Sarah Ann “Sallie” Waggoner was born on April 19, 1889, in Lois, Moore County, Tennessee. Her father, Charles Lafayette Waggoner was 59, and her mother, Nancy Elizabeth “Bettie” Walker was 40. Sallie later recorded, “Your grandfather came to see me when I was 2 weeks old. They had called me “Sallie.” He said, ‘We will call her Sarah Ann’.” [I think she meant to record “My grandfather,” speaking of Ishom Jessie Walker. Otherwise, she would be talking about her own father…but why would he be coming to see her, seemingly for the first time, 2 weeks after she had been born, if he lived with and was married to her mother?]

Most of the 1890 US Census records were lost in a fire at the US Commerce Building in 1921, so the earliest record in which Sallie appears is the 1900 US Census. This shows her to be an 11-year-old living in District 4 of Moore County, Tennessee, with her mother Bettie (61), older brother Joseph (13), her maternal grandmother Polly Walker (77), and a 22 year old “servant,” Lonzo G Spencer. [This is Alonzo Guy Spencer – possibly related to Charles Lafayette Waggoner’s first wife, Elizabeth Martha Spencer? He is listed as a “farm laborer”]

Sallie’s father, C L Waggoner, had died in 1897. Her grandfather, Ishom Jessie Walker, died in 1898, the next year. The census states that they own their own farm. This is likely on Tucker’s Creek, where Sallie lived in the 1900s, per a letter to her from a cousin in 1967.

Sallie recorded that, “My grandfather, IJ Walker, died suddenly with a heart attack. Grandmother came to live with us. My mother not able to take care of her alone she fell and broke her hip. Joe kept in school regular, but I spent a lot of time at home to help is the reason I don’t have much education. Sallie W Smith” [It isn’t clear whether it was her mother Bettie or her grandmother Polly who had broken their hip. But Polly lived on until 1914, and Bettie lived until 1926, so whichever it was, it doesn’t seem to have slowed them down!]

Sallie married Erasmus Nathan Smith in 1907, when she was 18 and he 22. Nathan had a son, James Thomas Smith (1904 – aka Jared) from a previous marriage to Annie Laura Jared. Laura died 3 months after Jared was born, from unknown reasons. Sallie and Nathan had one son together, Charles Wilson Smith (1909) [where did “Wilson” come from?”]

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The 1910 Census shows Sallie and Nathan living next door to her mother Bettie (where her brother Joe and his first wife Buelah Mae lived) with her stepson Jared (6) their son Charlie, still in Civil District 4 of Moore County, TN. Nathan tragically drowned while fishing in the Elk River in 1911.

In 1915, Sallie, now 26, married Nathan’s 24-year-old younger brother, John Edgar “Bull” Smith. Over the ensuing 20 years, they had nine additional children together.

The 1920 Census shows the family having moved to District 4 of Lincoln County. By now, they had 2 additional daughters –Gladys Christine (1916) and Hulda Elizabeth (1918). The census reflects that that John, Sallie, Charlie, Gladys and Hulda are living together. Jared is not shown living with them, and may have moved to Chattanooga by this time. John is listed as working as a Merchant in general merchandise. Estelle will be born this year (1920), with Susie Ruth (1922) to follow. Heartache follows joy with the birth of Johnnie Jewel in 1924, who dies just before her first birthday at Christmastime in 1925, due to an intestinal blockage. Almost 1 year-to-the-day later, Sallie’s mother, Bettie Walker Waggoner passes away. After 5 daughters in a row, John and Sallie have a son, Douglas in 1927.

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The 1930 census shows that the family has again moved (or there has been re-districting), and is living on Mulberry Street, in district 5 of Lincoln County. John Paul Smith (1935), the youngest Smith sibling, left us a wonderful 18-page typed Memoir of his life growing up in Mulberry. This is likely the house that he mentions in his memoirs – a small five room home, “on the corner,” just off the center of town in Mulberry. He notes that they were 100 yards from the churches, schools, and dry goods stores of Mulberry. He mentions that, with heavy rains, the creek would flood, and children that couldn’t get across it to get home after school would stay at their small home, where Sallie would feed them and give them a place to sleep for the night. Parents of the children would re-pay Sallie with food during these sparse Great Depression times, and knew that their children were safe with her, even when they had no telephonic or other communication.

Joe Waggoner (1930) was born, and, on the 1930 Census, both parents are in the house, along with Charlie, (who is working as a salesman in a dry goods store), Gladys, Hulda, Estelle, Ruth, Doug, and Joe. John Edgar is recorded as working as a “livestock trader (“Bull” Smith). John Paul records that John Edgar and his brother, Haskell Columbus Smith opened a small country grocery store during the depression years. Although the business ultimately failed, he mentions that people, later in life, credited his father and uncle with helping them get through the Great Depression years by giving them food on credit, which they likely knew they would never likely get payment for. By now, Jared has married Ena Mahlan Pitts, and they will have the family’s first grandchild this year, Evelyn Theresa Smith, in Chattanooga… Sallie becomes “Granny Smith.“

Barbara Ann is born in 1932, followed by John Paul in 1935… the family now finally complete! At some point around this time the family owned a milk-cow, which they named “EdwardAlbertChristianGeorgeAndrewPatrickDavid.” John Paul wrote that the idea for the name was Estelle’s, and, although he couldn’t recall for certain, surmises that there must have been 7 children at home when they got the cow, so each got to pick a name to string into the final product [NB- This was actually the name of Edward VIII, King of England Form Jan to Dec 1936, when he abdicated the throne to his younger brother, George VI. So it was likely something that Estelle took from the newspaper].

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The 1940 Census shows that the family is still in Lincoln County Civil District 5, and records that they are in the same house that they were living in in 1935, which would likely be the house described above. [Things are a bit murky here – John Paul writes that he was born in 1935 in the “Norman House,” and says that they moved to the “house-on-the-corner” soon after his birth. But the 1940 census queried residents whether the occupants of a house were living in the same place since 1935, and the Smith’s responded, “yes.”] At this point, Ruth (17) is a junior in high school, Doug (12) is in 7th grade, Joe (10), 5th grade, Barbara (7) 2nd grade, John Paul is 5 and not yet in school. The Census lists that Sallie had an 8th grade education, while her husband John had only attained a 5th grade education, and was working as a truck driver for a road building company. John Paul writes that he doesn’t remember the family ever owning a vehicle, and that his father in fact drove a truck for someone else, often hauling livestock. He also worked at the tobacco warehouse in Fayetteville during tobacco season, and for a while, away from home, in Smyrna, Tennessee, as a night watchman. Times were tough, and he took employment when and where he could find it.

Jared and Ena were living in Detroit, Michigan, with daughter Evelyn (10). Charlie had married Alice Reeve in 1937, and their 2 daughters Margaret Anne “Peggy” and Nancy were born in 1940 and 42 respectively. He was attending the Chattanooga School of Law, and graduated in 1941. Gladys married Frank Cummings also in 1937, and they had their first daughter, Sandra Faye in 1942. They were living in Chattanooga, where Frank worked for the TVA as a lineman, and Gladys was a stenographer for an accounting firm. Hulda graduated from the Baroness Erlanger School of Nursing in 1940, and was also living in Chattanooga and working as a nurse. She married Henry Charles Carbine in February, 1942, and they had daughter Charlotte Oline that October. Estelle was in nursing school at Erlanger in Chattanooga, to graduate in 1941. With the start of WWII, she decided to join the Army as a nurse in February of 1942, and was initially stationed at Ft McClellan, Alabama. Ruth would finish high school, and go on to Erlanger as the 3rd sister to become a nurse (1944).

In 1941, John Edgar began to get sick, becoming completely bed-ridden in early 1943. He was suffering with kidney disease, although it is unclear whether he or any of the family knew what was making him sick. John Paul wrote in his Memoir that he later learned of his father’s problem with alcohol. Both John Paul and a cousin reflect in their writings that he was also quite overweight. These issues easily put him at risk for secondary illnesses like diabetes and hypertension, which can result in other issues, such as cirrhosis and renal failure. John Paul also recorded that he had trouble breathing towards the end (also a symptom of end stage renal failure), and that he needed a small electric fan blowing on him so he could breathe. It was the middle of WWII, and about this time Henry Carbine was drafted and sent to the Pacific to fight in WWII. So, in 1943, Hulda left her job as a nurse in Chattanooga and brought Charlotte to Mulberry to help her mother care for her father.

As nurses, Hulda and Estelle certainly sensed the gravity of his poor health and what was likely imminent. Estelle was granted leave from the Army to come visit. John Paul writes about how proud he was when Estelle arrived, getting off the bus in uniform! He recalls that she couldn’t stay long, and how he so wanted to leave and go back to Alabama with her. Estelle convinced her mother, Sallie, to allow her to file for Legal Guardianship of her and the 4 younger children. Before she left to return to Alabama, her sick father asked to speak to her in private. Both John Paul and Sallie suspected it had to do with asking Estelle to carry the family through his death, and get the remaining kids through high school.

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The family did not have financial means to hospitalize John Edgar, and he died on November 3, 1943, at home, after his year-long protracted illness. John Paul recalled waking up that morning, to find Barbara standing by his bed, saying she would tell him something if he promised not to cry. She then told him that their father had died during the night. He remembers that his father’s bed had already been moved out, and how empty his room felt. John Edgar was buried in Mulberry Cemetery.

Within 3 weeks of John’s death, the small five room home that they had rented for years in Mulberry was sold out beneath them, and they had to immediately move out [Their landlord was certainly mindful of their poor financial status. John Edgar hadn’t worked for at least a year during his illness, and it is unknown whether they were able to pay their rent during this time. But things weren’t going to improve with John Edgar’s death, and their landlord was certainly aware of this]. A recently widowed mother for the second time, 4 school-aged children still at home, with no direct source of income and winter approaching… Sallie Ann Waggoner’s will had been tested greater than most by this point in her life, but certainly this was one of her most difficult times. Learning of their plight, Sallie’s nephew, Edgar Hazelwood, offered them rent-free use of an abandoned 3-room house on his farm on Crystal Ridge, 4 miles north of and out of town. Sallie found someone with a truck who would help them move their meager belongings that very day, and they moved.

John Paul records this very hard time in their lives in his Memoir. It was a 3-room house, heated by a single wood stove, no electricity, no running water, and lit by coal oil lamps. Hulda stayed on with them for a while in this house, so it was 7 of them – Sallie, Hulda and Charlotte (baby), Doug, Joe, Barbara and John Paul – cramped into this primitive abode. 4 miles from town, the children rode a bus to a bus stop, from which they still had a 2 mile walk to get to the school. John Paul writes that he actually liked going to school during this time, because the house that they lived in was remote from other people….this was the only time they had to see and play with friends! He also recalls the joy the family got, cutting down a Christmas Tree on the farm for their house that 1943 Christmas and decorating it.!

During this time, the older children were busy trying to pool their resources and help their mother and younger siblings, and keep Ruth in nursing school. In late 1944, they were able to purchase the Cecil Johnson house-on-the-hill, in Mulberry (the only house that most of the grandchildren ever knew, and associated with Granny Smith). Wilber Cecil Johnson was the assistant Postmaster who lived in the house with his wife. It isn’t clear why he sold it to them, and he and his wife lived on in Mulberry until her death in 1966 and his in 1976. The house was valued at $1000.00 on the 1940 US Census. John Paul writes how excited they were to move. It had electricity, running water, and a telephone!! Their phone number was “25.” They got their first radio, and listened all of the popular Radio shows of the day – Green Hornet, Mr. District Attorney, The Screeching Door, and Jack Benny, to name some of the ones John Paul mentions.

Charlie and Alice had a 3rd child, Charles Wilson, Jr (1946). All too soon, tragedy struck again when, in 1947, Evelyn Theresa Smith, Granny Smith’s first grandchild, drowned in the Detroit River just days before her 18th birthday and her high school graduation. It took a week before searchers recovered her body (and the two others that drowned with her), and she was brought home to be buried in Mulberry Cemetery.

The family continued to grow – Ruth married William Hunter Alvey on 28 September 1947 and had two children – Sue Evelyn (1949) and William Hunter, Jr (1952). Gladys and Frank had another daughter, Patricia Estelle (1955). Doug graduated from high school in 1944, and was drafted into the Army. He had a daughter, Viki Smith, with Dorothy Jean Childress in 1954. He subsequently married Audrey Crye and had two other children, Barbara Catherine (1956) and David Douglas (1957). Joe finished high school and joined the Air Force in July 1948. He married his sister Barbara’s nursing school roommate Bertha Rollings, and they had two children – Elizabeth Anne (1958) and Richard Frank (1959). Barbara graduated from Fayetteville’s Central High School in 1950. Following in the footsteps of her 3 older sisters, she went to Erlanger, and graduated with her nursing degree in 1953. She married James Lundin Rungee in 1956, and had 3 children – James Lundin, Jr (1957), Julie Joyce (1959), and Teresa Anne (1960). John Paul graduated from Central High School in 1953, and, after working a couple of jobs in Chattanooga living with his brother Doug, joined the Air Force on January 4, 1954. He married Emily Jane Petras on 15 Dec, 1956, and they had 4 children – Deborah Susan (1957), Cynthia Dawn (1961), Paula Jane (1967) and John Michael (1961).

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Our Granny Smith would live until 1981. She became known as “Miss Sallie” by neighbors and acquaintances in her later years. Despite unimaginable hardships, she got all of her children through high school, and most through higher education, and on to productive lives. 4 of her daughters (Hulda, Estelle, Ruth and Barbara) completed nursing school at Baroness Erlanger School of Nursing in Chattanooga, and went on to practice their skill. Charlie completed Law School and became a practicing attorney. Doug, Joe, John Paul and Estelle all had successful military careers, 3 of them retiring from service. But she would also have to endure more heartache – the death of 4 of her children – Doug (1961), Charlie (1966), Joe (1977), and Hulda (1980), as well as that of another grandchild, Charles Wilson, Jr. (1980), before her own passing.

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Sallie Ann Waggoner died on April 25, 1981, in Mulberry, Tennessee, at the age of 92, and was buried in Mulberry Cemetery next to her husband, John Edgar Smith. If she was ever aware of how unfairly tough her life had been, she never revealed it in her manner. She was a loving daughter, wife, mother, grand- and great-grandmother. She cherished the life she lived, loved her family, and clearly had a rock-solid foundation in her Faith. All of the living descendants who knew her have nothing but the fondest of memories of her and the times we were able to spend with her and the family she created in Mulberry, Tennessee.