A Quiet Life

        What is a quiet life? Is it living in a quiet area, like an isolated cabin in the mountains, or residing in a home by yourself, or having a quiet voice or even a quiet persona? I thought about this a few days, as I couldn’t seem to pinpoint a particular ancestor to write about. 

Many of my ancestors lived in rural areas, and many of them farmed for a living. But these same families had 7 or more children. So even though their surroundings were quiet, I bet their lives were anything but. And they had neighbors in the same situation, also with large families.

Uncle Roy Hinch, in college days

So how about living on an island? That is what my Uncle Roy did, starting in the early 1930’s. He had just graduated from college with a degree in teaching. He grew up in Cumberland County, Tennessee - pretty land-locked! His first teaching job was on an island in Lake Erie. It was (and still is) called Put-in-Bay, close to Sandusky Ohio. The only access to the island was by boat. I read that when Uncle Roy was “courting” his future wife LaRue, he would take a boat to the Ohio mainland and take her back to the island to visit. 

Put-in-Bay, Ohio - Uncle's Roy's first teaching job.

If that isn’t reason enough to select my Uncle Roy for this post, the other reason is because of his demeanor. He and his wife LaRue had similar dispositions. They were both so loving to each other. I don’t think I every heard either of them raise their voices, or speak in an unkindly way to anyone. 

Uncle Roy in his teaching years - shows his college education too

Roy loved teaching, and as technology advanced, he became very involved with the Euclid Ohio high school audio-visual department, where he was a teacher after leaving Put-in-Bay. His teaching and audio-visual career spanned from around 1935 to 1970, when he retired. He was very well-known and respected in Ohio as an excellent educator. And I will tell you, any student of Roy’s must have benefited from having him as a teacher. He passed away in 1993. 

Roy & LaRue at home in Euclid 48th wedding anniversary

        But lately Uncle Roy has been on my mind for another reason. A few weeks ago I was reading an introduction to a book about “Bonnie Kate” Sherrill, her husband John Sevier, and the Battle of Kings Mountain. In the book's introduction the author mentioned a person named Chuck Sherrill, who provided valuable background information from Revolutionary War Pension files. The author also mentioned that Mr. Sherrill was a descendant from Henry Hunt Sherrill (same as me).  So I did a Google search on him.

Turns out Chuck Sherrill has written 13 books about Tennessee history, and is himself a library archivist. And I learned that even though his ancestors are from Tennessee, he was born in Euclid Ohio, and attended Euclid High School. So I was curious if Chuck ever knew my uncle.

Through the TN state archives I was able to contact Chuck Sherrill, and mentioned we apparently share the same Sherrill ancestor. And I told him about my Uncle Roy. Here is where it gets crazy. Chuck responded that he didn’t know Uncle Roy from high school, but he had met him. Here is his very gracious response to me:

“It is indeed a small world! I did not know your uncle at the high school, but I did meet him because we were both members of East Shore United Methodist Church in Euclid. 

While I was in graduate school at Case Western Reserve, I did a project for the church in helping organize their Archives. Mr. Hinch was then the church Historian and was interested in the work I did. We talked about his Sherrill connection and I have a note in my files somewhere, I saw it not long ago, where I wrote down the names of his mother and grandfather.  I remember him as a kind and rather quiet man. “

Is this not amazing? And yes, from working with Uncle Roy,  Chuck picked up on his personality. It truly touched me that someone knew and remember my Uncle Roy from so many years ago. 

(l to r) siblings Roy, Lois, Lowell, Roscoe