Dade County History Book

The leaves were of brilliant color on that blustery day many a year ago.   All seemed at peace, for the tine being, but the fighting was still present.   The year was 1864, about the last year of the Civil War.   My great-great-great grandmother Catherine Glowers was at her homestead in Dean County, Tennessee. The old house was barely standing.   It was an old home made of logs set upon rocks.   On the front porch were two old rockers swaying in the afternoon breeze.

The children were doing their chores while the young ones played.  At this tine Sarah Jane was only about four years old.   Catherine was busy watching over her children and the house since her husband Elbert T. Glowers was in the Union Army.   On this particular day, which was like any other, something unexpected happened.  Down the old dirt road, with dust in the air, Catherine saw two figures coming down the long road toward her house.  Alarmed by who it could be, she went inside and told the little ones to hide and she went to get the gun. Standing on the porch with the gun under her arm she shouted out, asking who was coming.   Elbert yelled “It’s me Catherine, it’s me your husband Elbert.”  Catherine was so pleased to see her husband and for him to be home.   Elbert was only home en leave from the army though and his associate, a man called Shavers, was also on leave and making his way home to his family.   Catherine called the children to come outside because their father was home.   Elbert and Catherine embraced for the first time in many months,   The children, including Sarah Jane, came running cut of the house so happy to see their father and to see that he was safe.   They all went inside the house to sit and reminisced about what all had happened since the last time they saw one another.   Elbert was so thrilled to see his children and wife again that a tear of joy rolled down his check as he looked into Catherine’s mystical dark brown eyes.   Catherine was half Cherokee Indian, and had high check bones, long dark hair, and a dark skin tone.

Elbert and Shavers were talking about the war and all they had experienced when a thundering sound of horse hooves came down the dirt road.   Outside one could hear men’s voices calling Elbert and Shavers to come outside.   Catherine was beginning to get worried and a strange feeling came over her.   She asked herself how anyone knew that Shavers was here. Once again she told the little ones to go and hide and she picked up her pistol and put it under the apron she was wearing.  As she approached the door she could hear the men’s voices threatening her husband’s life.   She stepped cut onto the porch and told the slackers that she knew who they were just by their voices, because they had masks on.   She advised them to leave; and that they better not touch one hair on her husband’s head.   The slackers wanted to hang both Elbert and Shavers from the front porch.   Just then Catherine pulled the pistol cut from under her apron and ordered them to leave at once or she would kill the first man who came any closer. Finally, they left or so Elbert and Catherine thought.   Elbert and Catherine went inside and left Shavers sitting on the porch rocking.

The next morning came along too soon with the crowing of the roosters and the sun peeking around the trees.   Everyone was in the kitchen helping to prepare breakfast when Elbert noticed that Shavers was missing.   About a week later, a few miles south of the Glowers’ homestead, Shavers’ body was found with a rope around his neck and horse hooves imprinted on his body. Elbert knew it was Shavers.  Shavers had on a special pair of socks that Catherine had knitted for Elbert before the war began.

Elbert T. Clowers and Catherine dowers are my great-great-great grandparents.   Their daughter Sarah Jane Clowers married Washington LaFayette Warren Ellison.   They are of course my great-great grandparents.   Their son William Kirksey Ellison married Lillie Mae Smith and they are my great grandparents.  Their son Porter is my grandfather.  Porter Ellison and Lela Marie Holland in turn had my father Lonnie Buel Ellison.