Possum Trot over the Years

01/04/09


We've had quite a journey at Possum Trot over the last thirty odd years.  In October of 1975 Mary's brother, Charles and I discovered there was a sidewalk to the house and began what has turned into a three decade long battle with the weeds, trees and drainage around the cabin.  In the early days, we carried our water in in jerry cans over the field to the north of us, a 0.6 mile trek that often found me turning the air blue with frustration over the mud and distance.  We tore down the framed cabin my grandfather built in 1979 as the roof went before I was old enough to take care of it and in 1987, we erected the log cabin.  Later, we added a room onto the north side of the cabin and plumbed the basement under it for a bath.  We have installed a new water system now, inspired by all of the rainwater catchment tanks we saw in Australia.  We are gradually working our way up to solar panels, having already installed a partial, 12-volt system, inverters and a generator hook-up.  My great, great grandfather would be amazed! As far as I know, there is nothing left of the work he did at Possum Trot except perhaps the threshold of his cabin which is the mantel of our fireplace.  Here's a bit of photographic history through the years since about 1929 when my grandfather began his building program there. 

 
Here's O. K. "Ham" Malone's 1929 dump bed Chevy just above the spring where rock had been hand drilled and blown with black powder for work at the cabin.  Bill Blind from Sparta was the carpenter on the job, here looking out the south side of the second story where there used to be four windows.    
Sam Hood, right, did the cooking (and the lying, er, story telling, according to my father.)  The structure in the background was built over an old cabin foundation in the space between the cabin and the barn.  I believe it was the foundation for a cabin Francis Marion Bates and Bedora Manor built.  The workers slept in the structure through the winter while work progressed on the cabin.   The old fireplace, complete with crane (which was stolen along with the andirons) built by Tom Candler who had a blacksmith shop behind the Bates Hotel in Sparta.  The stonemason (probably a loose term here) was "Ducky" Lattimore who spit his tobacco juice into the mortar to give it a bit more local flavor. 

Dad's rabbit hutch facing south over the meadow.  Note the fruit trees in rows in the center.  

 

 Grandpa's cabin.  The fence and tree trunks were whitewashed, a common practice at the time.  The fence posts were Osage orange and were still in great shape when I took the fence out seventy years later!  Eugene "Slick" Crain and his brother Earl (my mother's cousins) worked with Ike, a neighbor, to set the fence posts around the farm. 
My grandfather, Joseph C. Bates, Sr., sharpening a scythe while holding the snathe. My grandmother, Anna Ella Reinhardt, in the front yard.  Note the convertible in the background.
Grandpa with Zipper near the barn.  There used to be a short stone wall outlining the driveway and a gate at the barn at the end of the driveway.  This is the gate into the yard at the house sidewalk. The building in the background is the old chicken shed which stood behind and a little to the south of the barn. 
Grandpa and Zipper with a 1929 (?) Pontiac with the barn and the chicken shed in the background.  In the room behind the car, on the south end of the barn, a baby was born in the middle of a cold winter to Vernon (Grandma's cousin) and Izola Henderson.  Dad arrived on his horse shortly after the baby came into this world. Albert Reinhardt (Friedrich Adolphus - he changed his name to sound more English during WWI) and Dad on a Sunday afternoon in the front yard.  Albert died at least fifteen years after this photo was taken! 
Grandma at the gate - The masonry is the work of Rudi Ditzler, a really good stone mason.  I just wish my grandfather had been patient enough to wait for Rudi to do the walls at the cabin.  Rudi built the root cellar, though.  He also built the stone arches into the basement walls of the Bates Hotel in Sparta so the two basements could be opened up to form the Rio Rita Ballroom.  The stone he removed was used to build the cabin walls.  Grandpa and Zipper at the gate.  Note the wing walls which were stolen in the mid-80's.  The gate and the plaque were stolen in the 70's.  Tom Candler built the gates. 
Bill McKelvey and Pearl Simmons inventoried the farm before Grandpa rented it to a Mr. Thurman at one point in the 40's.  Note the two cedar trees by the end of the steps.  Charles and I cut them out in 1975.  The stumps are still there!  The persimmon tree is there as well albeit a tad larger and pieces of the flower container by the cellar steps still linger near the wood hutch.  These steps are the old wooden ones which Grandpa later replaced with concrete. Dad, Aunt Sis and Zipper plus the shadow of the photographer in the front yard on that Sunday long ago. 
Front of the cabin showing the old steps and a cage underneath.  Dad, a goat, Johnny Grasaway and Grandpa, 1930
Wolf Roofing Truck - Tag Wolf from Sparta probably did the roofing on the barn. Grandpa, Dad and Fred Heimbach at the spring
Joe III aka "Davey Crocket" at the gate Joe with Louise's VDub in December of 1970
West side of the cabin, 1970 Recently uncovered sidewalk and clearing, October 1975
Snowstorm around 1980
The meadow before clearing, ca 1980
   
   

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This site was last updated 01/04/09