BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

  Emma Wipf  

Everybody in Lewis county knew and loved Emma Wipf.  In 1900, at the age of nine, she began walking to and from her home, four miles from here, to work for Hohenwald people.  She walked more than 100,000 miles to her work in the past 48 years.  As washerwoman, cook, nurse, housekeeper, butcher or store clerk, she has no superior, according to the people of this county.  She remembered working many days from sun till sun for 25 cents.

As butcher for the Les Bell Grocery Co., here for 15 years, Emma Wipf was in a class to herself. She could fell a beef with one stroke, then clean and cut it up better than any man known to present day grocery men.

Miss Wipf hit Hohenwald, blanketed with a 10 inch snow, 52 years ago.  Her family of six which came from Milwaukee, spent the first several weeks in the section shacks. Emma remembered walking daily with her parents, Henry and Annie, to their land drawn by lot, four miles away, to build their home.  The woods were so dense that they tied rags on bushes along the way to make the trail.  Her father soon found employment at the Mt. Pleasant Phosphate mines and walked the 30-odd miles back home on week-ends to be with the family.  The older twin girls worked in New Switzerland.  The three Wipf sisters and one brother never married.

 

The Gun Man, Edward S. Jensen Just a few steps away from Hohenwald's business district is a ramshackle frame house sitting a bit sway-backed amid a yard overgrown with Johnson grass and rambunctious greenery.  Strangers, if they glanced at it, would pass it up as a deserted shanty, but Hohenwald folks know it as the home and repair shop of bearded, 66 year old Edward S. Jensen, Danish watch repairer and possessor of one of the rarest gun collections of this part of the country. With his long black hair and his silky mustache that hangs limply down over his mouth and into his beard Edward Jensen could sling one of his 200 odd-looking firearms over his shoulder, and, unaided by the property or make-up man, step into the role of a western-bound forty-niner in any saga of Californ-i-ay in her roaring gold rush days.

But Jensen only looks the part of a toughened prospector smitten with wanderlust. He's a quiet, gentle man who has lived at Hohenwald for the past 18 years, and he plans to remain in the little Lewis County town for the rest of his days, contented with his shop, his son and his guns. 

"My prize gun," Jensen says, lifting a long rifle from its hanging place over the inside door of his shop, "is this Billinghurst revolving rifle.  It's the only one like it I've ever seen or heard about, and I've been interested in guns all of my life.  I bought it a long time ago in Wisconsin, and I figure it was made about the time of the civil War.  Of course, just like all the old fire pieces, it had to be loaded with powder and ball."

Although he is uncertain about the ages of many of his oldest guns, Jensen nevertheless believes that his Danish Yaker (it's their word for hunter) is among the most ancient of his relics. The Yaker and an old 1827 Harper's Ferry, which discharged a bullet shaped like an acorn with a hollow base and a wooden plug, his long Tom's typical of the hunting rifles of Kentucky and Tennessee woodsmen, and his Spencer repeating rifle which the Union Army began to use shortly before the close of the War Between the States are among his favorites.  His Evans repeating rifle is one made for the Russian armies in the late 70's and is of the same type, he says, with which Custer's men were armed at the time of their 1876 massacre except theirs were .45 caliber.

But for the customers who bring their clocks and watches to the cluttered front-room shop where the guns are unofficially on display, the greatest curiosity piece is Jensen's "walking stick" gun.  enameled a shiny black, the gun looks exactly like a simple, unadorned walking cane, crooked handle and all.  But a fiery, high tempered stroller had only to load it with loose powder and a ball, press the tiny button near the handle and rid himself permanently of any annoyer he may have changed to meet.  The curio was made by Remington Arms company in 1858 and bought by Jensen from a traveling salesman many years ago.

The "gun man," as his neighbors always refer to Jensen, is convinced that with a little oiling and the proper ammunition, almost every gun in his collection would shoot, and there are times when he'd like to take them out and test his judgment on a squirrel or two in the Hohenwald hollows, but hunting had to cease for Jensen when as a lad of 19 he crushed his ankle in a saw mill accident and he still finds it hard to walk long distances.  Son Jasper, a 194 pound, 15 year old, occasionally tries one out as several jagged holes on the shop floor mutely testify.  And on V-J night, Jasper could think of no better way of celebrating than to take down his father's 1827 Harper's Ferry and shoot it with loose powder and a round paper wad. "Anyway it made a lot of noise," he says.

Edward Jensen's parents and two of his grandparents came from Denmark in 1865 and settled on a farm in Wisconsin, where the gun man was born and raised.  Twenty-three years ago, on account of glowing reports from his brother who had moved south many years before, he decided to come to Tennessee.  For a few years he repaired watches in Lawrence county before picking Hohenwald as his home.

Jensen's shop is in one of the tiny front rooms of the house, and behind it he and his adored son "batch it," his wife having died when the boy was born.

For many years he and Jasper tried to keep the old guns neatly on display, but the shop is so crowded now that the guns are just stuck around in dusty corners and mingle with the cob-webs on the shelves. Floor space, work tables, walls and shelves are all a wild conglomeration of packed boxes, piles of odds and ends, repair machinery, clocks waiting to be repaired, guns, arrowheads picked up in Lawrence County and "family stuff."

This last category is comprised almost entirely of articles brought over from Denmark by past generation Jensens and includes several hand-made copper coffee pots, Danish clocks more than 100 years old, ancient grease lamps, an outfit for ironing fluted collars and two very old smoothing irons whose heavy, removable parts were heated in a fireplace and then fitted inside the instruments to produce the heat necessary for pressings. And none of it, guns included, is for sale.  Edward Jensen likes to have his things around him.  That's why he collected them.

 

BYRON F. WEBB

Byron F. Webb, born on Swan Avenue which was once known as Main Street, on February 24, 1882.  Lived in and around Hohenwald all his life with the exception of one year when he lived over in Perry County.  Webb was a veritable walking history book of Hohenwald, and Lewis County.  He says that the earliest settlers in Hohenwald included the families of Moritz Schubert, J. A. Goodman, A. P. Grover and P. A. Webb, his father, who was a blacksmith.

Dr. John Vandiver moved to the section after this, Webb recalled.  Webb said the first school building here was a one-room affair, 16 feet wide by 32 feet long.  The first teacher was Fred L. Schubert, son of Moritz Schubert, who later became one of the leading lawyers in the community.

The first child born in Hohenwald was the late Alida Grover Schappacher, Webb related, and this was some time in December, 1880.

Webb also related that the first store opened in the little community was the Grover store, operated by A P. Grover, father of W. P. Grover, Sr.  This establishment was on Swan Avenue and dates back to 1879.

 

JOHNNY J. SCHWEILLER, JR

One of seven original Swiss immigrants, left from 75 families who came here to found a colony, is Johnny J. Schweiller, Jr., who is acclaimed by Lewis countians as a top citizen.

His father came from a little Swiss Alpine village to New York in December, 1893, followed two months later by his wife and four children, Josephine, Mary, Ida, and the two and half year old son.

It was in 1896 that the family, less Ida and Mary, came here to join others of their nationality and several mid-west German families to make of this infant village in the next several decades one of rural Middle Tennessee's most progressive town.

Mr. Johnny recalled that there was little here but a new branch line of the N.C. and St. L. Railroad, thick woods, and deep mud when he arrived.  Allocated forty acres of land four miles to the south, he says the only way to get to town for years was to walk.

Faced with hard work and a scant living at best, the industrious Swiss lad at 15 found extra work in the Kursheedt Manufacturing Company's new embroidery factory built here to utilize the age-old handiwork talents of the new settlers.  Schweiller helped set up the machinery and until the industry began to wane, was a top artisan as countless thousands of yards of the world's finest embroidery were turned out.  Known locally as the lace factory, the plant, according to Mr. Johnny, made only embroidery and scores of thousands of eagle insignia for the U.S. Navy uniforms.

Mrs. Schweiller was born of Native German parents in Nebraska and she met her husband at the local embroidery factory where her family had come to find work.  Mr. Johnny was a leader in a local string band.

DR. W. E. BOYCE

Dr. W. E. Boyce, long time physician in Lewis County, retired January 1, 1959 after 46 years of practicing medicine  Dr. Boyce had won the admiration and gratitude of his patients and their families for his years of devotion to duty.  He was honored September 14, 1957 by the Lewis county Civic club for his many years of service to the medical profession.  Dr. Boyce was a graduate from the University of Tennessee Medical school in 1912, where he was head of his class.  He began practicing in July of 1912 and for the first fifteen years practiced in Oklahoma.  The then returned to Lewis county where he served the residents of Lewis County and surrounding counties for 31 years.

HORACE NEWTON MANN AND WIFE, HATTIE LOU VOORHIES.

Old timers cannot forget villages' best loved couple.  Riverside is only a cherished memory to salesmen and railroaders and iron ore furnace workers of south Middle Tennessee, but to thousands of friends of its best known couple, it is still very much of a reality.

For every activity of this little village, eight miles south of Hohenwald in Lewis county, has centered in and around Horace N. Mann and his wife, the former Hattie Lou Voorhees.  Since 1893, the names riverside and Mann have meant the same to all who pass Lewis county way.

The Manns sold their big store to Marvin Patton in 1940.  It closed during the war but opened again in 1946.  Riverside had a post office for a few years prior to 1898, but at that time Mann got the job as postmaster and served for 36 years until the office closed in 1934.  The iron furnaces were losing out and people were going to larger centers.  Too, good roads came and carriers could bring mail quicker to the rural people.

Known as a master farmer, he annually cured dozens of hams all of which were served their many friends on his 12 place dining table.  Mann said that they had fed their guests as many as 42 hams in one year.  The three Mann daughters are Mrs. Arthur Plummer, Mrs. E. M. Adcox and Mrs. Logan Davidson.

 

EMIL ROTH....from the SWISS SOUVENIR newspaper.

The story of Hohenwald is one of an embroidery factory and the stamina of a band of 50 plus stout hearted Swiss.  Emil Roth was one of them.  And although now old, deaf, feeble and "runnin' on 85," he is the only original Hohenwald settler still alive, and he claims the story of New Switzerland as his own. "they only know what the old ones told them," he says, waving his hand in the general direction of the village and the descendants of the project.  "I was right there in the middle of it from the first and my memory's still pert--all the Swiss folks have pert memories till the day they die."

Hohenwald in 1895 was nothing but a dream of a promised land in the minds of a group of Swiss immigrants, struggling rather unsuccessfully to eke out a living from the rocky land around Omaha, Neb.  You could tell by the singing that times were hard--on empty stomachs it wasn't nearly as hearty as it had been in the Old Country.

"Well one day some of us saw in an  Omaha newspaper about how a Swiss named Propst was going to start a Swiss colony in Tennessee, and we decided right then to join up," Roth remembered.  "I raked together every cent and sold a few things and managed to send money for a down payment on 100 acres of Tennessee land."

With his wife, two children (nine others were born later in Lewis county) and 47 other travelers, the adventurers set off on the train carrying a little of everything except money, with tickets that would take them only part of the way.  "But even when we had to ride in the box cars we were snug and happy as snowbirds,"  Roth added.  "We figured all our troubles were over and we sang most of the way.  I led most of the songs because I was a member of the Omaha Schweizerverein, a great Swiss singing society.

Here Emil Roth stopped talking and took from the wall a large framed portrait of the Omaha singers.  After pointing out the high-collared likeness of the youthful Emil Roth who was "full of fine voice and lots of fire," the old Swiss gentleman cradled the picture in his lap, stroked it gently and continued his story.

"It was a good thing I let loose on the trip, because I didn't have much time or much wishing for singing in the next few months.  and it was about the same with all the rest of the Swiss settlers, the ones who kept coming in all along from other parts of the country as well as our own group."

When the high-spirited travelers reached  their promised land, nothing but a fallen-in box car, doubling for a depot, greeted them.  Lewis County had no stores, no roads and only a few scattered settlers.  Young Roth finally managed to find an old settler who had a team and consented to haul the family to a one-room log house filled with corn stalks.  The Roths, old Emil says, sort of roosted on the corn stalks until they could get straightened out and they lived there the whole first freezing winter while Emil was busy clearing the land from sun-up to sun-down.

"I guess we could have frozen if we hadn't brought a lot of our stuff packed in an old tin box," the old man said.  "I use to build fires in it to warm us some in the evenings."

Despite his back-breaking labor, Roth couldn't clear his land and make crops at the same time, with the result that he lost his 100 acres.  He then started working for 75 cents a day cutting timber for a roadway and later tried employment at a new spoke factory and in his spare time cleared land for the folks coming in that had money.  "Many a time I've cleared a whole acre for $4 and I'll have you know there weren't no stumps left on land when I grubbed it,"  he declared proudly.

The Roths and their friends managed to get along, year by year, until 1900 brought two embroidery factories and community prosperity.  "The factories were run by the Kursheedt Manufacturing Company, which didn't hire anyone except Swiss folks," Roth continued.  "That's when we started booming-even the youngsters were making 50 cents a week threading needles at the factory.  There was money to build stores and houses and buy land." 

"Mostly I let the rest of my family get interested in making embroidery and I stuck to grubbing, but I sure could feel the new money circulating. j when I couldn't find a market for my grapes, I just made 'em into brandy wine and didn't have any trouble at all selling that."

By the time the Roths had been in New Switzerland 10 years they had 40 acres of land all paid for and Emil had cleared the land and even built the house all by himself. j "After that it was good singing times and we just worked hard and raised a lot of children to make the embroidery that put us on our feet to start with.  It was the same with most of the settlers- they grubbed land, made wine and embroidery and sang a lot."  And in honor of their triumph over the wilderness they named their town Hohenwald, which in their German tongue, meant "high forest."

Although he is the last of the original Swiss settlers in Lewis County, there are many alive today who remember--all with a deep sentiment and pride--some of the earlier days in Hohenwald's Swiss embroidery factories, long since torn down to make way for expanding residential sections.

MRS. MAGGIE GRIMES  remembered threading needles in the factory for 25 cents a week and later both she and her husband worked there.

ROBERT C. KISTLER, who was born in Switzerland, but part of whose family was in the original settlement at Hohenwald, agrees that "embroidery put us on the map."

MRS. OLGA  SCHILD  RYCHEN, "The Kurscheedt Manufacturing Company sent instructors to teach the local workers how to make Hamburg embroidery on the complicated, hand-operated machines in their two factories.  Much of the embroidery was used on baby clothes and was always shipped to New York, and from there distributed to various concerns throughout the country."

"The machines were very large," Mrs. Rychen remembers.  "When the carriages were extended to the ends of their tracks, the machines measured at least 10 feet in length and 8 feet in height.  The pattern board, with pattern and pantograph, was always before the operator, and every stitch was carefully made, with cream colored silk stitching on cashmere or flannel

Embroidery Factory

"The ordinary machines held 224 needles, but the most complicated one, Number 2, which I was the first girl ever to operate, held 312 needles.  The closer the needles were set in the machine, the finer the embroidery it made, and that machine really made fine embroidery.  On Number 2, I made samples to be sent to firms in large cities."

"Eagles for navy uniforms were also made by all the machines--72 at one time in addition to the symbol and the star,"  Mrs. Rychen added.  "Every eagle contained 1,300 stitches, but I could make a set of 72 in one day.  Even though it's been 40 years since I lived in Hohenwald and worked in the embroidery factory, my prize possessions even now are 12 sample patterns and an eagle I made on my machine."

These are my relics of the good old day I find great pleasure in recalling even though the industry, its machinery and methods are obsolete and things of the past.

JOHN SCHWENDIMANN, SR. AND WIFE MARIE LOUISE

In 1882, John Schwendimann, Sr. and his wife Marie Louise came to America from Pohlern, Switzerland and settled in Burnside, Iowa.  The children then were; Oscar, Oswald, Olga, John, Jr., and Paul.  Fredrick was born in Burnside and after the family moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1885 two daughters, Marie and Frieda were born.

In 1889, Mr. Schwendimann moved his family to Hohenwald where he lived until his death in 1929.  Mrs. Schwendimann passed away the same year. John Schwendimann, Jr. was the only one of the family that stayed and raised his family in Hohenwald. He was married to Lena Wenger whose parents, Nicklaus and Lissette Wenger, came to America in 1883 from Berne, Switzerland.  Lena was eleven months old when they came to this country and settled in Canton, Ohio.  Mr. Wenger came to Hohenwald about 1888 and moved his wife and daughter here after he built a home for them.  Mr. Wenger died in 1910 and his wife passed away in 1930.

Mr. and Mrs. John Schwendimann, Jr. were the parents of ten children; Julius, Frieda, Eunice, Ruth, Marie, Max, Mabel, Pattie, John Robert and Leo. Mr. Schwendimann was in highway construction for many years.  With Mr. Will Stevens and Mr. Will Lomax, engineers, the Summertown and Linden highways were built.  He later worked for the Department of Interior as Superintendent of Veteran camps.  He died in 1939.  Mrs. Schwendimann passed away in 1962.

MRS. JOHN POLLOCK  (Printed in the Sunday morning edition of the Nashville Newspaper Jan. 22, 1939)

Hohenwald woman, 76, adept in frontier arts cards own wool, spins threads, knits garments.

A bulky family Bible, and ancient loom, and fourth great-granddaughter of General James Robertson link Lewis County with Fort Nash borough as closely as a broken shaft monument by the side of the Natchez Trace ties this area with Meriwether Lewis and the Northwest territory.

Mrs. John Pollock, 76, who lives with her husband of the same age on a farm near here, could have walked into the musket-guarded gates of the stockade on the Cumberland, taken her place among the pioneer women of that group, and not have found it necessary to take any special course in the domestic duties of a frontier woman.

Sheep graze in the Pollock pastures.  Once a year they are brought before the shearer.  Wool thus taken leaves the farm in the form of sweaters and other knot and woven goods.

KNITS SWEATERS

Wearing a bonnet made on a pattern similar to those worn by the wife of General Robertson, Mrs. Pollock one day last week knit several stitches.,

pearled a few, and placed on the big poster bed a newly finished sweater. The wool had not been washed since a lat spring rain trickled down the backs of unsheared sheep.  the sweater will be hand washed and brought to a creamy whiteness before being sold.

For that sweater, as for many others she has made since she started helping supply the A. E. F. with warm woolens during the World War, Mrs. Pollock carded the fresh wool, spun the thread, and knitted the garment.  She has lost all count of how many she has made since 1917, but it is safe to say that her eight sons and several grandsons are among the warmest residents of Lewis County.

That is true, not only during their waking and working hours, but when they sleep also for Mrs. Pollock has pieced 82 quilts in the past 14 years.  Most of these have been presented on birthdays or at Christmas to her children and grandchildren.  That is an average of nearly six quilts a year, and they are made on the old patterns of stitching together many small bits of various colored cloths into squares and quilting the squares together with a cotton lining between the brightly hued coverlet and a bottom piece of plain material.

Within a few months it will be sheep shearing time again.  New wool will be brought in for the big box in the back room where the spinning wheel stands at the end of a century-old loom, threaded now with the warp of a new woolen blanket.  The movable parts, all of wood, squeak lazily when spinning operations are underway.  Nashborough could have used Mrs. Pollock to good advantage.  But with all her skill and industry in the ancient arts, she is abreast of the times in a twentieth-century world, and can talk with her editor son, W. W. Pollock of Hohenwald, about the "peace of Munich," congress and the state legislature.

"Sometimes at night I get restless and can't sleep so well.  Then those times come I get into this rocking chair and knit or quilt," the Robertson descendant declared.  From the top of a venerable chest of drawers Mrs. Pollock withdrew a buckram-bound Bible, its pages musty and one cover missing.  She received the Bible at the death of an aunt, and it had come down from one generation to another, beginning with the first presentation, as inscribed on the fly-lead, "to George W. Napier by his mother, Charlotte Napier on the 13th of August 1842."  Charlotte Napier was the daughter of General James Robertson.  She married R. C. Napier when she was 20 on February 25, 1798, and it was for her that the Dickson County seat of government at Charlotte was named.

The record of births and marriages of General Robertson, his wife, and of three generations of the Napiers from Richard and Charlotte is inscribed in the bible in widely varying handwriting, and the early section  concludes with this entry:  "Gen. James Robertson died on the 1st day of September, 1814."

Mrs. Pollock is related to the "Father of Middle Tennessee" on both her father's and mother's side, but she seldom mentions that relationship unless questioned concerning it.  "People complain a lot about conditions as they are, and sometimes I hear they wonder how we will get along, but I have always felt that we have to live only a day at a time, and that surely we can muster enough courage for that," Mrs. Pollock philosophizes.  "The trouble with a lot of people today is that they look at the world, see it pretty badly tangled, and get frightened when they think of how big the problem is," she continued "but if they would pull their sights in close and start with their own affairs and stick to the job of handling them for awhile, they would discover that the world was getting along pretty well."

Dr. R. W. BOULDIN  

An interview with Dr. Roger Bouldin (October, 2007) is an experience to be cherished.  He is a walking, talking history book.  I always am amazed at his instant and almost total recall of events and dates.  I was one of the original members of the Historical Society in Lewis County, being the one responsible for the first meeting.  I also nominated Dr. Bouldin as the first President, a choice I have never regretted even though I have been inactive for a long time.  His interest in local, regional and world wide history has been an unselfish one, as he has always been eager to discuss history with anyone. (hs) CLICK HERE TO SEE COMPLETE INTERVIEW

 Commodore Loveless started the Hohenwald Bank and was successful in the Phosphate business.  J. A. Goodman store was the largest at the time.  The Post office was next to it.

When the embroidery factory came here from Switzerland the company sent Olga Richen to train the new workers.  She was a very beautiful lady.  She and Mrs. Shott___? lived in a divided house where the fruit stand is now.  The two ladies had totally different personalities.

Schools in the Oak Grove community were Providence, Buffalo Valley and Oak Grove.  There was a railroad stop; and post office at IRAD.  Irad was located on highway 99 (412 now) about one mile this side of the Maury County line.  It was a train stop and post office.

A. P. GROVER  ..In the year 1897 Mr. A. P. Grover, father of W. P. Grover, Sr., built a house on what is now Swan Avenue, the location being about the site of Mrs. J. P. Overbey's home.  He also had a small grocery store.  A Swiss lady who lived at the Paxton place, came in the store and asked him about getting the post office moved from Flat Rock to his store, which at that time was run by a man named J. R. brown.  Mr. Grover set out to get the post office moved, but it took him about two years to do this.

When he was promised that the post office would be placed at his store, he needed a name for the community, and he asked the same Swiss lady what to call the place, and she suggested "Hohenwald" which meant High Forest in German.

On the map this is what is called Old Hohenwald, and was continued as Old Hohenwald until about the year 1895, when the Township of New Switzerland was laid off.  the citizens of New Switzerland attempted in 1896 to get the post office moved from Old Hohenwald into New Switzerland, but could not do so because the two towns were so close together.  So they changed the name from New Switzerland to Hohenwald.

AMBROSE BLACKBURN was born in Ireland in 1750.  A captain in the South Carolina troops, he resided in Greeneville County, south Carolina during the Revolution.  He died in Maury County, Tennessee prior to December 2, 1820, the date on which a widow's provision was set aside for his widow.  He was buried in the family cemetery behind his son's house.  Although the property was at that time in Maury County, it was later taken into Lewis county.  His wife was Frances Jones Halbert, and they were the parents of the following children:  John Porter Blackburn, born April 20, 1786; Alfred Blackburn:; Meredith Blackburn, born 1777, Betsy Blackburn, born 1778; Mary Blackburn, born 1781; Lewis Blackburn, born 1783; Joshia Hackney and James Blackburn, twins, born 1788; and Samuel (or Lemuel), born 1790.  This is the same house now owned by and occupied by John Sharp.

WILLIAM B. AND GEORGIA SUBLETT...On a cold rainy day in 1946 the Sublett family came to Lewis County Tennessee from Limestone County, Alabama.  They were told that "the soil was so poor that the rabbits carried their lunch with them when crossing a field".  This was pretty much the case with the farm that they purchased although no so with much of Lewis county.  They were also told that "if you ever wear out a pair of shoes in Lewis County you will never leave" and that was also the case. Bill Sublett said many times that he would not give his little farm on Summertown Highway for all of Alabama.

This obviously was an exaggeration but he was always satisfied that they had moved here in 46.  The neighbors, Romines, McCartneys and others had killed and swept up the mice in the old house and had a nice warm fire built in the Warm Morning heater for the arrival of their new neighbors and life long friends.  As of this writing, the old but remodeled house is still standing but the new owners plan to tear it down soon.  The Subletts were not some of the earlier, noteworthy residents, but made a mild and positive impact nevertheless.  They were members of the Springer Ridge Church of Christ until their death.

The Sublett's originally came to America in 1690 from Germany, then Holland and then England, settling at Jamestown, VA  to escape persecution.  They were, for the most part, skilled craftsmen. Mother (Georgia) was Lewis County's first public librarian beginning in 1951.  She had a sixth grade education.  When the new library was built, she turned down the position because she felt that due to her limited education would not be able to do a good job as librarian. W. B.(Bill) was a farmer, muck (phosphate) hauler and grocery store owner.  He was featured on the John McDonald early morning radio farm show as the first Lewis Countian to practice soil conservation by building terraces.  The Sublett children are; William, Doris Dorning, Wayne, Kenneth, Harold, June Estes and Carolyn Duncan.

W. B. born, 1/10/1903  died, 8/23/1997           Georgia E. Sublett born, May 2, 1905 died, Feb. 07, 2001  Both were laid to rest in the Mausoleum in Swiss Cemetery.