Escaping History

I am a history researcher and writer who received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee in 2008 and a Master of Arts in History from the University of Kentucky in 2010. My first book, Harrogate and Cumberland Gap, is being published by Arcadia Publishing in January 2o14. My written work has also appeared in The Lincoln Herald and The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. This blog generally focuses on my efforts to uncover the bits of history that have “escaped” public remembrance – for example, I’m currently working on projects involving Lincoln’s White House servants and the history of the Grace Nettleton Home for Girls, once located on the campus of Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.

-Natalie Sweet

3 thoughts on “Home”

I went to Grace nettleton home for girls. I was five at the time, but they lied about my age and said I was six. So I could go in with my sister who was 3 and a half years older. So naturall I failed the first grade. This was in 1947. I was born in 1942. We had a different superintendents. Miss Smith was there but she left. Mr. and Mrs. chester Dacus came. Mae was her name.And then one day we came home from school and they had left. A roger smith and wife came. The home burned down a little after that . I believe it was 1955 or 1956 . Then it closed down. They said paint blew up in the basement.We went to school in an old building which was also the post office. Then they built a new one Ellen Meyers school. Mr. and Mrs. Smith had a daughter named Sonya. That was the best time of our lives when they were there. We went to church on a school bus to cumberland gap tenn.Otherwise we walked through the cold, storms, snow to school. we passed the Lincoln Memorial campus on the way. We used to go there to watch live plays. I remember when they had the OLD KING COLE play. Miss Ellison lived on the campus, but she was a teacher at the school. Fourth grade I believe. Some bad times at the home, but some good ones too. I used to have to slop the hogs. Fill up the coal bins, stoke the fires for hot water and the radiator heaters. I was not very old, but the biggest of some of the girls. I remember when t.v. first came out and we got one. Fury, Davy Crocket was some of the first ones. My name is johnnie fee, my sister joyce fee. Maiden names.