James McChesney Prickett (1882 - 1968)

Born 23 Nov 1882 in At home, Rural Retreat, Wythe County, Virginia, United States [uncertain]

Ancestors

Died 7 Jan 1968 at age 85 in Chilhowie, Smyth County, Virginia, United States

James Prickett was born in Wythe County, Virginia.

This profile is part of the Prickett Name Study.

Biography

James McChesney "Jamie" Prickett was born on 23 November 1882 in Rural Retreat, Wythe County, Virginia, the third child and first son of Minter and Laura Belle McConnell Prickett. Originally named James Minter Prickett, he changed his middle name to McChesney after he was grown because his youngest brother had been given a first name of Minter. He arrived less than 3 1/2 years after his parents eloped from his maternal grandfather's home in Chilhowie.

Minter Prickett home and store

When Jamie was born the family lived in a house on the east side of the railroad tracks in downtown Rural Retreat, in the same building as his father's general store and next door to the Alpine Hotel.

Minter Jackson Prickett, Sr., age 21

Jamie's first memory

From James McChesney Prickett, Travelgrams: Experiences and Expressions of a Traveling Salesman ^[1]

"My first recollection is that of having a picture made by a traveling photographer when I was about 18 months old. The cameras scared the daylights out of me, and everyone was trying to "run me down." I have this tin-type in my possession now, showing me, with a stick of candy in my hand sitting upon my father's knee. The next incident my memory registers occurred when I was about 2 1/2 years of age. I was tilted back in a big rocker, with bedclothes tucked around me up to my eyes. I remember yelling for "Littul Maw", meaning Aunt Nellie Prickett (who afterward became Mrs. William J. Fickle and lived in Bristol Virginia. Aunt Nellie was in our home when I was born and lived with us until I was about nine years of age). The chair was tilted back and held in position there by a sea shell placed beneath one of the rockers. This sea shell was white on one side and pink on the curved side. These sea shells were about 12 inches in length. As I recall there were two of them about our home. Often my sisters and I would put them to our ears 'to hear the roar of the sea.'"

For a larger, clearer and more extensive excerpt from the booklet, click here.

Cover: I Review my Yesteryears

When he was two or three years old, Jamie and his older sisters sat for a studio-style photograph. (Actually the picture was made by a traveling photohrapher.) Jamie is wearing soft leather boots or high-top shoes and like the girls, he is wearing a dress.

Jamie, Gladese, Pauline Prickett as small children

Shortly before the photograph was made a second boy had been born. Thomas Nello (named for his mother's father, Thomas Guilford McConnell and his father's youngest sister, "Nellie,", who lived with the family and helped look after the children when she wasn't teaching school. Nello died of whooping cough when he was just fifteen months old and in later years Jamie told a touching story of his memory of his death:

My little fourteen-month old brother and I had whooping cough at the same time. The doctor said I would die and my brother would recover. The snows of many winters and the suns of many summers have lingered upon his little grave, while I am still groping along on this terrestrial sphere. When the little brother died, I recall there was much mystery about the room where he lay as a corpse. Much tip-toeing was done, and older ones of our household only spoke in whispers. At length the door was opened, and my two sisters and I were permitted to enter. Sitting around, were my parents, two aunts [Nellie and Paulina], and some neighbors. All eyes were glued on me as I immediately went over and rocked the cradle, as was my custom while he was living. He had twenty-five cent coins on his eye lids. I was too young to understand death; and to show how young I was, I recall the cradle was higher than my head.

The room was filled with older folks, my parents, Aunt Nellie, Aunt Pauline McConnell (who afterward became Mrs. Walter R. Bridgeforth and lived in Pickens, Mississippi), neighbors and friends. The eyes of all of them were upon me as I rocked the cradle where my little dead brother lay, and in retrospection I see again their eyes fill with tears as they sadly watched me. I was too young to understand death and sorrow. I doubt if I would ever have remembered this sorrowful occasion had it not been the little dead brother had twenty-five cent coins placed on his eyelids to keep them closed.

Page 27: Across the railroad tracks lived neighbors of whom we were especially fond, who had children about our own ages. Their home also faced the railroad and was surrounded by a board fence at least 10 feet high. Their yard thus enclosed contained many beautiful trees . . . . we loved to visit the home behind the big board fence and enjoyed playing with the children there. [Jamie had two sisters who were older -- Gladese was 2 1/2 years older than Jamie; Pauline was 15 months older than he.]

Page 28: [a girl of about 14 years of age died when Jamie was a small child and he was told that they would put her body and the casket in the cold ground.] I came home greed and with the great fear that gripped my childish heart, and in horror I would say to myself, over and over again: "They might put my Mamma in the ground!"

There were no more children until Jamie was almost five when Robert William ("Robbie") was born on 30 July 1887, named for his mother's brother and his father's father. In February, 1189, When Jamie was six, his third sister, "'Nellie' Prickett, Jr." was born but died of unknown causes before she was seven months old. His fourth, fifth, and six sisters arrived in rapid succession, just a year apart and all born in February: Nancy Belle, Lulu Guilford, and "Mary, Jr." Little Mary died when she was just four days old.

In the fall of 1894, less than a year and a half later, Lollie found herself pregnant once again. She was not pleased and told my mother in later years that when she discovered she was pregnant, she climbed a haystack and jumped off, hoping to miscarry. Her ploy was only partially successful. On 8 May 1895 she delivered twin boys, one of whom (Abram McConnell Prickett, named for his mother's paternal grandfather) died within hours; the other (named for Mint) lived to be almost 80. Jamie's mother had borne eleven children in sixteen and a-half years of marriage. But it was her husband who was worn out. Mint Prickett died of pneumonia just eight months later, when he was barely 38, leaving Lollie with a house full of children and no money (as her parents had predicted years before when they tried to dissuade her from marrying Mint).

Several years before his death, the family had moved across the railroad tracks and a block or so west to a larger house sitting on a hillside overlooking the railroad tracks. Mint had bought a narrow five-room, two-story frame house to rent out, then decided to build an addition and use it for his own rapidly expanding family. He had added two large rooms, up and down and a wide central hallway with a rather handsome staircase: a parlor and dining room on the first floor and two bedrooms on the second. All the new rooms had fireplaces. But there was no bathroom; just a wooden privy about 70 feet from the back door.

The 1890 census may have had some revealing information, but it did not survive a fire in 1921.

He continued to attend school after his father's death,^[2] as the 1900 census shows, but it also shows him as a "common laborer" in Rural Retreat, living at home with his mother, maternal grandparents and all his siblings except Pauline, who had married and left home while she was still in her teens. ^[3]

In about 1901 Jamie left home and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he went to work for Gray-Dudley Hardware as a salesman. ^[4]

Jamie went to work in Nashville, TN, and gave his sister Pauline and her children a lot of attention as this postal card shows.

In October 1907 when President Theodore Roosevelt visited Nashville, Jamie was on the committee to greet the President.

Jamie was warmly greeted by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt's 1907 Nashville Visit By C. Michael Norton Theodore Roosevelt's rise to the Presidency was meteoric. In 1897 he resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to lead the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War. Returning from Cuba a hero, he was elected Governor of New York in 1898. In 1900 he was chosen as William McKinley's Vice President, and, when McKinley was assassinated in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became President. He was 42 years old. In 1904 he was elected President in his own right. This dynamic man visited Nashville on October 22, 1907, and received a warm welcome. Once he arrived at Union Station in his own rail car, a parade was formed on Broadway at about 9:00 a.m. with the President in a horse-drawn carriage accompanied by 25 to 30 automobiles. The escort of honor was Troop A of the Confederate Veteran Cavalry. The procession moved down Broadway to Eighth Avenue. At that corner were some 2,000 students from schools including the University of Tennessee Medical School, the Hume and Fogg Schools, Buford College, Belmont College, Radnor College, Boscobel College, and St. Cecelia Academy. The parade then wound its way through downtown, ending up at the Ryman Auditorium. At the Ryman, Roosevelt delivered his principal address of the day. He touched on current issues, such as turning the Mississippi River and its principal tributaries into navigable waterways, and on issues which seem timeless, such as the need to stop stock manipulation (in his words, the need to "punish successful dishonesty"). Leaving the Ryman, Roosevelt changed vehicles to a 50-horse-powered Peerless automobile and headed toward the Hermitage. The procession stopped at Peabody College, then located on "College Hill" at Second and Lindsley. This area also included the University of Nashville Medical College and Montgomery Bell Academy. This rare postcard, from the collection of C. Michael Norton, features President Roosevelt speaking to the students of the University of Nashville and Peabody College. After a few brief remarks, Roosevelt and his entourage left again for the Hermitage. On the trip out Lebanon Pike, the vehicles passed the site of the Clover Bottom horse racing track where Andrew Jackson had raced his horses. Arriving at the Hermitage where a crowd of over 10,000 had gathered, Roosevelt met with officials of the Ladies' Hermitage Association. After a tour the President spoke to the crowd on the grounds and promised to secure federal funds to be used toward the preservation of the Hermitage. The procession's final stop was at the Confederate Soldiers' Home, where the President also made a few remarks. Finally, he returned to his rail car at the Hermitage Station and left Nashville a little after 1:00 p.m. heading south to Chattanooga. During the trip he stopped and briefly spoke from his rail car at several towns, including Murfreesboro and Tullahoma. An interesting aside concerning this visit involves the advertising campaign later developed by Maxwell House, which attributed its slogan "good to the last drop" to Roosevelt, based on a comment supposedly made by him at this time. It is, in fact, unlikely that he made such a statement. Nashville's newspapers report that during his visit to the Hermitage, Roosevelt did ask for a cup of coffee; however, none of the reports indicate the brand of coffee served. The Nashville Banner reported that Roosevelt did like the coffee and said, "This is the kind of stuff I like, by George, when I hunt bears." One can hardly imagine a successful advertising campaign based on that slogan![5]

In about October 1908 he resigned from Gray-Dudley to open an office in the Cole Building as general agent for several manufacturers in Nashville. ^[6]

Jamie sent money to his mother regularly and after his sister Pauline left her husband and brought her five children home to Rural Retreat, he sent her money as well.

Jamie regularly sent money to his mother

About 1911 Jamie moved to Washington, D.C. I believe he was selling hardware for Simmons Hardware in Nashville, which furnished him with a car.^[7]There is a snapshot of Jamie with 2 women, probably Baumgardeners, originally from Rural Retreat, in the car.

By 1920 he had discovered that he loved to write, and especially to write sentimental poetry.^[8]He also liked to recite them to anyone who would listen -- well he would recite them whether his audience was listening or not.

In about 1935 he established his headquarters in Roanoke, often working out of Hotel Roanoke.^[9]

During all this time he continued to write -- about his childhood in Rural Retreat and the loss of his father when he was 13 years old and his experiences as a traveling salesman. He published several issues of Travelgrams and in 1960 he came out with I Review My Yesteryears.^[10]

Character and Personality

The delight of Jamie's older years was his niece Mary Gail Miller. He often corresponded with Allen Bridgforth, his first cousin in Mississippi, and seldom failed to mention her in a letter. [How true! Uncle Jamie was gaga about Mary Gail. When she was a teenager, he wrote a poem about her which he entitled "Sweet Bless'um Heart." He would take her into one of the jewelry shops he sold merchandise to, make her stand in the middle of the floor, and recite that poem to her She told me many years later that she just wanted the floor to open up and swallow her.^[11]

Uncle Jamie looked a little like Jimmy Durante. And he also had a gravelly voice, somewhat like Durante's. His great nephew Bill Bedwell told me one time that Uncle Jamie hated for people to point out the resemblance.

I think he was the most sentimental man I ever knew. He had a very silly sense of humor, and I think he was the worst bore I ever knew. He would insist on reciting his poems at length. He would stand in the middle of the room and when he noticed you were not paying attention he would walk over and jab you on the shoulder with his forefinger.

But he was a good person, an honest person, and I think he was probably a very kind man. No doubt he was also a very lonely man. He had very good taste in women, and he fell in love with several very attractive women who did not reciprocate his affection. The last love of his life was Adelaide Miller (Mary Gail's mother and Jack's widow, who was one of the few people who seemed to appreciate him).

Jamie was no doubt a lonely man and he compensated in part by personalizing his automobiles. For him, they always had a personality and he always gave them a name. There was "Old Seldom," an auto he owned in the World War I era. There is a picture of him with Old Seldom and two Akers boys in a Nashville (?) newspapers.

Jamie's mother died in 1928 at the age of seventy and he appears in the 1930 census living in Rural Retreat with three of his sisters: Pauline, Nancy Belle, and Lulu.^[12]

In later years he worked as a traveling salesman or manufacturer's representative in Virginia and Tennessee for jewelry and watch firms.^[13]

For a larger view of the death certificate at right, click here.

Death certificate for James McChesney Prickett

He died on 7 January 1968 in Chilhowie, Smyth County, Virginia, at the Valley Nursing Home,^[14] of coronary occlusion with an underlying cause of arterio-sclerotic heart disease. The clergy for his funeral, which was held in the Rural Retreat Presbyterian Church, were the Revs. Goodridge Wilson and George Jones. He was buried on 9 January 1968 at Mountain View Cemetery in Rural Retreat.^[15]Prickett, James McC Funeral Bulletin,Prickett Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard Address, Richmond, VA 23221^[16]

Notes

Clergy at funeral were Goodridge Wilson & George Jones.

Gravestone for James McChesney Prickett

(I am not sure the following is a wholly accurate transcription of the lines on the gravestone. (Patricia Prickett Hickin, 14 December 2018)

Like a comrade of old

Like a tale that hath been told

We are at length the shadowy past

But let our works be so

When the time comes to go

Our records will hold to the last.

J McC P

From Findagrave.com

James McChesney Prickett

Birth: 23 Nov 1882 Rural Retreat, Wythe County, Virginia, USA; Death: Jan 1968 (aged 85) Chilhowie, Smyth County, Virginia, USA; Burial: Mountain View Cemetery, Rural Retreat, Wythe County, Virginia, USA. Memorial #: 94152981.

Family Members: Parents: Minter Jackson Prickett (1857-1896), Laura Belle McConnell Prickett (1858-1928); Siblings: Laura Elizabeth Prickett Atkins (1880-1968), Pauline Prickett Miller (1881-1963), Thomas Nello Prickett (1884-1885), Nancy Belle Prickett (1890-1980), Lulu G. Prickett (1892-1977), Minter Jackson Prickett (1895-1975).^[17]

Citations

1. ↑ Page 25 (Roanoke, Va., 1943).
2. ↑ 1900 Census VA WYTHE Rural Retreat, USBC, Series T623, Roll 1732 . Accessed 20 Mar 2007. p1
3. ↑ 1900 Census VA WYTHE Rural Retreat, USBC, Series T623, Roll 1732 . Accessed 20 Mar 2007, Laura B. Prickett household
4. ↑ Prickett, James M. Travelgrams: Experiences and Expressions of a Traveling Salesman (Roanoke, VA., 1943) Accessed 21 Jul 2008. Hickin, Patricia Library or personal papers, 290 Westminster Canterbury Dr #382, Winchester, VA 22603-4299. Page: 25.
5. ↑ Nashville Tennessean, October 23, 1907; Nashville Banner, October 22, 1907; The Nashville American, October 23, 1907; Bill Careyl, "Fortunes Fiddles & Fried Chicken," Hillsboro Press, 2000, pp. 47-48. TR's visit to Nashville
6. ↑ Unidentified Newspaper Clipping, Brief notice (news item) with picture (portrait).
7. ↑ Page: 25
8. ↑ Hickin, Patricia P. Personal knowledge. 23 Aug 2012. Page: How well I remember!
9. ↑ Travelgrams (1943), p25.
10. ↑ Prickett, James M. I Review My Yesteryears (Roanoke, VA: Art Printing Company, 1960).
11. ↑ Recollection of pph, ca2000
12. ↑ 1930 Census VA WYTHE Rural Retreat, HeritageQuest, Accessed 9 Sep 2007, P lines 64-66, Lulu Prickett household.
13. ↑ Prickett, James M. Travelgrams: Experiences and Expressions of a Traveling Salesman (Roanoke, VA., 1943) Accessed 21 Jul 2008. Hickin, Patricia Library or personal papers, 290 Westminster Canterbury Dr #382, Winchester, VA 22603-4299.
14. ↑ Obituary for James McChesney Prickett, Unidentified newspaper clipping, [Jan __, 1968], Prickett Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard Address, Richmond, VA 23220.
15. ↑ William_F "Bill" Bedwell to PPH, 21 Sept 2000 citing Pauline Prickett Miller's Bible, which she apparently received on 9/15/1915.
16. ↑ Obituary for James McChesney Prickett, Unidentified newspaper clipping, [Jan __, 1968], Prickett Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard Address, Richmond, VA 23221.
17. ↑ James Archer (47046691), “James McChesney Prickett,” Findagrave.com. Record added 24 Jul 2012. URL: URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94152981/james-mcchesney-prickett#. Accessed 13 December 2018.

Acknowledgments

• Prickett-321 was created by Patricia Hickin through the import of PRICKETT-WBF 4 gens desc n spouses children parents 20150104.ged on Jan 4, 2015.

Sources

• James Archer (47046691), “James McChesney Prickett,” Findagrave.com. Record added 24 Jul 2012. URL:

URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94152981/james-mcchesney-prickett#. Accessed 13 December 2018.

• William_F "Bill" Bedwell to PPH, 21 Sept 2000 citing Pauline Prickett Miller's Bible, which she apparently received on 9/15/1915.

• Hickin, Patricia P. Personal knowledge. 23 Aug 2012

• Hickin, Patricia P. Personal recollection, 23 Aug 2012.

• Kathy Lauder, editor; Terry Baker, associate editor. "TR's visit to Nashville." URL: http://pages.prodigy.net/nhn.slate/nhn.html. Accessed 27 Oct 2008. URL: http://www.civicscope.org/nashville-tn/TheodoreRoosevelt1907. Accessed 10 June 2014.

• Obituary for James McChesney Prickett, Unidentified newspaper clipping, [Jan __, 1968], Prickett Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard Address, Richmond, VA 23221.

• Prickett, James McC Funeral Bulletin, Prickett Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard Address, Richmond, VA 23221

• Prickett, James McC. 1913 letter (from Washington, D.C.) to Laura Bell Prickett. Prickett Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard Address, Richmond, VA 23221.

• Prickett, James M. I Review My Yesteryears (Roanoke, VA: Art Printing Company, 1960). Hickin, Patricia Library or personal papers, 290 Westminster Canterbury Dr #382, Winchester, VA 22603-4299.

• Prickett, James M. Travelgrams: Experiences and Expressions of a Traveling Salesman (Roanoke, VA., 1943). Accessed 21 Jul 2008. Hickin, Patricia Library or personal papers, 290 Westminster Canterbury Dr #382, Winchester, VA 22603-4299.

• Unidentified Newspaper Clipping. Cited on 24 Oct 2006

• 1900 Census VA WYTHE Rural Retreat HerQu US Bureau of the Census, Series: T623 Roll: 1732 Accessed 20 Mar 2007.

• United States Social Security Death Index, FamilySearch.org. URL: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VS5N-DMV. Accessed 19 Aug 2014.

• Virginia, Births and Christenings, 1853-1917. FamilySearch,org. URL: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X5N7-T5T.