This photo was taken on November 10, 1933 on the steps of the Anderson County Courthouse, Clinton, Tennessee. The farm couple are my grandparents, Sam and Ollie Fritts. The photographer was E. E. Neukom and the photo was No. 59 of the Norris Dam Land Department.
I have tried to reproduce it below as it appeared in the Clinton Courior News.
With this transaction, the Tennessee Valley Authority buys its first peice of land. James Cooper, in charge of land buying, is shown handing a check to Sam R. Fritts, farmer, while Mr. Fritts is giving Mr. Cooper a warranty deed. Standing between them is Mrs. Fritts. Next to Mr. Cooper is John T. Webb, register of deeds in Anderson County. Next to Mr. Fritts is E. T. Peters, clerk and master of the county. Behind Mr. Cooper is John Morrell, Knoxville attorney and abstractor for the TVA, and next to him is John C. Wolfe, of the TVA treasurer's office.
The rest of the story is that Sam and Ollie relocated to a farm at a place called Robertsville. Then in 1941, they were again bought out by the government for the Manhatten Project to build the atomic bomb at what is now called Oak Ridge. They then moved to the farm in Brushy Valley where my dad and his family joined them after the end of WWII.
During WWII, my dad and his wife and two children moved to Chattanooga, Tenn. where he worked as a gaurd at the Volunteer Army Ordinance Plant. During this time, he traveled very often up Hwy. 58 between Chattanooga and his parents farm in Anderson County. I was born in the house in Chattanooga and was two years old when my dad relocated to the farm in Brushy Valley, built a dairy barn, and started a dairy farm with a herd of Jerseys. He sold milk to Norris Creamery where he had worked after high school and before the war. Mom had worked at Magnet Mills in Clinton before they were married and started a family.
 The Fritts Line |
History Index |
Ole' Carl's Home Page |