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Morley, James Jackson, Jeannettes grgrandfather fr her newsletter 20150211

From: Jeannette Buck [mailto:skyscribbler@zitomedia.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2015 3:14 PM
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Subject: this week

I remember my great grandfather, J. J. Morley only as an old man who sat in his special high backed leather chair in his daughter’s living room in Gold. Once, when I was visiting there, he pretended to play dominoes with me, allowing me to build any sort of rabbit trail I desired with the game pieces, adding one now and then when it was his “turn”.
James Jackson Morley was born April 6, 1862 in Gold, in a house that his father built which later burned. He was the third son of William Shirts Morley and his wife Susan Ardrey Morley. Hundreds of miles south on that day, Union troops let by General Ulysses S. Grant met head on with the forces led by Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnson in what is historically known as the Battle of Shiloh or Pittsburgh Landing. The next day the Union army, reinforced by fresh troops, was able to secure a major victory for the North.
The community that we now know as Gold was not much more than twenty years old that year. Grandpa Jim grew up with the town then known as East Raymond. Many years later, as an old man, he sat in his daughter Maude Cloud’s living room and told her about the village he remembered from his youth. And, true to her nature, she kept notes.
Coincidentally, Aunt Maude’s home was the first house built in what would become Gold and was built for Asa Raymond and his wife in the early 1840s. The earliest store stood across from the present day Gold Church and was built by Grandpa Jim’s uncle, Hastings Morley Jr. Log cabins, houses and another store sprang up as well as a school house that stood on the site of the present Clark residence. The house now owned by the Blake family was built by Amos Raymond during the Civil War.
During the last months of the war William Morley was drafted into the Union Army. While he was away, his wife Susan and her older sons Chester and Jasper cut a road through the woods from the south side of Gold to the present day Bryan Morley farm where the family settled.
Houses were built and houses burned. Grandpa Jim recalled them as his daughter listened. Frank and Asa Raymond built the first store to stand on the Northwest side of the intersection. A larger school was then erected on the lot where Hastings Morley’s store had been.
The town grew rapidly. A house that originally stood beside the store was moved bodily catty-corner across the intersection by a harness maker named Jim Graham. The harness shop was later run by LeGrande Corey. Charlie Conable bought the house, added the “kitchen wing” and built a cheese factory along side.
In later notes I found after her death, Aunt Maude continued with the changes that occurred as Gold grew.
The store changed hands a time or two and eventually burned. It was replaced in 1902 by the building that still stands today. That same year a large two story schoolhouse was erected almost directly across from where the first one had stood.
In 1884 the town petitioned for a post office and the name was changed from East Raymond to Gold.
Pardon Reynolds built a hotel that stood on the south west corner of the intersection. The hotel burned as the result of arson in 1913 and the lot has remained vacant.
In 1898 Gold had 29 dwelling houses, one hotel, one large store, one small one and a feed store. Will Clark ran a blacksmith shop. There were 135 inhabitants, five or six gushing springs and one large school house with shade to shelter horses in times of meetings. There also was the C & PA depot with a water tank and scales to weigh the loaded cars.
The church was built in 1899 on property donated by Asa and Juliette Raymond.
Grandpa Jim saw his town go from horse and buggy days to automobiles. He saw the transition from kerosene lamps, fireplaces and wood burning stoves to electric lights and coal fed furnaces. He was born during the Civil War and died a year after the close of World War II. How I wish I could sit with him one more time and while we played dominoes, I would listen to the stories he had to tell.

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