Just one photo today, mes amis. A cousin just sent me this colorized version of an old tintype photo of my great grandfather, David, along with his third wife (not my great grandmother), his hired hand holding the mules, and the house he built from bricks he made himself. My grandfather helped with that process, as I’m sure some of his brothers must have, also.
I already had a black and white version of this photo, but it was quite the treat to receive this colorized version. The location is on Looney’s Creek in the Sequatchie Valley, Tennessee. David was one of nine brothers, and he was one of maybe two of them who served with the Union Army during the Civil War (or The War Between the States, or The War of Northern Aggression, or The War of the Southern Rebellion, or whatever your preference is). The rest were Confederate soldiers, which I’m sure made for interesting family get-togethers. I believe one of them even rode with Bedford Forrest, for whom Forrest Gump was named.
This photo was taken sometime between 1901, when he married his third wife, Mary, and 1911, the year he died. My grandfather’s first wife also died that very same year, so that was obviously a difficult time for him. He married my grandmother in the fall of the following year, and less than ten years later they moved, along with their three children, to Oklahoma.
The old Tennessee farm
