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Dorothy Copus Brush It's rewarding to discover An interesting phone call came not long ago. The caller identified herself as Sue Hyder Shepherd. She said her mother, now deceased, had kept a stack of old Crossville Chronicles. Sue could not bear the thought of destroying them, and she thought I might make use of them for the "Looking Back" column. I told her indeed I could use them. Some days later, Sue delivered a huge box
filled with 15 years of papers beginning in 1899 followed by
1901. They began again in 1911 and continued through 1919. Papers
from 1920 were missing, but 1921 through 1926 was there. All these editions covered the full year,
month by month. The edges were all crumbling, but the text was
readable. I was amazed that Sue's mother, Christine Hyder Hawley,
had saved all these papers. Each full year was enclosed in two
large pieces of grey cardboard, one on the back and one on the
front which was marked with the year. Large metal clips secured
each year's papers. When I learned Christine was born in 1921,
I realized these papers had been saved by someone else. Christine's
father was of the sixth generation of Tennessee Hyders and was
born in Crossville in 1884. He married Martha Deatherage, who
died in 1915. Then, in 1917, he married Wilvia Talley, and Christine
was their second-born child. When I asked Sue if her mother had ever said
where the papers came from, she answered no. The only explanation
she could think of was her mother's interest in the family genealogy.
That was more than evident as we looked through a large cardboard
box where Christine had saved letters from Hyder relatives in
many other states not only letters but notes she had jotted
down on torn pieces of note paper and copies of articles from
papers. There were so many enticing scraps of information in
this box filled to the top. Over and over Sue said how sorry she was she
hadn't gotten involved in this family search while her mother
still lived. Now she goes through the box and is left with unanswered
questions. A 300-page book printed in 1987 was an important
source in Christine's search for her roots. It was written and
compiled by Betty Dean Hamby Cooper of California. It is titled
Tennessee Roots Volume 1: Hyders and Connections. The
Hyders were here when Tennessee became a state, and many settled
on the Cumberland Plateau early in its history. As for the connections
the book is filled with familiar names of old Crossville families
such as Elmore, Tabor, Hamby, Goss, Bilbrey, Woody and Wyatt. The author's grandparents were Noah Martin
Hamby, born in Cumberland County in 1888, and Stella Hyder, born
in Crossville in 1894. Betty's father was Richard Samuel Hamby
and her mother Anna Lou Reagan. Betty was born in 1934 in the
Slate Spring area about eight miles from Crossville. Shortly after she married Lennis Cooper in
1950 they moved to California "with the idea of getting
rich so we could return to Tennessee with a start in life."
She worked on the genealogy about 35 years while raising four
children, becoming a grandmother and then going to college where
she graduated in 1974 as a licensed vocational nurse. In the preface to her book Betty wrote, "The
past is a huge mirror that we can look into, hopefully objectively,
and see ourselves as we are. We should keep it polished bright
and look into it often to help guide us through the future. To
try and shatter that mirror, or let it become dim, is like trying
to forget or deny WHO we are, and refusing to see WHAT we are." I can understand why Christine Hyder Hawley was caught up in trying to unravel more of the Hyder history. As for Betty, although she has lived far away in the west for so many years, she wrote, "The hope of returning to Tennessee is still there." |