GIBSON COUNTY, TN - SKULLBONIA - "Uncle" Green Smith ==================================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Vicki Shaffer ==================================================================================== "Uncle" Green Smith, Pioneer "Squatter" And Citizen "Uncle: Green Smith was a very old man and he liked to talk about "old times". According to oldtimers who knew him well, Green Smith and his father moved from North Carolina to Carroll County, just east of Huntingdon, in the early part of 1805. They didn't like it there and in the fall of 1805 they moved to where Holly Leaf was later founded, Green Smith being 5 years old at that time. Here they built a lowly log cabin in which he lived until he died in 1915, at the ripe old age of 115 years. He was buried in "Cribbs Camp Ground" Cemetery , not far from his old log home. People of this modern world, of 1960, wonder just how it was possible for a man to live such a happy life, raise a family and live to be 115 in such "cramped up" quarters as his one-room log cabin? Even though it was a big room? He raised two sons, John and Thomas; and, a daughter, Mary. "Uncle" Green wasn't a tall man, just average height, but a "well-built" man and one of the strongest in the whole country. He never missed those prize log- rollings. Esq. Frank Bruff was also a big man and he and "Uncle" Green would weigh, once each year, for a small item like shoes, hat socks, etc. Green Smith was strong enough to swim the Mississippi river and did. He said that he heard Andrew Jackson speak while Jackson was running for president; that he rode behind his father to Reelfoot lake to see what all the "shakes" were about; and that on his many boat trips to New Orleans, he had stopped off at Memphis when there was only one store there, a log store run by a Mr. Phillips from Weakley county. He said he made a boat trip from Hart's Mill, alone, carrying their products down the South Fork Obion and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, which was quite a trick. Even Davy Crockett once failed at flatboating on this route. He thought nothing about walking 55 miles between Skullbonia and Hickman, Kentucky, when younger and, even just a short time before he died, he was still walking around ten miles over into Weakley County to visit kinfolks, now and then. He was extremely healthy, red-faced and had very few wrinkles right on up to his death. He liked to lumberjack around and got one leg broken twice. This didn't faze him, but when he was 115 years old, he fell and broke his hip. He had no penicillin, the hip refused to heal, became infected and killed him. When he reached 100, people began to ask him his secret for long life. His pet reply was "likker, 'lasses and 'crumble-in", which is cornbread crumbled into milk. He would take his morning "dram", eat a big breakfast of biscuits, ham, eggs, "cow-butter" and 'lasses. But for both dinner and supper, he ate only "crumble-in". He chawed tobacco and drank a reasonable amount of whiskey all his life but, when he died at 115, the local "wags" said, "that old liquor finally got him"! PROOF OF "TWO-WAY" BOAT TRAFFIC ON OBION RIVER In many ways, "Uncle" Green Smith was an unusual character or personality. He had very little wealth or education, yet he had a keen mind of unusual native intelligence and a photographic memory. He could talk interestingly for hours about oldtimes, squatters, "injuns", hard times, oldtime social functions, fights and his own exploits during his "Skipper" days on the South Fork Obion river. He was honest, neighborly and his credit was good, but rarely used. When the N.O. railroad was built, they heard of Uncle Green's exploits and offered to pay all his expenses if he would come to Memphis, but he refused to ride on a train, but let venerable Calvin Cooper tell about Uncle Green. CALVIN COOPER SAID, QUOTE: "I have talked to Green Smith of Holly Leaf for nearly a half day at a time. A short time before he died at around 115 years old, he walked from Holly Leaf to near Greenfield to visit his daughter. He had been doing this for years! He and I talked for half day out here in the graveyard and he told me about keeping and attending to Bears for a man on "the bluff", at Memphis when there was only a few frame houses in Memphis. He slept out there and fed those bears in cold weather and his feet frostbit and came near having to cut them off. After the N.O. Railroad was built, they heard of Uncle Green's exploits in Memphis, offered to pay all his expenses if he would go to Memphis, but nobody could ever get Green Smith to ride a train, no way you fixed it. "Green Smith and other's have told me about boats hauling freight, groceries, etc., on South Fork Obion river. Green Smith, himself, made quite a number of trips to New Orleans, etc. He said they shipped freight and stuff to "old" Christmasville from various ports down the Obion and Mississippi rivers. Then they would haul the groceries by wagon from the boats or docks in old Christmasville to the various stores there. The old town had a cotton gin and one of the biggest tan yards in the whole country. I have seen enough tanning bark there to cover 5 acres of ground! I am too young to have seen them, and don't know what kind of power they used but all people old enough, including Uncle Green Smith knew and told of the boats being operated during that period before good dirt roads and railroads. There is no doubt about flat-boat operation in both directions on the south Fork Obion river. There was great line of stores on the far side of the levy, all up and down the road as you go to Trezevant a little this side of Turnpike bridge in Carroll County." End of Cooper quote. The long-distance "trading boats" and flatboats had a shanty room for living quarters, to sleep, cook and keep out of weather while making long trips, according to Allen Sharp, Will Flippin and others. Some of the smaller ones were called "Shantyboats". GREEN SMITH WAS TURKEY DEALER. WALTER AKINS SAID, QUOTE: "I was born in the Gann community, between Milan and Skullbone village, just north of the Gann Store, about 2-1/2 miles from Holly Leaf. I lived near Green Smith and heard him talk a lot about his exploits down the Obion and Mississippi rivers to Memphis, New Orleans, etc. I have heard him say that he had been to New Orleans when it was very small and to Memphis when there was only one store there and it was a "log" store, and he bought goods there on his way back from New Orleans. He said that he made trips to New Orleans, taking thousands of turkeys on boats down the Mississippi river to sell there. But the most interesting part of the trip was from Holly Leaf to Hickman, Kentucky, about 55 miles. He walked and the turkeys walked every mile down there! Only dirt trails in those days. He would be driving those turkeys down those long dirt roads to Hickman and, whether he liked it or not, when the sun went down and dusk approached, those turkeys would fly up into the trees and roost till next morning, having their own union hours. So Green Smith, also, just had to roost when and where the turkeys roosted! I suppose it required about 5 days to get to Hickman. Green Smith was a strong man and he told me that he swam across the Mississippi river. He would eat anything he could get a hold of, for breakfast and "crumble-in" for both dinner and supper. I still like old crumble-in, myself (corn bread crumbled into "sweet" milk). It must be a good diet for Uncle Green lived to be 115." End of Walter Akins quote.