THE GUINEA ROOST

I was born March 14, 1888, in Shouns, Tennessee. Andy and Polly Adams were my parents. Before I was old enough to remember, my family moved to Denton's Valley. The first thing I can remember about my early childhood involved a big white cow my dad owned. She had the longest horns I had ever seen. In back of our house was a log building, and somehow that cow got her head between two of the logs. She couldn't move her head an inch in any direction. I've never heard such bawling as she did. Two of our neighbors, George Bradley and Jim Pete Widener, sawed off those long horns. Free at last that old cow gave one big snort and took off for the pasture.

In those days owners of 1arge farms leased a portion of their land to tenant farmers who planted crops "on the halves" as rent payment. I remember Nick Widener rented land to Frank Short with such an agreement. Nick had ninety acres he wanted to eventually turn into pasture. The first two years Frank was to plant corn; the third year he was to grow flax. Dad had laughingly told us how Frank had Zebe Fletcher walk through his flax field, holding her skirt at shoe top height. That was how high the flax should grow. If the flax grew higher than her shoe tops by cutting time, Zebe got the blame because of her "high stepping".

The people were very superstitious back then. The 'witch" of our community was "Old Mary". I remember a time when she brought some duck eggs for Mbther to put under a setting hen to be hatched. While she was there, she asked Dad to build a fence for her. Dad told her he couldn't do it because his cows were crossing a spiked fence Nick Widener had built. He was afraid they would jump this fence, fall on the spikes, and be killed. Mary told Dad to fetch her some salt. She proceeded to salt the cows, muttering something while she did so. She then told Dad to come build her fence, and she would guarantee the cows would be safe. Dad worked three days for Mary, and the cows never left the yard.

The duck eggs produced five baby ducks. When Mary came for them, Mother told her to take three. She took two and told Mother one of the three left would die before morning. Sure enough, next morning we had a dead duck on our hands. When Mary passed away, several of us young people "sat up" the night of her wake. In the early morning hours we got cold and decided to build a fire in the fireplace. When the flames and smoke rose up the chimney, a noise such as we had never heard filled the room. Being terrified we bolted for the door. We were sure the spirits were hot on our heels. When we stopped to get our breath, we discovered we had disturbed the guinea roost on the roof.

Dad rented a farm from Leke Denton. He was to work the land for three years to pay his rent. This contract included cutting timber and growing crops. We cut and hewed crossties and hauled them to the railroad being built four miles away. After clearing the land, we planted corn for two years and wheat for one year. Then we sowed grass. We bought fifty acres of land from Jim Brown for Four Hundred Dollars. This land had to be cleared too. We cut and sawed timber for fifty cents per thousand feet. We sold tan-bark for fifty cents a cord. Dad told my brother John he would give him some of the land if he would help with the clearing. John worked about half a day, walked up to Dad and said, "Dad, it takes two years to make a horse and about twenty years to make a man. I quit."

I was about eleven years old when I got my first paying Job. The Empire Lumber Company was bringing boilers from Abingdon, Virginia to Crandull. These boilers were needed for the planing mill. They had to be taken through Denton's Valley and across the Holston Mountain. Oxen were used to pull the boilers up the mountain; mules, steel cable, and block and tackle dropped the boilers down the mountain. I was the water boy. The men made a yoke and placed it across my shoulders, and I could carry two buckets at once. Before the job was finished, I was supplying water over a seven mile stretch.

When I was twelve years old, I went to work for Andy Smalling, a timber cutter. He used horse-drawn wagons to haul his logs to Bristol. My job was to cut stove wood. The men who worked for Andy slept and ate in a barrack-type building. Doors were locked at nine o'clock in the evening and opened at five o'clock in the morning. As soon as the men finished their breakfast, they lit the lanterns and went to work; they worked until dark.

I remember being sent late one evening to bring water to the barracks. There were many snakes in the mountains and I was afraid of them. When I came back to the barracks, the doors were locked and the men wouldn't let me inside. I spent the night on a fallen tree trunk back of the barracks. Everytime I dozed, I fell off the log. I just knew a snake would get me before morning. The men thought they had played a great joke on me.

I finally went to work cutting timber for the Tennessee Lumber and Furniture Company in the mountains near Backbone Rock. I remember one of my jobs was to get the logs out of "Hainted Hollow" to Alex Snyder who ran the planing mill. A big fire broke out and everything I owned burned except the clothes I was wearing. Many acres of young timber were destroyed. Homes burned. People loaded what possessions they could onto railroad flat cars and left the valley. Falling sparks started more fires on the flat cars; the people put them out and finally reached a safe place.

In June 1908, I married Mabel F. Rhudy. We bought a farm, Mabel's homeplace, located west of Damsacus. The log house on this farm was built in 1776. Here Mabel was born, and here we have raised our children. We have enclosed the original log house with modern siding. It is my home today.

Benjamin H. Adams, Sr.