(Gert Johnson, McCaysville) JANICE BROOKS, I am so thrilled to have learned that the home where I grew up on BAKERTOWN RD. (E. Tennessee) in McCaysville is still going strong with JANICE BROOKS as the owner. The JOHNSON family left the home for a home in Epworth after I graduated Copperhill High School in 1936. This picture is of the Johnson Family in 1924, under the big sycamore tree in the fenced-in front yard of their BAKERTOWN Rd (E. Tennessee) home in McCaysville. A photographer had come to every house, and Momma made appointment for us to have our picture taken on Sunday morning when we would be dressed for church. I loved to hide up in that sycamore tree in the summer to read the 15 or so volumes of the “Book of Knowledge” which Momma had somehow bought for us. Beyond that sycamore tree and on the other side of the road was the house where DOYLE QUEEN lived with his grandparents and his mother PEARL and his younger sister. The river side of DOYLES house was being gradually lost to the river, and that was true for the other homes on the river in that area of BAKERTOWN. Seems like the bad erosion was due to the way a railroad bridge had been built; seems like because of the way the bridge had been built, the water coming down from the mountain would hit those properties head on. The CLINT ANGEL house was directly across the street from the DOYLE QUEEN home. As I recall, the QUEEN home and the ANGEL home were the last homes on the street (that you could see). About a mile down the road the TOWNSEND family had a grove of trees that was a good picnic area, and in the summertime some of the BAKERTOWN families would load up the wagons and picnic at the TOWNSEND GROVE, We would play all day and then build a fire and tell scary stories and stay till after dark. As the younger ones fell asleep, they would be put in the wagons and covered up. I remember that later on someone in the TOWNSEND family got very sick, and the house was quarantined, and a big rope was placed across the road just past the QUEEN and ANGEL homes, with a big sign saying QUARANTINED. DO NOT ENTER , and I remember being scared to death to even get near that sign. Whoever it was that was sick then passed away, and I remember seeing the horse drawn funeral carriage taking the body away, and then the rope and quarantine sign came down. At the time of this 1924 picture, my oldest brother GARLAND had already passed away at the age of 5 from meningitis, and my 2 youngest sisters GRETTA and GERALDINE had not yet been born. As far as I know, all the kids except for GLADYS, GENE, and GARLAND were born in that BAKERTOWN Rd house. From left, back row, were GENE, GLADYS, and GRACE, and front row were me (GERT) , GURLEY, GAY, baby GENTRY, and GUY. My parents were W.V. (VIC) JOHNSON and JESSIE (ARROWWOOD) JOHNSON.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:55:02 +0000
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