This is the story of the old table.
My great grandfather Wilkins Callis made the table for my great grandfather John Daniel Agee.
The home of John Daniel Agee burned just before William Tucker Agee (my grandfather) was born, and it was after that the table was made. Wilkins Callis was a cabinet maker. He had his shop where he made furniture near his home. (I remember seeing the old shop when I was a little girl.)
I also remember my Grandfather Agee saying that he was “born in the barn”. When their house burned, the family escaped to the barn and lived there while their house was being rebuilt. And they lived there until they migrated from Gibson County to Crocket County Feb 26, 1868. so I believe the old table was made between April 1832 and Feb 26, 1868. And I feel sure that it was made when they (John Daniel and wife, Sarah Burton Agee) were refurnishing their house after the fire.
My Grandfather took me to see their old home where he and his eight brothers and four sisters grew up in Gibson County Tennessee. It was a two-story white house. And the thing that I remember most about it was the upstairs porch. It had a gable in the middle of the front porch.
The nine boys were: Bethel, William Tucker (my grandfather), James, Tom, John, Daniel Thompson (Daddy’s grandfather), Marion (killed in the battle of Shiloh), Foster, and Christopher Columbus. The four girls were Jane Agee Hayes, Lucy Ann Agee Davis, Sara Agee Cleek and Emily Agee Burrow. Imagine having nine boys and four girls! I know that Sara and Emily were the youngest of the children. Emily was the baby.
John Daniel (great grandfather) was a carpenter and contractor, also a farmer and a business man an energetic man. He LOVED to dance! And my grandfather told me that he had seen his father and his oldest brother Bethel dancing on the floor at the same time.
John Daniel bought a negro girl just to wait on his wife and help with the babies. He bought all the kitchen supplies and the material for the boys clothes (woolen jean) and had their clothes made. He had all his boys work hard. Bethel carpentered and helped his father build houses. William Tucker (my grandfather) drove a wagon train hauling merchandise from Hickman, Kentucky, to Trenton, Tennessee (the county seat of Gibson County). The merchandise was brought down the Mississippi River on boats to Hickman. Another thing my grandmother told me about my great grandfather was that he was a very polite man that he always took his hat off in the presence of ladies, and she said she had seen him stand in the hot sunshine talking to ladies with his hat off. Originally from Virginia, but went to Georgia or Alabama, where he married Sarah Burton, and later moved to West Tennessee and settled in Gibson County near Trenton. The dates I have mentioned in this letter I have taken from my grandfather’s bible in his own handwriting. He always wrote I after any date “in the year of our Lord”.
My grandparents William Tucker and Martha Ann (Callis), were very religious. Martha Ann was my “shouting” grandmother, and I am sure they would never have danced. They did not believe in playing on Sunday, even cutting paper dolls. I remember slipping into the garden to cut some paper dolls on Sunday. I was always embarrassed when my grandmother shouted, and I was afraid that if I got religion I would shout. But she was a wonderful and sweet Grandmother to me.
After John Daniel Agee died, an auction was held to sell all his household goods. I remember my grandmother getting up early to go to the sale, because she said she wanted to be sure to buy the table that her father had made for my great grandparents (John Daniel and Sarah Burton Agee)
Written by Mrs. James Thompson Agee
(Martha Louvenia Agee Agee)
b 19 Dec 1892
d 11 July 1973
2004 – Martha Boye