“Aunt Polly”
No story of the Upper Cumberland region would be complete without mention of Aunt Polly Williams. Well known in her adult life for the 2 hotels she ran in Gainesboro, Tennessee, many influential people became her friends as her establishment was a favorite stop for food and lodging in the 1800’s. When Polly rang the bell signaling dinner was ready, court would adjourn to go and eat. Regular guests included Judge John Gore and Cordell Hull, whose residence in 1910 is listed as a boarder at Aunt Polly’s Hotel. She was a good-hearted lady who never let anyone go hungry whether or not they had money to pay.
Always ready with a quick answer, once a stranger came to town after a heavy rain, over roads that were turned to mud. When he stopped and asked her where Gainesboro was she replied, “Step down from that wagon and you’ll be up to your knees in it,” this feisty lady told him.
Ever popular and esteemed also by the Gainesboro Tobacco Company, they named a line of their tobacco after her. The “Aunt Polly Natural Leaf Smoking Tobacco” was sold in 2 different sized packages.
At one time, the black man, Andy Gee, who ran her livery stable, was jailed for selling moonshine. Aunt Polly boarded a steamboat with a petition signed by many Gainesboro citizens and headed on down to Nashville and right to Governor Malcolm (Ham) Patterson's office. Seated in the waiting room, the governor’s secretary entered his office and said, "Governor, there's a woman here that wants to see you and she's wearing a man's hat and smoking a pipe." The governor's response: "Send Aunt Polly on in!" When finding out Aunt Polly wanted her manager released from jail, the Governor asked if he were guilty, she replied "Why yes, he's guilty as H---, that's not the question. Ham, I can't run my business without him." She returned to Gainesboro on the next boat with the governor's signed pardon in hand.
Her life began the 5th of May 1839 as Mary Ann Christian Lock, no one seems to know when or by whom her more famous nickname "Aunt Polly" began. She was born to James W. (1817-1882) and Elizabeth D. Bennett Lock (1819 -<1860) on their farm near the confluence of the Cumberland and Roaring Rivers where Mr. Lock also ran a ferry. A big and strong girl she learned to swim and could "pull" the ferry across the river at the age of 10. She married quite young, at age 13 she became the bride of James Eaton (1830-1878) and to this union 8 children were born, some not surviving childhood.
When Tennessee seceded at the start of the Civil War, James joined the Confederate Army. He served a time with the 8th Tenn. Infantry and later rode in Colonel Hamilton’s Battalion, Tennessee Cavalry. With James gone much during those hard years Polly had the full responsibility for their young family. Once Yankees came to her door and tried to take her whiskey. She needed that whiskey for a teething baby, and protecting their property she grabbed her gun and warned, "the first one to touch that whiskey is my man." "Lady, we could kill you," came their reply. "You'd better be d--- quick about it!" she responded - leveling her gun. They left her and her whiskey alone! Once when James had a furlough and tried to see his family, he found northern Tennessee under Union occupation and hid out in the caves near town. When Polly received word of his whereabouts she crawled thru the darkness on hands and knees carrying a small pail of food in her teeth to feed her husband.
Some years after the war ended James had a dream one night that he drowned while crossing the Caney Fork River. When relating this to Polly she laughed and told him not to worry, he was a strong swimmer. But his dream became a reality, he was thrown into the river when his mule stumbled while fording the river and was drowned. His body couldn't be found for days, and Polly was sent for to join in the search. She threw his shirt into the river and told the searchers he'd be found where the shirt hung, and so he was.
Although she married twice more, she told her new husbands she could never love any man as much as James Eaton but she could love well enough to make a life together. She was married for a short time to Norman Frost, a man of dubious reputation, who was shot and killed in Gainesboro making her a widow again. She married on the 30th of March 1881 her last husband, Thomas Jefferson Williams, a Confederate pensioner, who ran the barber shop beside her hotel. This changed her name to Polly Williams, the name she is best known by. Eventually poor health determined that she give up the life of a small town innkeeper and she and T.J. moved to Carthage in Smith County and spent their last days there in the home of the Mattie Lou, daughter of she and T.J., and son-in-law, Floyd Robinson.
Teased by her son-in-law, G.W. Hampton, that if she couldn't talk she'd die, she eventually fulfilled his prediction. Suffering a stroke that paralyzed her throat, she died 3 weeks later. Her body was carried back to Jackson County where she was buried in the Lock Family Cemetery off Big Bottom Road not far from the river where she ran the ferry as a youngster.
There are many colorful anecdotes from her extraordinary life, repeated over and again in the Upper Cumberland area. Her picture hangs in the Jackson County, Tennessee courthouse.
The episodes during the War prompted the local "Order of Confederate Rose" chapter to be named "Aunt Polly Eaton Williams" in her honor. This is the auxiliary of Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #1685, the “Gainesboro Invincibles”, the same nickname adopted by the infantry company that Polly’s husband, James, joined back in 1861, and marched out of Gainesboro with to defend the South.
Respectfully submitted by, Vonda Dixon
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