In 1936, Daddy bought the one hundred sixty acres that included the spot where the Little house would be built. Later in 1936, he and his siblings built the Little House. That is also the year that Daddy and Mama were married. While building the Little House, they lived in the little two room house where Uncle Willie and Aunt Ida would be living after I was born. The one hundred sixty acres also included the place that I am calling “Uncle Earl’s place. Uncle Earl’s place was a place where their family had lived in the past, but I do not know the history of its ownership before Daddy bought it, other than that he bought it from the bank of Tallassee, in the heart of the depression.
Interesting thoughts occurred to me while writing this essay. Nineteen thirty-six was also the year that the B&SE Railroad that went across the one hundred sixty-acre place was taken up. Roberts Blount was one of the owners of that Railroad, and he was also president of the Bank of Tallassee. Daddy did not deal with Roberts Blount, but that does not exclude the possibility of a connection. The bank had probably been involved in financing the property, and owned it as result of foreclosure.
The one hundred sixty acres was a traditional quarter section of land. Daddy sold the east half of the section to Uncle Earl. The old residence where Grandma and Uncle Earl lived was on that Eighty acre tract, as was the two room house where Uncle Willie and Aunt Ida lived.
In those days there were names for the fields. The field between the Little house and the old railroad bed was “Eleven Acre.” In our southernese, that was pronounced “lemacre.” The filed across the railroad and next to Calebee Swamp was “cross the track.” On the east eighty that Daddy sold to Uncle Earl, there was, south to north, “salt bottom,” “hickory cut,” and “the level.” There may have been other names that I don’t remember.
An interesting bit of history of the place is that an old stage coach road traversed the place from east to west. It crossed Eleven Acre, on Daddy’s eighty, and was between salt bottom and hickory cut on Uncle Earl’s eighty. Although it had left very defined right of way evidence of usage, and was extremely hardpacked, I know of no written history of that stage coach road. Knowledge of it seems to be totally oral, and came through the family. They knew that it was a stage coach road. I strongly suspect that it was one of the many manifestations of the Old Federal Road, which is recognized as such on the south side of Calebee Swamp, at the approximate location of US Highway 80.
Of course, all of this area was a part of the Creek Indian Territory, and was not vacated by the Indians until the 1830’s. We frequently found arrowheads in the fields. I remember a lot of them turning up in Eleven Acre, near the old stage coach road.
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