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Covered Wagon TrainsCovered Wagon Trains by Mattie Lee Dilbeck 12/18/1984 The covered wagon was not headed west, but south to Atlanta, Georgia. There were no paved roads in those Dawson County, Georgia mountains and only steers would walk so patiently in the ankle-deep mud. It would take days to reach the wagon yard in Buckhead before the door-to-door selling could begin. Batis Dilbeck [William Batis Dilbeck] would have his wagon loaded these fall and winter trips. Apples, potatoes, cabbage, dry peas, syrup, chestnuts, and black walnuts would sell well. (There are still many black walnut trees at the old home site, but the huge ones were cut when Mr. Chastain built his new house.) At times "moonshine" found its way into a wagon as "produce". Oxen were also used for plowing and pulling the syrup mills. Batis had no horses until he moved into Tennessee in 1903--yes, in a covered wagon! The bows that held the sheets were made of split White Qak. The wagon sheets were hand woven and were water proofed with linseed oil. His wife, Mary Manervy, [Mary Manervy Carney] did not grow flax after moving into Tennessee, nor weave her own cloth. She did continue to spin cotton thread and yarn and to make quilt battens. She made the yarn and knitted a pair of woolen socks for a hunter when she was 90 years old. Covered wagon trains went on the "Turkey Drive" to Buckhead before Thanksgiving Day and again before Christmas Day. Several families would make the drive together. One old man "had the most turkeys and even a horse! He would ride ahead to find a place for the turkeys to roost. Camp had to be made an hour before sundown or the turkeys would scatter. Feed was given to them before they flew into the trees to roost. The drive would start as soon as the turkeys left the roost the next morning. Turkeys will not be rushed, so only a few miles could be made each day. Two nights and three days were required to reach Buckhead where the turkeys would be put inside a fence at the wagon yard. Each man found his own turkeys by marks of identification and "peddled" them aroud town. At times cattle would be driven along with the turkeys. Batis grew about an acre of wheat for the family flour. The wheat was cut by hand with a "cradle", then tied into bundles, made into shocks, and left to dry in the field. Layers of dry wheat was spread on wagon sheets to "sun". In the afternoon, dogwood limbs (stripped of their leaves) were used to flail the grain from the heads. Straw was picked out and the grain and chaff put into bags to be brought out again on a windy day to blow the chaff away. Mary Manervy was not happy to remain home with farm chores and small children while Debbie went with son Batis on the three or four annual trips to Atlanta. Mary Manervy did state in the presence of her son Willie she thought Debbie was "bossy" and thought the trips and business could not be done without her. The farm had been willed to Debbie, and Batis was quite young, so she probably did think it necessary to make those business trips in the covered wagon trains. On August 26, 1978, Bill (Willie) [Willie Franklin Dilbeck] and I [Mattie Lee Godfrey] were in the area where the wagon trains began their trips back in those years about 1900. We were searching for the old home site of Debbie and the "Dilbeck Cemetery" where she is buried. Her husband, William Willis Dilbeck, and two infants of Batis and Mary Manervy were also buried there. Since Batis had his son Willie drive him to this old home place in the year 1933, we knew the graves were on a hill behind the house and near the road. We were leaving in defeat and this was our third trip to search the area. By chance, we saw two men standing beside a pickup truck at an old house. We stopped and asked if they knew of the old Dilbeck Home. One said he lived at the Batis Dilbeck home place and had for forty years! We followed him and his wife back down the Afton Road to their home. (the Afton road had been paved three years and the old Afton Post Office looked small and deserted). The old house had been rebuilt, but the land and black walnut trees looked much the same to Willie as in 1933. When deeds for the farm were brought for us to see, there was one showing Willam W. Dilbeck bought it on July 4, 1873 from A. S. Faucett. Mr. Chastain led us a half mile up the dirt road behind his house to the "Dilbeck Cemetery". He said there were five or six graves forty years ago, but we saw only two then. There were a few mounds that may have been graves, too. We believe this is where Debbie and her husband William Willis are buried. Batis Dilbeck moved his family from Dawson County, Georgia to Polk County, Tennessee in 1903. [See Dilbecks of Dawson County] This was a long trip in the days before automobiles! It was difficult for relatives to visit when moving that far away by wagon. It was many miles and over mountains from Dawson County to reach the rail road in Pickens County, Georgia where a train could run to where Batis lived near Benton, Tennessee. Therefore, Batis had not returned before thirty years later when his youngest son had his first car and drove the two of them to the old home place. This son, Willie Franklin, was only twenty years old on that trip in 1933 and was sixty-five years old when we searched and found his father's and grandfather's old home place in 1978. The search is over! We now know where Debbie and Batis lived in those days of their covered wagon trains.
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