There you see one of my favorite family photos, simple as it may be! It was made barely inside Chattooga County, just below the Walker County line. It is basically my Martin Family, which included Leaths, Clecklers, Thurmans, Pollocks, etc. Here we are seen on a part of the original farm that went back, officially, to 1838, even though they claimed it by 1836.
I like it because it shows a group of Southerners who do not conform to any of Hollywood's stereotypes of either Southerners or Depression times.
There is not a trace of Mayberry here or Beverley Hillbillies, and certainly no Bonnie and Clyde! If Wealth is not portrayed here, then surely there is no Poverty either! The year is mid-1930's when your history textbooks say we were supposed to be in the "Depths of the Great Depression". I do not see evidence of that Depression, however – people with bad teeth, malnutrition, bib overalls, rebel emblems, Dust Bowl, or anything that might cast us in a bad light. No hard times. Nor can I even imagine a banjo plunking in the background like in the movies when they want to indicate a "real" cultural backwater! This picture was made just a few feet away from Broomtown Road, (called "Brainerd's Road" on old maps), which runs from LaFayette to Menlo, GA. (It was called "Brainerd's Road" as it connected the old Cherokee towns near Menlo to the then-new Brainerd Mission in Tennessee, on the present Brainerd Road).
The group is gathered in front of a house I have written about in one of my earlier articles, called "A House that was Off the Grid". Yes, the house in the background was certainly off any modern grid: no indoor plumbing, no electricity, and in that regard was very little different from the 18th Century home of George and Martha Washington. And it was certainly no different from all the neighboring houses. Notice the roof that was made out of hand-hewn cedar shingles - like you can find in the Preservation areas of the Smoky Mountains and elsewhere. Yet the people who lived in this house did not feel themselves deprived in any way. Perhaps it was a house they desired to move away from some day - and they did exactly that. But they did not try to burn it down or destroy it in order to "make a statement" or protest any "substandard" character it was deemed to possess; they simply moved away and left it for new owners. Originally the home of a country doctor, it is still in use in 2016, although much modernized. NO kind of Welfare kept these people afloat!
There are only a few faces in this picture I do not recognize, as they are someone's in-laws or friends that I do not know. There are only about five of us who are still alive, actually. The oldest person, at lower right, with the two similarly dressed little girls, is my dad's Aunt Sallie Martin Thurman. Aunt Sallie grew up next door to her grandfather, Joshua Martin, III, who was born in Greene County, GA, in 1794 - during the second term of George Washington! (Note that these were NAPOLEONIC times in Europe!) THAT fact alone continues to explode my mind! Just imagine how that ONE elderly lady - a lady I got to pass a few memorable words with before she died - connects me to Early America. She died in 1942. Her father, Enos Martin, a Confederate soldier and POW, became my great grandfather. Aunt Sallie's house is still standing near the gap in Pigeon Mountain which leads over into McLemore's Cove, and the lower end of Chattanooga Valley. It looks as comfortable and pleasant today as ever! That's ME at top left, being held aloft by my mom, whose arms and forehead are all that's showing of her. Since my dad does not appear in the picture, I can only infer that he was the photographer du jour, and “proves” that this was just a casual picture made on a nice day – and not made by a commercial photographer by prior arrangement. There is one beauty-queen present - Cousin Melba Martin (McGhee), who is in the very top center of the pic. She got the title while attending LaFayette High School. (I think she even held the title of "Miss Walker County" for a year!). The male head behind hers is her brother Harold, who served in WW2, as did Cousin Jimmy, the tall boy in the front row, left, dressed in white. That's my Grandmother Young he is standing next to. If you see any recklessness or irresponsibility here, I would like to hear about it, as such has never been evident to me.
I only see happy people, regardless of their social status, and totally ignorant of any class distinctions. No one in any government has told them that they have been left behind, and no one in the picture is about to protest anything or disrupt anything, and I am very happy to call them my own people. I am very pleased to be one of them.
(Chester Martin is a native Chattanoogan who is a talented painter as well as local historian. He and his wife, Pat, live in Brainerd. Mr. Martin can be reached at cymppm@comcast.net )
Chester Martin