was formed there would be a Christmas play. Each child would receive a Christmas bag with candy treats such as an orange, an apple, some nuts and some stick candy. Unlike in Dolly's song, Charles remembers that each year he and my mother would each receive a few small gifts. For mom that would mean a small doll and some clothing. Charles remembers that he received his first guitar one Christmas. It had been bought in Knoxville for $3.00. This was probably 1940. The gifts all depended on the family finances which were directly tied to the tobacco sales. If it was a good year they got a few small gifts. If not, it was slimmer. In late November or early December J.M. Barr and Grandpa would hire a truck and haul their air-cured tobacco to market in Knoxville. Without the returns from the tobacco crop there was no financing for Santa Claus. Charles says that he was eight years old when he first suspected the truth about Santa. J.M. Barr helped clear that up when Charles saw him the afternoon before Christmas carrying in a big grocery bag into their house. At this time the Oakes family lived in the small house across the creek from where they lived later.

Christmas was also a time for joking around. Charles remembers when Lewis Bivens, operator of the Gudger's store in Liberality community, asked him to take a package and put it under the Christmas tree at St. Mary's Methodist Church for Tom McDonald. Charles did it. When they opened the presents Tom received a set of false teeth and a plug of chewing tobacco. Tom later got back at Lewis. One day Lewis got a call from the Etowah train depot telling him he had a crate waiting on him. He drove down and received the crate. When he opened it it had a mangy old bird dog waiting on him. Charles remembers Lewis Bivens as a fine fellow. He recalls times when Lewis would make up a gift box of groceries at Christmas and send them to some of the poorer folks in the community.

As you celebrate Christmas this year I hope that you'll think about all the nice things that you receive and realize that no matter whether it is plentiful or not, the gifts are symbolic of gifts offered to a baby in a manager. This baby was the greatest gift ever given. He is the Messiah, the one who was given by God to take away our sin and to right our wrong relationship with God. Through this gift each of us has the opportunity to re-connect with God.

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.

No. 6 Emma Oakes

Emma Myrtle Oakes was my grandpa’s older sister. Born in October 1888, Emma was a short in stature, a little heavy with sandy light red hair. She can be seen as a 14-year old girl in the family photo taken soon after my grandpa was born and included here. She was about 20 years old when he father passed away. Emma grew up to marry Henry Lafayette Palmer, a farmer and sharecropper. See the picture of them when they were young. This may be their wedding picture. They moved from Jefferson County to Loudon County. Over the years they sharecropped several farms in Loudon County. When her mother passed away in 1918 she took in my grandpa to live with her and her family. He was about 16 years old at the time. This resulted in his moving to Loudon County. My grandpa was always very fond of his sister Emma. In later years Emma and my grandpa’s families would visit back and forth between Loudon County and Monroe County. Charles Oakes remembers that she was always a very kind women. For a number of years they sharecropped in the Pond Creek Community of Loudon. This is where my grandpa met my grandma. Grandpa always had a funny way of pronouncing the Palmer last name. He would pronounce it “Parmer”, replacing the “l” with an “r” sound. We never knew why he did this. The only other story I have about Emma is from Charles Oakes who remembered that you almost always saw her with a pinch of snuff in her mouth and a spit can close by. I don’t know the dates of their deaths yet but believe that they passed away before the mid-1950's. I just know that Emma played a very important role in my grandpa’s life. Finally see a photo of Fate and Emma later in life.

“Fate” and Emma Palmer had five children:

· Ulysses

· Frank

· Robert

· Mary

· Lucille

No. 5 Eva Grace and the "thing in the woods"

I'm going to take a break in the Jacob Oakes and children blog entries to tell a story I learned last week on a visit to my Uncle Charles and Aunt Eva Grace in Athens, TN. Eva is pictured here with Charles and Rubi. We were talking about strange things that took place at her home when she was growing up. More about that story later. Charles commented that the thing that scared her the most was the "thing in the woods". That got my attention so I got both he and Eva to tell the story. It was probably 1946 when this happened. Eva had to walk home from school each day. This meant a long walk on the Ridge Road to her house. One late afternoon in the fall she was walking home alone when she reached a point along the road where the trees lined both sides of the road and lurched out over the one-lane dirt road. She heard the sound of something pouncing around in the woods off to her left. As she walked along the pouncing seemed to parallel her. Then she heard an unimaginable growl that ascended to an eerie scream. Eva started to run, only once chancing a glance towards the woods. She couldn't see anything but she could still hear the pouncing footsteps keeping pace with hers and the screaming animal sound as she ran as fast as she could down the road the remaining half mile to the safety of home. As she turned left down the driveway to her house she still had a good quarter of a mile to run. Fence line bordered the driveway and beyond that were the woods. The animal was still paralleling her as she ran. As she came down the driveway her father's bird dog came out to meet her. No sooner than she reached the door and opened it, the bird dog forced his way into the house. She quickly closed the door and stood there trembling. What was this thing? What kind of animal in the Tennessee knobs could scare a hunting dog like that? Mr and Mrs Thomas were not home so Eva and the dog waited it out in the house. When they did come home they listened to her story and told her that the fox hunters in the community had reported that as they sat by their fires at night along the ridge they would hear an animal with a high-pitched scream off in the distance. Normally they could sit by the fire and listen to their hounds running a fox in the distance. Whenever this strange animal began to scream the hounds would come back to the fire and wouldn't go out and hunt anymore. No one knew what it was nor did they ever find out. Eva never had another encounter with the animal nor did she ever hear it again. For the longest time her father or her older brother would walk her to school and meet her before she got to the wooden area and accompany her back home.

After hearing this story we pulled up the sound files of bobcats, pumas, and mountain lions to see if the cry of these was similar. Not a one matched what Eva was trying to describe. What could it have been? What would you have done had it been you walking along the road that day? And you thought that the family history was kind of boring!