Audio tape made by William T. Brown, son of John Francis Brown ca January 1881-1887.

The Wynne family was said to be one of the most interesting families of Burke's Garden. They owned all of Medley's Valley from Mr. Charlie Greever's palce to Bob Davis's Place. John Wynne lived in there and that is where John Francis Brown and Analoy Columbia Wynne set up house. Three different Wynne familes in Tazewell County, One family was Welch, one English and one Scottish. 

Grandma (Cynthia) Wynne , Cynthis's brother , my Uncle George was the big Wynnes. Uncle George was a big man! Uncle George was paralyzed. Analoy (Wynne) took care of him one month, then his daughter Mag Wynne, Tiden H. Short's wife. Great Grandpa Wynne (?Morgan Wynne) had buried gold then had a stroke and they could never find it. 

On Grandpa's (William Thomas Wynn) side they were the small Wynnes. There was Uncle Morg., Uncle John, Uncle John had Stewart, Hazel, and Mammie. Uncle Morg had a whole family. On my mother's side (Analoy) there was Uncle Fed -oldest , then Uncle Will , and then Uncle Ed. Uncle Ed stayed on the home place, he thought Grandma (Cynthia) Wynne should give it to him, but she didn't will it to him. My dad's mother (Mary Elizabeth Wynne Brown) was a Wynne. Aunt Mat Wynne married a Repass, the Wynnes thought she married below herself. And they cut her off from the family. But my dad (John Francis Brown) went to see her after the rest of the Browns came west. Dad's mother (Mary Elizabeth Wynne Brown) and Aunt Mat (Martha Jane Wynne) were sisters. 2 boys (?James and Andrew?) were killed/injured in the Civil war, and these were brothers of Mary Elizabeth and Mat., Aunt Mat Wynne Repass had a whole flock of kids, Bessie Hoback and Allie. Not sure were Allie went. Went with Leo/Leon Edwards but didn't marry each other. She left with someone to Indiana and married someone, never saw her again. Hazel (Nora Hazel Wynne) lived and Mamie (Mamie L. Wynne )(Uncle John Chrismond Wynne's daughters) lived out at Christiansburg. Aunt Mat Repass had all these boys, Joe, Will, Bailey and Stuart Repass. 

The Fox family: Uncle Pete Fox married the oldest one, Aunt Tish (Patricia/Letitia (Tish) Jane Wynne) daughter of Cynthia and William Thomas Wynne and had three children, 2 boys and a girl. Willie, then Morgan, then Kate was the baby. Willie had three boys, one of them moved out here, Bill Fox moved to the gap of Yakima, WA. Then there is Uncle Frank (Franklin Carnahan Fox) who was father of Trubie and Marie Fox (Sarah Marie Fox). Mr. John Fox (John T. Fox) was Uncle Frank's dad. Uncle Frank married my dad's sister (Margaret (Maggie) Virginia Brown). So Uncle Pete Fox was Uncle Frank's uncle and brother-in-law! If you can straighten that one out! There are more Foxs in there but I am not sure who they all work out with, Andy Fox and that bunch. Uncle Orv (Orville Jefferson Brown) married in another Fox family. The old Uncle Steve Fox, that's Georgie Fox's granddad. Uncle Orv , Dad's oldest brother, married the sister of Steve, Raleigh and Charlie Fox and them , Aunt Clary. Now she's gone because she has children that are also gone, only has one boy left (William Walter Brown).

I used to know every person in Burke's Garden and where they all lived. There are so many places -houses that are gone. There used to be an old school house over by Uncle Morg. Wynne (Morgan Francis Wynne). You see, Uncle Morg. Wynne lived over near that Betty Meek's place, he built that . He built the Glade Church, did everything. Carpenters, Nowadays, they only build a certain thing, but he did everything, lathing, plastering, everything. Uncle Fed Wynne did the same thing. Uncle Fed Wynne could make a pair of shoes. Uncle Orv told me one time, that Uncle Fed made him a pair of shoes overnight. He used to buy the whole hide, I remember that. Uncle Fed could make anything out of wood , leather or iron. Uncle Fed's daddy (William Thomas Wynne) was the same way, Grandpa Wynne. He (William Thomas Wynne) made guns during the Civil War. 

Oh, the Moss's! Pat Davis (William Patterson (Pat) Davis) he married a Wynne (Sarah Wynn Hall) ?, and they had a daughter, Aunt Louise, Mr. Rush Moss's wife. Well, he told Mr. Davis, Mr. Davis had got control of land, said he (Mr. Davis) came to the area with just a kerchief and a stick, and made money. Mr. Rush Moss, after he married Aunt Louise, that he wanted some land so he asked Mr. Davis, and told him he'd bring Louise home if he didn't get any land. So he didn't get any land and he did take her home! That's Vin's mother (Louise Davis Moss). They had Will, Ben, Vin, and a bunch of girls, Rush and Louise Moss. He finally was given some land so he brought her home. Now that's the story they tell, but I don't know how much truth there is to it. I read somewhere where the Moss's had gotten their stiff fingers come through the Browns. I don't know of any of the Browns that had stiff fingers. Talking to Miss Tina Moss, she said she knew that they had. 

Grandpa Brown was a fixer, always sent for Grandpa Thomas Brown to fix it.

You want to know about the Halls. The only Hall I knew was Dad got a brother-in-law who married his oldest sister who married Gord Hall. They live in Blue Springs, Missouri, of course Uncle Gord. and Aunt Betty are both gone. The kids, are there. One of them has a big dairy, he sells to one of the hospitals there because his milk is so pure in Blue Springs, about 30 miles out of Kansas City. Stewart Wynn (means Hall) Then old Aunt Julie Ann Hall used to come to church there at the Glade, lived over there where Alfred Bowen lived, She had a girl that stayed with her, I think her name was Mamie, Mamie Lambert (may have been the daughter of Henry and Martha Jo Lambert, born ca 1878 on the 1880 census in Clear Fork #87). Gus Rhudy burned her house down and he died in the basement in bed. Aunt Julia Ann and the girl got out. Cousin George (Steve) Fox, son of John David Fox, took Julia Ann in until she died. Then this Mamie married Lester MacMeans and died having a kid. That the only Hall's I knowed of. Aunt Julia Ann rode horses, so it caused the horse to have flat hips. Mamie, the girl that stayed with her came to church with her on the horse riding double, sidesaddle. That is probably why the horse had flat hips! 

Cousin, John ? Fox was trying to get on a horse on frozen ground, the horse fell and landed on him, They put John to bed, they thought he had pneumonia and Dr. Higginbotham came to see him on a Sunday and stayed for dinner. He told John he could get up in a few days. They went on to eat their dinner and when they checked on John after dinner, he was dead. I went to school with Dr. Shawver. Kate Fox, When they was came along, she had a sweetheart by the name of Carl Gruub. Gruubs used to live there and worked for Lawsons. Aunt Tish wouldn't let any of her kids get married . Willie Fox, the oldest did, he went away and married some women, and he left . Whenever they went to the mill, you'd see Mr. Fox (? Mathias G. II Fox or John T. Fox) and Uncle Pete (Peter Spangler Fox) and George and Morgan, they all went together. Uncle Pete thought he got the long end of the horn, on the place when they gave him the place, he was way up there, had to go so far up there. The barn was divided up into to parts. Half of it was Uncle Pete's and half of it was Mr. John Fox's. Another thing about that too, those three fellows, Mr. John Fox married Aunt Sari (Sarah A. Margaret Crismond), and Uncle John (Crismond) Wynn married Aunt Lizzie (Elizabeth (Lizzy) Crismond) and Uncle Morgan (Francis) Wynn married Aunt Ann (Ann E. Crismond), and those three women were all sisters. That tangles it up some more, doesn't it? What they were, were all three sisters.  Uncle Morg's, Uncle John's and Mr. Fox's were all sisters. 

The Browns would give you everything they had, even their shirt off their backs if you need it. I guess they still do as far as that goes. Uncle Reese helped out a lot of people and so did Dad and Uncle Orv and all the rest of them. Always helped out. 

I was going to tell you how, Uncle Pete (Peter Spangler Fox) married the oldest one (Patricia/Letitia (Tish) Jane Wynne) and Grandpa (William Thomas Wynne) Wynn went over to Wytheville and bought a saw mill. In buying a sawmill, he told them they had to furnish him a man to go with him to set it up for him. So they got Uncle Alex Felty (Alexander Long Felty, soon to be son-in-law of William Thomas Wynn), he was a sawmill man at the time and well experienced so they sent him along. So he (Alex) married the boss's daughter. Well they stayed on the place. Well, then Uncle Emanuel M. Short married my mother's (Analoy Columbia Wynn) youngest sister, Aunt Viola. She had one child called Dewey Short. Tiden H. Short married Uncle George's daughter, Aunt Mag Wynne (Margaret (Mag) A. Wynne), niece of Cynthia Wynn. They had a whole flock of kids. Then after that Tiden married Mattie May Felty. Then they had three. The first one died, a little boy. Then the second one Lloyd, then Bob Short. 

I was going to tell you about the Thompsons. I suppose you know that Geo. Thompson and Stewart Thompson , see everytime Uncle Reese (Brown) went back there (Tazewell), I don't know if you knew it or not, but they always went and got them. Reese always picked up Stewart Thompson and took him along with whatever he was doing. . Then there is cousin Matty Goodman (Martha (Mattie) Belle Brown). That's the other side of the Brown family. You see, my grandpa, my dad's daddy was Thomas Brown. The other cousin, Mattie was Orville Brown's. (Orville and Thomas Brown were brothers) Cousin Mattie, cousin Nannie Barns, cousin Jennie Crockett, and cousin Mary Brown, that's the one that never got married, Mary. Jennie Crockett lived there in Tazewell, and cousin Nannie Barns lived in Bluefield. They were all Dad's (John Francis Brown) first cousins. 

Mentions Ruth Davis… Then they were related to the Bowens. Ruth Davis married a Brown. She could probably tell you more than I could. Gus White (Shade Augusta (?Gus) II White) is a relative of mine, a cousin. His sisters, 2 of them, both nurses…. Both Mattie Williams, Lucille (Mary Lucille White)worked out here (Washington State ) for a while. She worked in a grocery store. She had a good job out here. I talked to Dr. Coburg? one time, he said she was the best nurse he ever had, Lucille White. Her husband (Arnold Brown) died when he was young. Her son (Orville Brown), was married and had one kid (Arnold Howard Brown) and then he died. Ruth Davis could tell you more about that cause she was around them more. Gram Cox's (Charles Graham Cox) wife (Mildred Zarilda White), is a relative to that (the White) outfit. I am not sure if she is cousin Nannie Barns's girl or not? Nannie Barns (Nancy Higginbotham (Nannie) Brown) when I was back their one time, she had a daughter who worked information at the depot in Bluefield. When I was back there for a visit and came back on a train. 

I say one thing about your grandfather (of Jim Hoge) . He never wanted to see anything go to waste. If he had more than he could use, he'd come and tell you, you know apples ,cherries or anything like that, that he couldn't use. He'd always come and tell you. I am like that. I'd rather give it away, I think I learned that from your grandpa, Mr. Meek Hoge. I don't know your father. But I worked in the wheat with your grandpa. We thrashed wheat. Uncle George Wynn did all the thrashing on the east side of the road that goes through Burke's Garden, north and south. John D. Greever did all the thrashing of wheat on the west side of this road. You know the biggest population was on the east side of that road, all the big families there. The Repass's, Alfred Repass. Grubbs, Lots of Kitts, the Kitts ,they kind of moved out and then the big bunch Lamberts came in there, like a drove of sheep pretty near. Course Pierce Lambert, some of those Lamberts spelled their name different than others, some Lampert, and some Lambert. All the same I think, they all came from over around Bland. Now Uncle George Wynn he had some daughters that married into the Neel family. I think there was two of them, one married a Bud Heldreth, and one married Tiden H. Short. He had 4 boys. 

Morgan Wynne, Uncle George's oldest son, see Uncle George was married twice. First he was married to a Rhudy, John Rhudy's sister. Then next he married a Henry, Mag Henry, she had a daughter who married a Helmadollar out at Tazewell and then she had a son Will Henry who died in World War I. He is buried down there where my little brother Hubert is buried. So is his mother Mag Henry Wynn. Down next to where the Hoges are buried. This Morgan Wynne when he got married to the old lady Aunt Mag, she was pretty mean to those boys and they all left. Morgan joined the army and he stayed years and years, until he was pert-in-near dead and they sent him home. He went down to ol Tiden Short's to see Maggie, Mag to live with his sister. He was crazy about buttermilk, and he was sick, they had churned and he drank so much buttermilk that he died, maybe from to much pressure on his heart. Levi Wynn, was I guess next and he was a holy roller preacher out there at Tazewell, I mean at Blufield, Virginia. He was a singing , Master, too in Burke's Garden. He used to do a lot of singing there in Burke's Garden. We all sang there. We lived in that ???? near Laurence Felty's near an old woodshed. Do you know where the old wood shed is? We had it first we sold it to Hoback, then Mr. Gose bought it. Do you know at one time Mr. John Gose owned more property in Burke's Garden then any other man. Then Ben Wynne, he stayed there a little while then he left. Ben came out here when my dad come. (west) And he stayed here and worked for Uncle Reese (Brown). He stayed here and married a girl from over there by Idaho/?Ivanhoe. She came out here teaching school. Blanch Hedrick was here first and taught up in Othello, Washington up by Moses Lake. Taught there one year and came back and she got this Wapato School, that we had. Course she got out and brought a partner Mary Margaret Huddle. She was related to Uncle Fed Wynn's wife was a Huddle, one of the best old women I guess that ever lived, one of the best souls that ever was created. Aunt Belle was there, we called them aunt but they were not, just Aunt Letti , Uncle Fed's wife that was really our aunt. There was three of those girls, Aunt Belle stayed there all the time and Aunt ?Org married a Foglesong and they had land over in the east end over by Horse Snaps. We lived over there where Snaps owned that place in the east end at one time across the hill from Uncle Morg Wynne, from where Betty Meek lived. At that time it belonged to Mr. John Fox, Uncle Frank's daddy. One time Mr. John Fox put a bunch of oats in and they craddled it, and shucked it. Morgan and George were doing the tying. They always worked together, the four of them . After Uncle Pete Fox left there course Mr. John Fox was never satisfied there. 
They went down to Christiansburg and I guess they died and didn't get the place paid for. My dad always said that Uncle Fed Wynn always had the poorest place there was in Burke's Garden. They had so much pea gravel on the place. See my dad used to work for Uncle Fed Wynn when he had the sawmill. See Uncle Fed would go out and cut the trees down, bring in the logs and saw the logs, then build the building!
He did it all, Uncle Fed Wynne. My dad used to work on the Fed Wynn place and it was the poorest place . He (Fed Wynn) bought the place from Mr. Pat Davis (William Patterson Davis). That's Leon Davis and Add Davis's daddy. So, Tyler Boling , used to live, the road used to come through there where Harvey Dillo?, and turned and went down and turned the corner by Davis's place where Mr. Mckenna lives know and over by Mr. Rush Moss's place and come out at the corner down there where Mr. Sam Merdith lives. Now we used to live right across the road from Sam Merdith?. East of Sam's. There used to be a big wild cherry tree there. At one time there was a circus at Little Creek and they drove them back over the mountain to take them back and elephants and giraffes had no problem and ate the cherries/ leaves. 

That saw mill that grandpa Wynn bought was brought over there with 6 yoke of oxen, I mean 6 head of oxen, three yokes to pull that saw mill over there. Had to bring a stationary engine. Over the old road where Mary Lou ?Volun's place now it belongs to Dupount, in that field over there where it joins Bent Moss's place on the side, used to be a big Chestnut orchard there. You can still see the old road that used to go up there. We used to live on the corner there. I used to catch rides to town on horseback at that corner from Uncle Pete and Mr. Fox and they used to pick me up. I had a blue serge suit, I was in school then, not really in it, but went and they used to pick me up take me to the store with them . Those Fox's liked to brag on their stuff, I was great at that and I always like old people anyway. That was always my delight if I got with old people, I love it. Old Mr. Steve Mahood, the old fellow that lived right down there over by the Snap's silo in the east end, there. Mr. Steve Mahood lived there. He raised a boy, they raised a boy by them, I think he was related to Aunt Ann, I think his name was Crismond. I know his name was Crismond, Doc Chrismond. Old Mr. Steve Mahood, they raised him. He got to be a railroad man and married a old man Grubb's daughter , Nannie Grubb. They went to school the same time Dr. Shawver went to school in Burke's Garden. Nannie Grubb, Carl Grubb and Kate Fox. 

Source: Bill Brown, Son of John Francis Brown.
Taped ca January 23, 1981-1987. Tape requested by Jim Hoge.