Blount and Beyond Online Magazine - Magazine - Page 13
The next year Billie started school too. The last year the school was open was 1935. Mr. Matthias was the
teacher. We had moved to Wears Valley by that time and Mr. Matthias came by in his Model T and picked us up
in the mornings and brought us home in the afternoon. One day it had rained all day and the creek was flooded.
Grandpa came for us at the end of the road with the horse. The water was so high it came up to the horse9s belly
and lapped at our feet. It was a scary ride. The creek had run over its banks and had flooded the pasture field
and came almost to the house.
We started school at Wearwood School in Wears Valley in 1936. It was the biggest school I had ever seen. It had
four big rooms and four teachers. Each teacher taught two grades.
CREATION OF THE PARK AND THE SISTERS
The U.S. government was negotiating with the people of the mountains to sell their property and create a
National Park. Grandpapa sold his land and bought a farm just across the mountain in Wears Valley. Other
families moved to Blount County and others left and never came back. Almost everyone was cooperating with
the government except Grandpapa9s sisters. He had six sisters. Only one had married. Aunt Caroline married
Jim Shelton.
Aunt Polly had planned to marry but her intended had gone off to war and was killed. She was abed with fever
when they came and told her about his death. She became so despondent and her fever got so high it damaged
her brain and she was never the same after that. Many people were afraid of her. She sat around and whispered
to herself all day long. I was never afraid of her. I remember going with my grandmother to visit. I would sit on
Aunt Polly9s lap and pull her cap down over her face and I9d whisper with her. She would clap her hands and
laugh. She liked to break glass on the rock piles. She hit the glass with rocks until it was like powder.
One time Grandma called for me because it was time to go home and Aunt Polly didn9t want me to leave. When
Grandma took me by the arm and we started walking away, Aunt Polly picked up a rock and hurled it at
Grandma. We took off running with Aunt Polly right behind us. She was too heavy to run fast so we were
halfway home before she got to the Rocky Branch.
The other sisters were Aunt Marge (Margaret), Aunt Martha, Aunt Hettie and Aunt Louisa. Aunt Marge and
Aunt Martha were tall and thin with pointed noses. They did the field work and took care of the cows and sheep.
The others were short and heavy. They did the housework, made the cloth and took care of Aunt Polly. These
five sisters decided they did not want to sell their land to the government. They lived on the original family
homestead. They couldn9t move them, no matter how many lawsuits were filed against them. They did not
budge. The government would have to pick them up bodily and move then take them away.
By now newspapers from all over the country had picked up the story and were writing about these five little ol9
ladies and how the government was taking their home. Finally, the US government decided to allow them to
stay as long as they lived and at the death of the last one the land would go to the government. They lived there
just as they had since they were born, but now visitors from all over the world made a path to their door,
wanting to see the little old ladies who had stood up to the United States government and won.
TOYS AND PLAY
When we were little we didn9t get fancy toys. We had to use our imagination. We each got a rag doll for
Christmas. Mother spent hours sewing the dolls and making clothes from scraps she had saved. Much of the
time we played with stick people. My dolls always sang and played piano. Billie9s usually were sick and needed
nursing and bandaged. Marie9s dolls usually cooked and kept house. I guess our personalities were emerging
even then. We played hopscotch, tag, hide and seek, jumped rope, or played jacks. We even had jack