My family had the pleasure of visiting this farm in the summers during the 60’s and 70’s. We would take a two-week vacation from our home in Michigan. My parents met Casto Herd, but he passed away in 1957 on one of their visits. The viewing was held in the living room of the farmhouse. My dad was a cousin to Casto. I was born in 1958 and my sister in 1960. When we visited in the 60’s only Johnnie lived in the home and later in the 70’s her sister Minnie Elrod Sadler would often stay over during the day. Minnie lived in a mobile home nearby.
My sister and I loved visiting this farm. This is a recollection from my perspective as a visiting child and teenager. The main floor of the house had a large living room with a couch, chair, and black and white TV. There was a sitting area off to the side with a couch and piano. Then there was a dining room with a large table and buffet. To the left of the dining room was a staircase to the upstairs. Back on the main level there was a bathroom and two good-sized bedrooms. Upstairs there were two or three bedrooms with one used for quilting. The back of the house was the kitchen and another back porch area with a kitchen table and freezer. Wood floors were throughout the house except for the kitchen.
My sister and I, and my mom and dad stayed in the two bedrooms on the main level. Our room had beautiful, flowered wallpaper and a poster bed. My parents’ room had fancier wallpaper with gold in it and a large wooden bed frame with tall posts.
Every morning the rooster would crow outside our bedroom window. Outside the window we could see a pretty tree with white flowers. When we got up Johnnie was already up doing her daily farm chores. Outside the back porch was a chicken coop and she would collect the eggs. The chickens ran freely outside and there were different kinds and colors.
There was a barbed wire fence that divided the house, yard, and chicken coop from the cow pasture. There were three stairs like a ladder that went to a platform at the top of the fence and then another three stairs down on the other side. Johnnie would go over and down to the barn and milk the cows. When we were young, we were not allowed over the fence without an adult, and we would sit on the fence platform and wait for Johnnie while she milked the cows. Sometimes we got to go over if my mom or dad went with us. When we were older, we just went over the fence ourselves. There were also pigs on the farm. Back behind the barn and at the edge of the pasture there were woods. We could go into the woods and there was a little creek with lots of stones and ducks.
The yard around the farmhouse was beautiful. There were lots of flowers including bushes with flowers and fruit trees.
Johnnie would make breakfast and we would eat at the dining table. There was clean up and then we could play. We were outside most of the time running around watching the chickens and cats, and cows and pigs in the pasture. We would also play on the porch.
After meals Johnnie would throw slop out for the cats and pigs to eat. Occasionally we would watch Johnnie in her kitchen with a butter churner, churning her own butter. My dad loved to do chores for Johnnie. He went out during the day to do whatever was needed. He would cut the grass around the farmhouse, work in the pasture and go into the woods. My parents would go and pick berries and vegetables that were on the farm. Sometimes my dad came back with chiggers, usually around his waist area and ticks. We had a dog and sometimes he would get ticks also.
My dad would take us out for walks on the dirt road. My dad carried a big stick and told us not to walk
too close to the side of the road because of copperheads. We would walk to the bridge that went over I-40. The dirt road going the other way seemed to go on forever. There were no neighbors we could see.
Johnnie had long black hair down to her waist and we would watch her put it up in a bun in the morning and then take it down at night. I never saw gray in her hair. She always wore a dress and was barefoot. She had a big black rifle sitting in the living room up against the wall near the door.
At night we would watch TV, which was often the Grand Ole Opry or a game show. If there was a thunderstorm all the lights and TV would be turned off and we would sit in the dark and talk. Other nights my mom, dad and Johnnie would sit on the porch and me and my sister would chase the many fireflies that were flying around.
Once during our trip, we might take a ride to Cookeville and walk around, go to a farm market, or get an ice cream. Sometimes on a Sunday we went to a white church. Bonnie Elrod would come over to visit and she would go too. Bonnie came over a lot and would play with me and my sister. As young girls we looked up to her and loved listening to her talk in her southern dialect. We loved listening to everyone speak in the southern way and would try to mimic it as best we could. Later Bonnie graduated from nursing school and married Charles Herren, and they had four children and lived in Baxter. I was a teenager by this time, and we would go visit her at her house with her first two little ones. We would take her homemade pickles made from cucumbers from the farm.
People would come to the farm during the day and buy eggs and milk from Johnnie. One time a car Johnnie didn’t know pulled up. Johnnie grabbed her rifle, and we went off behind her and stayed behind her. My parents were off in the field. She pointed it at the car and said in a very serious tone, “what do you all want?” The man and woman rolled down their window and said they were sent by someone that I don’t recall who. Johnnie put down her rifle and got very friendly then. She knew the people who sent them and gladly gave them milk and eggs. When my parents returned, we talked about that for a long while. It was quite exciting for us kids.
One morning Johnnie said I think we will have rabbit for dinner and off she went in her dress barefooted with her rifle. Some time later she returned with a rabbit, and she skinned it and made it for dinner. I remember eating it. Homemade biscuits were a staple for meals.
Sometimes we all took a drive to the Center Hill Dam. Sometimes my parents would take us to Center Hill Lake for a swim. Occasionally we would take a day and go to Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls or other areas to sight see. Johnnie always stayed behind at the farm. She loved to hear our stories about our adventures. I remember when I was in grade school Johnnie said you can write now so we can exchange letters. I would write to her, and she would write back to me. There was only a PO Box address then, no road name that I knew of. Johnnie loved to quilt and when I was about 10 years old, she made me a quilt that was hand sewn by her. I treasured the quilt and had it on my bed until I got married. I had one grandmother until I was 12 years old. Johnnie was like a grandmother to me, and I remember the day I told her I loved her, and she was like my grandmother. There were tears and hugs, and I will never forget it.
Every year my sister and I begged my parents to take us to see her and to be at the farm. As we got older, we would help her do things in the kitchen. We did not view these as chores.
How lucky we were to have such a wonderful woman in our life and learn about farming in the south. My dad and his brother who were orphaned at a young age up in Michigan got to learn about and meet some of the relatives because of the information that Johnnie and William Casto Herd passed down to them. When I was 18 in 1977, I went to Myrtle Beach with a friend of mine, and I said we can’t drive that way without stopping in Tennessee. I stopped at the wrong white house and a woman, and her daughter came out to greet us. I explained who I was, but she would not give me directions until she called Johnnie to make sure we were legitimate. Once she found out we were she graciously helped point me in the right direction. My friend Anne and I stayed with Johnnie for two days. Minnie was living with her then and slept in the flowered bedroom, so we got to stay in the gold room where my parents stayed. It was a wonderful visit, and I am so glad we stopped in. That was the last time I saw Johnnie. That fall I went to college and worked two jobs in the summers, so I didn’t visit. Looking back, I would have taken the time off to go see her.
Johnnie passed away in 1983. I have carried the love for her and the farm my whole life. Now in 2023 mysister was contacted through Ancestry for information to see if we were part of the line of Violet Roberts. Turns out we are and now we are going to a reunion. The farmhouse we stayed in is where Frances Herd (my dad’s aunt) took care of her mother Violet in her old age. The information we have learned from Angela Roberts Stout and her parents is a treasure. We have a great appreciation for their trials and perseverance. One thing my mom, sister and I agree on is that there truly is southern hospitality. My dad always wanted to know “his people” and now we can pass on our heritage to our children.
Written with deep love,
Lori Ann (Beattie) Taylor
May 29, 2023
