2023 July 7, Day trip to Savannah and Shiloh, Tennessee

 We started our day at the Tennessee River Museum in Savannah. 

A true air-breathing MOSASAUR

The City of Florence, a St. Louis and Tennessee River Packet Company boat, was named to honor the fast-growing city at the foot of Muscle Shoals. Upbound near Coffee Landing on February 8, 1913, she got out of control and was lying cross-stream when the towboat Tomahawk, down-bound and loaded with crossties, rammed and sunk her. One member of the crew and a young passenger lost their lives in the accident.

The picture below is the ship of 2 girls.

12-year-old Ruth Tarbet (left) was one of two casualties of the sinking ship. The daughter of a prominent Saltillo merchant, Ruth, and her daughter had boarded the doomed steamer for the short trip to visit relatives in Savannah.

We saw this picture in the Tennessee River Museum in Savannah

US GRANT HDGS

We stopped to get pictures of the cannons and cannon balls before crossing the Tennessee River and heading to Shiloh. 

HAGY'S CATFISH HOTEL 

We ate fried catfish, coleslaw, hush puppies, and grilled veggies. Ava ate fried chicken fingers and fries. She said that was the best chicken fingers she ever ate and she told our waitress she rated the food at 100. She ate every bite. We took several pictures at the restaurant and near the Tennessee River. 

Garfield's Cabin 

The History of Garfield 
Garfield's Cabin 
If the walls of the cabin could talk they would reveal the intriguing story of an extraordinary yet wonderful, resident for many years, Garfield Luster.
The story begins on a hot summer day around 1920 when Garfield is given a ride by Mr. Narvin Hagy, a local traveling salesman.
During this time, Garfield worked for a family that had mistreated him for many years. He decided to flee from this harsh environment at which time he met Mr. Norvin Hagy on an old gravel road. 
Mr. Hagy lived on a large farm bonding the Shiloh National Military. His parents were Frank and Mary Hagy. Frank, who had grown up on the farm, was a young boy of 13 when the "Battle of Shiloh" took place around their home in April 1862.
Garfield eventually planted his roots with the Hagy family and over the years developed a close bond with them.
During the many decades, he lived with the Hagy family, he helped care for four generations.

He not only cooked, but also laundered, and did other basic chores around the house, but also helped raise the youngsters... a duty he enjoyed the most. He nurtured the young family of Norvin and Dorothy Hagy, showering upon them devotion and care as if they were his own children. 
But Garfield did more than comfort, console and when necessary scold the children, he could also entertain them as well. 

Many years before the fables of Uncle Remas were popularized by Hollywood, Garfield charmed the young Hagys with his folktales of Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox. Another of his talents was acting. He could dress up as a comical character called "Aunt Emiley" and play her so convincingly that the c children momentarily would forget that they were watching Garfield in disguise.


One of Garfield's favorite stories was his explanation of how he got his name. Garfield always chuckled when he told how Garfield was bestowed upon him following the assassination of President Garfield.

Like his namesake, Garfield had experienced hard times: he refused to dwell on the past, only occasionally recalling his unhappy childhood. Garfield was born and raised in the small rural community of Red Bay in North Alabama, probably the son of a former slave.
Garfield was deprived of a formal education although he was highly intelligent and could have done well in school if he had been given the opportunity.

Even though he was not articulate, his speech was peppered with homespun, folksy southern colloquialism, slow as molasses, dead as a doornail, hot a blue blazes, sharp as a tack, strong as an ox, to quote a few.

King Kong 911 1h
Garfield lived a long and happy life in Shiloh with the Hagy family.
However, he suffered much bereavement at the death of Norvin Hagy in 1960, never fully recovering from the loss of a man who had provided a sanctuary for the greater part of his life. 

Shortly after Mr. Hagy's death in 1961 Garfield was diagnosed with prostate cancer. During the last weeks of his life, Norvin Hagy Jr and his wife Teke took Garfield home for a final visit with his relatives who at the time were living in Mississippi.
After his funeral at his church, Saint Rest in Guys, Tennessee attended by the Hagy Family, Garfield was laid to rest nearby in a small grove of trees. 
The Hagys will always remember Garfield with much love and gratitude as a person who embraced and enriched their lives.

By: the Hagy Family
Dr Don Hagy/Dean Hagy

Next, we stopped at Shiloh Battle Field. The Museum was closed for repairs but you could watch a film. We did not stay to watch the movie. We heard gunfire and went to check it out.  

Young Park Ranger giving a demonstration 

There was a young man (Park Ranger)doing a reenactment and was finishing up when we arrived. But he did show Ave the bullet, and let her feel the weight of the gun ( I think he said it weighed 10 lbs.) When we stopped at the Tennessee River Museum there was a gun ball behind glass that you could put your hand through to see if you could pick it up with one hand, that weighed 7 lbs. So she compared the two. 

Park Ranger talking to Ava about being a nurse in the Civil War

We stopped at the Book Museum where we bought her a book about not being a Nurse in the Civil War. We walked to the National Cemetery where a young woman was giving a talk about the battles between the North and South at Pittsburg Landing.

Ava had read several pages about the Civil War in her book and was asking several questions about the War.

The Park Ranger finished her talk but Ava kept asking her questions. It began to sprinkle so we hurried back to the car. We rode around the park stopping for a few pictures. 

Shiloh Log Church 

We stopped at the old log cabin church to take a few pictures.

We started for home and the sky got darker and darker and it began to rain. The closer we got to Alabama the harder it rained.

Our last stop was at Wendy's for a Strawberry Frosty. That's what Ava wanted and I had never tried one. We all ordered a Strawberry Frosty and it was good. Ava and I played a game all the way home in our Imaginary worlds.

2016 March 4, Friday, Touring the Rippavilla Plantation

I had wanted to visit the Rippavilla Plantation for some time and I had tried to get hubby to stop as we were always traveling somewhere else at the time.
He said someday we will stop.
I had ask my granddaughter to go but she was always too busy.
It was a beautiful day, a bit chilly, but a nice day for an hour and half drive.
I took my time not rushing, just enjoying the blooming daffodils, and tulip trees.
I parked in the parking lot at Rippavilla and I was approached by one of the curators. He said can I help you? I replied yes, I would like to tour the home.
He said you might want to use the restroom, which was located outside the home.
I took my camera in hand and I went into the museum.
The old carriage house now housed the museum and it has many books about the Civil War.
I was told I could take all the pictures that I wanted on the outside of the plantation.
The curator said the tour would not start for another thirty minutes.
I walked outside and all around the home, taking pictures.
There were several trees on the grounds that were way over one hundred years old.

Trees and fountain

Rippavilla Plantation front view

Side view the sunroom was added on my new owner many years later

Back view of Rippavilla 

The Greek Revival Rippavilla was built for Nathaniel and Susan Cheairs' and finished in 1855.
I was taken on a guided tour of the inside of the home.
The minute we walked through the front doors the smell of cinnamon rolls baking in the oven filled the air.
The curator said that the kitchen was used for baking and many weddings where held at the plantation.
The aroma filled every room making me hungry,
Two of the cooks were eating their lunch in the sunroom, that was added by the previous owner.
The doorways widened and the spiral stair case changed to an open stairwell, were some of the changes to the historic home.
Many of the rooms were filled with period furniture and some furniture was from he original Cheairs family.
Upstairs in one of the former bedrooms was memorabilia of the Civil War and information on how the home when the Cheairs family lived in it.
It these walls could talk, what stories could they tell, both union and confederates soldiers walked through the doors of this home.
Susan and Nathaniel's wooden four poster canopy bed, the mattress was covered with a white lace spread, stood as if it was waiting their arrival.

I walked into the room where General Hood ate his breakfast the morning before the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864.
I thanked the curator and we walked back to the museum where I purchased three post cards.
Before I left the plantation I walked back behind the home to the log cabin.
Freedman's Bureau School built 1870 which served as a school for the freed slaves.

Freedman's Bureau School

On my way home I rode through the town of Mount Pleasant.
I drove home stopping at Long John's Silvers for two pieces of fried cod fish in Lawrenceburg.
I did not eat my lunch/dinner until I arrive at home.
I had learned over the years I can go it alone.
Time goes on, time doesn't wait, so make the best of what time you have today!