Christopher Sexton

      Christopher Columbus Sexton was Nancy Belle's grandfather.  Her cousin, Letcher Sexton, told his family's story to his sister, Edrie Huff in 1979, who recorded the account.  It was transcribed and published in the Spring, 1986 issue of the Scott County (Tennessee) Historical Society Newsletter. The entire account is posted as "Early Days on Paint Rock: An Oral History."     You can read the entire article at www.tngenweb.org/scott/fnb_v3n1_oral_history.htm


    Recently, I was ignoring a show on the television.  I can't tell you the name, or even what channel it was on.  One statement caught my attention:  mini-balls caused many deaths in the Civil War. It was at that point that I realized the Christopher had been severely injured during the war.  He carried a mini-ball in his leg until the end of his life.  I had thought "mini," no big deal, but apparently, it was.  Then, I started wondering how the war had affected Sexton.  A portion of the "Oral History" may give us a clue.  On the bottom of the seventh page of part two, Letcher tells of a rather strange encounter with his grandfather:


     I think I’ll tell about a visit that Grandpa CHRIS SEXTON made to our homeplace on Paint Rock. At the time, I was around five or six years old. My grandpa came walking up through the field with his walking stick — I was playing outside — and I ran down to meet him. Well, he was giving me a look-over, didn’t say anything, just kept right on walking. Come on up to the house, went up on the porch, saw a chair and went on over and sat down in it. Mother came out and they greeted one another with a few words. Mother asked him if he wanted anything to drink, and if he wanted anything to eat.


      "No, no."

     And she looked kind of funny.

      And he said, "I just needed a little walk and I thought I'd walk down here and see how the family was along I’ll be going in a few minutes."

     And directly he kind of perked up and said, "How ‘bout taking him with me?"

     Mother said, "Alright," as far as she knew.

    He said, "Alright, get him ready."

     So, she got me ready and he stuck his finger down in a few minutes and come off the porch with him. We walked on until we come to a fence about 100 yards from the house that we had to go through to follow the old wagon road that went up through Paint Rock, where we could get on the railroad and continue walking toward Tunnel Hill.
       "No, I just want to rest a few minutes."     "Won’t you come into the house?"


      "Won’t you come into the house?"


       "No, I just want to rest a few minutes."


       And she looked kind of funny.


      And he said, "I just needed a little walk and I thought I'd walk down here and see how the family was along I’ll be going in a few minutes."


     And directly he kind of perked up and said, "How ‘bout taking him with me?"


     Mother said, "Alright," as far as she knew.


     He said, "Alright, get him ready."


I'm not sure where this was taken, it was in with
some old family photos. I don't know who took
 it.  The caption at the bottom reads,  "Wrecking
 Crew" and a date.

        Now, he hardly said a word and I turned the finger loose and continued to jog along beside him. We got on up through Paint Rock a little ways and we-came to what was called a rock cut, and there the water was gushing out and there was a tin cup sitting by it and he picked up the cup, took a drink of water himself, caught another cut and give me a drink of water and I wondered why he didn’t give me a drink of water first. And the only answer I could figure out was, if it’s good enough for me it ought to be good enough for you. I’ve tested it and it ought to be safe enough for you. So, we drank the water and he emptied the cup and sat it back and started just a little farther and the section foreman of the railroad maintenance crew was tamping the ties at the upper end of the cut. And, as soon as we got up with them, GEORGE SHARP seemed mighty happy to see grandpa and they talked a minute or so — George did most of the talking —and then he looked over at his crew and he said, "Put your tools on and set it on." Then he picked me up and set me on (the section car) with the tools. Then he told the men we’d go up to Tunnel Hill, he had a little job that needed to be done up there. And that was about three quarters of a mile, partially upgrade all the way to Tunnel Hill. So, grandpa and GEORGE SHARP, the foreman, walked back behind and I couldn’t hear what they said. But I was rather amused to get to ride on this section tool car. There was four men and they just pushed you.., and, finally, we arrived at the entrance to the tunnel.


      GEORGE came over and put me off, then he said to the men, "Set her off." They picked it up, one at each corner, set if off at the side of the track. Then he said, "Bring your tools and fix this track along here." And while they were doing that, grandpa stuck his finger down to give me the sign that I should go with him. He took a little path along the right side of the road that went on up the side of the tunnel and up to a ridge road at the top of the tunnel that led westward. So, we followed on up to this ridge road to kind of a haul road, a wagon haul road, and we followed on across the hill, climbing a little higher and higher.

     We got all the way to the top just before we turned down a little bit, to come down to the brow from which we could look down on the CHRIS SEXTON farm. He had 109 acres there and partially cleared with some fields in the valley and some fields on some ridges. And he had a pasture and a meadow and fields for corn and fields for hay, and all that I could see down there. But what interested me more was looking down on the barn and seeing all those guinnies and turkeys and geese and pigs and the cows and the calves all running around. Then I looked down a little farther to the right in a hollow to the right of the house and there was a colt and a mare and a mule and another kind of bayish colored animal, horse. And looked toward the house and there was apple trees all along, and a paling fence along the side. And I know today that there was about two acres reserved along that paling fence for his garden area. And then right between the house and the garden was a great big top of a barn. And over to the left was a big feed shed and another shed. On down was the house, a great big double loghouse, quite long and it had a big long porch along the right hand side. And on the left hand side of the logs an enclosed area that might have been a porch that was now used for a kitchen.

      Anyway, grandpa and I went on down this hill and down past the barn and through the gate and on past the well and around into the house. Of course, at that time, there was my grandma, Aunt MARTHA, and WINNIE, and MANDY and Aunt SALLY still at home. I was kindly restless and wanted to look around. And Aunt WINNIE took me to walk around the house. And they had flowers in little beds all along the front of the house. We walked on around past the smokehouse, looked over at the big cedar tree at the back of the bow of the hill. Under there was a bird with a long tail, the longest tail that I’d ever remembered seeing. And that was, Aunt WINNIE said, the old peacock.

FNB Chronicle, Vol. 3, No. 2 – Winter 1992

First National Bank

P.O. Box 4699

Oneida, TN 37841

(p5-7)