Dear Ruby-

Here are the things I remember about my old home "The Beeches".   Of course the name comes from the many beautiful old Beech trees that surrounded the place- many still standing.  

The house was three years under construction which started in 1864 with making the bricks down on Sulphur Fork Creek in front of the place.   My grandparents lived in a precious old frame house on the land while the house was being built- this has been torn down which I regret- They moved into house in 1867.

The house has all interior walls made of brick- two brick lengths thick and is as cool as a cave in summer and warm in winter.  

Downstairs there are two bedrooms, an immense hall, parlor, dining room and kitchen.   All ceilings downstairs are 14 ft high- upstairs 12 ft.

In the parlor a marble mantle brought from Italy with carved fruit on front- The ceiling has designs in plaster around edge and a large pretty design in center that has a specific name but I can’t remember it.

The ceiling in the hall downstairs was hand painted by French men who could not speak English and I remember my grandmother telling us how pretty they sang while they painted-

The dining room ceiling was hand painted too- The ceiling in the hall is still original unless someone has changed it recently.

Upstairs there are three big bedrooms, and a small room with the stairs that lead to the tower which is two stories high- The very top has circular windows on each side and the story was told that my grandfather had this fixed so he could watch his slaves at work.  This is entirely untrue because he never owned a slave- It has been estimated that you can see ten miles from each side.

Never any termite trouble and we found the reason for this was that something I think was called coprass?? was sprinkled all under the house.   The foundation is stone with stone front steps.

The farm of 308 acres was given to my parents when they married in 1889.

Hope this will be some help- Miss Foreman

If there are any questions you think of I will be glad to try to answer-

Virginia Calloway was the last Woodard born in the old home-

Another interesting detail- there are stairs from the master bedroom to the upstairs rooms which had to be used by children when they came in late at night- Had to check in-

There is a brick servants room in back yard with cellar underneath where canned goods were stored.

There is a dark spot on the ceiling in front hall downstairs that came about when one of my grand-mother’s bottles of home made wine exploded and came thru from little room closet upstairs-

This is a letter written to someone named Ruby in 1976 by Miss J.W. Foreman who is believed to have been Mr. and Mrs. Woodard’s granddaughter.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deut. 6:5-9