Johnson Bible college is located about 20 miles east of Knoxville, Tn. out in
the country on the banks of the French Broad River and on the western edge of
the Great Smokey Mountains.
This school was a favorite charity recipient of my wife's father, Mr. Warren W.
Cline, during his lifetime. It was established in 1893, and my wife, Bettie
Virginia Cline, an I were last there in 1993 for the 100th anniversary
celebration. My wife's brother David attended school at Johnson about
1946-1949.He had decided to become a minister at the age of 9 when he became a
member of the Christian church, and the decision became further reinforced
right after WWII when he was in the navy on a destroyer with the Pacific Fleet.
The whole fleet got caught unexpectedly in a typhoon and his ship rode out the
main storm listing as much as 65 degrees, or nearly lying on its side. The ship
lost its paint during the storm and required a new paint job. David flunked
Greek at Johnson during his three year stay and went on to
the electrical fix-it man with the long flashlight. So, in memory of her dad
and brother and in Christian Service, Bettie likes to go to Johnson each year
after school is out to what they call SENIOR SAINTS IN THE SMOKIES. She
generally donates about $300 yearly to the college. I go along with her and
enjoy meeting everybody.
For this year's trip we left
19,1995, to drive about 340 miles by 3:30 P.M E.D.S.T., arriving about 1 1/2
hours earlier than 5 P.M. the designated time to register. We took the scenic
country routes through
filled our gas tank with Ga. Gasoline because gas is 12 cents a gallon cheaper
in
area, and the garden spot of
interesting in that one can be in three southern states in less than a 25 mile
drive. One can go to the top of
clear day see seven states. From
superhighways at a speed of about 60 M.P.H. Many were traveling at 75 or more
and passed us as if we were standing still.
The first time I came to
did the motels. We spent one day at the World's Fair and became bored. The rest
of the time I spent on genealogical searches at the McClung Library and at Knox
county courthouse. There I found much material on my Hallmark and Mynett
ancesters. The
distant kinsmen. The last day we went to the Little Flat Creek Baptist Church.
The Hallmarks and the Mynatts helped build the original church in 1791. I did a
word description of this church at that time.
Since 1987 we have come to THE SENIOR SAINTS OF THE SMOKIES program at least
six times. I believe everybody that is a Christian is supposed to be a saint
and fits into their program. I have a little trouble calling myself a saint,
since I have quite a few imperfections. It sometimes takes a few hundred years
for a Catholic to be sainted. At Johnson we were all saints. Most of the people
were old, so they deserved to be called saints if they had lived the good life.
My wife Bettie is a good Christian and fits the saint description.
The reason the college sponsors this program is probably a selfish one. It
acquaints older church people with the college and its personnel in hopes that
some of them may become donors. It gives the older people a chance to associate
with each other. Nothing is scheduled in the evenings until 7:30 P.M. That gives
a chance to visit the Smokies in the Gatlingburg, Tn. area. There is a religious
service after breakfast each morning. After that there are workshops on
different subjects in different rooms at 9:45 A.M. This year I attended
workshops on Understanding Contemporary Culture, and another on "The struggle
for
years, the Fundamentalist have seldom been mentioned in a favorable light by the
media. By TV and radio and the press you would think they are out to take away
rights and prevent the wheel of progress from turning. I saw no-one with
pistols strapped to their sides, or that advocated the overthrow of the
government. Most figured the most influence they could have would be by example
of living a decent life themselves. They are worried about the media's control
of the people and shifting them back toward the jungle morally. I Generally go
to two or three of these workshops each time I come and go away not feeling
anything bad has happened to me. My thinking has always been biased toward the
decent. So has everyone's thinking been biased in some direction, whatever the
area. The Senior Saints also have a night program at 7:45 P.M consisting of
singing the old church hymns, religious talks, talent night, and the last night
patriotic songs dedicated to the veterans. They ask the veterans to stand, and
that is where I stand up and am made to feel great. I was in the army from
1942-1945 in WWII.
Great food servings are part of the Senior Saints program. You take your pick
of most anything that is ordinarily served for breakfast and lunch. There is no
evening meal served, but one goes through a line where he can pack a sack lunch
consisting of peanut butter and jelly, about 3 types of sliced meat, different
types of loaf bread for the sandwich, and all sorts of trimmings. There are
apples, oranges, and bananas, cookies, and an assortment of soft drinks. Many
of the attendees overindulge in the eating part including this one, thereby
violating one of the principles of good living stressed by the Bible. The
Bible says be temperate in all things. Eating intemperance would be my harshest
criticism of the gathering.
The lodging is in one of the student dormitories. We had been getting a boys
dorm called Brown Hall until this year.(1995) This year we got the modern
girl's dormitory (Johnson Hall.) the temperature was better controlled, but we
had an inside room with no window to the outside. The insides of the rooms at
both places are modern and efficiently arranged. They are for two students. The
rooms have a desk with drawers and a bookcase that reaches the ceiling at 2
corners of the room. A pull out bed is on each side of the room with shelf and
padded flip openings to space below the shelves that that serve as the back of
a sofa arrangement when bed is pushed in. The room has 2 closets with a mirror
between with 3 drawers each for 2 students and a tall mirror beside the door. I
believe the mirrors were only in the girl's dormitory. Each room also has a
telephone. I saw no connection for cable TV. Perhaps the college has taken away
some rights to view pornography, etc. Ha! Isn't that awful?
I have done various things in the afternoons when visiting Johnson. As already
mentioned I searched library and courthouse records on the first trip and went
to the World's Fair. On one or two of the trips, I searched through the old
1800's church magazines for glimpses of my ancester’s church activities and
description of church houses where they attended. I have found out a few things
doing that and found the old timers expected one to shape up and deliver the
goods. On other trips I have played with my mobile amateur radio from my auto
parked under a shade tree at Brown Hall. There I have talked to various hams
and tripped the many radio 2 meter repeaters in the
one on
talked to people east of the Smokies in N.C. S.C., and
someone on highway 85 or 95 talking much of the time. There are other repeaters
on nearly every high mountain down the west side of the Smokies. Last year we
took the hike along the eastern banks of the
college land. On it there used to be a boat landing for the college. The early
students came by boat or by stage from
one spot, and Bettie had to be helped across that. We ate an outdoor picnic
lunch at the faculty leader's house, and then walked back along modern roads
and streets. This year (1995) we went to
mile walk. There we went uphill 1.3 miles to a beautiful 75 ft. high waterfall.
It was a struggle going up but no trouble coming back.
near Pigeon Forge and
the chauffeur for us and 4 more on the trip. I asked her if they had gardens in
singer similar to our daughter Bettie Dawn. The hills at Gatlingburg were
dotted with motels where the continuous flow of tourist traffic was similar to
that of a big city. One motel was 10-15 stories high. One could get a
helicopter ride and look the section over. Our group didn't seem interested in
that.
The characters (I'm one too) attending the event always seem interesting to me.
I always have time to pick out at least one or two interesting people to talk
to. This year(1995) I found one right away. She sat down beside me at the first
meal. She said she was 83 years old, lived back in the country off the main
roads, and had a 4 wheel drive vehicle and drove it to town and church. Her
husband had been killed in an auto wreck ten years ago. She had worked in
flower shops until a year or so ago, then she just retired and was enjoying
herself. She said she didn't care whether she lived much longer. She thought it
would be better to pass on to the great beyond. I didn't understand that
thinking. It was alien to mine. In 1993 I talked to a missionary from
that said he had to pull his own teeth, make his own repairs, be his own doctor
and otherwise be mostly self-sufficient. He seemed impressive to me. Another
fellow made wooden name tags for the over 200 people that are generally at a
session. The tags were in the shape of the state one was from. He was there
this year checking to see if anyone had his tag. We had left ours at home.
Another year I talked with a missionary's wife. She told of her experience in
been there every time I have attended. She always acts as if she were my best
friend. She was there again to greet me this year. The most interesting
character was there at one of our first trips. He was a real old preacher who
had worked in the mountains of W.Va and
had preached some temperance sermons and had been told to leave or get shot.
Bettie's brother David first preached in that area. He had also preached a
temperance sermon and was told to leave. He never told any of his folks about
that. We found out about it several years later from someone in that area
attending a convention. Apparently preachers suffer many humiliations. This
year I had fun asking the old ladies if they were liberated women. There didn't
seem to be a Woman's Libber present. It seemed that what liberty they had was
obtained by conforming to the rules of Christian living. The laws of Christian
living are the laws of liberty. At least they are the nearest that have been
put out.
The main meetings at Johnson are in an auditorium that is also an inside basket
ball court. They had the
flying. They have a flag from every nation where their missionaries have gone,
but there was not room to display them all. Maybe their efforts are having some
impact in the world. It would seem to me that the training should be for home
territory work. The
living, of some moral principles.
The last two sessions we came to before the 1995 one, I brought my camcorder
along and made video pictures of the many things that went on. This year I
brought a pencil and notebook. This writeup is an effort to do a written word
picture. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I am sure my
words are inadequate. I tried anyway. This could very well by our last trip. We
are growing older and feebler.
Done by Fred McCaleb June 1995
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Our Visit to Johnson Bible College June 1995
Wildcat Story
Alma Woodard Tucker who will be 90 her next birthday remembered the old wildcat
story I used to hear at my MrCaleb grandparents when I was a young boy..Mincy
Tidwell had two boys that had gone coon hunting after dark and,it was getting
way on in the night and they hadn't arrived back home. Mincy was worried. She
decided to go looking for her bavs. She went down a lonely dark trail through
the woods. and passed under a tree that was leaning over the trail. A wildcat
jumped from the tree and clawed up her shoulders. Alma said Mincy showed her
shoulders the and scars. This story put fear into my heart after dark when I
was a boy. I was afraid to get into the woods at night.
Jim and Rajina C. McCaleb family visit the Woodards
Their oldest son was my dad H, McCaleb., his brother Walker and.his sister Mary
McCaleb were going to visit their cousins. the Melton and Martha Hollingsworth
Woodard children. Mary and Walker had the Lice.. but daddy didn't have lice in
his hair, Grandma McCaleb told the children not to mention about the lice or
the Woodard children wouldn't play with them, My dad H arrived at the Woodard
home first and announced to his cousins to not play with Walker and Mary.
By Fred McCaleb
Hackworths
by
Fred McCaleb
From the Gonce and Wynne Genealogy:
"There was also a John who married Mary Preston; and a Peter Hackworth. Both
Gabriel and Nichodemus Hackworth signed a petition in 1801, to create Anderson
Co.,
"The Hackworths date back from the 11th century, where they were Castle
Dwellers, or Barons. There is a great castle called "The Hackworth Castle,"
still standing in
" Hackworths came from
Haeck/Haeche crossed the
came to
"Haeck" to "Hack" and added worth- thus becoming Hackworth. Tow brothers,
William and Stephen, believed to be descendants of this line emigrated from
"Augustine Austine Hackworth and William Hackworth (possibly a brother) both
assisted in establishing American Independence, by serving in Thomas Buford's
Company of Bedford County, Virginia Militia during the war of the Revolution.
They were both in the
following pages for Augustine's military documentation. "
(It tells all the battles and where he marched and who his commanders
were...then states: "The applicant afterwards removed from the State of Virgina
to Greene County, N.C. (now Tennessee) where, in the month of August, 1789, as
well as he recalls, he was agian drafted to serve a three-month tour of duty in
the company commanded by Capt. James Moore and Ensign Samuel Hall. ....that this
applicant was marched with the reg't. from there across
Plains and to the
engagement with the Indians."
---------"That he was born in Caroline County, VA. in the year 1746 (the month
he does not recollect); that he had a record years ago, but it has been
destroyed he knows not ho; that he was living in the
drafted to serve first and in
the last term of duty. That from Bedford County, VA he removed to Botetourt
County, VA., where he lived about six years, from there he removed to Greene
County (not Tenn.) where he lived but a few months from there he removed to
Buncombe County, N.C. where he lived one year, from there he removed to Green
County, N.C. (now Tenn.) again where he lived one year, from there he removed
to Knox (now Anderson) county, Tennessee, where he lived about thirty-three
years and from there he removed to Marion County, Tennessee, where he now
lives."
"There are several Court Minutes in Vol. I, 1801-1809 for Anderson Co., TN.
which refer to Augustine and Austin Hackworth serving on Jury duty."
"This following news item from the South Pittsburg Hustler, was sent to the
author by Mary Ruth Hackworth Hodson.
"Sunday, Sept. 9, 1928, the children, grandchildren and many relatives of the
Newton Hackworth family had a picnic and reunion at Sequatchie Spring. This
gathering consisted of about 250 of the Hackworths, one of the first families
to settle in
family.
"About the year 1812 two brothers, Austin and Sam Hackworth, left the Wautauga
settlement in East Tennessee, and came down the
suitable lands for a new settlement. The selected and entered lands near what is
now Condra's Station in
"Austin Hackworth selected what is known as the Hackworth Bend. This consists of
a large horseshoe shaped tract of land, containing about 400 acres almost
surrounded by
"Sam Hackworth became a noted Fiddler of his day. Austin Hackworth became a
noted gun smith.
Newton Hackworth, the second son of Austin Hackworth, born Oct 25, 1825, reared
ten sons and two daughters, who lived to be grown and reared families of their
own. (ten who were living attended a reunion..many of them live in
1. M.W. Hackworth, retired merchant from Llano,
2. R. J. Hackworth, deceased, represented by his widow. Mary Hackworth and their
son, Mike, from
3. I.N. Hackworth, deceased represented by two sons, Oscar, cashier of Tennessee
Valley Bank,
meat-packing establishment at
4. J.B. Hackworth, ex-Probate Judge,
5. J.$. Hackworth, Superintendent of
6. J.L. Hackworth, Attorney, State's solicitor,
7. S.A. Hackworth, retired merchant, Jasper,
8. Mrs. Anne H. Matthews, wife of John Mathews, mechanic, N.C. & St. L. RR,
9. Dr. C. L. Hackworth, deceased, represented by his widow, Mrs. Grace, and his
son, John Bible Hackworth, South Pittsburg, Tenn.
10. Joe J. Hackworth, distributor of Gulf Refining Co., Gas and Oils,
11. Mrs. Lydia H. Sells, teacher,
12. Bunyan Hackworth, retired pharmacist, dealer in hardware,
13. W.M. Allison, half brother by Mother's former marriage, farmer,