|
a.
|
Note: Elisha, known as "Lishe" to friends and family, lived his entire life in Claiborne Co., TN. In 1900, he lived with his parents and siblings in District 7 where he was listed as Albert E., age 10. He attended school that year. In 1910, Elisha's name was spelled Elishia; he was living in District 4 and at age 20 was approaching his fifth anniversary with Effie, age 21. They were married quite young at the ages of 15 and 16 respectively. They had two sons living, having tragically lost their firstborn son sixteen months before the census. Lishe was a general farmer as his father and grandfather before him had been.
In 1920, Elisha and Effie were still in District 4, living next door to his widowed mother. Three daughters had been added to the family, but once again tragedy struck when their first daughter lived only five days. Elisha, age 30, and Effie (listed inaccurately as 27) could both read and write, something that many people of their generation could not do.
In 1930, they were in the Quarter Precinct of District 4 where they may have been all along. Elisha, age 39, and Effie, age 42, owned the farm. (This may or may not have been the one that Effie purchased with the money she received from her parents when they sold their farm and moved to a small house in retirement.) They gave their ages at the time of their marriage as 16 and 17 respectively. (Their actual ages at the time of the census were 40 and 41.) Still living at home were the two girls and their little brother. Heartache struck again in 1948 when their daughter Iva Dell died of leukemia. Elisha and Effie continued to farm until the mid-1960's when they sold the farm and bought a little house in Tazewell on Route 1 (present-day 1404 Tazewell Rd.) near the old high school.
That Lishe and Effie both had quick and fiery tempers was legendary among family members and probably in the community at large. Sometime after the birth of their last child, they had a falling out and divorced, but apparently their love was strong enough to weather the storm because after a year apart, they were married again in 1930. Stories of their escapades continue to delight or shock listeners more than a hundred years after they first married in 1905. Accounts of Effie throwing a pan of flour at Lishe because he didn't jump to do her bidding fast enough, or Lishe breaking one of Effie's brand new dining table chairs because he was tired of her nagging are certainly memorable, not to mention the time that she snatched the lid off the butter churn and asked Lishe as she angrily stomped her foot up and down inside the churn, "How do you like your butter now?!"
While these antics would be enough to tear most couples apart, they seem to be a part of the bond that held Elisha and Effie together. In the summer of 1970, the extended family was preparing to gather inTazewell on July 9th to celebrate Lishe and Effie's 65th anniversary with a big party. Elisha's son Clyde bought the two of them matching suits for the occasion. Elisha modeled his coat for his granddaughter Bertha Lee and her young children who were visiting from North Carolina. He laughed as he joked, "I'll be buried in this suit." Those words were stunningly prophetic as Elisha died unexpectedly the very next day. Two days later, on his 65th wedding anniversary, he was indeed buried in his new suit as his loved ones gathered around to mourn his loss. Besides a grieving wife, he left behind four children, sixteen grandchildren, and more than thirty great-grandchildren.
|
