Benjamin Ellis And Mary Gregory Towns Family - 1896
Front row, l-r: Donoho, Mary, Ben, Lassie holding her baby, Effie, and Myrtle.
Back row: Neil, Sally, Howard Piper (husband of Lassie), Martha (holding her baby, Ray),
and W. C. (Lum) Smith (husband of Martha).
Donoho A. Towns was born in 1889 and died in 1908. He was never married.
Mary Gregory Towns, born Mar 18, 1858 and died Oct 7, 1902 was the daughter of Thomas and
Sarah (Sallie) Gregory. Thomas and Sarah's pictures may be viewed on this website.
Benjamin Ellis (Ben) Towns, Jr. was born May 30, 1848 and died Feb 7, 1929. He was the son of Ben
and Martha Towns. Ben and Mary are buried in the family cemetery on Scanty Branch Road.
Lassie Towns Piper was born Nov 23, 1878 and died Mar 21, 1914. Lassie married Howard Piper
Smith County Schools Superintendent in the 1950s and Carthage businessman. Baby Effie died at 9 months.
She was born in 1896. Lassie and Effie are buried in the Earps Cemetery on Nickojack Branch.
The Earps Cemetery is pictured on this website.
Myrtle Towns was married to Will Cothron and they resided in the Ebenezer Community of Macon County.
They had one son, Carthel, who still survives (as of October, 2003).
Neil Towns, born Nov 26, 1884 and died Oct 29, 1986, married Calvin Beasley. Calvin's picture is also posted
on this website with the Henry Beasley family. They had one daughter, Lillie May, who married Jack Beasley.
Sally Towns married Gid Earps. Sally and Gid, too, are pictured on this website with the Earps family.
They had at least two children, Annie Earps Sutton and Ruby Earps Davis. Ruby still survives and was a
well-known Smith County teacher both in elementary and high school.
Howard Eugene Piper was born in 1874 and died in 1952. He was the son of William and Mary Nixon Piper.
William was a son of James and Marinda Chambers Piper. Piper's School (now gone but shown on this website)
was located on the present home site of Paul Kemp on Nickojack Branch about three miles southwest of
Pleasant Shade. It was named in William's honor as he donated the land for the building. After Lassie's death,
Howard married Belle Williams and they became the parents of two sons that lived to be an adults. Howard and
Belle Piper are buried in the Dixon Springs Cemetery. Several pictures of this old school can be found on
the schools page on this website, here is just one of them:
Martha Towns Smith and Lum Smith became the parents of Maggie, Ray and Lowe Smith. Martha died in
her 30s. Lowe Smith was a well-known Smith County teacher and is pictured in a number of the Pleasant
Shade school pictures on this website. Lum was the son of Baptist minister, Luther Smith. His mother
was Mary Grinad Smith, daughter of Silas Foster and Rebecca Sutherland Grinad. After the death of
Martha, Lum married Limmie McDonald but they had no children.
The Towns family lived in Smith County near the Smith and Trousdale County line off Scanty Branch Road
between the Mace's Hill and Cato Communities.
An excerpt from the June 24, 1954 "Cal's Column" article below refers to Ben and Mary Towns.
In our boyhood, Ben Towns, who married Mary Gregory, lived over the big hill to the northwest of our
little home. We saw daily what was then called the Ben Towns Hill, a huge hill with one little scrubby
beech tree standing almost on the very summit of the big hill which tree has since died. The hill is now
largely covered with black locust trees. In our boyhood, the hill was almost entirely cultivated and was
a landmark that could be seen for miles. We recall that Mr. Towns, who was a kind man, used to tell
our mother to send to his hill and get peaches. We recall having fallen out of one of those peach
trees about 50 years ago and our left hand was turned "back" over the wrist. This was very painful
and would, perhaps, today break our wrist or hand. But "them were the good old days !"
The complete article has more information on the Towns family.