Greene County, Tennessee
Memories of Mosheim I won't pretend to know a lot about Mosheim, Tennessee. My mother and her sister and brother were born near Baileyton and the family moved to Mosheim around 1923. The old photos shown here are copied from my aunt's collection, and I believe they originally were published as part of a history of the Mosheim School. I have added a few color photographs, too.
My grandmother, Jennie White Davis, was a school teacher, and my grandfather, Charles "Starchy" Davis, ran a hardware store with Alec Bible. It later closed, and he worked in Greeneville until his death in 1946.
My memories are of summers in Mosheim in the 1950s and 60s. We usually stayed at my aunt's old farmhouse, which was separated from the railroad tracks by a small field. By that time Mosheim was just a whistle stop with no depot, and when the train came through in the middle of the night it shook the whole house. At 5:30 a.m. we awoke to the sound of the cows going out to pasture.
We loved that old house, with its uneven wooden plank floors and high ceilings. It didn't have an indoor bathroom until the mid 1960s, and the outhouse was in the chicken yard. We city kids were petrified of what we would encounter inside the outhouse, but I was most afraid of the chickens and cows!
Some of us would stay at my Granny Davis' house on Main Street. What a wonderful house, we thought, with French doors between the living and dining rooms, mother of pearl push button light switches, and one and a half bathrooms. I'm sure it was the latest thing in 1923! Unfortunately, it had running water but no hot water.
From my aunt's we could walk down the hill to Bob Price's store for a popcicle. At that time it was just across the creek ("branch") and on the other side of Main Street. The original location of the Price Store was just a little bit up the hill, where the Mosheim Town Hall is now.
Sometimes when the train came through, slowing down to drop off the mail, we kids would jump into an open car, run through, and jump off on the other side. (Don't tell our parents!)
In the early evenings we played outside in the Conway's front yard. I remember it filled with lightening bugs and the hosta blooms that glowed so white in the twilight. Years after the house was torn down to make room for the new Highway 11-E, Mama still talked about the sweet scent of those hostas. (Memories so tender that I couldn't bring myself to go back to Mosheim for many years after the two houses were demolished).
I'm showing the old photographs without much explanation, because the landscape of Mosheim has changed so much through the years, I don't recognize all of the scenes. Most of the buildings shown in these early-1900's photographs are no longer in existence, and even the "new" Mosheim High School has been torn down and a new elementary school built in its place. If anyone has any additional information about these scenes, please let me know!
Annette has added here memories about the house pictured in the old Main St. photograph at the top of this page:
"My grandparents, Joe and Aretta (Greene) Clowers lived in that house on main street for many years during the late 60's and throughout the 70's before it was moved and the Tacoma Medical Center was put there. I would visit my grandparents often in the summers and as we grew up they shared the history of the house. It was used as a hospital during the Civil War and Papaw told us there was a trap door in the basement of the house where they would hide soldiers who were not seriously wounded until they could heal and return to the battle lines. I found it too scary to go in the basement personally, but my boy cousins were always looking for the infamous trap door.
"There was a spot on the ceiling in the kitchen that we assume was blood. Many times they painted over the spot and it always came back. I've always heard that to be true of blood stains, that they will never come out.
"I was always fascinated by the old house. I spent the first half of my life considering that my second home. My grandparents sold the house in 1985 and moved up the street that runs beside the church and is parallel to Mosheim School (Oak Hill Street). The hospital bought the property and someone else bought the house. The house was moved and I remember it was so large they had to cut it in half to move it. They moved it up toward Greeneville a little ways off 11-E and I think about 10 years later they ended up tearing it down. It just wasn't the same structurally after it was moved. You have definitely inspired me to take some notes or record some of Granny's stories. Something I have been meaning to do for a long time now." Annette
OLD PHOTOGRAPHS
To see a map of Mosheim today, search MapQuest
Mosheim, TN, Zip 37818
BATTLE OF BLUE SPRINGS
Mosheim's original name was Blue Springs, and a major Civil War battle was fought here.
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