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MY MEMORIES OF TENNESSEE by Emily Goemans
A group of men (promoters) bought up quite a lot of land in Tennessee, and then put ads in the German papers all over the country, promising all sorts of "good things" and cheap land. A lot of the Swiss people wanting to get together with others of that nationality answered the ads. They sold their all, in all parts of the country and bought land there. My folks left Ohio in 1896. They sold their home in Massilon, Ohio, and they went to Tennessee. They managed to rent a house near the land they had bought, and lived there until they could clear some land and build a house. The first winter was pretty hard, in fact, the first years were rough. The
first child born there to the Swiss was Lewis Tennessee
Muhlentaler. He was born in a leaky boxcar, and they had to
hold umbrellas over the mother and child at his birth. The
county was named Lewis, after the early explorer Meriwether Lewis who
explored the Louisiana Territory together with William Clark.
he was killed just seven miles east of Hohenwald in the early 1800's.
and there they would have their picnics, plays, band concerts, etc. and
also dances and parties.The people really had hard times
though. At first, they tried raising tobacco and that didn't
do so well. The land was very poor for the most
part. Later they tried fruit, strawberries, peaches, and
cantaloupes. The crops in Tennessee were so much behind those
of the other states farther south that by the time they got theirs to
market, the market was glutted and they received poor pay.
Many of the folks became so discouraged that they mov
Orchestra composed of Swiss settlers
When the Kappeler family moved down there, they at first lived on a farm out east of town. The farm belonged to the doctor there called Grievelle. He was also Swiss. The land was quite hilly and so a lot of it was planted in grapes and a lot of wine was made. That brought in some cash, but later the state of Tennessee went dry so no sale for that either.
Four of the early settlers at the wine barrel. (L to R) -Waeger, N. Wenger, J. Marbet, P. Schild
The Kappeler's farm was the gathering place for all the young people, and I have heard my sisters tell of the good times they had there. I remember one time Jake Jr. because he was small had to crawl into the wine barrels to clean them out. They reeked so of alcohol that he got really drunk, or overcome by the fumes. The bigger ones laughed, but it really wasn't funny. It could have been serious. More and more businesses were started by other people besides the Swiss, and the town grew, and became the county seat of Lewis County. A court house was erected. After the southern people came in, they built a better school, part free school and part pay. Because the Swiss kept their language at home, it was hard for the children to learn English when they had no Swiss people teaching, so some of the Swiss on the east side of town asked my father if he wouldn't teach if they would build a school house for their children. He went to the authorities and finally there was a school built, and my father who had a teacher's education taught there for six years. He didn't get much pay and we only had from October to March term of school, but it helped and was closer for most than if they'd had to go to town. The Swiss put up an embroidery factory, and a man came down from New York to run it. It gave employment to quite a few people. At first they made only eagle insignias for the navy, and later also other embroidery on flannel and muslin. The Church had built a parsonage and they had one come over from Nashville but it wasn't often enough--the people wanted more than just Sunday school, which was every Sunday. So they asked my father to give talks to them. He did that for sometime, and the conference finally gave him a license to preach which also allowed him to bury the dead when necessary. Later, he was ordained as a minister and we moved to town into the parsonage. He still taught school though, as the wage for teaching was $35 a month, and for preaching not much either. I used to trudge along behind him even when we lived in town, to go to school because I knew all the kids out there in the country. In the early days, there were many snakes in Tennessee; rattlers, copperheads, and other poisonous ones. One day Mother saw a big rattler in the barnyard. The dog barked at it and it crawled into the barn. She knew they'd have to get it, so she called for help and then they looked for it. The snake had crawled under a box and when mother lifted the box with the hoe, the snake struck and hit the dog. Luck for mother the dog was in front of her, or she'd have gotten it. The dog died. My brother Ted was hit by a rattler while plowing corn, just above the ankle, but the doctor said he would pull through thanks to dad who cut the wound with his knife and sucked the poison out. He couldn't walk on that foot though for awhile. The cows, pigs and everything ran loose. One time when Ted, Mary, and Frieda and Emma Haueter were going to church in the spring wagon with one of our mules hitched to it (dad, mother and I had gone in the buggy), they drove over a wooden culvert and there were pigs under it. The pigs rushed out as the spring wagon went over them on the culvert with a loud noise which scared the mule. He jumped sideways and dumped all the girls into the wet sand. It had rained the night before, and were they a sight in their white dresses. The mule broke loose, so they had to walk to town, but couldn't come inside the church all be-muddled. We always had nice Sunday school picnics. They would put up swings on a high tree, and Jake Kappeler (jr) would always tease the girls. He would want to swing us, and we'd consent if he wouldn't swing us high. He would say he wouldn't but that would be the first thing he would do and then he would run away and laugh. He went to school in our school before they moved out on their own place west of town. One time when it rained real hard, and washed out foot log away over the ditch that usually was dry, he carried me across.. Our Christmas was always nice. There was always a nice big pine tree in the church. Each child got a big sack of candy, nuts, orange and apple. Also a pair of stockings and perhaps a handkerchief. It was always on Christmas eve. One night we walked home the three miles. Dad walked ahead with the lantern, and Mary and me behind. Ted usually was behind. That night I had a rotten orange in my sack, and it soaked the sack and finally everything fell out. I cried because the orange was rotten. She said I'll give you some of mine. When we got home, the table had a white cloth on it, and our candy and nuts and gifts were at our places. Anne and Minnie and Will always sent a big box from Illinois after they went there to work (my brothers and sister), but it didn't always get there for Christmas, as it came by express or freight in those days. When I was six years old, I got a lovely doll from them. I still have it and when I was eight I got a teddy bear. That was when teddy bears were first made, because Teddy Roosevelt had gone on a hunting trip and when a small cub wandered into camp, he refused to shoot it. I was so proud of it, I had to take it to church. Ida Haueter was older than I, but her sisters sent her one too, but she hadn't gotten hers for Christmas, her box hadn't come yet from Milwaukee. I haven mentioned anything about the beauties of the countryside. In the spring the woods were so lovely, dogwoods bloomed profusely, also honeysuckles, the unplowed hillsides blue with large violets. They were a pretty blue and large not like our small violets in Nebraska. Then later on there would be more wild flowers; the lovely passion flower that crept along the ground with large purple flowers, and others that I don't know the names of. In early summer until fall all sorts of fruit grew wild; blackberries, dew berries, huckleberries, muscatine's, a sort of grape, also wild grapes in profusion, gooseberries, and in some places wild strawberries. Then later on the nuts could be gotten for the picking, hickory, black walnuts, hazel nuts, and butter nuts, also peanuts grew in our gardens if we planted them. We called those "goober peas." Quite a few industries sprang up in later years. A man from Detroit came and started a spoke factory. They made spokes for wagons. The wood had to be cut in square pieces, so there were quite a few saw mills that were situated around different places. They hauled the lumber past our place to town by team and wagon. Also for a time they stripped the bark off of certain trees to be used for tanning leather. There was also a canning factory started which gave employment., but it only run for the summer at first.
This canning factory later became Roney canning factory. They bought local produce, peas mostly and were canned under various names as "Old Black Joe", "R-KEE" and others. The factory provided work for a large number as well as helping the farmers who grew the produce. The factory was in the Blondy community but burned and was never rebuilt. The town grew and prospered. When I was ten years old we moved away from there, and went to New Middletown, Indiana. My father had three congregations there. One in the town one Sunday and the other two in the country on the next Sunday. some of the family remedies of those days and nearly everyone kept them in the house, were Fahrney's Alpen Krauter and Fahrney's Heil Oel (a liniment), and also Hoffmans drops or Anodyne. Also one used camonile tea for somethings (it grew wild) , and Kesselkraut, also a weed of which one brewed a tea and soaked whatever was infected in it. Mary had a blister on her toe once and it became infected. Mother fixed a brew of Kesselkraut and bathed her foot in it and cured it. I stepped on a nail and mother tied bacon rind on my foot for days and I got over it. There was a man named Schwendiman who came from Detroit and was a good musician. He organized a band, directed the church singing, and also organized a men's choral group. the latter was very nice, and the men were all good singers. Mr. Kappeler and Mr. Roth were the leaders, and the latter was first tenor, I believe. They sang at funerals, in church, and for entertainment at the hall.
. Brass band, "Echo of Switzerland" led by Schwendimann and the Singing Society led by Roth.
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away again, but those that stayed made a living as best they could.
