Cumberland Homesteads

I’ve grown up in Cumberland County with the Homestead houses around me all my life. One of the coolest things I learned about in college was that FDR’s New Deal created the CCC Civilian Conservation Corp. The CCC was formed to give young men from needy families a job and provide housing to others.

In the1930’s the CCC brought men here to build the Homesteads, a school and a state park. One of the men it brought with it was my great grandpa Stacy Abner, a singing school teacher. I never got to meet him, but obviously he made a big impact in my life.

Another man the CCC brought was Hank Elmore who is 93 and lives at the nursing home in Pleasant Hill. Hank said factories closed, the mines closed, people were starving. At 17, he graduated high school on Friday, came to Crossville from Cookeville on Sunday, and had a job with the CCC by Monday. His dad was a carpenter so he was hired to help with the building. One of the foremen asked his dad why he didn’t apply for one of the homesteads. He went home and discussed it with his family. Hank said “I was highly in favor of it.” So we applied and we got the biggest house in the Homesteads. Thinking he might have had a large family, I asked him why they got the biggest. “Because we built it ourselves,” he replied. He was one of five children. He said the houses sold for a ridiculously low amount to people with immaculate character.

Another story was from a lady I go to church with. Her daughter married Avery York who grew up in a Homestead house. His parents were the first ones to get one. They owned a car lot on the corner in Crossville for 37 years. They say the houses were very cold because they were built of stone and lined with pine. Mrs. York didn’t have anywhere to put Avery when he was a baby so he slept in a dresser drawer. You might be interested in visiting : http://www.cumberlandhomesteads.org/history.htm As a side note: Meeting Hank is a noteworthy story as well. He always shows up to the singings at the nursing home. One day I offered to take him back to his room to politely get him away from a little old lady who was pestering him. They both informed me she was his wife. We giggle everytime they show up for the “Sing Along with Rebecca”. She says that was the nicest complement she ever got. Hank is blind and knows every song in the Methodist hymnal as well as many from the Baptist and Presbyterian books. He tells me I don’t play them fast enough!!!! Yesterday at church I wasn’t paying any attention and was just beebopping it, enjoying myself, not knowing I was going so fast no one could sing with me.