CUMBERLAND VALLEY Chapter 1

Valley and Foothills
courtesy photobucket.com

 

THE PROBLEM

The Mayberry family had come over from England somewhere around the time the land boundaries were settled between England and the French and the end of the French and Indian war.

The Indian tribes in the Cumberland territory had wiped out each other to some extent.  Living in the New England area was just as bad as living in the home land.  Because of this they moved down along the Cumberland River territory and built their homes.

There was some fine land to be had by clearing it and they managed to make friends with the Indians by sharing part of their harvest bounty.

The Cumberland River could be a bit sassy and flood all the way to the foothills. This was a lesson they learned the first year.  After that it was live on the foothills and farm the bottom land for the rich soil on it grew much more of a harvest for the same labor than on the foothills.

By the time the third generation came on the scene the whole valley was settled and the families had more children than the land would care for. This caused many of the young ones to migrate north and west.

Those who migrated were mostly males leaving the young girls without enough men to marry. The men who were eligible all wanted young wives not much older than sixteen, some had their eye on girls that were even younger.

Jake Mayberry had the misfortune of having all girls, four in number to try to find husbands for.  He blamed his wife for his plight of having difficulty getting rid of them.  With no sons to continue the Mayberry name he would have to leave his farm to a son-in- law and that didn't set too well with him.

His wife said they could try again for she was still able to child bear but he had taken a chance the last time and produced another girl which only compounded his problems, so he said NO to that idea.

There were some distant kin Mayberry folks in Pennsylvania and he was considering going up there to see if he could convince some of the marrying age boys to come down and get acquainted with his flock. This would be a hard trip and he wasn't anxious to go there without knowing what his chances were finding someone willing to come back with him.

Nevertheless old Jake finally relented and set out hoping he could persuade some of them to visit with him. This was a hard sell for there was an abundance of young teen age girls available where they dwelled. The one thing he had going in his favor was they would be marrying real Mayberry's and that would keep their family line pure so to speak.

The difficulty he had in doing that was most of the Mayberry boys already had their eye on a gal that just needed to put on a couple more years to be ready for matrimony.  

In the end he wasn't able to get any of them to hit the road with him until one of the fathers told Walter, his eldest that maybe he should go along with Jake, and at least he could see the sights along the way and get the lay of the land.  Since the boy felt he had nothing to lose he consented to travel with him with the understanding he wasn't consenting to marry up with any of them and would soon return home.    

 

To be Continued

 

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This post is linked with Jennifer at:  God-Bumps and God-Incidences