Last week when I was in Tennessee for the Hicks Family Reunion I also did some research for the book that is my current project. It is set in my home town of Greeneville and is an urban fantasy type with a rural setting. I wanted to refresh my memory of the Cherokee National Forest where it is in Greene county. I have an important event to set there. After we picked up the key for the hall where the reunion was to be held Mom and I drove back through the forest. Here are some pictures of that drive.
Road to the National Forest. Loved the sky!French Broad RiverBlack Bear Proof Trash CansProtected forestOld stone drinking fountain. I remember these from my childhood trips.Picnic areaCobblestone bridge to picnic area from main roadCreek the cobblestone bridge went over.Hwy 107 Houston Valley Road in Greene County TN inside the Cherokee National Forest.As we were leaving a storm was rolling in.The storm coming over a ridge
There will be two more posts from this trip – mountain flowers and areas just outside the National Forest. Until Next Time!
Statue of Andrew Johnson across the street from his tailor shop.
I grew up in Greene County Tennessee. The main town is Greeneville and their claim to history is being the home of Andrew Johnson the 17th President of the United States and the only impeached President until Bill Clinton. Both were aquitted at their trial, to be impeached is to be brought to trial while sitting in the office of President. Andrew went to fight for the President’s right to appoint and dismiss his cabinet at will (that’s it in a nut shell okay? much more political stuff going on) – Bill went because he’s a womanizer. Really which would you want to be known for going to trial about? LOL!
My family’s path crosses with Andrew’s several times on several branches. The biggest one was when he was governor of Tennessee he helped my 4th great grandmother Sarah Busick Bright secure her widow pension due her from her husband’s service in the Revolutionary War. That’s what brought Sarah and James Bright to Tennessee from Maryland – his Revolutionary War Land Grant for service.
Also I’ve got Andrew’s signature on several files as Vice President granting leave to Union Soldiers from Tennessee to attend funerals of family members. Don’t raise an eyebrow at that. Yes Tennessee did secede but East Tennessee where my roots are and Andrew was from – was staunchly Union. I’ve got less than 10 documented Confederates to over 100 documented Union service members in my family tree. Andrew looked after the loyalist there from the time he was military governor through his Vice Presidency and his Presidency.
Andrew settled in Greeneville when he was about 18 and opened a very successful tailor shop. He married a local girl who taught him the basic 3 Rs Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. She supported his political bid. One interesting note was they were married by Abraham Lincoln’s second cousin. Thus the Lincoln connection went back to when Andrew was young knowing Lincoln’s cousin and father. Eliza read to Andrew as he’d sew and gave him her love of reading. His famous oratory skills were credited to his reading and hearing her read the great orators over and over.
In Greeneville the original tailor shop still stands inside a National Park building built around it to preserve it. His house across the street was always closed when I lived there but has since been restored and opened to the public. In 1851 which would have been while he was a Representative to the US Congress he built a large home that is now a National Park and is open for touring. A duplicate of it was built just up the hill from the original and is visible from the Nathaniel Greene Museum but is currently a private residence. I am curious how the layout inside was modernized.
Also a replica of Andrew’s birthplace in North Carolina was built just across from his first Greeneville house and kitty-cornered from his tailor shop. BUT DON’T be confused he wasn’t born in Greeneville he moved there. However when he returned after his tumultuous presidency the 1851 house held bitter memories of his son that had committed suicide. So he bought a farm out of town to make a home.
He’s the only President who went back to Congress in an elected position. After several failed bids he narrowly won the seat and returned as the Senator from Tennessee in January 1875. He was returning to Washington when he stopped by his daughter’s house in Elizabethton Tennessee to see her and spend the night. It was there he suffered a stroke and died.
Needless to say growing up near all these places we made many field trips here to see the President’s house and tailor shop. Other things like the museum at Tusculum College, the Nathanael Greene Museum, the Early Home of Johnson, the replica birthplace, and the statue all came long after I was gone.
So enjoy this photo post of the current Greeneville sights of Andrew Johnson. Oh and yes it is GreenEville being named for Nathaniel GreenE.
The street view of the Johnson’s early home in GreenevilleView of the early home from the yard of the house.Interior of the early home.Replica of the North Carolina birthplace of Andrew Johnson.The exterior of the building built around the Johnson Tailor shop. The addition to the building service as the visitor center for the National Park locations in Greeneville.The home he built in 1851 and returned to after his Presidency. Despite not being very popular (the South didn’t like he remained loyal the North thought his restruction policies were too gentle on rebellious states) He did receive a welcome home parade and banners. The home proved too sad for he and his wife due to memories of their son Robert (who committed suicide) growing up there.Nathanael (yes that’s how he spelled it) Greene Museum in Greeneville has a fine collection of things including material from Johnson’s time as a political figure in Greeneville. Also if you stand in their parking lot and look up the hill to the residential area you’ll spot the private home that is a replica of Andrew’s 1851 home.
Image from Card Cow and used from their embed on your website service.
I love books. I’ve always loved books. Trips to the library were great when I was a kid. My first memories of the library in Greeneville were the old one. The one that was the Carnegie Library. My mom read me the whole Wizard of Oz series out loud. I loved it. I carried on the tradition with Harry Potter until Aaron was old enough to read those on his own and didn’t want to wait the chapter a day that we did.
The children’s library was down in the basement. One Summer I remember I got an outline of the library for the summer reading club. As I read a book I got a brick sticker in my library. The goal was to build your own library on paper without Andrew having to give a penny. I was so proud when mine was finished!
Later built the library that is in use today. They had contest to guess what the new library would look like. I painted a picture of what I thought it would look like based on our police station, town hall and such. Turned out I was RIGHT! down to the decorative rail around the crown of the roof. I was again so proud!
Many of the books I read from there have become life long friends. My Side of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George was a favorite that I shared with Aaron. I fell for the love literary writing of Gene Wolfe in his Shadow of the Torturer. I found Gothic romance in Victoria Holt’s books and later matured to enjoy the historical fiction of Eleanor Hibbert’s other pen names. Some books – the titles are long gone from my memory as are the authors to which I owe thanks but their stories, their stories are dear treasured friends.
It wasn’t just the fiction section I loved. I remember getting books about King Tut’s treasures, the old west, Hollywood back in the Studio Heyday, NASA’s space exploration, and so much more. It was all there all free and ALL interesting. I knew how to research before I left high school just because if I wanted to know something I had full faith the library could tell me.
I fully supported libraries every where I went from then to today. I worked in our high school library my senior year. I volunteered full time for two years in Aaron’s elementary school’s library. I still can get lost in a library for hours just browsing. I love them!
Now don’t think that my bibliotheca amor negated my also loving bookstores. I bought and buy books at least weekly. Some old favorites are held together by rubber bands. Seems that some books are great guests you pass on to the next reader’s party and others become treasured family members of your shelves. I can’t tell you how many times I read Gone With The Wind or Jane Eyre in my younger days. Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod has become a personal holiday tradition to read.
When I was driving a lot I got into audiobooks. I love them even more today. I listen when I’m in the car, cleaning the house, doing research, beading, walking the dog, on the bike, and so on. I love them. I prefer the spoken word over music most of the time now. I just can’t get enough of stories, fiction or nonfiction, comic book, printed, or audio – tell me something, tell me something new, tell me something interesting – take me places I can never go, introduce me to people I could never meet, let me be someone else in a new world for awhile. That’s what happens when I read or listen to a story. I’m no longer bored with every day life chores. Audio books have their place but nothing is the same as curling up with a book and immersing yourself in the story, history, life, – the power of the written word. Which is why I aspire to be a writer I’d guess.
So now the question in the title. I say I’m a biblophile – a book lover. Mike claims that no I’m a biblomaniac – crazy over books. We used to playfully argue the point. Really it doesn’t matter – I’m happy. I enjoy books in any form but I think honestly my deepest love still goes back to words on paper – don’t need electricty or programs or players or viewers. Just a bit of light -the sun supplies that daily here- and the willingness to be transported without going anywhere.
Every community has its landmarks. Some stick around for a long time, even beyond the thing that caused them to be landmarks. I grew up in Greene County, Tennessee with such landmarks in my neck of the woods as the twin barns (now gone), dead man’s curve (no longer has much traffic due to by-pass), red gate (never seen a red gate any where near there), the broom factory (it’s not been there for almost 100 years), tin top, and a few others. All of which I know exactly where they are but if you haven’t lived there a while and learned the jargon you’d be as confused as hell by the directions from Mosheim “go out 11E toward Greeneville stay on it through dead man’s curve keep follerin’ it past the broom factory and make yer right between the twin barns.”
Every time I’ve moved into a new community I’ve had to learn the local landmarks and jargon. The South seems to have more and more colorful ones than any other area I’ve lived. They are the basis for directions from the locals. Something that was much more important back in the days before everyone had a GPS. I’ve been in new towns following sketched directions on a paper towel looking for the two clowns so I could turn left all before the days of GPS.
Kenosha has a few but with the system of streets and avenues being numbered you don’t need them so much. Streets here run East West or as I remember it they go Splash into the lake S for street ya see. The higher the number the further North from the Illinois boarder you are. Avenues on the other hand go North South Along the lake, A for Avenue ya see. The higher the number the further west away from the lake you are. Got it? Simple if an address is 7563 19th Avenue (don’t know who that is just made it up) That place is between 75th and 76th Street on 19th Avenue. Given this system Kenosha doesn’t do much landmark directions but there are a few things that people reference.
The first is the Hob Knob. It was established in 1954 in the supper club style of the 50s. It’s kitchy by today’s standards but fun. Sitting right on the shore of Lake Michigan the views are unsurpassed. I’ve only eaten there once years ago. I don’t remember much about the food but I do remember the decoration made me expect to see Frank Sanatra lead in the Brat Pack telling them this was hip little dinner club just North of Chicago he was talking about.
I snapped this picture as we drove by in the Mustang. Yes the top was down and I was enjoying myself. I always like the big Cosmo painted on the side of the building. It just lets you know what you are in for when you go inside. Dining there again but this time calling to be sure we get seats that face the lake is on our Kenosha bucket list. Last time we had seats that faced the street but we walked in and took what’s available. I really need to go by there at night when the neon is all lit up and snap some more shots.
Next up is a place on my Kenosha Bucketlist. It’s been on the Food Channel as a great road trip stop. Yes I’m speaking of none other than Kenosha’s cheese royalty the Mars Cheese Castle! It’s been recently rebuilt to look more castle like. However they kept their iconic sign. Being next to the interstate where they get most of their business I’m told, it’s good to keep the logo.
I’ve lamented that I have been delinquent in going into the Cheese Castle. I mean I’ve been in and to the Brat Stop many times. (subject of another post but let me say it’s not a place you stop for misbehaving kids but a bratwurst place). I’ve taken the exit from I-94 where it sits to head home as I did on the evening I snapped this photo. But I’ve never gone into the place. The locals tell me not to worry, it’s a tourist trap being the first big cheese place just north of Chicago. It’s more known in the community for the iconic sign. Well that I’ve seen so maybe that’s good enough.
It seems that landmarks in Kenosha are food related. There are more I’ll cover in the future there’s the afore mentioned Brat Stop, Sunnyside Wine Shop and Bar, Frank’s Diner, Capt Mike’s (gourmet mac’n’cheese), D’Angleos and several more. Let me know what are your local landmarks and how are they used? What were the landmarks of your childhood? I’m thinking now when I go back to visit I’ll have to get photos of tin top, broom factory, and others too.
Mary Louise Eklund 