"HOW LONG HAVE WE LIVED IN BIG SODDY"?
We celebrated Andy's forty-sixth birthday today. Jamie, Chuck and I went to my Sweet Little Mama's house this afternoon to sing happy birthday and eat cake, and eventually our conversation got around to "how long have we been living in Big Soddy"? Mama told stories as far back as she could remember, I told of people I'd been digging up in my 30-year genealogy quest, and Andy shared stories as far back as his forty-six years could remember.
This might be a good time to record these things. I have totes and files and notebooks of genealogy records, pictures and papers, but it might be interesting to record those things in cyberspace. So, here goes.
1920 Census
My maternal grandmother was born Ruth Faith Graham on August 8, 1917, in Perry County, Kentucky. She was the only one of seven children born in Kentucky to George (Pappy) and Ida Emmerling (Mommy) Graham. Pappy was a coal miner, and for this reason they moved to Kentucky sometime between 1913 and 1917. Ruth's siblings, all born in the state of Tennessee, were Ethel, (21), Lester (17), Alice (14), Granville (11), Trewhitt (8), Georgia (6). All of these children were born in Southeast Tennessee. George and Ida were age 46 and 40, respectively. They were also born in Southeast Tennessee. Pappy's brother, Joe (44) was living with them during this time.
Mamaw Ruth's seventeen-year-old brother, Lester, is listed in this census as working in the coal mines. Alice, Georgia, Trewhitt and Georgia all go to school, and everyone living in Pappy's household can read and write.
There are no recognizable names among their neighbors, so I believe Pappy and Mommy moved to Kentucky on their own, with no other relatives other than Brother Joe.
1930 Census
Mamaw Ruth was age 14 at this time, and the Graham family was living on "River Road" in District Three, Hamilton County, Tennessee. I'm certain this is a road in Big Soddy close to Soddy Creek. Pappy and Mommy were both working, Pappy in the coal mines, and Mommy is an inspector in a textile mill. Mamaw's brother Trewhitt was 20 years old, and still living at home. Sister Georgia was 17 and working in a textile mill. The other siblings had left to marry and make their own homes.
Their neighbor's names are familiar to me because we still live, almost 100 years later, in the same area. Parrott, Coleman, Woosman, Hughes, Daughtrey, Leming. Jobs and vocations listed on the census include coal miner, textile mill worker, mail carrier, teacher, stone mason, carpenter, sawmill operator.
1933 - Christmas Eve
On December 24, 1933 Mamaw Ruth's brother, Granville, who worked for the small southern-based Home Store grocery chain, was making a delivery in Alabama. His truck slid off the road and Granville, 24 years old, died a few hours later. Mr. McDonald, owner of the grocery store chain, felt so bad about Granville's death that he gave Pappy and Mommy sixty-two acres of land in what would become Big Soddy. He portioned the land out to his remaining children; each child received ten acres, and Pappy and Mommy kept two acres for themselves. I was born in 1958 and I remember the house Pappy built and the well in their front yard. He passed away in 1958 when I was three months old.
1940 Census
My Mamaw Ruth was 22 years old at the time of the 1940 census. She married my Papaw, Thurston (Pete) Burchard, and they had a five-year-old daughter, Alyne (my Sweet Little Mama). Papaw's name is misspelled as Thurman, and my Mama's name is misspelled as Eileen. Papaw is listed as owning a farm, and my Mamaw didn't work outside the home. Papaw's income is listed as $240 for the previous year, with other unlisted income.
Their neighbors were mostly Mamaw's siblings, all making a home on the ten acres of land given to them by Pappy and Mommy. Varner, Posey, Penny, Sims, Morgan, Wilson were some of the names, and jobs include mail carrier, miner, farmer, and strawboss.
Pappy and Mommy were still living on their two acres. Both are in their mid-sixties (same age as I am at this time). There is no job listed for Pappy, and Mommy is working as a seamstress.
1950 Census
In 1950 Mamaw Ruth was thirty-two years old. She was keeping house, and my Papaw Pete is thirty-six and worked as a machinist at Sherman and Reilly, Inc. a machine shop in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had a brilliant mind, and developed products for the company that should have been patented to his name. My Sweet Little Mama was fifteen years old, and her two sisters, my dear aunts Trudy and Martha, were ages five and three.
Neighbors include Brackett (my Papaw's maternal grandparents), Irwin, Skiles, Dill, more Burchards, Clements, Daughtrey, Cranmore. Jobs include coal mining, farming, machinist and oil station manager.
That's where the census records end. The 1960 census will not be released until April 2032. My Mamaw Ruth's siblings eventually sold their portions of land, but my grandparent's held on to their ten acres like a bulldog. My parents bought a little house on a hill, just across the pasture from my grandparent's house and that's where I grew up. I would look out of my bedroom window to a field below, and say to myself, "That's where I want to live someday." And that's where I am now, answering the question my son asked today, on his forty-sixth birthday "How long have we been living in Big Soddy"?
And so far, we can go back to sometime in 1934, when Mr. McDonald gave Pappy and Mommy, my great-grandparents, sixty-two acres as a death settlement.
NOTE: The Home Store grocery chain was owned by Roy McDonald, founder of the Chattanooga News-Free Press, and member of the McDonald's Farm family in Sale Creek.
Local history: Old mcDonald had a farm | Chattanooga Times Free Press
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