I still live on property my great grandfather purchased in 1872. He was a Tollett from Tennessee who came here after the war because he couldn’t go back to his Union family. He had three daughters and one, my grandmother, married a local boy and they lived in the Tollett homeplace which became known as the Campbell homeplace.
At some point when the postal service was formed, Granny and Granddaddy or maybe Great Granddaddy Tollett put up a mailbox across the road from my house. It was still there when I married and moved into a mobile home just about 100 feet north.
The grands had passed by that time, and my frugal husband asked if we could move the old mailbox up the road a bit. He then proceeded to weld it to a metal car tire wheel so it could be moved. After we built our house back down the road in front of the old homeplace, we picked it up and walked it down to almost its original spot. When it was hit by vandals, it would usually lean from the attack, but one vicious hit bent it across the top, and I decided that was enough. I moved that mailbox into my garden in front of the sunroom windows. I know folks don’t understand why I have a mailbox on a tire wheel there in a prestigious spot, and may think it quite tacky. But to me that dented, 100-year-old artifact is precious. It’s enjoying being surrounded by roses this spring, and I’m so proud to say it was Granny’s.
Anne Peden, Phd.
Greenville County Historic Preservation Commission
Fork Shoals Historical Society
Piedmont Historical Preservation Society
acpeden07@gmail.comâ–
