Sumner County TN Archives History - Letters .....James Curren Clendenning & Family ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tn/tnfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Janet King JPerdue192@aol.com March 24, 2009, 1:44 pm Grandma Charlotte (Charlotte Perdue) died in 1888 and Grandpa (James Curren Clendenning) married Miss Zora (Lucinda Izora Ray Hobdy). Grandpa had seven children at home. Two older children - Uncle Will (Clendenning) and Aunt Dellie (Clendenning) had married before 1893. Aunt Anne (Clendenning) had went to Portland at 13 years to go to school. She stayed with Professor James O. Blaine and his sister Harriet who was blind. Everyone called them Uncle Jim and Aunt Harriet, they never married and opened their doors to young teenage children. Uncle Jim made the children work, go to School & Church and then they were on their own. Aunt Harriet sent Anne to town to get some clothes to wear in winter to school. Aunt Anne got the clothes and came home and showed Aunt Harriet the clothes. Aunt Harriet being blind couldn't see them but she felt them and when Aunt Anne went to bed Aunt Harriet went into Anne's bedroom and said "Anne you didn't get yourself wool clothes you got thin clothes. You must take them back and get wool clothes to keep you warm this winter". They (Harriet and her brother) must have been God's Angels sent as humans in disguise. When grandpa (James Clendenning) married his second wife things were very mixed up. Grandpa and his new wife decided to build a new house. They were going to let her five children (from first marriage to Joseph Hobdy)live in her old house and Grandpa's children by Charlotte were to live in his old house. Miss Zora wanted the new house for her and grandpa alone. She was a very mean mother and step-mother in every way. Aunt Biddie was sent to live with the Gibsons and worked in the store. Aunt Sallie went to live with Jim Perdue and work in his store at Porland. Aunt Maude took turns living with her older married sister & brother until Uncle Jim Blaine took her in. She lived with him and taught school til she married. Grandpa kept Uncle Brodie (Clendenning) and my Daddy (Charlie Clendenning) to help with the crops. When Uncle Brodie was 16yrs he got in a fight with Miss Zora and he packed his clothes and left one day before Grandpa got home. He went to New Roe, KY which at the time was a real town with stores and everything(Brodie worked in one of the stores). He then went to New Port News, VA and worked in the ship yards and finally to Pittsburg, PA where he worked in the steel mill til he died. My Daddy (Charlie Clendenning) left home at 15yrs and went to live with Uncle Jim (Blaine) and go to school in Portland. He said he didn't know what grade he was in so he took all the books that he had read and put them on a table and said "Figure it out yourself the grade I am in". Well they put him in High School. That was how things were done back then. Then they (Miss Zora & Grandpa) put Aunt Mac (Dorothy Clendenning) with Granny Ray (Miss Zora's parents Peter and Mary Reed Ray) to keep house for them (she was 6yrs old). They were not very good to her making her clean house and had her cooking over a fire. Aunt Anne went to see her and was afraid she would get burned. Anne went to Uncle Jim (Blaine) and told him that they were making her do things that she wasn't big enough to do. Uncle Jim (Blaine) said "Anne go get Mac and bring her here and we will raise her". So that is just what she did. Aunt Anne stayed and cared for Uncle Jim and his sister Aunt Harriet (Blaine) until they died and she (Anne) got their home and all their belongings. I (Mary Lottie) was ten years old when Uncle Jim (Blaine) died. He was the cleanest, neatest elderly man I had ever seen. My memory of him was his long white whiskers (no amber stains) or anything and he always smelled so clean. A child remembers those things. Grandpa and Miss Zora would go off for a week at a time. Once Daddy (Charlie Clendenning) said he and Aunt Maude were there by themselves and they got hungry and so went up in the attic and threw down a ham. Aunt Maude was going to catch it but the dog must have been hungry too because he grabbed the ham and ran under the house with it. Then they caught an old rooster and dress it and cooked it all day and it never did get done. They were seven and nine years old. Henry Grubbs was visiting one day and Miss Zora was cooking dinner and she was making two cherry pies. She put sugar in one for her and Grandpa and the other one for the kids no sugar. Mr. Grubbs waited until it was almost time to eat and switched the pies so the kids got the pie with sugar. Aunt Maude married to Rayburn Sumner. They were living in Alabama when she died in 1914 and was buried in Alabama. Rayburn Sumner died in 1915. Grandpa (James Clendenning) had Maude's body moved to Portland Cemetery. Aunt Mac went and got Aunt Maud's daughter Evelyn. Aunt Annie would not take the baby. Uncle Will had her for awhile but Aunt Mallie soon got tired of the baby. The older sisters had so many children of their own they could not take her. After Grandpa died (James Clendenning) Miss Zora took turns living with her daughters (Hobdy) but they soon tired of her meddling. So she went to live with Uncle Gus (Neal) and Aunt Emma (dau of James Clendenning by Miss Zora Ray). A man came from Gallatin Courthouse and told Uncle Gus that he believed that Miss Zora was entitled to a pension from Grandpa's service in the Civil War. He said he would put in a claim. The claim went thru and Uncle Gus gave Miss Zora half and kept half for her room & board. Two of the daughters Miss Zora had by first husband Joseph Hobdy found out about the pension and demanded a share. Uncle Gus blew his top as these same sisters that had turned Miss Zora out and refused to care for her. The sisters threatened to go to Gallatin Courthouse and stop the pension but nothing came of it. Miss Zora also mistreated her first sit of children. The day Grandpa married Miss Zora one of her little girls tried to climb up on the buggy with them and Zora pushed her down and left her crying. When Miss Zora married grandpa (James Clendenning) she left her children to care for themselves. The neighbors went in and took her children. Their names were: Alex, Effie, Viggie, Ada and Anne. Alex, Viggie and Anne went to Texas. Anne married and had a daughter. Anne's husband died and she had to work at washing and cleaning other people's homes. Anne's daughter married a rich man and they both died without children. Anne's sisters and brother (Hobdy) and half sister Aunt Emma (Neal) received a portion ($2,000) of this estate. Miss Viggie Hobdy went to Texas and married a Gettings and had a son Ray Gettings in Texas. Her husband died and she took her child and came back to Portland, TN and married Rile Boren who she had went with when she was young. They had a daughter Lois. Written by Mary Lottie Clendenning Mayhew daughter of Charlie and Francis Sarver Mayhew. Mary Lottie Clendenning b 4 Feb 1917 d 8 Nov 2001 m Erbin Mayhew b 23 March 1913 d 4 Mar 1999. Additional Comments: James Curren Clendenning was born 24 Oct 1837 to Wm Clendenning & Mary Perdue. He married (1) 2 August 1866 Sumner Co., TN to Charlotte Letty Perdue (his half Aunt) daughter of Daniel Perdue & Harriet Wyatt. He married (2) Isadora Ray Hobdy. James C. Clendenning was in Company C of the 7th TN Inf organized at Gallatin. He was wounded at Seven Pines, VA 31 May 1862 in the left hip and left temple. He spent 60 days in a hospital in Richmond, VA. He was at the battle of Gettsburg and was part of the infamous Pickett's charge. James was captured 3rd of July 1863 and sent to Fort Delaware in Maryland. He was exchaged the 27th Feb 1865 and returned to the War and was captured the 5 April 1865 and paroled 30 May 1865. He applied for a pension 31 July 1907 stating his wife was 55 years and they had a twelve year old daughter (pension application roll 68 #9660). James Clendenning died 5 Oct 1921 and was buried Maple Hill Cemetery, Portland, TN. Charlotte Perdue Clendenning died 1888. They had nine children: William H. b 25 June 1867 d 27 Aug 1934 m Mallie Rippy Delia Margaret b 1869 d 1939 m Wilson Gregory Ann E. b March 18 Mar 1871 d 27 Feb 1936 never married Biddie Dew b 20 Dec 1872 d 15 Feb 1953 m Richard Deasy Sarah Oma "Sallie" b 1876 d 1959 m Adolphus Braswell Brodie b 1880 d in Pennsylvania m Gertrude (maiden?name) Charlie Bates 23 Nov 1883 d 19 Mar 1864 m Francis E. Sarver Maude Rebecca b 8 Sept 1885 d 17 Nov 1914 m Rayburn Sumner Dorothy McCreary "Mac" b 1887 d ? m E. T. Morgan James Clendenning & Lucinda Isadora Ray had one daughter: Mary Emaline Clendenning b Aug 1898 d 17 Feb 1989 m Robert Gus Neal File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/sumner/history/letters/jamescur51gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/tnfiles/ File size: 9.2 Kb