Hilliard and Agnes Hall

On our way to visit a few family historic sites, we passed through Red Boiling Springs in Macon County, Tennessee.  For years this community has been known for its mineral springs resorts.  A few of them survive.  These places are really a throwback to another time.

    

  The Donoho Hotel . . . 

The Thomas House Bed and Breakfast, formerly the Cloyd Hotel . . . they had a "ghost hunt weekend" going on when we stopped by.

Armour Hotel, formerly the Counts Hotel . . . apparently known for "pancake Saturdays."

 Tinker Hall Cemetery near Steam Mill Hollow (a few miles out of Red Boiling Springs).

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The graves of Agnes Hall  (left) and "Tinker" Hilliard Hall (right).  They are Dudeboy's great-great-great grandparents.  From some notes Vic made from talking to Grandma Cap . . . Agnes was a "quiet, kind woman . . . short in stature. (She) charmed butter.  I never heard Agnes and Hilliard quarrel."  

 Steam Mill Hollow got its name from Hilliard Hall's mill.  From some notes written by my great aunt Dixie . . . "They settled in a small valley.  This valley was named "Steam Mill Hollow" because my grandfather Hall was a millwright and always kept a steam engine for power to operate the saw mill."

"He was an excellent mechanic.  He was nicknamed Tinker Hall for he was so gifted that he liked to work on different objects.  He also made an eight string banjo."  Mom still has Hilliard's fiddle . . . unfortunately, it is in poor condition.

 Steam Mill Hollow . . . the old mill would have been situated near the back of this field next to the creek.  The Hilliard Hall home was situated on the left side of this photo.

The yucca plants, wild roses and March flowers mark the location of the house.  

Happy Ridge near Brimstone Creek in Clay County, Tennessee.  This is the location of the home of Samuel and Jane Brown Kendall . . . the parents of Agnes Kendall Hall.  The house was situated somewhere between where we are standing and the barn.
    

According to service records, Hilliard Hall was "Left sick at Glasgow, Ky. Sept. 11, 1862.  Taken prisoner and paroled.  Not heard of since."  Family lore states that Hilliard was making his way back to South Carolina and made it as far as Brimstone Creek, where the Kendalls nursed him back to health.

Hilliard never returned to the war or South Carolina.  He married Agnes and eventually ended up at Steam Mill Hollow . . . the place my grandmother always considered home.  So, we are here because of a series of seemingly insignificant incidents during the Civil War.  Hilliard Hall was a member of the 19th SC Infantry . . . one of only two units from South Carolina to participate in the Western theater.  He got sick in Kentucky and was nursed to health in Tennessee . . . never to return to South Carolina.