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At the family's Thanksgiving dinner, Joe T. and Mary made an announcement. J. N. had invited, urged them, to come live with him. His wagon shop had prospered enough in his first ten years for him to find a wife and two years ago a house. Joe T. had been getting feebler than his age should have made him and Mary was hard pressed to care for and to watch him. "Senile," Grand John T. had called him a year ago during one of his seldom feisty episodes. That was too harsh. Joe T. was just tired and soul scared.
J. N.'s wife, Elizabeth, had lost her father, Rufus Sherrill, killed at Stone's River with Cheatham's division, the 8th Tennessee Infantry. Her mother died in 1879 when she was seventeen. She had no other close family. Her great uncle, Mr. D. C. Sherrill at Sherrill-Stone's, had seen to it that she'd gotten to attend and graduate from Martin College in Pulaski, Class of '80. Coming to Fayetteville school that fall, she'd taught primary school for awhile. J. N. saw her walking to and from school and took a fancy to her. She was a tall, thin, auburn-haired girl with a sharp tongue. He courted hard and she relented. Solon married them in the spring of '82 at the same spot in the Stevenson's yard that Lou and Solon had taken their vows. Dr. Stone had told them after three years of trying that they'd not have any children. J. N. had survived mumps that first year back from New Orleans. Dr. Stone said that was probably the reason.
"I want a family, J. N." Elizabeth had said out loud to her husband one morning when she served him his breakfast. J. N.'s pride and hurt would not allow him to respond to her intense declaration. "I lost Father and then Mother, been without a family of my own until you," she pressed her case and offered J. N. a surprise. "Let's get Mr. Joe and Miss Mary to live with us. I like them both very much. They've been good to me. I put up with rowdy younguns all day. Be nice to have grown-ups around our house," she said as she took her place at their table.
J. N., whose eyes had been locked on his cooling eggs and ham, cowered. He kept his silence for a few moments before responding to his wife's appeal. Elizabeth's eyes were fixed on top of J. N.'s head.
"Our house is big enough for four," he thought. "Mama could help with the house. Daddy could go to the shop with me. I need to be with him more. He could help too." But what sealed his acceptance, approval, was his wife's explanation of wanting a family. He was her family and it was right and proper that his family be her family.