Dear Landon,
Your history column this week touched close to home. Literally! My wife
grew up in the Sparkman Community in a house at the foot of Stony Point
Mountain Road, where it intersects Sparkmantown Road. That's the white
house with the barn standing behind it on the north corner of that
intersection. Her maiden name was Sally Ann Sparkman and she is a
descendant of George W. Sparkman.
Since our retirement a few years ago, we built a new farmstead on a
piece of that farm she grew up on, located on Stony Point Mountain Road.
Just down the road from us are three Brimer/Brymer families and just
past them are four Dukes families. The Brimer/Brymer families are
descendents of a Jesse Brimer, perhaps the son of your "Civil War"
Jesse. Interesting that he was in the Union Army! (The split in the name
spelling is interesting; I wonder if it reflects the "brother against
brother" mentality that occurred during the Civil War.) The dead end of
this road occurs at the foot of Dukes Mountain.
The spelling of our street's name, Stony/Stoney Point Mountain Road,
also offers an interesting split in spelling. The county road department
spells the first word "Stony" but the U.S. Geological Service and the
U.S. Post Office spell it "Stoney". I happened across a web page that
says there was a post office by that name on Sparkmantown Road, at the
foot of the hill very close to where Sally grew up. But I think that was
distinct from the post office that George W. Sparkman used to run.
Thanks for that tidbit of history relating to my wife's ancestor and to
folks on our road.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Landon!
Jim Frysinger
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
