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| Tilman Cloud, Lyle Cloud Pace and Nan Lee Cloud Pace |
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| Leona Presley Cloud & Tilman Thomas Cloud |
| Tilman Thomas Cloud, son of Benjamin Franklin Cloud and Martha Shoemaker, grandson of Ben Frank Cloud and Nancy Middleton. Tilman Cloud, Jr. is my father. Ben Cloud was a blacksmith by trade. He was born in Tennessee but moved to Harlan County when Tilman was a small child. Ben Cloud bought land in what was known as Jones Creek on top of the mountain. They were dirt poor. Tilman Cloud was born 1/23/1901 his siblings were Josephine born 1898, Ida born 1/28/1903, Harrison Cloud born 11/14/1904, Matilda born 9/22/1906, Alberta born 11/28/1908, Doxie born 7/16/1914 and Octavia born 4/11/1917. Tilman Cloud was a coal miner, beekeeper, blacksmith, farmer. He had chickens and roosters. There was a red rooster that was so mean that he would chase you if you came near the house and jump at you and hit you with his sharp spurs. He always had a cow for milk and butter. He fed his family by gathering food from the surrounding mountains, such as apples, pears, walnuts, beach nuts and vegtables from his garden. There were grape vines on the hill near the back of the house and Papow tended to them. Behind the house the dirt had been dug back two or three feet and a brick wall was built to about two or three feet to hold back the dirt wall upon which the grape fines were planted. There was a frame built about two feet high which the grapes would climb. They would be large deep purple sour grapes. Mamow would make grape jelly out of them. They also were perfect grapes for home made wine. Papow Cloud worked in the mines all his life. He never owned a car. He would either take the bus from Jones Store or start walking and someone would pick him up before he got to Evarts. In Evarts he would either get a haircut or buy some groceries. He usually got a taxi to bring him home. In the late 50s papow had to quit work at the mines because he became ill with Lukemia. This form of Lukemia was not the form that kill within a few months. This form lasted 11 years. He died in 1972. I never got close to Papow Cloud. To me he was a grouchy old man. He liked to grab me and scratch my face with his whiskers. He was not a person who ever showed any physical emotions of love, no hugging, no kissing. He and mamow used to argue with each other. Not loud yelling, just picking at each other, kind of like a boxing match one would get in a jab and the other would reply in kind. Papow usually did most of the physical work around the house. He milked the cows, took care of the garden, his bees. There was a constant battle keeping the weeds, trees, brush from overtaking everything. There were no lawnmowers or weed eaters, only sickles, long handle with a sharp curved blade. People used that to cut the grasses and small trees. Papow would walk around the hills around his property carrying a potato sack filled with rocks and dirt. He would light the underbrush and let it burn, but before it got out of control he would smother it with the sack of rock and dirt. Every summer relatives of my family would come in to visit. That would be a great time. Mamow and Papow would have lots of food for everyone. Their house was pretty big and there were enough beds for the visitors or they would take turns sleeping at relatives houses. This would be one time that daddy would let us spend as much time at their house. Usually he did not want us going there too much. Guess he thought we would bother them or mooch food from them, which we did. Whenever we came home from Louisville for a visit we always stayed with them. Papow bought a TV before anyone else in the holler had one. They also had a bathroom built onto their house and a well dug. That was amazing to have an indoor bathroom and water (all of which we never had). Watching TV became a favorite past time of Papow and Mamow. He watched the news, tv preachers and anything having to do with politics. He loved Harry Truman, didn't care too much for IKE. Also I remember a big crowd every now and then watching the Friday night fights. Papow also loved TV western. After we moved to Louisville in 1960, I would come back every summer and spend about a month with them. In 1959 papow cloud (Tilman) was diagnosed with Lukemia. This type of Lukemia was a slow progressive form. Papow died in 1972. My father Junior Cloud (Tilman, Jr.) also died from this same disease in 2003. |