"The subject of this sketch was bom near Bunker's Hill, in White (now Putnam) County, June 6, 1820. At
the age of seventeen he enlisted as a soldier under Grand Staff to assist in removing the Cherokee Indians from
this part of the country, but, at the urgent request of his parents, he was excused. When he lacked of being
eighteen years of age, he was married to Miss Nancy Campbell. They moved to the place where they now
live, near Winesap, fifty years ago.
"This old couple have passed their Golden Wedding Anniversary by eight years, keeping house and
living together as lovingly and agreeably as they did when they became one over fifty-eight years ago. How
few there are who can show such a record! Fourteen children were bom to them, eleven of whom still survive
and live on adjoining farms. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren are almost innumerable.
"As his name implies, King Hiram Burgess is verily the king of his own kingdom. 'Uncle' Hiram
delights in telling of the bygone days; of his conduct and mode of living. He was never drunk in his life;
never used profane language; was never seriously sick; never had a fight or any difficulty; never had a lawsuit;
and has been a member of the Free-Will Baptist Church for fifty-one years.
"When he came to the Plateau, fifty years ago, there were no roads here, he says?only hog paths, no
saw mills, no postoffices, no mail routes, no school or church houses, no stores nearer than Sparta, no mill
except the famous "Scarberry" Mill on the Caney Fork River; and no nails. When they wanted to floor their
houses, they were compelled to split and hew puncheon, and then pin them down with wooden pins in lieu of
nails. He invited the writer's attention to the floor he had laid in that way fifty years ago, and the proof was
conclusive.
"Their neighbors were the Moyers, Lewis, and Wyatts, with a few more distant. They had no turning
plows nor mowing machines, wagons, or buggies, for they did not need them. Their living was in the
woods. What few cattle and sheep they had lived all winter without feed. 'Uncle' Hiram says he remembers
well of feeding his horse only thirty-five small binds of fodder during the whole winter, and he kept fat on it.
The hogs ran wild, and grew fat on the mast, which never failed in those days. The woods were full of wild
game, such as deer and turkeys, and it was no trouble to kill as many as wanted any day. It was their money,
their bread, and their all.
"'Uncle' Hiram is now nearly seventy-seven years of age, is as spry as a boy, and can walk twenty
miles in half a day easily. He still sticks to his first love?hunting?but on account of the scarcity of game
compared with his boyhood days, he mourns his lost opportunities. To the writer of this sketch, he said:
'Oh, how I wish it was like it used to be here. I would give anything if I could make it like it was when I first
came here!' He still possesses the old gun with which he brought all his revenue from the woods. He has refused
seventy-five dollars for it at different times, nor can it be bought today for that amount.
"No one knows 'Uncle' Hiram but to love and respect him. He always greets you with a smile and
an outstretched hand. He owes no man?in short he is one of the 'noblest works of God'?an honest
man."?M.S.J., Crossville Chronicle, 3 Feb. 1897.
