Daniel Miller was tired of just getting by, and he
didn’t like the fact that many of his neighbors had welcomed the Yankee’s
victory in the war. And, his eldest son by his first marriage, Thomas Pleasant,
had been living in Rogersville, Alabama for over twenty-five years.
2 “Tom has made a good life for himself in Alabama,
and he will be able to help me with my barrels,” Daniel told his wife Mary.
“Where would we live?” Mary asked. “He told me that he has just built a new
frame house for himself, and that we can stay in his old log house,” Daniel
told her.
3 “What about all of our clothes and furniture?” Mary
asked. “We can take the wagon down to Nashville, and then take the road south
to the Elk River and float on into Alabama,” he explained. “They only live a
few miles from the river,” he added.
4 They left Union County, Tennessee that summer and
made their way down to the Elk River in southern Tennessee near the border with
Alabama. There they loaded their belongings onto a flat-bottomed boat and
headed down river toward Rogersville. “There is a ferry landing where you can
dock and unload,” the boat’s captain explained.
5 “The trees sure are thick here, daddy,” ten-year-old
Preston pointed along the banks of the river. “They sure are, son,” Daniel
agreed. “There will be plenty of wood to make my barrels,” he told his son with
a smile.
6 They reached Rogersville about midday and the ferry
master was eating his lunch when they pulled into the dock. “You must be Mr.
Miller,” the man said as he took Daniel’s hand. “Tom told me to be expecting
you,” the man told him. “And you are?” Daniel asked. “I’m John Goode,” the man
told him.
7 When they had finished unloading the Millers and
their wagon, Goode pointed straight down the dirt road that stretched before
them. “If you follow this road for about a mile and a half, you’ll see Tom’s
place on the left,” he explained. “You can’t miss it – it will be up on a
little rise like and back off the road,” he finished.
8 “Thank you, Mr. Goode, I suspect we’ll be seeing
more of each other in the future,” Daniel concluded. “I expect we will, and
y’all are welcome,” Goode replied. With that, Daniel turned toward the horses
and urged them forward.
9 By the time they reached Thomas’ house, he and his
new wife, Sallie, were waiting for them in the yard. “Welcome to Alabama,
daddy,” Tom greeted him with a big grin. “It is good to meet you Mr. Miller,”
Sallie added.
10 “Well, it’s good to finally be here,” Daniel
replied. “Let’s get y’all somethin to eat,” Tom told them. “We can show you to
your place and get your things unloaded after you’ve had a little refreshment,”
he added. “That sounds good!” Daniel agreed.
11 After they had eaten and talked a while, Tom led
them back out into the yard and opened the gate to his pasture. “The cabin is
on up this trail a little way,” he explained.
12 Mary’s eyes brightened considerably when their new
home came into view. Although it was clearly a log house, it was built up off
of the ground and had a large stone fireplace on one end of the house. “I’ll
have a real floor,” she thought to herself.
13 It was built in the dogtrot style. There was a
breezeway through the middle of the cabin with a large room on each side, with
the same arrangement on the second floor. Mary noticed that the cabin also had
a porch across the front of the house. “This will be a good place to raise the
children,” she told them as Tom showed them through the rooms.
14 “If she’s satisfied, I’m satisfied,” Daniel told
Tom. “Well, let’s get y’all unloaded then!” Thomas exclaimed.
15 The following year at planting time, Thomas knocked
on the door of the cabin. When Daniel opened the door, he explained that he was
ready to plant his fields and that he would need some help. “Martha and Press
can help a little, I guess,” Daniel replied.
16 However, when the children returned home for lunch,
they complained of the heat and the hard work. “You don’t have to go back,”
Mary told them. “I ain’t gonna have my children worked in the fields like
slaves,” she explained to Daniel.
17 “I don’t want that neither,” Daniel agreed. Later,
when Thomas returned, Daniel told him that the children were simply too young
to help in the fields.
18 “Daddy, you worked me and David when we was younger
than them,” Thomas protested. “Times has changed, and these children are more
tender than youngins was back then,” Daniel told him. Thomas decided it wasn’t
worth an argument and returned to his own house.
19 “My father is spoilin them children,” he vented to
Sallie. “They are goin to grow up lazy and shiftless,” he told her. “That’s
awful,” she agreed. “But they are his children,” she reminded her husband.
20 “Mary ain’t nothing like my mama,” he told her.
“I’m sure that’s true, but she is your daddy’s wife,” she continued. “Yes, yes,
you’re right, but I don’t have to like it!” Thomas exclaimed in exasperation.
“We are, after all, providing them with a place to live.”
21 Martha helped her mother around the house, and
Press and Frank helped their father with his barrels. In fact, over the years
that followed, Daniel’s worsening arthritis made the boy’s assistance
essential. As his joints and fingers stiffened, he grew to depend more and more
on the boys to help him with his work. Nevertheless, Thomas came to regard his
younger half-brothers as spoiled and pampered.
22 Now these are the generations of Daniel Miller:
23 Daniel married Betsy Fields, and they had children:
Nancy, Thomas and David.
24 After Betsy died, Daniel married Mary Streval; and
they had children: Martha, Press, Frank, Mary, Elbert, Dorsia and Isaac.
25 Press Miller married Mary Cannon, and they had
children together.
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