By: Dr. Abraham Jobe
(Editor’s Note: This is Article XXX in a series of memoirs from the manuscript “Autobiography or Memoirs of Dr. Abraham Jobe of Elizabethton, Tennessee: By Himself.” The series is continued from the 26th day of October 2010. The document contains some 300 pages of text. This installment begins on page 176 of the transcript being used for these articles. The page was numbered 189 in Dr. Jobe’s original text. “Digging For Your Roots” has now published nearly 60 per cent of Dr. Jobe’s account. I have enjoyed reading and preparing for publication the material he wrote in 1893 about his adventures. The text printed here is as written by Dr. Jobe with only occasional editing to clarify his commentary. – J. L. Kiener)
While Isaac Click was my head workman in the tan yard, and a better workman and more industrious man I never had in the year, since I could trust him to take the oversight of all the work when he could be kept there, but his home was in an adjoining county and he would absent himself from his work, when there was no necessity for it. He worked for me a little over a year — say 14 months — and in that time he lost 93 days (working). He never could leave without injuring the business and he knew it and he cared nothing for it. (Editor’s Note: Dr. Jobe then labeled this next section: “Demoralization of Labor After the War.”)
When he finally concluded to leave for good, he selected a time when he knew I had no one to take his place, and also had reasons to believe, and did believe, that it would be utterly impossible for me to hunt up a hand to do all the work that he knew must be done at once, or lose a large lot of hides.
Mr. Click came up and ate his breakfast as usual, leaving his hat and coat at the yard. I went down shortly after to see how he was getting on working the hides out of the bait, which I was so uneasy about. I saw “Mr. C.” was not there and his hat and coat were gone, and I knew that was the last of Mr. Click.
No one could be procured at Elizabethton to save the hides. What should I do? I went to Johnson City and boarded the train and went as far as Greeneville, stopping at every place where there was the least chance to get a hand and failed everywhere. On my return I went on to Bristol. Failing there, I came home and went horse back to see Mr. Russell Cordell in the upper end of Crab Orchard, near the North Carolina line, failing here as Mr. Cordell had hides in the same condition.
I got home just at night, put my tired horse in the stable, ate my supper, procured lamps and went to the tan yard and pulled off my coat, rolled up my sleeves and went to work, and worked and sweated till nearly daylight. I had the satisfaction of knowing that my energy had saved my hides.
REEMS CREEK WOOLEN MILLS
During all the seven years, I was devoting my time mostly to other things outside of my profession. Still I could not wholly give it up, when pressed by old friends in whose families I had practiced for many years. I would yield to their importunities and do some practice and in chronic cases and more especially in surgical cases.
In 1875 I left my farm in the hands of my wife. She attended to that department and managed the farm better than I could. I went to Weaverville, North Carolina and built a woolen mill on Reems Creek, called the “Reems Creek Woolen Mills.”
I had lost hope in making my tannery and shoe & boot shop a paying institution. I wanted to wind it up. So I left John A. Biddle in charge, while I was building and running the Reems Creek factory.
The Reems Creek Woolen Mills were owned and operated by a joint stock company. The stock was owned by A. Jobe, E. D. Jobe, and K. F. Snyder. We made a success of building up a good and popular custom, woolen factory. After I completed the buildings and placed machinery in them, and got every thing in regular order and all started, I canvassed several counties, with samples of our goods, so as to induce the people to increase the number and quantity of their sheep.
In this way, I built up a considerable business. I ran the factory after its completion in two years. I then I had to give it up on account of my very bad health and my son, E. D. Jobe, one of the owners, took my place as manager temporarily, as I had also done. As our business and our citizenship were in Tennessee, we both sold out pretty soon to parties living at Weaverville, North Carolina and, in that neighborhood. They have been running it successfully ever since. This woolen
mill is (illegible?) strategically located and surrounded by counties whose inhabitants are generally well to do people. It is located only seven miles east of Asheville, the largest and most prosperous and wealthy town in western North Carolina.
RESIGNED BECAUSE OF HEALTH
I was compelled to resign my position as Superintendent of the Reems Creek woolen mills on account of my extreme bad health. I kept my office in one end of the factory and slept there, and when I was taken sick and my case became so bad, I called in three doctors. They did not realize how bad I really was until the noise of the looms and other machinery had so destroyed my hearing that I have never recovered from it to this day, although I have it treated repeatedly. I am now
very hard of hearing. This is a greater misfortune than any one can conceive of, who never had defective hearing. It puts me to great disadvantage among strangers, who do not know I am hard of hearing. When I quit the tanning business, I had quite an amount of debts against people for transactions covering so many years. A large amount of these were judgments, notes and acts against insolvent parties, yet many of them could have been collected by proper perseverance and management. But I could never find time to stop every thing and ride round and see how many of these debts I could collect.
I never was a good collector. Some men could have collected the large bulk of these debts, but I had indulged them too long. The older a debt becomes, the less the debtor feels like paying it as a rule. Even most men, who are good for their debts, are in a measure so.
I ought to have known better for I had the benefit of an early and sad experience of selling goods in Georgia on a credit. I was too candid, and confess that I lacked something in my makeup of being a business man. I could not say “no” often enough to men asking for credit. I know now that the hundreds, who know they owe my just debts, amounting in the aggregate to over ten thousand dollars, are not as good friends to me as they would be if I had denied them credit. That disposition followed me through nearly half a century, in the practice of medicine. I could not refuse to go to see the sick, though I knew I would never be paid for it.
Oh! How often I have gone when I was as bad off as the patient I went to see.
The several books which I have used to keep accounts in don’t show the amount of practice I’ve done — for where I did charity practice, I made no account of it.
I continued to farm and do a little practice, especially in surgery, until the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad was finished to Cranberry.
MOVED TO ELK PARK
I moved my family to Elk Park, North Carolina on the first train coming through. This was on 13th of June, 1881. We moved into a railroad “shantie” on Esq. Ellis’ land, near Ellis’ residence. Shortly after that, I bought six acres from Esq. Ellis above the railroad cut. It then was a part of the old brier field and running to the top of the ridge and back to the railroad.
The same is now known as the Nat Taylor property. On this property, there is a fine mineral spring. I at once commenced building on my property and immediately bought three more lots for my three married daughters. Where the hotel is, I bought for Emma Miller; where the Watauga House is, I bought for Mollie Hunter; and where the L. M. Banner residence is, I bought for Hattie Taylor. So we began to turn the brier field into a town site.
We soon wanted a Post Office here and I, having been special agent at the Post Office Department for several years; those interested in the establishment of the Office requested me to correspond with the Department at Washington.
I soon found many obstacles thrown in my way. I was satisfied that Cranberry did not want a business place to grow up there and compete with Cranberry in the sale of goods, etc., but I kept hammering away until I got the office.
I had L. M. Banner appointed the first Post Master. Since then we have had as Post Masters: Wm. C. Walsh, Henry C. Norman and now John F. Davis. The office has been established about 10 years and has been a money order office about four years. The office has always been well managed and is a great help to the people.
Elk Park, notwithstanding its humble beginnings, has become a place of considerable importance. Millions of feet of lumber have been shipped from here. It is the greatest lumber depot on the E. T. and W. N. C. Railroad.
Besides the great amount of lumber of all kinds, the shipments of ivy roots, tan bark, etc., etc., has been immense. Elk Park is also becoming a great summer resort and with a little capital invested, could be made one of the most popular watering
places in the south. The mineral water on the Taylor place here is unsurpassed. The chemist, who analyzed the water, says the combination is the best he has ever seen.
Parties who have spent the summers here for several years are much pleased with the water, and invalids who have used the water after it was shipped to them was much benefited by it.
After running my steam saw mill here for seven years, I found I had injured my health and my pocket to such an extent that I sold my saw mill to Nat G. McFarland and sold my property at Elk Park to Nat W. Taylor and moved back to Elizabethton.
THE LUMBER BUSINESS
One more reference to the hateful lumber business, then I want
to forget it.
When I first thought of going into the lumber business, I very naturally looked at the quotations of prices in the various markets. I relied on these quotations — supposing them (to be the) approximated truth but I was wonderfully deceived.
These quotations are published and controlled by lumber buyers and commission merchants in the cities, and they quote lumber at fictitious prices to induce large shipments. When the lumber is shipped, it is too late to repair the damage to the shipper. This lumber is on the yard and it must be sold for just what it will bring.
I soon found, to my sorrow, that there was no confidence to be put in Commission Men, as a rule. When they receive your lumber or anything else you may send them, they then have everything in their own hands.
In prosecuting the various kinds of business, in which I have been engaged during my somewhat active life, I have had – what I would call a pretty fair experience with Commission Men.
Running through several years, I shipped the following products to different cities. My first experience was in shipping wheat to Richmond, Virginia. It was a few years before the war. (The Civil War – Editor.) I was selling my wheat at a dollar a bushel at my barn at Elizabethton, which was satisfactory to me. My brother in law, who was then selling goods at Johnson’s Depot (Johnson City), persuaded me to haul it to Richmond and get $1.60 for it. I waited a good while before I received my money, and counting out Commission, freight, storage, etc., etc., I got 43 cents a bushel for it, for my share.
(To Be Continued: Part XXXI will begin on page 183 of the transcript; 196 of Dr. Jobe’s Writing)
THE PARTHENON
(Editor’s Note: This continues the series on the Tennessee Centennial Exposition held in Nashville from June 1, 1896 until November 1, 1897. Today’s selection is from page 7 of the Exposition Handbook together with the back cover on page 48 explaining the cost of railroad fares to Centennial celebration. – J. L. Kiener)
A great critic has described architecture as “frozen music,” but exactly why, we are not told; and yet, there is a degree of appropriateness in the description. There it stands, beautiful, majestic, and it all but gives forth heavenly sounds. It is not only an imitation of the glorious Parthenon standing on the Acropolis at Athens, but it is an exact reproduction, rising in beauty and grandeur, with its gaze fixed upon the lovely Valley of the Cumberland, and facing the splendor of the rising sun. This glorious temple, securely built of stone, brick and iron to render it fire-proof, will be the repository of the fine arts collection. Happy thought that suggested the Parthenon, the most perfect and the grandest achievement of all architecture as the temporary home for a gallery of art treasures representing the best work of every school and emporium of art. Ample wall space, a flood of natural light by day and of electric light by night, a collection of canvases surpassing any ever before seen in the South, broad aisles and perfect ventilation, the Art Gallery of the Centennial will give unalloyed pleasure to every visitor.
ART — There is no more potent antidote to low sensuality than the adoration of the beautiful. All the higher arts of design are essentially chaste without respect to the object.
They purify the thoughts as tragedy purifies the passions. Their accidental effects are not worth consideration – there are souls to whom even a vestal is not holy. — Schlegel
RAILROAD FARES TO THE
EXPOSITION
A DETERMINING CONSIDERATION
Inasmuch as low railroad fares will determine many persons to visit the Exposition who would not otherwise do so, the action of the General Passenger Agents representing railway lines into Nashville, in agreeing upon the following rates and terms, was in the highest degree wise, and will inure to the advantage not only of the public, but of the railroads and the Exposition:
It was agreed by the General Passenger Agents that the railway fares to the Exposition should be placed on a sliding scale, and regulated by zones of from 25 to 50 miles each.
In the first zone of 50 miles the rate for the round trip will be 3
cents a mile.
From 51 to 100 miles, 2 3/4 cents per mile.
From 101 to 150 miles, 2 ½ cents per mile.
From 151 to 200 miles, 2 1/4 cents per mile.
From 201 to 275 miles, 2 cents per mile, with 50 cents added.
From 276 to 300 miles, 2 cents per mile, with 75 cents added.
From 301 to 325 miles, 2 cents per mile, with $1 added.
From 326 to 350 miles, 2 cents per mile, with $1.50 added.
The fare, however, is in no instance to exceed 80 per cent, of the rate one way, on the zones from 201 to 350 miles.
For military companies and bands in uniform, of twenty-five or more, the rate will be 2 cents a mile, plus arbitrary, for the round trip. The same rate applies to schools, when accompanied by teachers. These rates limit the use of tickets to seven days after the date of issue.
These rates of transportation are in every way as favorable as have ever been made, and they are upon a more liberal basis than the rates charged to Chicago until within sixty days of the close of the great World’s Fair.
Low rates have been made from all points in the country, including the East, and all interested should inquire at their railroad offices for rates. The railroads have made it to the interest of every one to attend The Exposition.