Claude Floyd Musgrove Fourth Son of J.J. Musgrove

Claude the youngest son of JJ was full of mischief and always liked being photographed. He is almost always seen with a hat on his head or in his hand and always featuring his best pose for the camera. He married Mattie Lou Green (1904-1979) and they had three children; Mildred Coneil, Mary Alene, and Jeffie Burl. Inheriting the land on the east side of Hwy 28 from JP Parker Rd. to the next bend in Hwy 28, he and Mattie moved into an old log house and barn located on top of the hill and began his family. He farmed the land and worked as a carpenter. From the leftover lumber from his construction jobs, Claude built a new house began clearing more of the land and grew corn and hay. The new house was always a work in progress as he acquired more lumber. What was once an outside wall would become an inside wall when a new room addition would be added. There was no indoor plumbing, water or bathroom. Water was drawn from a well in the back of the house and the outhouse was behind the smokehouse. Also there was no television in those days; we listened to a radio. If you are under 70 years old, you can't relate but I distinctly remember these things. I also remember when the plumbing was brought into the house and when a TV arrived. There was always an abundance of fresh vegetables from a huge garden that was planted each year.

I can remember watching Granddaddy and uncle Leon clearing a new field of stumps after the trees were had been cut and hauled away. Uncle Leon and Granddaddy would dig a hole under the stump and then place one or two sticks of dynamite under the stump, light the fuse and run for cover where I would be waiting. Boom ... and pieces of stump would be falling all around. No youngster will ever experience that type of adventure today. Later on he purchased the Ford's Store located at the intersection of Hwy 28 and JP Parker road that joined his property. Part of that purchase was the land across the JP Parker Road with a Grist Mill. He operated the Grist Mill and ground corn meal for all the neighboring farmers around the area. Thus the reference to Musgrove Mill. The store also sold gas. The pump had a glass container on top with labels from 1 to 5 gallons with a hose attached to the bottom of the glass container. It had a hand crank on the side of the pump that you would turn to pump gas into the glass container to the amount requested. You then placed the hose into the gas tank of the car and let gravity empty the glass container. The store also had a public telephone, something most people didn’t have in their home. This phone, a 24 inch tall by 8 inch square box, hung on the wall with a cone shaped device protruding from the middle of the front of the box and another cone shaped device attached to a cord that hung in a cradle on the left side of the box and a cranking device on the right side. To use it you would hold the side cone to your ear, turn the crank to alert the operator that you wanted to make a call, and speak in the cone on the front of the box.