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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 289
Percy (Buster) Joiner's House. Walter stated: When my uncle [Buster Joiner] bought part of the old Timmons Plantation, the house was already there, but when they surveyed it, the house fell on our side of the road. [This is not clear, but it seems they switched parcels.] He and my daddy had borrowed the money to buy 40 acres each--$2000 for 80 acres. The house was old but well built. It had plastered walls. Upscale. Mill cut lumber. The wood was poplar. The house was drop sided. [This was on Parcel F-253.] It was wide enough to put two beds in a room. It was two rooms plus a lean-to. Most chimneys were made of stone??"rock layers. People would go out to the mountain and carry them back. Stonemasons used a rod stuck down, hit it, and cut it. You chisel out a groove to split out a rock. The split is a little piece of metal. The wedge goes down between, so the wedge doesn't get hung up on the stone. My uncle put two more rooms on the house, and a lean-to. The original room was so big you could put three behind it. The original room was about 16 feet. Walter said one of the big problems his uncle had was that he was a “cotton man.” He bought feed for his livestock from Walter's family: “Long about June he had to buy corn and hay from us.” Grandfather Alex Joiner. Walter said: Granddaddy Alex lived in a two-room tenant house. He wouldn't cook. My uncle left the horse over there. Granddaddy had a bunch of children. He'd get on his horse and visit the neighbors (his kids), and eat dinner wherever he was. Sometimes he would stand in the middle between our house and my uncle's and holler and ask who had the best dinner. Whoever did, the kids would take it on a plate to him. Granddaddy had a Carhardt [a name brand coat??"the company is still in business] with a pouch in the back, like a hunting coat. He filled the pouch with tobacco. If you wanted to make him mad, get his coat and wash it. It would lose its water repellant. He didn't think he had to work. [Question: Did that have anything to do with his being the son of William Timmons?] Yes, it did have to do with his being Timmons' son. After slavery, they said they'd give you so many acres. My people didn't get it. I don't think anybody did. 289 - (4322)