If This Old House Could Talk

 

This house is in the middle of Varnell, Georgia. Varnell is between Dalton, Tunnel Hill, and Cohutta, Georgia. There was a fish hatchery nearby, Prather's Mill, and a lot of farms. This house used to be white and it was the preachers house. It is vacant now. My grandmother and her daughter and grandson lived next door in what now is a vacant lot.

On the other side of the preacher's house were railway tracks and a water tower for the trains. When I was about 5 years old and visiting my grandmother I went next door to play with the preacher's daughter who was about my age. A little while later someone noticed we both were missing and they hollered for us. I stuck my heard out from the opening in the top of the water tower and asked what did they want. I don't remember that they flipped out, but I think they probably did. I know I would have.

I think we were on a ladder on the inside leading down the water.

Below the house then was a big spring with tiny rocks and tiny little back periwinkle shells that kept the water clean. My sister and I used to go there, which was just about 100 feet away and bring back water. I don't think they had running water. I think they had an outhouse which I thought was amusing.

My sister and I returned to Varnell in 2007. There was still only one store in down but it was now a big convenience store and a country family didn't own it, a Far Eastern Indian did. He wanted to know what we were doing.

Before my time and even before my mother's family moved to Varnell, in the early 1900s, two Mormons came to Varnell handing out literature. Sometimes people are not so tolerant of outsiders handing out pamphlets. The men folk carried the two Mormons down by the spring and shot them dead..