Aunt Melissa*
by James E. Chessor
Wisely she smiled at me. "Why, Son," she said,
"You get the queerest notions in your head
About the olden days! Your stumbling rhyme
Paints a fantastic picture of our time.
"Sit here beside me; let me talk to you
About the days and ways we oldsters knew.
My sisters, Betty, Winnie, Sue and Ann,
Did many things you moderns never can!
I mind me how they used to weave, and sew
With perfect stitches down the quilt's long row.
We had no silent hearths - instead, the loom
Blent with the whirr of wheel, the swish of broom,
To make the music that we loved to hear.
These were the Songs, Son, of our Yesteryear!
"Then there were Hugh, and Tom, tall Mart, and Bill,
Who hewed the oaken logs and buit the mill
That gave us all our wholesome daily bread,
And kept us safe from famine, want, and dread.
They raised the house, and laid the garden fence
That bound us, but gave kindly recompense
In crop and fruit. Our sheltered, quiet life
Was free from rancor, void of hate and strife.
We tried to serve the Lord with all our might,
And walked our narrow pathways in His sight.
"Now, Son, when you would write of 'queer old ways,'
Perhaps you might drop in one word of praise
For those who built the country that you claim,
And laid its firm foundation in God's name!"
Dear Aunt Melissa, may this tribute be
My humble offering to your memory.
*Melissa Bates Chandler (1845-1940) was the step-granddaughter of James William Chessor, James E. Chessor's great-grandfather. Melissa was the daughter of Lewis Bates. William Bates, father of Lewis, was killed by an explosion that destroyed his powdermill on Powdermill Branch in 1823, and afterward James William Chessor (whose first wife, Bessie Cavender, had died) married Mrs. Bates (the former Elizabeth Green). "Aunt" Melissa knew the couple as "Granddaddy" Chessor and Grandmother Chessor. Melissa grew up on Sulphur Creek, and Granddaddy and Grandmother Chessor frequently came on visits from their home on Tom's Creek. Melissa liked to hear Granddaddy and Grandmother Chessor's "many stories of Pioneer Days, customs, dangers, joys, sorrows," stories that she would recount to James Chessor many years later.
The wife of William K. Chandler, Melissa excelled as a seamstress. She did her own sewing as well as much sewing for her neighbors - for those women who couldn't sew as well as she and especially for the very poor - often without price. In an interview with James Chessor in February 1936, Melissa, who was 91 at the time, stated that she could remember when there were but two sewing machines in the neighborood, and all the sewing was done by her and Agnes "Aggie" Chessor Bates (daughter of Samuel Chessor and wife of James Martin Bates). "We charged little for our work . . . Often I cut out coats without patterns. The only patterns we had was the garments already made which we folded and laid down on the cloth and cut by."
This poem, which was written in 1936, is taken from "My Valley and My People: Poems of Country Life," by James E. Chessor, published by Vaughan Publishing Company, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Copyright 1948.
by James E. Chessor
Wisely she smiled at me. "Why, Son," she said,
"You get the queerest notions in your head
About the olden days! Your stumbling rhyme
Paints a fantastic picture of our time.
"Sit here beside me; let me talk to you
About the days and ways we oldsters knew.
My sisters, Betty, Winnie, Sue and Ann,
Did many things you moderns never can!
I mind me how they used to weave, and sew
With perfect stitches down the quilt's long row.
We had no silent hearths - instead, the loom
Blent with the whirr of wheel, the swish of broom,
To make the music that we loved to hear.
These were the Songs, Son, of our Yesteryear!
"Then there were Hugh, and Tom, tall Mart, and Bill,
Who hewed the oaken logs and buit the mill
That gave us all our wholesome daily bread,
And kept us safe from famine, want, and dread.
They raised the house, and laid the garden fence
That bound us, but gave kindly recompense
In crop and fruit. Our sheltered, quiet life
Was free from rancor, void of hate and strife.
We tried to serve the Lord with all our might,
And walked our narrow pathways in His sight.
"Now, Son, when you would write of 'queer old ways,'
Perhaps you might drop in one word of praise
For those who built the country that you claim,
And laid its firm foundation in God's name!"
Dear Aunt Melissa, may this tribute be
My humble offering to your memory.
*Melissa Bates Chandler (1845-1940) was the step-granddaughter of James William Chessor, James E. Chessor's great-grandfather. Melissa was the daughter of Lewis Bates. William Bates, father of Lewis, was killed by an explosion that destroyed his powdermill on Powdermill Branch in 1823, and afterward James William Chessor (whose first wife, Bessie Cavender, had died) married Mrs. Bates (the former Elizabeth Green). "Aunt" Melissa knew the couple as "Granddaddy" Chessor and Grandmother Chessor. Melissa grew up on Sulphur Creek, and Granddaddy and Grandmother Chessor frequently came on visits from their home on Tom's Creek. Melissa liked to hear Granddaddy and Grandmother Chessor's "many stories of Pioneer Days, customs, dangers, joys, sorrows," stories that she would recount to James Chessor many years later.
The wife of William K. Chandler, Melissa excelled as a seamstress. She did her own sewing as well as much sewing for her neighbors - for those women who couldn't sew as well as she and especially for the very poor - often without price. In an interview with James Chessor in February 1936, Melissa, who was 91 at the time, stated that she could remember when there were but two sewing machines in the neighborood, and all the sewing was done by her and Agnes "Aggie" Chessor Bates (daughter of Samuel Chessor and wife of James Martin Bates). "We charged little for our work . . . Often I cut out coats without patterns. The only patterns we had was the garments already made which we folded and laid down on the cloth and cut by."
This poem, which was written in 1936, is taken from "My Valley and My People: Poems of Country Life," by James E. Chessor, published by Vaughan Publishing Company, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Copyright 1948.
Aunt Melissa*
by James E. Chessor
Wisely she smiled at me. "Why, Son," she said,
"You get the queerest notions in your head
About the olden days! Your stumbling rhyme
Paints a fantastic picture of our time.
"Sit here beside me; let me talk to you
About the days and ways we oldsters knew.
My sisters, Betty, Winnie, Sue and Ann,
Did many things you moderns never can!
I mind me how they used to weave, and sew
With perfect stitches down the quilt's long row.
We had no silent hearths - instead, the loom
Blent with the whirr of wheel, the swish of broom,
To make the music that we loved to hear.
These were the Songs, Son, of our Yesteryear!
"Then there were Hugh, and Tom, tall Mart, and Bill,
Who hewed the oaken logs and buit the mill
That gave us all our wholesome daily bread,
And kept us safe from famine, want, and dread.
They raised the house, and laid the garden fence
That bound us, but gave kindly recompense
In crop and fruit. Our sheltered, quiet life
Was free from rancor, void of hate and strife.
We tried to serve the Lord with all our might,
And walked our narrow pathways in His sight.
"Now, Son, when you would write of 'queer old ways,'
Perhaps you might drop in one word of praise
For those who built the country that you claim,
And laid its firm foundation in God's name!"
Dear Aunt Melissa, may this tribute be
My humble offering to your memory.
*Melissa Bates Chandler (1845-1940) was the step-granddaughter of James William Chessor, James E. Chessor's great-grandfather. Melissa was the daughter of Lewis Bates. William Bates, father of Lewis, was killed by an explosion that destroyed his powdermill on Powdermill Branch in 1823, and afterward James William Chessor (whose first wife, Bessie Cavender, had died) married Mrs. Bates (the former Elizabeth Green). "Aunt" Melissa knew the couple as "Granddaddy" Chessor and Grandmother Chessor. Melissa grew up on Sulphur Creek, and Granddaddy and Grandmother Chessor frequently came on visits from their home on Tom's Creek. Melissa liked to hear Granddaddy and Grandmother Chessor's "many stories of Pioneer Days, customs, dangers, joys, sorrows," stories that she would recount to James Chessor many years later.
The wife of William K. Chandler, Melissa excelled as a seamstress. She did her own sewing as well as much sewing for her neighbors - for those women who couldn't sew as well as she and especially for the very poor - often without price. In an interview with James Chessor in February 1936, Melissa, who was 91 at the time, stated that she could remember when there were but two sewing machines in the neighborood, and all the sewing was done by her and Agnes "Aggie" Chessor Bates (daughter of Samuel Chessor and wife of James Martin Bates). "We charged little for our work . . . Often I cut out coats without patterns. The only patterns we had was the garments already made which we folded and laid down on the cloth and cut by."
This poem, which was written in 1936, is taken from "My Valley and My People: Poems of Country Life," by James E. Chessor, published by Vaughan Publishing Company, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Copyright 1948.
by James E. Chessor
Wisely she smiled at me. "Why, Son," she said,
"You get the queerest notions in your head
About the olden days! Your stumbling rhyme
Paints a fantastic picture of our time.
"Sit here beside me; let me talk to you
About the days and ways we oldsters knew.
My sisters, Betty, Winnie, Sue and Ann,
Did many things you moderns never can!
I mind me how they used to weave, and sew
With perfect stitches down the quilt's long row.
We had no silent hearths - instead, the loom
Blent with the whirr of wheel, the swish of broom,
To make the music that we loved to hear.
These were the Songs, Son, of our Yesteryear!
"Then there were Hugh, and Tom, tall Mart, and Bill,
Who hewed the oaken logs and buit the mill
That gave us all our wholesome daily bread,
And kept us safe from famine, want, and dread.
They raised the house, and laid the garden fence
That bound us, but gave kindly recompense
In crop and fruit. Our sheltered, quiet life
Was free from rancor, void of hate and strife.
We tried to serve the Lord with all our might,
And walked our narrow pathways in His sight.
"Now, Son, when you would write of 'queer old ways,'
Perhaps you might drop in one word of praise
For those who built the country that you claim,
And laid its firm foundation in God's name!"
Dear Aunt Melissa, may this tribute be
My humble offering to your memory.
*Melissa Bates Chandler (1845-1940) was the step-granddaughter of James William Chessor, James E. Chessor's great-grandfather. Melissa was the daughter of Lewis Bates. William Bates, father of Lewis, was killed by an explosion that destroyed his powdermill on Powdermill Branch in 1823, and afterward James William Chessor (whose first wife, Bessie Cavender, had died) married Mrs. Bates (the former Elizabeth Green). "Aunt" Melissa knew the couple as "Granddaddy" Chessor and Grandmother Chessor. Melissa grew up on Sulphur Creek, and Granddaddy and Grandmother Chessor frequently came on visits from their home on Tom's Creek. Melissa liked to hear Granddaddy and Grandmother Chessor's "many stories of Pioneer Days, customs, dangers, joys, sorrows," stories that she would recount to James Chessor many years later.
The wife of William K. Chandler, Melissa excelled as a seamstress. She did her own sewing as well as much sewing for her neighbors - for those women who couldn't sew as well as she and especially for the very poor - often without price. In an interview with James Chessor in February 1936, Melissa, who was 91 at the time, stated that she could remember when there were but two sewing machines in the neighborood, and all the sewing was done by her and Agnes "Aggie" Chessor Bates (daughter of Samuel Chessor and wife of James Martin Bates). "We charged little for our work . . . Often I cut out coats without patterns. The only patterns we had was the garments already made which we folded and laid down on the cloth and cut by."
This poem, which was written in 1936, is taken from "My Valley and My People: Poems of Country Life," by James E. Chessor, published by Vaughan Publishing Company, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Copyright 1948.
Inscription
CHANDLER
Melissa A.
Nov. 21, 1845
May 7, 1940
Gravesite Details
Shares marker with husband, William K. Chandler.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
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