The Best of Ellijay, Blue Ridge & Jasper Funpaper issue 7 | Page 48

D

addy was
born in May of
1929. He was
a “town boy”, his
father ( my grandfather) had asked for
his inheritance so he
didn’t have to farm.
With that money he
purchased a general
store, which our
family, by the time I came along, called a grocery
store. At the time of the land purchase, he bought
several city lots, selling most of them off, making a
neighborhood that still stands today. This particular
side of my family moved to Gilmer County around
1850. It pains me to know the land I purchased
where my house sits, was once owned by my greatgreat-great grandfather, included in a ten thousand
acre buy, reaching to Salem Church on Boardtown
Road, over to the Zion Hill Community on
Chatsworth Highway. In fact, the creek that runs
behind my house is Harper’s Creek. Harper is a family name. Jessee Harm Harper and Betsy Minton
named a son Jesse Franklin, who named a son Jesse
Harm II, whose son John Henry, had James Leon,
my father. I’m beginning to sound like the begats in
the Bible, so let’s move on!
My grandfather’s mother was from Dawson
County (the only great-grandparent I have born
outside Gilmer County). She was half Scots and half
Cherokee, his father was Scots-Irish. My grandmother’s mother was half Cherokee and Scots-Irish,
her father of Irish descent. My grandparents married in 1919. My father was born ten years later, the
only boy and the baby of the family. His father was
of the Victorian era, “spare the rod and spoil the
child”, and he was exceedingly rough on my daddy.
My grandfather had been a sniper in World War I
and perhaps this had worn on him, too. Some of the
stories my daddy told would be child abuse by
today’s standards, back then it was the standard of
the day. To make up for this, my grandmother
spoiled and babied him.
My father looked like a full blooded Cherokee,
with raven black hair, eyes just as dark, and copper
colored skin. He was well liked, but ran with a
rough crowd. He smoked, drank, and was a constant at cockfights. He was also generous to a fault,
had a wicked sense of humor, and read constantly.
A lot of my memories are of him with his nose st X