Goodness Gracious, Miss Agnes

387 Pages·2005·2.8 MB·English

Goodness Gracious, Miss Agnes
Memories of a Country Woman
By Lera Knox
But I didn’t. So I wouldn’t.
COVER: A Twenty-one Day Battle, by Joy Petty
Goodness Gracious, Miss Agnes
Memories of a Country Woman
By Lera Knox
Illustrated by Joy Petty
Edited by Margaret Knox Morgan
and Carol Knox Ball
Newfound Press
THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, KNOXVILLE
Goodness Gracious Miss Agnes
© 2005 by Newfound Press
All rights reserved.
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Preferred form of citation:
Morgan, Margaret Knox. 2005. Goodness Gracious, Miss Agnes; Memories of
a Country Woman. Illustrated by Joy Petty. Edited by Margaret Knox Morgan
and Carol Knox Ball. Knoxville, TN: Newfound Press. www.lib.utk.edu.
Newfound Press
University of Tennessee Libraries
1015 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, TN 37996-1000
www.lib.utk.edu/newfoundpress/
Reserve this space for Cataloging in Publication
ISBN
Book design by Martha Rudolph
Dedicated to the Grandchildren
Carol, Nancy, Suzy, John Jr.
Table of Contents
Preface ......................................................................................................................v
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ix
Introduction ............................................................................................................x
Cast of Characters ..................................................................................................xi
CHAPTER 1: My Quilting Frame ................................................................................1
CHAPTER 2: Dark Angel in a White Apron .............................................................31
CHAPTER 3: Mama and Papa ...................................................................................47
CHAPTER 4: Family Album Glimpses .....................................................................62
CHAPTER 5: Goin’ to Grandma’s .............................................................................91
CHAPTER 6: The Piano That Wasn’t ......................................................................116
CHAPTER 7: Chalkdust ...........................................................................................128
CHAPTER 8: Yellow Jasmine and a Hope Chest ....................................................145
CHAPTER 9: Matrimony and Mulality ..................................................................160
CHAPTER 10: A Daughter and A Son ....................................................................205
CHAPTER 11: Morning and EveningWere a Full Day ...........................................235
CHAPTER 12: Spring and June on Cow Path Lane ................................................259
CHAPTER 13: October Days, November Nights ....................................................317
CHAPTER 14: Chimneyside ....................................................................................359
List of Illustrations
A Twenty-one Day Battle ................................................................................COVER
But I didn’t. So I wouldn’t. ....................................................................FRONTISPIECE
Never Too Much Nor Too Bothersome ................................................................20
And Candy in his Pockets .....................................................................................24
Meeting Niagara Falls ...........................................................................................27
Grandpa Wanted Curly Whiskers ........................................................................34
A Book Drunkard .................................................................................................37
I Sat on Salmon Cans ............................................................................................40
The Family Tree Grows On ...................................................................................44
A Feather-Bed Lap And A Two-Pillow Bosom ....................................................33
Monday ..................................................................................................................38
They Called That A Sister .....................................................................................42
A Trap for Mr. Engine ...........................................................................................45
Mama and Papa Had a Sunrise Wedding ............................................................47
My Prayers Were One-third Answered ................................................................61
Album Glimpses ....................................................................................................62
Button! Button! .....................................................................................................67
One of the Best Things in Life is to Plant a Tree .................................................73
Almost as Good as the One in the Catalogue ......................................................89
On the Dear Old One-Eyed Nag ..........................................................................97
She Put A White Linen Suit on the Boy .............................................................101
The Biggest, Mellowest Apples ...........................................................................117
All My Art, All My Afternoon’s Efforts ..............................................................127
But I didn’t. So I wouldn’t. ..................................................................................134
No “First Night.” No Friday Afternoon. .............................................................139
He Stood Six-feet-two .........................................................................................153
Out Driving With The Same Young Man ..........................................................159
So I Thought I’d Show Them .............................................................................165
A Twenty-one Day Battle ....................................................................................193
Almost Human In Her Poor Judgment .............................................................282
Preface
Some of My Family Roots
Rutha Magillbury and her pioneer relatives came down the
river on a flatboat, through the woods, Indian paths, and
game trails, from North Carolina or Virginia, to what is now
Nashville, Tennessee. At that time it was known as the Great Salt
Lick on the Cumberland River. Rutha remembered growing
up on the banks of that river, playing with the other children,
exploring the caves and streams, and learning Indian lore and
pioneer methods. She was an orphan. Her parents had been
killed by Indians. She was left to be brought up by a Mr. and
Mrs. Williams, her aunt and uncle. Rutha remembered how
the pioneers settled and built old Fort Nashburry, their first
stopping place on the Cumberland.
She remembered when Fort Nashburry was attacked by the
Indians. The men in the settlement had gone out to cut wood,
work the corn, and build cabins. Someone called out, “The
Indians are coming!” Everyone was frightened. What did the
pioneer women, left alone in the fort, do? Mrs. James Robinson,
wife of the leader of the settlement and later Tennessee governor,
did an unheard of, unmentionable thing. She opened the gates
of the fort. People thought the Indians would rush in, but, no,
the dogs rushed out! That stopped the Indians and saved Fort
Nashburry at that time.
Where the children went, the dogs went, so the children felt
safe and protected from the Indians and wild animals.
One youth Rutha played with was Jasper Hall. Later Jasper
worked on building the new capitol on the cedar knoll above
the Cumberland. In time they were married.
After their marriage they moved westward, to what is
now White Bluff in Dickson County. There they built a log
house. It was later covered with siding and modernized. Rutha
Magillbury Hall planted a garden. Down the middle of the
garden was a path, bordered on each side with herbs that
were used for medicines. Rutha acquired some medical books,
and what she had learned from the books, the Indians, and
the early settlers, she put together. She was called Dr. Rutha
Magillbury Hall. She traveled the length and breadth of the
land on horseback to minister to the sick. She was not just a
“granny woman;” she knew she was a doctor because she had
studied her doctor books.
After the Halls moved from Nashville, if a member of one
of the old Nashville families became ill, Dr. Hall went to stay
with the family until the sickness was over. She was there at
the birthing of every baby of pioneer Nashville. She rode on
horseback or the family would send a carriage. Rutha did not
trust those new fangled trains. If there was going to be a baby
in a family, for instance, the family would send a carriage from
Nashville to White Bluff, 30 or more miles, to pick up Dr. Hall,
and she would live with the family during that time.
The Hall family grew their own food, and killed their own
game from the woods. But the garden provided medicines for
the area that was later Middle Tennessee. The Halls had three
daughters, Anna Katherine, Sarah, and Mary Ann, who married
Ernest Jones. Each daughter had ten children, and Mary Ann
had a stillborn baby. That meant that Dr. Rutha presided over
the birth of 31 grandchildren and was the only doctor ever to
enter those households. When the oldest grandson of Mary
Ann and Ernest Jones was almost grown, and a blacksmith, he
was kicked in the groin. This injury became an abscess. Dr. Hall
stayed with him and applied poultices, day and night, until he
was healed.
During the spring and summer Dr. Hall gathered herbs in
the woods and along the creeks and roadsides, or wherever
she could find them, looked them up in her medical books,
dried them, then stored them in the attic of the cabin. Nora, or
Elnora, who would become my mother, was one of the older
grandchildren who helped Dr. Hall in the garden, and walked
the garden path with her, gathering and learning the herbs and
medical plants.
Nora also learned sewing, cooking, and other household
duties while visiting this grandmother, whom she idolized.
In the Jasper Halls’ home a black couple tended the kitchen
and garden. Early in the Civil War, Yankee soldiers came over