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- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee).
Dulcie McCauley’s magic box
Tom Sherlin/The Daily Times
Inez Adams holds a dress she wore as a child as she shows some of her childhood photos.
By Linda Braden Albert
of The Daily Times Staff
Dulcie Abbott McCauley was a woman ahead of her time.
She was a wife and mother in the early days of the 20th century in Cades Cove, but the legacy she left has impacted numerous other people in search of their family roots — McCauley was also a quite accomplished photographer, documenting the everyday lives of her family and neighbors with a camera purchased from the Sears & Roebuck catalog. She worked in a darkroom set up in a small room in back of the cabin tourists now know as the Dan Lawson exhibit in Cades Cove, having no electricity or indoor running water to aid in the task of preserving the likenesses of Cades Cove inhabitants for future generations to see.
McCauley’s daughter, Inez McCauley Adams, presented a program about several of these old photographs at the July meeting of the Cades Cove Preservation Association at the Blount County Public Library. Adams, who will celebrate her 81st birthday in October, is also an adept photographer and works diligently to document and share the history of her birthplace, Cades Cove.
Adams said her mother’s story began 111 years ago, June 6, 1896, in a house on the Dan Lawson farm in Cades Cove. This was the day Laura Dulcie Abbott was born to John and Rhoda Lawson Abbott.
“Her mother had a crippling illness when she was 11 or 12, and Mama had to do the laundry and the cooking and whatever,” Adams said. “She only got to go to school to the fifth grade.” Dulcie learned to sew on a Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine, bought for $25. “She could look at a picture of a dress in the catalog and cut a pattern, and she taught me when I was real young, on the same sewing machine ... She could do a lot of things, including playing a five-string banjo.”
‘Magic box’
Adams still has the old sewing machine and also what she calls her mother’s “magic box,” the Kodak Brownie Junior camera Dulcie used almost a century ago.
“In the Sears & Roebuck catalog in 1909 — that would have been a little bit before she purchased this camera, probably — there is a picture of a camera that was almost like this, and it cost $1.65, plus 25 cents shipping charges,” Adams said. “I never heard Mama say ‘camera,’ ever.
“She called this her Kodak, and this is what she made her photographs with.”
In 1915, Dulcie’s brother, Luther Abbott, purchased darkroom equipment for $3 from Andrew Shields, a neighbor.
“They put the darkroom in the back side of the Dan Lawson house,” Adams explained. “If you go there today and go to that little back room in the left end, that’s where they had the darkroom.”
Adams said she made contact prints of the old negatives about two years ago.
“These are 70- or 80-year-old negatives,” she explained. “Mainly, they mailed the film to Knoxville and then done the prints from the negatives. Mama said it was easier to do that. They didn’t have any electricity or running water in the house, and they held the film up to the window to expose it. She told me that.”
Life in the Cove
The photos Adams printed from her mother’s negatives show many of the residents of Cades Cove. Adams’ father, Millard McCauley, and her uncle, Luther Abbott are in one photo, each holding a musical instrument. The photo was taken in front of the Jonathan Myers house, which was located across the Loop Road from the Missionary Baptist Church.
“I don’t really think either one of them could play much,” Adams said with a chuckle.
“I think they just held these for the picture. The third person in the photograph is Ollie Myers, and he could play anything. He was blind.”
Another scene shows a grave, newly dug, with four shovels stuck in the extra dirt that was not needed for filling the grave. “This shows that that many men stopped their work that day and came to dig that grave when they heard the (church) bell,” Adams said. “They would toll the bell for a person that died, once for every year they were old.” Homemade paper flowers decorated the grave.
The first Decoration Day service at the Methodist Church, circa 1924, is depicted in another photo. “And they did have dinner on the grounds,” Adams said, “You can see, they literally had on the ground.”
Adams said she is fascinated with the way the people dressed in that era in the Cove. In one photograph, several young people, including her father and an uncle, are dressed up in their best Sunday clothes. In another photo, some women are wearing their Sunday hats and dresses on an excursion to Russell Field.
Two other photos are of Adams as a little girl. In one, she is with her dog. “I didn’t bring that just for me,” she told the room full of CCPA members and friends. “I wanted you to see that I did have a dog that could smile. His name was Obadiah.
And that’s not all. I had a little pet pig and I named him Jesus. I don’t know what my parents thought to let me do that stuff!
“But the story here is not about me or the dog, really,” she said. “In the back is stove wood. We think about how they had to raise enough to eat in the summer and put up for the winter, or they went hungry. What we don’t think about is how they got it cooked. On an open fire for a long time, but when they started to get cook stoves, they had to have a small, short piece of wood to fit in that cook stove. That whole background behind my head is all stove wood, and I can’t imagine how many hours it took my dad to cut that much wood for that stove. Now, we had breakfast and dinner and supper. That’s three meals a day.”
The second photo shows Adams at about the age of 3, clutching a bouquet of dark purple violets in her hand and wearing a little pink dress her mother had made. She is sitting on her mother’s pump organ stool at the home of Kate Lawson, which was located a short distance before the Dan Lawson home. Adams still has the little pink dress.
Passion for heritage
Adams, known affectionately as “Granny” by many of her younger friends, was born in Cades Cove to Millard and Dulcie Abbott McCauley in 1926 and lived in Cades Cove until she was 8 years old, when the family left the Cove after formation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Her grandparents were John and Rutha Myers McCauley and John and Rhoda Lawson Abbott. Her extended Cades Cove roots include Dan Lawson, Peter Cable and John Oliver, the first permanent white settle in Cades Cove.
Dave Post, president of the Cades Cove Preservation Association, said, “Granny has made it her life-long passion for researching, understanding and documenting her Cades Cove heritage. She is helped along with that and shares that interest with he husband, Earl. ... They share their knowledge and their information and we have all benefitted from their knowledge.”
Adams said she was reluctant to present the program, but felt she should do so out of respect for her mother’s memory and everything she accomplished. “Mama never got credit — I don’t think our mothers ever get credit — for the things she done,” Adams said. “If I can honor Mama, then I will.”
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 5 Mar 2011.
‘Tour de daffodils’ reveals Cades Cove history
By Linda Braden Albert lindaba@thedailytimes.com
In Cades Cove, the change of the season from winter to spring is announced by a bright yellow flower ?" in the jargon of former Cove residents, a buttercup, although others know them as daffodils or jonquils.
Inez Adams will tell you these clumps of flowering sunshine are much more than harbingers of spring, however. They are the last remaining vestiges of the people who lived in Cades Cove prior to the formation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, planted to beautify their yards and gardens.
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Adams should know. Her family roots run deep in the Cove and include such names as McCauley ?" “that’s the way my great-granddaddy spelled it in his army records,” Adams said, rather than as “McCaulley” ?" Abbott, Lawson, Oliver. Her family moved from Cades Cove when Adams was 8 years of age, but at 84, she can still recall where the homes, schools, stores, churches and cemeteries were located. Even if her sharp mind failed her, the flowers returning year after year would jog her memories.
“Ever since I can remember, I guess the buttercups are my favorite little flower on Earth,” Adams said. “They just welcome everything in the spring. They just start the birds to singing, and it makes you glad you’ve lived through the winter.”
Passing the torch
Adams is one of few remaining Cades Cove natives who can see the old home places in her mind’s eye. To allow others to have glimpses of the past that she sees, Adams, with the help of the late Dave Post, created a map of historic Cades Cove daffodil sites complete with photos of 17 structures obtained from the National Park Service and from her own personal collection. She provided information on each site, as well, adding photographs of the people who lived there.
“Part of them were family home sites,” Adams said. “I’ve always known where most of the people lived over there, and when I drive around, I know whose yard I’m looking at. I thought how sad that so many people don’t know what the people looked like or what the houses looked like. I thought, how neat it could be if people could drive around and see what I saw, in my mind. That’s the reason I done it. I wanted to share how I felt and the way I had enjoyed it all these years.”
This “tour de daffodils” is included in Smokies Life Magazine, volume 4, number 1, in a double fold-out section. The magazine retails for $7.95 and is available at the Townsend Visitor Center, Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend, and the Cades Cove Visitor Center in Blount County.
Adams said, “The buttercups should be at their peak this weekend. It should be just about perfect.”
Supporting the Smokies
Steve Kemp is interpretive products and services director at Great Smoky Mountains Association and editor of Smokies Life Magazine. He explained that GSMA is a private, nonprofit, educational organization formed in 1953.
“We exist to further the educational, historical and scientific programs of Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” Kemp said. One of the ways to accomplish this purpose is through Smokies Life, which is offered as a premium for members of GSMA as well as being for sale in all visitors centers in and around the park. “It’s also available via mail order and on the web at www.smokiesinformation.org.”
Kemp said visitors have been especially pleased with the daffodil map.
“They’ve seen the daffodils and they’ve heard about the history of them, especially the daffodils related to the old Civilian Conservation Corps site,” located across the Cades Cove Loop Road from the Missionary Baptist Church, he said. “But they had no idea that every grove of daffodils, just about, is related to a specific home and family.”
GSMA also publishes the park newspaper, The Smokies Guide, as well books about the Smokies, field guides such as wildflowers, trees and birds of the Smokies, and a series of hiking guides for the Smokies.
“One of our most recent projects is a CD called ‘Old Time Smoky Mountain Music,’ and it’s a collection of 34 historic songs which were recorded in the Smokies in 1939 by a researcher or song catcher who just went around the area with some semi-portable recording equipment and asked people to tell their stories and sing their songs,” Kemp said.
Most of the income comes from sales at bookstores and park visitors centers.
“This year, we plan to give over $2 million worth of assistance to the park,” Kemp said.
Membership in the GSMA is open. Members receive discounts on merchandise and also receive the magazine and newspaper.
Kemp encourages people to obtain a copy of the magazine that includes the Cades Cove history map.
“People love Cades Cove, and love the daffodils,” Kemp said.
Adams said her “buttercups” seem to be multiplying from year to year at many of the home sites.
“Just look how many years we’ve been gone,” she said. “I was 8 years old when we moved out, and now I’m 84. Look how many years it’s been since I moved out of Cades Cove, and they were there when we left. Does that not amaze you, that they keep coming back? They just don’t forget.”
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 30 Apr 2011.
Cades Cove residents to talk to visitors at Old Timers Day
By Ken Garland Cades Cove Preservation Association
When she started school, Inez McCauley Adams had a long walk through the fields and woods of Cades Cove to the small Cable School. She would walk to the home of a family that lived along the way that also had a child at the school. If she got there in time, she had company for the walk. If she got there late, she walked alone.
“That was a long way for a child my age,” she said.
Adams, of Blount County, was born in 1926 in the Cades Cove area of what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She was 8 years old when her family had to move out of the Cove to make way for the park.
Adams still spends a lot of time in Cades Cove, reliving memories of her childhood, and is one of several former residents and members of the Cades Cove Preservation Association who will return on Saturday for Old Timers Day. They will tell their stories and share photographs and memories with visitors to the twice-yearly celebration of the Cove and its inhabitants, held at the historic Cable Mill area halfway around the Cades Cove Loop Road.
Residents of Cades Cove and the other communities in the mountains had to leave when their lands were taken 76 years ago for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They moved to surrounding communities, but many, including Adams, still maintain ties.
Adams said she wants to make sure visitors don’t forget the people who lived and worked in the valley. She is currently working on a book about these people using histories, records and recordings she has amassed of residents who lived in the area before it became part of the national park.
“I’ve got tons of stuff,” she said of her research materials. She and her husband, Earl Adams, tracked down former residents over the years and photographed them and recorded their stories. They also copied thousands of family photos and Inez Adams, an accomplished photographer, printed them and filed them away. She said these former residents she talked to were eager to tell their stories.
“They really want to leave it (stories) behind, because they know that when they go, it’ll be all gone,” she said. “A lot of these people are long gone.”
Her own story is one of those that people want to hear. Her family lived in a home near the Dan Lawson home in Cades Cove when she was born. They moved into another home before having to leave the Cove, when they relocated to Tuckaleechee Pike near Maryville. She and her two sisters and brother grew up there, attended schools in the area, married and raised their own families.
Now, Adams is interested in getting that story out about Cades Cove.
“We’re not perfect people,” she said, referring to Cades Cove residents. “We have to realize that it was just ordinary people who lived there. But there is something that connects them.
“It was just a special place.”
- [S112] Census, 1940.
Name Inez Mccaulley
Event Type Census
Event Date 1940
Event Place Civil District 8, Blount, Tennessee, United States
Gender Female
Age 13
Marital Status Single
Race (Original) White
Race White
Relationship to Head of Household (Original) Daughter
Relationship to Head of Household Daughter
Birthplace Tennessee
Birth Year (Estimated) 1927
Last Place of Residence Rural, Blount, Tennessee
HOUSEHOLD
ROLE
GENDER
AGE
BIRTHPLACE
Millard Mccaulley Head M 34 Tennessee
Dulcie Mccaulley Wife F 43 Tennessee
Inez Mccaulley Daughter F 13 Tennessee
Maycle Mccaulley Daughter F 10 Tennessee
Truel Mccaulley Son M 6 Tennessee
Glenda Mccaulley Daughter F 2 Tennessee
- [S25] Smith Mortuary Company, www.smithmortuary.com, 8 Feb 2016.
October 11, 1926 - February 8, 2016
Inez “Granny” McCauley Adams, 89, passed away Monday, February 8, 2016. She was born October 11, 1926 in Cades Cove. She was a faithful member of Piney Level Missionary Baptist Church. “Granny” was an avid historian and charter member of the Cades Cove Preservation Association. She was preceded in death by: parents, Millard & Dulcie McCauley; sister, Glenda Nichols; son, Terry Adams. She is survived by: husband, Earl Adams, Jr.; son, Tony Adams (Vickie); grandchildren, Traci (David) Boone, Lindsey (Nathan) Payne, Allan (Rachel) Adams, Monta Vaden, Monty (Becca) Bebout; Great-grandchildren, Cory Boone, Camden Boone, Greyson Payne, Emory Payne, Lacee Adams, Olivia Adams and many, many precious “adopted” friends and family; Sister, Maycle Yearout & husband Wayne; Brother, Truel McCaulley & wife Betty; Nephews, Rick & Randy Nichols. A very special thank you to Blount Memorial Hospice/Palliative Care and Dr. Ousama Dabbagh. Friends may call at their convenience at Smith Chapel on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm. Family and friends will assemble for graveside service and interment at 11:00 am, Thursday, February 11, 2016 at West Millers Cove Church Cemetery with Rev. George Macht officiating. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to: Gideons Bibles, www.gideons.org or PO Box 140800, Nashville, TN 37214-0800. Smith Funeral & Cremation Service, Maryville, 865-983-1000, www.SmithFuneralandCremation.com.
- [S147] Find a Grave, (Memorial: 157956519).
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