Uncle Fred and the House on Gravely Road

If you've read the previous post, you know that John Fred Penley recently celebrated his 80th birthday. Uncle Fred lived in Kingsport in his young life, and then moved to a farm outside of Glen Rock, PA, with his parents in the 1940's. This spring he moved back to Kingsport and is now living in Holson Manor Nursing and Rehab Center. Uncle Fred has cancer, but is doing pretty well. This is Fred and his wife, Betty Collins. They met while Betty was taking care of the children of Aunt Betty Forbes Maskewitz in Vermont.
Pictured below are John T. and Jennie Forbes Penley in front of their home in Gibsontown, Kingsport, TN. Unfortunately, this home has been torn down.

John and Jennie Penley and most of their family are shown on the steps of their Gibsontown home. Fred is the boy sitting on the bottom step on the left, Vernon (always called Cotton) is sitting right. Lovely is above Fred and Marge is above Cotton. The two little boys in the middle are Jimmy in the center, and Edna's son, Lee Peterson, to the left. Cindy's Dad, Roy, is standing left. The top row is Edna, Jennie, and John T. The only child missing from this photo is Bonnie, who was born in between Edna and Roy.
While living in Gibsontown, John arranged to build this house on Gravely Road. Naturally, it looks very different from what it looked like in the 1930's when it was built, but it's great that it's still standing. Uncle Fred and I knocked on the door and met the young man who lives their now. His mother lives across the street.

Although you can't see it in these pictures, there is small building behind the house where Grandma Penley used to house lodgers.

Uncle Fred said that he was about eight-years-old when this house was built and he was the "water boy." He ran down the hill to fetch water from a spring for the builders. A Mr. France was the builder, and Poppy, Edna's husband, Lee Peterson, and Marge's husband, James Edwards, helped to build it. Uncle Fred said that Poppy bought up several old houses that weren't being lived in, and used that wood to build this house.
I'm so glad that Uncle Fred told me this story, as I would have driven by this pretty little house and never known that it was part of our family history.