[Granville-Hough] 8 Aug 2009 - To the Railroad

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:21:27 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: ToRailroad - 8 Aug 2009

Richardson, Sullivan, Hough Move to the Railroad.

Recollections of Granville Hough are that every single one of the 
thirteen surviving children of Hence and Toodie Sullivan established his 
or her own family. Four of the sons were ministers of the Baptist 
church. When Elisha Hough heard that Jim Sullivan was joining the 
ministry, after a questionable youth, he considered it his Baptist duty 
to tell Jim he was the least qualified person he had ever known to even 
think of becoming a minister. To which Jim replied: ôCousin Lish, you 
forget one thing, there is damn good money in the ministry.ö Such an 
astonishing reply left Lisha speechless.
The thirteen Richardson children also established families though one 
had no children. The seven Hough sons established families.

Moving to the Railroad. When Henderson and Toodie Sullivan established a 
household, they soon settled in Smith County in the Salem Baptist Church 
Community of Upper Cohay. They were there with other Sullivans, and with 
Arenders, Richardsons, Baldwins, Bowens, Houghs, etc. They had their own 
school with its teacher, who took turns staying with each family. After 
Jim and Mary Richardson homesteaded some land, they moved the 
homesteading log cabin from its site to a place in the middle of the 
community where it could become the school. They rolled it on logs with 
ox teams. In this log cabin on log seats, the children learned their 
ôletters.ö
The Sullivans soon heard from their cousins about the branch railroad 
that was being built from Laurel to Saratoga, and that the timber was to 
be cut first along that railroad. This would open up the land for 
farming, and the railroad could bring in fertilizer and other goods 
which they had trouble getting. They discussed this for years, wondering 
how to get money together to buy some farm land near the railroad. This 
was the reason Jim and Mary Richardson were homesteading land. They 
could then sell it for the timber and get the capital for buying land 
near the railroad. It was a hard go, but it could be done.
The final factor was the schools. The Oak Hill School of the Concord 
Baptist Church community was a good one, with good teachers and with 
support from the community. The possibilities of the one-room, 
one-teacher school in Salem were being exhausted; and the young people 
were beginning to hear about high schools and colleges.
Jim and Mary Richardson were among the first to make the move. Then 
Hence and Toodie Sullivan was able to buy land next to them, and they, 
too, made the move. Then a few years later, Elisha and Lizzie Hough made 
the move and bought land nearby. So three families, all deacons of the 
Salem Baptist Church, moved to Concord Community, where they were 
promptly installed as deacons in that church. Elisha Hough, who had been 
Treasurer of the Salem Church, became Treasurer of the Concord Church. 
So far as I know, their descendants still own the land they bought for 
this move. They have been neighbors for 100 years in the Concord 
Community, and they had been neighbors before for nearly 20 years on 
Upper Cohay. Elisha Hough and Toodie (Cole) Sullivan were second 
cousins, not much kin, but enough to be aware of their common heritage. 
Elisha was also son-in-law to Jim and Mary Richardson.
Other folks also left Salem, some for Saratoga, some for Magee, and some 
for Mize. Some joined the Cohay Lumber Camp, which was established in 
the old Salem Community. The church died out for a few years; but after 
the Cohay Lumber Camp was gone, El Sullivan, then a Baptist minister, 
one of the four from Hence and Toodie, led a movement to reestablish the 
old church. I, Granville Hough, recall a visit about 1939 when he came 
by to report to Jim Richardson and Lizzie Hough how things were going at 
Old Salem. Apparently, his missionary work was successful, and the 
church exists today.
When the families got to their new locations, some of the tracts they 
bought were still covered with longleaf pine timber. It had already been 
sold, and the lumber companies gradually cut the standing timber and 
moved it on oxen-drawn wagons to the railroad. Coley Richardson was just 
a little boy, but his ambition was to become an oxen-driver so he could 
move the huge logs to the railroad. After the timber was removed, the 
land could be put into cultivation. This was a laborious process because 
of the many stumps; however, it was the opportunity to get productive 
fields.