THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
The 'Antique'
New Home
The invitation to join the Bill
Duckworth
family on Sunday afternoon,
In my second column for this
paper dated
The house was built by early
settler John
Souther for his second child and first son, John Combs Hayes Souther
who
planned to marry Nancy Collins, daughter of Thompson and Celia Self
Collins, a
family that settled in the area prior to Union County’s forming in
1832. The
young couple married
My sister, Louise Dyer who lives
in
Commerce, and I went together to the open house sponsored by Bill and
Carolyn
Duckworth at their “antique” new home. Cars in abundance were parked
along
As I walked into the “parlor”
(Grandma’s
room) with the fireplace and window beside it facing toward
Host Bill Duckworth proudly
showed us
original logs which now form the interior walls of the “old” part of
the house.
Many of the original boards for the beamed ceilings are still a part of
the
“old/new” house. Then he led us up the steps I remember so well to the
attic.
How dark and foreboding that area of the house seemed as I was a child.
Now
they have formed two delightful bedrooms and a bath in the old attic
room, with
plenty of illumination from overhead skylights. Antique beds lined the
north
wall of the first room—dormitory style—“for our grandchildren and their
friends,” Bill explained.
The old chimneys have been
preserved at
each end of the old log cabin. Now the room that was once my Uncle
Hedden
Dyer’s “family room” is the Duckworth kitchen, with an abundance of
antique
furniture that helps to preserve the period look of that room.
The old kitchen which was an
ell-addition
on the side of the spring house was the first part of the old house to
crumble.
It fell in and deteriorated several years ago. Where the kitchen and
dining
room once stood—places where so many meals for extended family were
cooked and
served over many years—is now the new two-story addition containing a
comfortable great room and stairs leading to a bedroom suite above.
When I saw the fireplaces and
viewed the
fieldstone rocks so carefully placed to make the rebuilt chimneys look
old, I
remembered the great “chimney fires” that scared the children so badly
winter
nights long ago when we went to visit at Grandma’s house. Due to the
roaring
fire the soot would catch fire in the chimney. I remember the bucket
brigades
from the springhouse to get enough water to douse the chimney fires.
These
occurrences often left this overly-imaginative child almost afraid to
fall
asleep for fear the house would burn down around us.
Over the years the virgin timber
from the
Souther lands has been harvested and great logs are no longer readily
available
such as John Souther and his son John Combs Hayes “snaked” out from the
forests, hewed and used to build the old house. The sawmill operated by
John’s
brother Jesse William Jr. at the Souther Mill that sawed logs into
lumber to
form flooring and ceiling has long since closed down. But Bill
Duckworth has
saved enough of it to show the good workmanship and the durable
materials used
in 1850-51 to build the old house.
The old Tower Post Office was in
a room to
the left of the front entrance. In that small room Sarah Evaline
Souther Dyer
was postmistress from 1907 through 1909 when Tower was discontinued. On
the
other end of the front porch Bill Duckworth has added a sunroom which
makes a
delightful family dining room and gathering place. The porch on the
back is
still L-shaped, but half is now open and the rebuilt portion enclosed.
Looking
down to the old spring at the foot of Cook Mountain, I recalled playing
there
with cousins in childhood days and fetching pitchers of cold milk from
the
springhouse where it was stored to keep cool.
Personally, I greatly appreciate
the house
being saved. Thanks to Bill and Carolyn Duckworth who graciously opened
their
“antique new house” for kin of the first owners and the public in
general to
enjoy.
It is almost as if the house has
gone “full
circle.” The present owner, William Henry Duckworth Jr., “Bill” is a
son of
former Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, the Honorable
William Henry
Duckworth Sr. Judge Duckworth was the third child of John Francis
“Jack”
Duckworth and Laura Jane Noblet Duckworth who lived near
Note that Collins tie. Celia
Emiline, wife
of General Jackson Duckworth, was a daughter of Archibald and Mary Nix
Collins
and a granddaughter of Thompson and Celia Self Collins. Remember the
wife of
John Combs Hayes “Jack” Souther, first resident of the “old” house? She
was
Nancy Collins, daughter of Thompson and Celia Self Collins, and a
brother to
Archibald Collins, Celia Emiline Collins Duckworth’s father.
I think Nancy Collins Souther
would smile
to know that portions of her old house are preserved for her great,
great,
great nephew and his family to enjoy and to share with other relatives
to keep
alive wonderful memories of family connections.
Congratulations and many thanks
for your
“antique new home,” Bill and Carolyn Duckworth, and for all the
recollections
it conveys.
c2005 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Aug. 4, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated August 7,
2009
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