D

Recently, I was asked to write about someone I never had a chance to meet or a place I wished I could have visited when a special event occurred there.

I chose to write about my paternal grandmother, whose name was Ella Laughlin Couch. She came to Tullahoma with my grandfather, William Joseph Couch, better known to everyone in town as Daddy Billy. They came in 1883 to Tullahoma, which was known for its wonderful water and beginning train service. The train line was the NC & St. L. Tullahoma, and it was a major stop for the train, as mail was taken off here and picked up as well.  Daddy Billy opened a grocery store on Atlantic Street right across from the train station, which was located where History Park is now.

Having the grocery store so close was beneficial for both the travelers and the grocery store. Trains at that time did not have dining cars, so when the train stopped here, the travelers would get off and go across to the grocery store to get a slab of cheese and some crackers. I don’t know what they drank unless it was buttermilk!

My grandmother Ella worked side by side with Daddy Billy in the grocery store, and I later found a log where she had written what people had bought if they had needed to charge it. I later gave that journal to my brother. It was interesting to read the names of early Tullahoma folks written in beautiful script by my grandmother.

Other ways that I was able to know Ella a little better were by the things she had left behind. In cleaning out the attic at the home place at 308 N. Atlantic St. I found her trunk. And in it I found clothing, most of which was in shreds. But there were some treasures as well. She had been an artist, and in the trunk was a rolled-up canvas on which was painted the head of a dog. Finding that led me to believe that she liked animals. I had it framed, and it graces my hallway with its beauty. Also in the trunk was an old elastic belt which no longer had any elasticity, but had a gorgeous belt buckle which had a silver historical figure on each side atop a black hard material which hooked. Again, this told me she must have liked history! I keep that buckle, removed the hook, shined the historical figures, had it framed, and it now graces my home as well.

Another treasure in the trunk was two strings of beads, both of which were very long. One consisted of deep blue wooden beads with a knot between each of the beads. It remains as found, but the other strand had mottled green and white beads again with knots between each of the beads. This strand, I had my husband patiently take apart, and he used the beads to make a bracelet and a pair of earrings for each of the females in the family (a total of 10), so that they could have something of this ancestor that they only knew by name.

Family members have some of her art as well. Most of her paintings are still-lifes such as fruits and vegetables and also of flowers. I have a pair of panels which have flower vines. These were hung in the parlor of the home place on each side of the fireplace. But the one that I treasure the most is one of a woman at the well, and is beautiful. I wonder if Ella was thinking of the Biblical story of the woman at the well when she painted that one.

It is my understanding that at that time, when people were studying art, they often used paintings to copy. I think that maybe she studied art when she went to a women’s college in Shelbyville, where she grew up. An almost identical painting appeared in The Tennessean newspaper after a charitable event took place in Franklin. The article told who it belonged to and the value of it. And it just so happened that I knew that individual. So, we talked and compared notes, and again, we think that was something they had copied when the artist was studying art.

From the stories I heard about my Grandmother Ella, she was rather tall, was active in her church (First Christian), and was a good cook. She and Daddy Billy had two children: my dad (Robert Laughlin Couch) and my aunt (Nell Elizabeth Couch Grove). The family believed in Education. Both of their children graduated from the old Fitzgerald and Clark school. My Dad went to Georgia Tech for two years before joining the Marine Corps during WWI, and my Aunt Nell went to Agnes Scott in Atlanta. One of the things that I found in that trunk in the attic were letters that my father had written to his mother about attending church, the attendance that Sunday, the collection, and the hymns that were sung. What a treasure trove that trunk was! So much of what she left behind let me know what she treasured, what she valued, what her interests were, and no doubt the kind of person she was. Even though I never saw her, I feel her strength by what she left behind.