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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 103
THE CHANEY FAMILY Bernice Elkins Chaney, Interviews May, June, and July 2005 Mac Chaney, 30 May 05 Hosea Chaney, 9 June 05 This section presents Bernice Chaney's remembrances of: (1) life on her parents farm, which was to the north of M.G. Chaney's land, (2) her marriage to Frank Chaney, (3) M.G. Chaney and his family, (4) she and her husband as newlyweds sharecropping on M.G.'s land (A-17), (5) other tenants on M.G.'s land, and (6) her life on Parcel A-61. M.G. sold Parcel A-61 to his brother, Walter Chaney, for a dollar. Walter and his family, including his son Frank and daughter-in-law Bernice, moved to Walter's land and lived there until 1941. Mac Chaney, who has also contributed to this section, is the son of Bernice and Frank; he was born on Parcel A-61. The Chaney family members interviewed remember M.G. Chaney having four tenant houses on Parcel A-17. At one point, his son who helped to manage the farm lived in the one closest to the big house. Chaney furnished his tenants with a house, a garden plot, and coal. Bernice Elkins Chaney The Elkins Family The Elkins family lived just north of M.G. Chaney, on the other side the Pike, so the farm where they lived was just outside the boundary of the land that would be acquired by the War Department. Bernice Elkins and Frank Chaney were neighbors. Since the cultural context of the rural setting does not end where the sale of property begins, the memories Bernice related about her life when she was living with her parents are presented. Bernice said: My family lived up on the hill. There was a store in somebody's house. It belonged to the Butlers. It was a room in the house that had groceries in it. The store had meal, flour, coffee, and canned stuff. Mostly you grew your own food. Back then you'd take green beans and fatback or streaked lean, just a little water, and cook the beans down to grease. Some people put in Irish potatoes. Put a lid on it, and it would boil down right quick. We didn't have much money then. I found a half dollar one day. I went to that store and bought five pounds of sugar, a can of mackerel and five pounds of pinto beans. Mackerel was cheaper than salmon. That was 67 years ago. I still remember finding that half dollar. 103 - (4136)