Download [Page] [Document]
mcc-bc1-141
The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 127

wagon was as full as it could be, loaded with an old cook stove, bedsprings, chiffarobe, wardrobe, China cabinet, dining room table, and a side table for the kitchen.” Mrs. Eliff and her five children followed in a covered wagon. Marcy said: My brother, Mildred and Flossie [Marcy's sisters], and Momma were sitting in a spring seat. That fits on the sideboard in the wagon. My baby brother was nine days old. Momma put him in an oblong dishpan made of white granite. I still have that. Momma died April 2, 1937, out there on Bentley Young's place. Mother died from miscarrying. She was a petite person. She miscarried thirteen times in five years. She already had seven children. Where They Lived The location of the Bentley Young property could not be pinpointed on the Army Real Estate Map. Apparently, he sold it before the time of sale of the land to the Government. Marcy said her family lived by Young Mountain. Charles Wells, who lived in the same area, said Weeden Mountain was once called Young Mountain. Marcy said they could see the mountain from their house, and “there was a cemetery back there, too.” She said there was a story about that mountain: One time a man went up the mountain, looking for his little boy who had drowned in a pond during a dark and stormy night. So on nights that were bad, you could see the figure of a man running up the mountain with a lantern looking for his little boy. I saw it one night. A cherry tree was in the yard, and chestnut trees were near their house. Marcy said, “We planted flowers, buttercups, and they were all over.” No chestnut trees would be there now. During the 1930s, as the result of an insect that came to visit, all the chestnut trees died out. Marcy said her family got to their house by coming in on Madison Pike. As they came in on the Pike, Gibson's store was on the right. She said, “It was a little old store. There was Chaney's place and then McDonnell's [Parcel A-24]. We lived about a half-mile after you passed Elko switch. D.G. Foster [Parcel A-21] was down below Chaney's.” Marcy was probably making a guess on that distance. The McDonnell and the Young property joined. Houses on the Property The Eliff's House. The house that Younger Eliff built on the property had four large rooms and a tin roof; it was the same as the house he owned in Hump, which was described above. Marcy said the front porch “went all the way across, and the back porch 127 - (4160)