Lasting Lessons

Elbert Hall

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of a young man with a team of mules and promised more details to come.  Today I want to deliver on that promise and tell you a little about Mr. Elbert Hall whose ambition and perseverance could inspire us all.

Many readers will remember Mr. Hall as a school teacher in both the elementary and high schools at Clarkrange as well as the surrounding communities’ elementary schools.  As with most men of his generation, there is so very much more to this man. 

He was born in Roslin, one of four boys, and grew up on the typical subsistence farm that we are so familiar with on the mountain.  He says they lived in Roslin, “Until we were old enough to work for ourselves.”  That very beginning seems novel through our twenty-first century eyes.  These families were raising men and those young men accepted both the challenge and the responsibility for their own future.  He and his brothers attended the Roslin Elementary School until it closed for lack of a teacher.  The family was unable to send all four boys  to school and the elder two sacrificed their own education to provide for Elbert and Jack.  So, when many students would have taken the hard winter months off, Elbert and Jack Hall rode horses four miles to Longbranch School; that allowed Elbert to get an eighth grade diploma which would be the sum total of most educations at the time. 

In fact, this young man set off as so many others did with eighth grade diploma in hand, to find work.  He went to Toledo, Ohio, however, after just four months he knew that was not where he wanted to stay and he came home with the intent of going to high school.  Now, the Halls’ home in Roslin is just about ten miles from the site of the old Clarkrange High School, but without buses and certainly without a family car and fuel to deliver a child to school each morning, Mr. Hall had to find a place to stay closer to the school.  He found that right on the corner of what is now Highway 127 and Highway 62 with the Irvin Peters family.

Mr. Peters agreed to keep this student for the price of farm work.  It was a good deal for all that Elbert Hall had to bargain with was his own two hands.  He cared for the Peters’ livestock and did general chores on the farm in exchange for a room and board - and he saw this as his “chance”.  His ambition didn’t end when he secured a means to finish his high school education.  When he was sixteen, he worked for his brother and made a crop as well as hauling cross ties and lumber during that same year.  The following year, he bought his own team of mules and a wagon and took a logging job.  He notes that public school lasted only six months per year so that allowed him a good opportunity to work the other half of the year.  The picture we have is of that team of mules and what a proud young man he must have been for he had truly accomplished something in owning them.

With four years of high school completed and another diploma in hand, Mr. Hall set his sights on further education and went to Murfreesboro to attend Middle Tennessee State University in 1933.  After four quarters he was eligible for a teaching position.  He returned home to serve the next thirty-three years as a teacher in both the high school as well as seven area elementary schools. 

In 1939 Mr. Hall bought a farm which he would operate the entire time he was teaching, and beyond.  He would serve as a county commissioner, secretary and treasurer of his local church and member of three Masonic branch lodges.  All of these titles speak to the man’s dedication to his community as well as a willingness to continually work hard.  I wish I could ask him when he was inspired to teach, but even without his input, it doesn’t seem hard to imagine that with a limited number of role models, he had to have understood the power teachers have to inspire the children.

The beginning of this story is all too common among our people – born to an impoverished community, raised to hard work and expected to make it on-your-own from an early age. He would have been every bit as respectable if he’d stayed in a factory in Toledo without a high school education.  His family would have loved him just as much if he’d continued driving a team delivering logs and cross ties.   But he caught sight of a dream, he simply refused to accept mediocrity and he was willing to work as hard as necessary to overcome it.  He did not receive a large inheritance, nor was he given any unique opportunities.  He sought out his own prospects and when he was given a chance he did not squander it. 

That is an inspiration to me today, over one hundred years since his birth.  I wonder if any of his students in the 1940’s and 1950’s were able to understand what this man had gone through in order to stand before them and teach?  And again I stress that his story is not unique.  Most of the teachers of that era came to the classroom through similar adversity, in fact the doctors and businessmen of the day also tread comparable paths to success.  Tom Brokaw called the World War II generation “The Greatest Generation” and Elbert Hall seems a perfect example of what made them great and what we ought to remember about that generation to continue an American legacy of greatness. 

The Signs

We’re past the halfway point of March now, the grass is greening and trees are budding.  Despite the cold rain that’s pecking at my window today, spring is surely at hand.  And when I begin to think about springtime, thoughts of garden-fresh vegetables and summer projects are never far behind. 

Spring weather on the mountain is predictable only in its unpredictable-ness.  We’ll get a warm spell and there’s a whole bunch of us that will rush out and start planting only to have a cold snap (one of the many “winters” we yet have to weather) that freezes any little shoots we’ve coaxed out of the ground.  When to plant and what to plant when are timeless questions and questions that have been answered for ages by The Farmer’s Almanac.

Almanacs have been published since the twelfth century – Gutenberg saw fit to publish an almanac even before he printed his famous Bible.  Can you even imagine what a valuable resource for a subsistence farmer to have even a weather forecast in the days before the five o’clock news gave a scientific ten day weather prediction?  Even having a chart of sunrise times would be extremely useful as timekeeping became increasingly more accurate. Today’s almanac predicts weather based on sunspot activity, moon phases, tidal activity and other factors, which according to www.farmersalmanac.com are a closely guarded secret, and these predictions are credited with 80 – 85 percent accuracy.

But the almanac tells so much more.  Based on the astrological alignment of the planets, “best days” are determined.  These can suggest when you do anything from cutting wood to killing pests or even planning a wedding.  Now, historically, folks have relied on these suggestions with greatly varying dependence.  There is even some question among Christian believers whether it is right or wrong to consult them.  Certainly there is a fine line between relying on the stars (or familiar spirits) or turning to God’s guidance (either from the indwelling Holy Spirit or from His published Word) and I frankly am not in either camp.  However, looking at it from an historical perspective, considering how many hours of daylight to expect and what the weather did on a given day for the last five or ten years would surely be relevant if you were planning an outdoor wedding, building a new house or planting a big crop.

Of course the best days and the signs predict how well your crops will bear or how long produce will keep.  And it seems pretty reasonable that moon phase as well as temperatures would affect how well the fish are biting.  However, I can’t quite understand the effect on dieting, dental care or breaking a bad habit.  Yet you don’t have to look too far to find people with strong testimonies of success or failure based one the signs.  Law enforcement officers will often tell you that their jails are fuller and their nights harder during certain signs of the moon.  And I’ve heard both nurses and farmers say that babies are born in greater numbers on the full moon.

The Bible certainly tells us that God placed the stars in the sky, and surely He purposely put them in their specific spots in the night sky.  He created the moon and its phases.  Jesus referred to weather prediction by the color of the sunset but warns that it is a “wicked and adulterous generation” that seeks a sign – would these signs qualify?  I have certainly known some very strong Christians who wouldn’t plant a thing without first consulting the almanac, was that simply ignorance of the occult?  I am very eager to hear your thoughts on this subject!

Is anyone game to conduct a little experiment this summer and plant half your garden by the signs and the other half by your own whim?  I’d love to hear the results.  In the meantime, please let me know your experiences farming by the signs.

Obeying the Speed Limit

I have a very brief anecdote to share with you today.  Short though it is, it was such a cute story, I was sure you would enjoy it.

Down toward Deer Lodge, at a typical country store about 1900, a bunch of men both young and old were sitting on the porch when along came a road crew and posted a sign saying “15 mph”.

The gentlemen sat in quiet contemplation of this notice until another neighbor happened along and asked the question on everyone’s mind, “1 5 m p h, what’s that mean?”

An expert in the group sits a little taller and shares his vast knowledge, “That’s the speed.  If you don’t go fifteen miles per hour you go to jail.”

After just a moment one man in the group began to shake his head as he slowly stood, stepped off the porch and untied his mule.  “Fifteen miles an hour, I’ll make it if I can.”  He swung onto the bare back, still shaking his head.   Slapping reins and kicking heels he hit the road still saying, “I’ll make it if I can, I’ll make it if I can.”

Millard Stepp told the story, he was there and this was the first speed limit sign he’d ever seen.  He would have been about fourteen years old at that time.

Elbert Hall with his own mules.  He is about 16 years old and had bought them himself.
Picture courtesy of Terry Hall.

This story, while anecdotal, was told for fact.  It made me think about our early use of and dependence upon mules.  I remembered the picture above of a young Elbert Hall with a pair of mules he'd bought when he was sixteen years old.  How many boys now longing for their first car or pickup truck could even appreciate the value of the team that's pictured here?  Elbert Hall is a whole other story and we'll talk about him in detail in the coming weeks.

Ice Storm 2015

Ice Storm 2015

1960 Ice Storm, Dayton, TN
From http://daytontn.net/history_60ice.php

It won’t be news to anyone that the mountain saw an historic ice storm last week; in fact many of you reading this will still be working to clean up yards and farms.  In fact, all of the Southeast struggled with winter weather last week and we needed all hands on board to effect the necessary cleanup.  You know that I’m always contrasting the things we face today, and how we handle them, with those faced a century ago.  Well, Tennessee has always faced these sporadic winter storms and then tried to clear it all away and get back to a normal life.  How would last week’s storm have been different in 1915 or 1815?

1960 Ice Storm, Dayton, TN
From http://daytontn.net/history_60ice.php

The ice and wind took down entire trees as well as plenty of all sizes of limbs.  These have to be removed, roads have to be cleared whether you’re driving cars or mule teams.  Of course, we have chain saws that make quick (or at least quicker) work than standing opposite a partner on a crosscut saw.  In winter’s chill you want to get the cutting done as quickly as possible.  But even with the most modern saw, it’s still hard work.

Once cut, all the wood has to be dragged out of the way, piled and disposed of.  What a blessing is a tractor to snag heavy logs and pull them away.  Yet, chaining a tree is just as cold whether you’re hooking it to a 100 horsepower, cabbed tractor or a four-up team of horses.

Let’s face it, the number of trees, the thick and yucky mud, and the bone-chilling wind does not change regardless of the date on the calendar or modern tools.

While our contemporary society may be immobilized by the ice, life just moves right along. We have cows ready to calve and they don’t generally wait for warm, sunny days.  In fact, it’s been my humble observation that they usually choose the very worst of conditions especially if they are going to need human intervention in the birthing.  Do you think that has changed over time?  I doubt it. I’m thinking beef cattle were every bit as ornery two centuries ago as they are today.  One calf refused to eat and you can’t just ignore the little creature because conditions are inconvenient.  So, in the mud and the cold we were milking that mean ole’ Angus and bottle-feeding her baby. 

Still, my feet were dry – you can really withstand a lot with dry feet - and I was praising The Lord for good boots.  And my hands were warm in water-proof gloves, at least until I had to milk the cow and I just never have figured out how to milk in gloves!  People were dying across the south due to exposure and traffic accidents and it’s just hard to really complain about the little troubles when you realize how much worse others have it.  And then I remember our ancestors who faced all these things just as we have and their lights never did come back on for they lived with coal-oil lamps and wood-burning stoves.  The weatherman is saying there’ll be another round of winter weather this week so maybe we can keep our perspective and remember that spring really is just around the corner when we will turn soil, plant seeds and grow crops just as our people have been doing for generations on the mountain. 

Isn’t the constancy of life a beautiful thing?