Aunt Mamie and Uncle Early's Home..
This photo shows Mamie and Early at their wedding.
Aunt Mamie, was my dad's oldest sister. She married Early Lee Anderson and moved to Clay County. She came from a very Democratic family and Uncle Early was a Republican. This rather astonished my grandfather. He told my Aunt Mamie, "Young lady I hope you realize you are marrying kinfolk!" Aunt Mamie and Uncle Early were third cousins, once removed. Their common ancestors were Robert Rogers and Frances Russell, parents of the Revolutionary war soldier Hugh Rogers.
Aunt Mamie and Uncle Early lived in Clay County in a house that was built by Cap'n Anderson, (* James Stanhope Anderson), who was a Captain in the Civil War. I am not certain how my Uncle Early came to be the son who inheirited the house for there were 8 Anderson children of his generation, and all of them had the middle name of Lee. Captain Anderson built the Clay Co Courthouse and was a representative to the State Legislature. IIn 1887, Captain J. S. Anderson was contracted to build the current county Court House that was completed in 1888. With changes to the original plans, the contract of $7,240 rose to $7,799.50. The Court House was accepted and commissioned in 1889. Court is still held in the upstairs court room and houses the Clerk of Court offices.
I remember playing in and around this historic Court House as a Child. Information about the Clay County Court House.
The big Yellow House was the most fascinating house I have ever known. It was a big yellow frame house, and Uncle Early had a little store down aways from the house. Here is a photo of Uncle Early showing off his shooting abilities down by his hardware store. He would throw a dime up in the air and shoot it. He would use a dime because it was smaller than a penny .
They raised seven children in that house.
I remember he had big sides of meat hung up and ready for sale. I guess they were smoked or cured in some way.
Uncle Early was a really good hunter and tracker, and my Daddy said that he could go out in the woods and see animal tracks, and he knew exactly which animals had came by and when, and just an unbelievable amount of information from these tracks. I also remember him having some sort of animal skins all cured and dried out and he would ship them to someone for money.They raised pigs and cows. My Aunt had been to teachers college but she seemed to adapt well to the farm life. Here is a photo of Aunt Mamie wearing a white hat, and Uncle Early and some pigs they were raising.
Being a female, I was not very interested in the animal life or the hunting or such. I was more fascinated by the house itself. The furniture in the house was very old. I remember this love seat that had a bottom that folded out and became a sort of bed, and Aunt Mamie would put a big feather bed on it, for company to sleep on...She let me sleep with my cousin, who was the only girl living at home at the time. My cousin Betty was 16 and I was 7. I will bet that Betty really did not care for sharing her room with a 7 year old, but she told me later she wished I was her sister. She remembers the good times.
There was an old organ, that had pedals and all,and we were allowed to play it..Although we were not musical. Aunt Mamie would churn butter and put it into metal molds, she would then take some of it too the poor people of Clay County. She thought of this service as her Christian duty.
There was an old dark pantry that seemed as if it were very long and narrow, and the little light bulb that lit the pantry did not do a lot to brighten the pantry. I loved the smell inside the pantry. I remember a brown sugar and raisin smell.Outside in the back yard was a big black three legged pot that I think soap was made in. I know that this big house was not far from the County Court House. They had movies on a Saturday night in the summer at the Court House.
My favorite place in the house was up in the attic, and there were some narrow stairs going up there. We were allowed to play up there. There were old toys from generations of Anderson children up there. My sister and I loved clearing a spot for a play house and using some of the old toys. There was a round window in the attic which could be opened and we would open it and look out at the street below..
I wish we had taken photographs of this place.
My cousin Sally was born and raised in this house, I wrote about her on my blog.Sally was scrapbooking and journaling her life for her grand children the last time I saw her. I was very impressed that this (then 89) year old lady could write and journal so well. She had wonderful photos of her life to go with the journal. I always want to do likewise,journal my memories with photos, but since I left Western NC long ago, I do not have many of the family photos..
I think this photo was taken in the front of the house in 1910, it shows the Anderson Clan, before my Aunt Mamie and Uncle Early were married in 1913.
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