Christmas Time on Newman’s Ridge

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Please welcome guest author Bonnie Heiskell Peters. Peters is a native of Union County, TN and was appointed its County Historian in 1994. She wrote the Union County entry for the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, and has authored or co-authored 9 books about the region, most recently ‘Tales from the Hills and Hollows of East Tennessee,’ (2013).

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Back in the 1960s while gathering information for his book about Alex Stewart, John Rice Irwin, founder of the Museum of Appalachia, spent a great deal of time with his friend Alex. There were no Christmas decorations to be seen along Newman’s Ridge. At Sneedville, TN, he recalls seeing a decorated tree through the window of one of the homes. This is Mr. Irwin’s story:

I went by to see my old friend, Alex Stewart, and we sat before his open fireplace and talked as we always did. “Alex,” I said, “I’ve been driving through Hancock County most of the day and I never saw a single Christmas tree or any kind of decoration until I got into Sneedville. Let me ask you about old time Christmas. . . how it was observed and what was it like when you were a boy?”

“Christmas!” Alex said deridingly, “We barely knowed when Christmas came. Everybody was trying to find enough to eat and we didn’t have time for any celebration. I remember one time when I was a boy up on Newman’s Ridge, we looked out of the window and saw two of the Maxey boys running through the snow towards our house as barefooted as a crow. They came in the house and their Daddy wanted to see if Pap could loan them a little bit of corn for Christmas. . . said their Daddy would sure pay him back in the spring.

A few days before, Pap had been hunting and had killed three rabbits which he has skinned, dressed and hung on the limb of an oak tree in front of our house. Well, he went out there, took his knife out of his pocket, cut two of the frozen rabbits down and handed them to one of the Maxey boys. One of the boys said “Oh Lordy, we’ll live good now!” and they gleefully ran back toward their house. I was just a small chap then, but I still remember how happy they were to get them rabbits.”

“Alex,” I asked, “What happened to the Maxey family?” “Well, them Maxey’s were honest, hard workers and they saved up a little bit of money and made their way out to Oklahoma. They managed to get a little land, worked hard, and bought some more land. I think they got in on some of the oil wells and they done good. A few years later they came back here all dressed up and driving a fine car; and they didn’t look like themselves. They was awfully good people and I was just proud to see them get ahead.”

Alex concluded, “I’ll never forget what one of them boys said when Pap gave them the rabbits and a poke of corn a couple of days before Christmas. ‘Oh Lordy, we’ll live good now!'”