Submitted by Teresa Beech

(Located in Humphreys County, on Pennywinkle Branch Road. This was probably part of Stewart Co. at one time.)

My great-grandfather, Alvah Daniel, owned a farm out in the Turkey Creek area. It was about 2 miles past Mr. Nat Scholes old log cabin.The old home place was down in a valley at the bottom of a “Hollow” or “Holler” as we called it. Around the next bend in the road was the farm of Harris and Francis Mosley. They had seven children, most of whom were several years older than me. There is Linda, who married a Mays,Bob, PeeWee (I believe his name is Eugene), Belinda–a daughter who died before her 2nd birthday, Gina, who was born in 1957 and Cindy, who was born about 1960, and one more.

There is a listing for Harry G. Mosley on Pennywinkle Branch Road, so perhaps this is the name that escapes me.

My great-grandfather Alvah (Alvie) Clemmons Daniel was survived by his 3rd wife Julia Alice Brake Daniel. When she passed away, my grandparents R.G. and Susa Izora Daniel Carter, owned the farm. My grandmother remembered growing up in, 1st, a one room log cabin with a loft, and later, a 2 room log cabin with 2 loft rooms. One loft room was shared by 6 daughters– Carrie, Katherine, Cora, Susa, Ruth, and Hila. Another daughter-Mary Lula- had once shared the room, but she died of pneumonia before her 10th birthday. The other room had first belonged to Ed and Lirt, my grandmother’s older brothers, and then it was the bedroom of Wyly, the youngest son.

The old cabin was used as a smoke house, after the new cabin was built. Sometime, probably in the 1940’s my grandfather built another house. It was a 1 1/2 story farm house. The earliest pictures I have seen of the house (abt 1947),show that it was built pretty much the way I remember it. It had asphalt siding in a red brick style. There was a concrete front porch about 8 foot deep that ran across the entire front of the house. In the front facade there were 3 windows in the 6 over 6 style and 2 doors placed so that it went window-door-window-door-window across the front. Believe it or not there is a name for this architectural venacular,but it escapes me at the moment. It was a style which evolved as a replacement for the dog trot style log cabin, so it was the style of the common man. Starting from the right-hand side, the first window and door were the guest room,which opened only to the front porch and had no inner door to the house. It contained the only “fancy’ bed room suite we had. This consisted of delicate looking pieces of carved furniture,including a three mirrored vanity with a rectangular stool upolstered in blue velvet. There was also a small chifferobe with mirrored doors framed in more delicate carving, and a four poster bed. Lastly,there was a wash stand with pitcher and bowl.

The next window and door were to the front parlor.This was another room which was mostly for company. We had the tree there at Christmas, and in 1960 or earlier, a black and white TV was added to the luxuries in the parlor,which led to grandmother doing her ironing in the front room while the “soap operas” were showing.The last front window was to the “stair hall.”

The stair hall was a fun room. It had a day bed and a folding cot, for the use of children when there was EXTRA company. The stairs were wide but very plain,unfinished wood with no rail , so I usually crawled up the stairs to the attic bedroom. The attic room was once the bedroom of my mother Rita Dean and her twin sister Norma Jean. It was huge,probably 30 to forty feet by 15 or 20 feet. There were double windows at each end and lots of storage cupboards and shelves. Downstairs,the next row of rooms were my grandfather’s bedroom, the back parlor,and what had once been intended to be a dining room, but had become another bedroom.So, we had to go thru this room to reach the kitchen.The kitchen was extended out from the house,so that it would not heat the whole house.The kitchen must have been about 20′ x 20′, because it included a huge chest type freezer, a tall metal storage cabinet, refrigerator,electric stove, big double sink with drain boards on both sides,a meal and flour bin,a door to a back stoop, more shelves,a door to the “spring room” , and a wood cook stove. It was used mostly for heat by the time I was a child, but electricity came to the farm about 1959,the year I was born. Of course,there were a table and chairs and a row of windows at the dining end of the kitchen.

My favorite room in the house was “The spring room.” Most farmhouses had wells or spring houses separate from the house, but the spring room at Pennywinkle was in the house. The spring ran out of a bluff behind the house. Pipes were run from the spring to the house. The water ran constantly from a pipe in the wall down a couple of concrete steps or ledges, into a pool about 6′ X 6′, and down a drain in the center of the pool. Thus, the water ran day and night. There were floor to ceiling shelves on all walls and they were filled with canned goods and many times the churn or jugs of milk sat in the pool,to be kept cool. This was the “cooler” before Pennywinkle had electricity.

There was a door at the opposite end of the spring room that opened onto the screened porch.This was the wash room.There was a huge double wash tub complete with a scrub board and lye soap. Also, by the time I was a child, there was an electric washer with a hand-operated clothes wringer on top. The dryer was a clothes line outside the door in the back yard. And,we had an indoor bathroom! It was added by closing in the far end of the screened porch, so the only door to the bathroom was from the porch. We had a huge enameled cast iron tub with claw feet,and of course, the standard sink and toilet. One of the things that still stands out in my mind—all rooms had linoleum floors and wallpaper on the walls.