The Tipton Family Memories in Townsend Tennessee
By my dad, William Emert Tipton
William (Bill) E. Tipton
I was born in 1924; my parents were Clyde Hampton Tipton and Flossy Emert Tipton. I was one of six children, 3 boys and 3 girls. We grew up on the Old Cades Cove Road, which is now called Lawson Road. I share these memories so others might have some idea what the Townsend Tennessee area was like in my younger years, also the nature of family life as I remember it.
I can still remember farmers driving their cattle and livestock by our house in the springtime to take them through Cades Cove to the Spence Field in what is now the Great Smokey Mountains National Park (GSMNP). The farmers would return with them in the fall. On one occasion my brother and I who at the time we were about 5 or 6 years old, caught a donkey that had strayed and gotten lost. We shut it up in our barn, which was the remains of an old grist mill. We were going to keep it we thought. My dad released the donkey that night to the owner I presume, and we were very upset because he did.
Old Cades Cove Road (now called Lawson Road) at that time was traveled only by horses, wagons or buggies. No automobiles went past our house near Short Creek. There was a foot log to walk across on, everything else went through the creek. My dad later had a car called a “Whippit”. I don’t know whether the car he bought for $25.00 was named a “Whippit” or if that was a nickname he gave it because I recall him saying in a joking manner he had to “whip it” to get it to run!
Another memory I have in my youth is going to the residence of Wade Gorley, who lived at the present location of my son’s house and office of Tipton’s Cabin Rentals to listen to the “Grand Ole Opry” on Saturday nights. The neighbors gathered there since there was no electricity and Wade owned a battery-powered radio. Their residence was my father’s birthplace, a large two-story frame house that later burned.
I can remember like yesterday my family picking blackberries on my great uncle Jake Tipton’s place, which is now called Laurel Valley. At that time he owned 2,000 acres and there were only two houses on it. I once was hunting there with Ray Lawson, (Will Lawson’s son) a neighbor of mine and came upon a Moonshine Still, where a fellow named “Slick” Able was making whiskey. He had it very well hidden and very close to the spring that feeds Tipton Branch. 
We knew him and talked with him for a while and promised not to tell anyone about his operation, and then we went on our way. As for Moonshining, the Tipton’s and Emert’s were never involved in it that I knew of. However, several families in Townsend did make Moonshine, It was quit common at that time. I also knew a fellow by the name of “Fonz Cable” (former resident of Cades Cove) he made whiskey at a spring on what was called the Hotel Mountain. At present time it is called Mt. Luke. I knew several others that made moonshine. Some people made it to drink themselves as some made it to sell.
My father worked at the Little River Lumber Company. He walked 2 miles to work and 2 miles back every day. He was paid 15 cents an hour in company money called “Doogaloo” by the workers. The only place it could be used was at the Company Store. The store was located near the Little River behind the Little River Railroad Exhibit of present time.
I would occasionally walk to the store at lunch hour from Townsend school, across the football field, (located about where the Best Western Motel is now) around the millpond where the logs were held, to the store. My dad worked on a conveyor where the logs came into the mill from the pond to be sawed. I could see him as I went around the pond from a distance. The timber for the mill was brought in by train from what is now the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Dad’s job was to take the rocks out of the logs that my have gotten there by dragging.
Dad taught my older brother and me how to trap muskrats to get additional money. In winter we could make as much money as dad made at the mill by trapping in Short Creek. Muskrats were plentiful in the creek at that time which was lined with cornfields. Muskrats sold for $2.00-$3.00 then. Dad also bought other furs from people, graded them and shipped them to Mossier Fur Company in Missouri. In spite of dad’s low income and my mother staying at home to raise a family, we never went hungry during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Dad raised one hog for every member of the family. It was my job to feed the hogs. We also had a milk cow and my older brother’s job was to do the milking. All of the children picked blackberries in the summer and mom canned about 100 half-gallon jars each year for winter use. The cellar was filled with canned goods from the garden in the summer. We also grew watermelons in the summer and dad sold them for 1-½ cents per pound. Take in account this is always to get extra money for the family. We also raised chickens. The eggs were used for food and also exchanged for coffee, flour, and sugar at a small store that was located on what is now Old Tuckaleechee road.
The Tipton Place on Loop Road
Just for the record, my Grandfather was William Brownlow (Buck) Tipton who was the son of Col. Jonathan Wade Hampton Tipton. My father Clyde Hampton Tipton was named after Col. Hampton. Jonathan Wade lived and built a house that is located on the Cades Cove Loop Road (The Tipton Place). He is buried just behind the Townsend Visitors Center in the Myers Cemetery.
When the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was created I went to Newfound Gap where President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a speech. We didn’t have a car and my uncle Stanley Bird took us in his Studebaker. My dad was a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and was fired from the Lumber mill because he campaigned for him in his first election against Hoover. D.H.Tipton (Doc) who married into the W.B. Townsend family (for whom Townsend was named) was a republican boss and fired my father. I was told later that my father went and told W.B. thanks for the favor, that it was the best thing to ever happen to him. Because my father was forced to look for a job and later got on at Alcoa Aluminum Co.
I enjoyed baseball at a young age and started playing at the age of 14 years with a Townsend men’s team. We played other teams in Blount County. Each town had a team and we played or practiced once a week in the summer with the Tremont or Cades Cove CCC Camps (Civilian Conservation Corp.) When we played the Cades Cove CCC’s in the Cove we traveled the narrow Rich Mountain Road, which was then used both going and coming out of Cades Cove. Luckily we never had an accident when we met big CCC army type truck.
Park Dedication
We also used to play all along the railroad and the swinging bridge along with swimming and fishing in Little River. Our favorite place was from the Emert Bluff up the river past where the Apple Valley Farms is now located. We would cut pine poles to use for fishing. We fished at the Emert Bluff for catfish. The minnows were seined for bait came out of Short Creek. We used Chubs and silver sides, which are no longer in existence in the creek. The pine poles were rigged with a trotline and set in a crevice on the east side of the Emert bluff, where we caught most of the catfish at night. By the way, the Bluff was named after my Grandfather Fredrick Emert. I have commented mostly on summer activities. Winter outdoor activities were a different story. We hunted, along with trapping as I mentioned before. Sleigh riding was a big thing on homesteads in places now used for cabin rentals, roads, or businesses. All the area was open to these activities-no limitations. Can you imagine such an open space to hunt and roam as much as you wanted to!
My home place on Lawson Rd.
I have seen many changes in the landscape of the Townsend Tennessee area and the lives of families since those days in my lifetime when people were self-sufficient. The fields were full of corn and the pastures were green. The mountains and hills were wooded with no roads or houses on them. Little River Lumber Yard was stacked high and wide in rows with railroad tracks between them where Hwy. 321 and other business buildings now stand. I can see these changes when I drive through the Townsend area and thinking back to the time of yesteryear. It is still very special to me and still is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I can only hope the people that read this and visit the area and hopefully stay at Tipton’s Cabin Rentals and can visualize Townsend Tennessee and the history of this special place as it was in the 1930’s.
Sincerely,
William Emert Tipton