John Robert Dyer and Barsheba Tharpe (Part 2)

Valley of the Terrapins, Slow and Steady Wins the Race

adapted from a manuscript by Nancy Mildred Beals DeWitt

(Part 2)

On the 13th of Dec. 1831, John and Barsheba dyer had a little boy. They named him Augustus W. This oldest son, Augustus marrried Lucinda Woods of Hawkins County, Tennessee in 1849. They had 8 children in the next 11 years. The Civil War begain in 1861 and, of course, the families were all involved. In spite of the fact that they lived in the South, most of the people in this area of Tenessee sympathised with the Union. One of John and Barsheba's son's, Lewis, however, fought on the side of the South, which must have caused heartbreak in the family to have some sons fighting with the North and some with the South.

Augustus, like others in the family went to war. He must have been injured or shellshocked for it was said that when he returned from the war he was never the same. Not everything was damaged, however, for he and Lucinda had three more children! Their 8th child, Malinda, was born in 1861, the 9th, Margaret or Mary Ann, in 1865, so Augustus must have been at war between 1861 and 1865.

See the previous article, Uncle Gus.

The 2nd son of John and Barsheba Dyer was William T., who married Suzan Webster in 1834. This couple lived in Hawkins County. They had 4 children, James , John, Mary and Lucy. The tragedy of the Civil War engulfed them too. William went off to war after Lucy's birth. The family never heard from him again, and had to go on without a father's love and protection, never knowing what had happened to their husband and daddy. It was later found that William was killed during the battle of Strunton, Virginia.

The third child was daughter whom they named Sara Ann, perhaps after John's mother, since indications are that her name was Sarah Taylor. All that is known of this child is that she married Clinton Luster and had 3 children.

Great grandpa Dyer was a blacksmith and hired boys to work for him in his "shop". We know they raised sheep and cattle too, because we have what they called a coverlet that Grandma Dyer and her girls made. They raised the sheep and sheared them. They washed the wool and corded and dyed it. They spun it into yarn. They made the first layer of linen from flax.

Flax is a plant that they raised. They made thread out of the fiber of the flax plant and then wove it into linen. They wove the wool yarn onto it to keep them warm as we would use an afghan today. It took a lot of strange flax tools to work the flax and it takes a lot of hard work to make flax into linen and wool into yarn. We have a piece of their work. Isn't that wonderful? This piece of cloth is over 100 years old. The dyes are all natural, made from plants and roots. The deep blue is from indigo root, which was one of the staple crops of the old South.

In 1837, 2 years after Sara Ann's birth, John and Barsheba had another little girl. They named her Mary, but called her Polly. She married Caswell Tate, a carpenter. Polly and Caswell had a little girl born in 1862. Her nickname was "Toad". When "Toad" was 18 months old in Aug. 1863, her Daddy left to serve in the Civil War. One month later, Polly had another little girl. She named her Worthy Malissa. They called her "Nig." Polly's husband never returned and the family never know what happened to him.

Later, Polly married William P "Bill" Luster and they had two little boys, Caswell and Clint. They lived in the Terrapin Valley. Bill was working in Virginia and was accidentally killed. Cousin James Wesley Dyer had gone to stay all night with Caswell and Clint when a man brought Polly the news of Bill's death.

Uncle Jim as we called him recalls the terrible experience in a letter written in 1926 to Grandma Beals and I quote, "A Mr. Everett came quite a bit before daylight and called to Aunt Polly and told her of the accident. She was almost prostrated at the news and all of us were much upset by this terrible tragedy. It was awful! I shall never forget it. The body was brought from Virginia and arrived some time before daylight. It was sure a sad and pathetic case." For many years the family has grieved for he was grossly killed in a sawmill accident. I remember my father telling me his Uncle Bill Luster was killed in a sawmill. His body was chopped to pieces.

Great Aunt Polly stayed there in Tarpine Valley and raised her little family. She has a grandson, Ira Luster who still lives there with his wife Earnestine. He is 83 years old and his wife is 83. (I don't know how old this manuscript is.) Ira's father, Clint, (Aunt Polly's son) came out West in the early 1900's and went to Idaho and visited the Dyers and Beals in Pima, Arizona. Then he went back to Tennessee. He did a good job of raising Ira for they are always so cordial to everyone who visits them.

We visited them in 1946 and again in 1949. they showed us that gold ole' fashined southern hospitality. Ira's laugh was truly contagious. He would "get tickled" and his whole body would laugh, drawing in everyone around. He was full of funny stories and has an outstanding memory of almost everyone who lived in the tarpine valey. Everyone who ever visited Ira and Ernestine leave with fond memories.

In 1946 we took my father and mother to see them. My father enjoyed it so much and Ira went with us and showed us where everyone lived and where they used to live, and what happened to them and where they are now. In the words of my mother, "Papa never quit talking about that trip the rest of his life."