Number 5 in the “The Good Old Days, A History of Soddy, Daisy & Montlake” series by Steve Smith is now available
Just prior to Christmas the Soddy, Daisy & Montlake Historical Association would like to let everyone know there are two additional books that have been published in “The Good Old Days, A History of Soddy, Daisy & Montlake” series by Steve Smith.
The collection began in 1990 with the publishing of book one, the second book in 1992, third in 2003 and a fourth book was published in November 2017. The books are all about local coal mining which was a big employer in this area for a number of years, going back to the Civil War. At one time the Durham Coal & Iron Company employed over 850 men working mines in Graysville, Sale Creek, Bakewell, Big Soddy and Little Soddy. In the Daisy area the potteries were the major industries beginning in the late 1870’s. It is easy when you walk most anywhere in the Daisy area off the main roads to find pottery sherds even today.
There will be chapters on the infamous Soddy rifle, a group of photos collected from among a 400,000 photo negative collection donated by TVA to the National Archives, a chapter on old photos with new photos taken of the same area will allow the reader to compare the two, a chapter on Flattop Mountain, McCormick’s Chapel, Union Fork, and a chapter on local schools of yester year. There is more but the reader will have to wait and then purchase one of each to add to their collection of local history.
This book is mainly photos about what life was like around this area. The older people who made the first four books so popular have almost all passed away and with them went their stories. The book would have been nearly 500 pages so it was decided to split the book into two separate books.
The photos in these books are mainly what have been donated to the Historical Association while operating a museum in the Soddy-Daisy area since book four was published in 2017.
"People bring scrapbooks or maybe just a handful of photos and donate them to us," said Mr. Smith. "Some of these photos are of superb quality and it would be a shame these may never be seen by anyone unless they come to the museum. So this is why these two books have been written."
The books are sponsored by the Soddy, Daisy & Montlake Historical Association. Book #5 will be picked up Friday from the publisher and should be at Floyd Hardware, Kays Kastle and the Good Old Days Museum in the old Soddy Bank Building at 11298 Depot Street in Soddy by afternoon.
Book #6 has been a problem and will not be picked up until the first of next week. The cost of the books will be a $25 donation for book #5 and a $30 donation for book #6. If you choose to purchase both at the same time the price will be cut by $5 and sold for a $50 donation to the Historical Association.
Number 6 in the “The Good Old Days, A History of Soddy, Daisy & Montlake” series by Steve Smith will be available next week