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"UNCLE BILLY" CARRIED
1776
GUN TO FALLS
CHILTON--SPL--The memoirs
of "Uncle Billy" Nelson tell of the early days in this community. He came
here from Blount County, Alabama, bringing with him his rifle which his
grandfather, Billy Nelson, carried in the Revolution of 1776.
He arrived here before the first store was
built, "when you couldn't get a match to light a fire, or a bit of groceries, or
anything else between Mooreville and Marlin."
Mr. Nelson remembered the building of the
first store which L. B. Chilton and his partner, Capt. deBardeleben, opened in
1876. It stood on the hill above the present site of Chilton where the
John Macdecy place is now. Mail was not brought any nearer than Landrum
until 1883 when Captain deBerdeleben was appointed postmaster. Then the
mail was brought to the store twice a week from Marlin in a buggy.
When the railroad came in 1888 the store
was moved to the road paralleling the tracks and the town became Chilton,
officially.
Uncle Billy remembered attending a
Democratic convention under the big oak tree which now stands in Dr. T. D.
Baxter's yard. It was at this convention that the late Judge S. S. Scott
launched his political career. He describes Judge Scott as a "husky young
man." Judge Scott died in Waco in 1937.
When Uncle Billy became too old to run his
blacksmith shop he was elected justice of the peace. He died in 1938.
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