The telephone company sent the family to Franklin in March 1915. We were supposed to be here for about six weeks. After the six weeks were up, Daddy went to New York with the manager; and when he came back, he said we had a choice to make -- Franklin or New York. I sometimes think, "What would my life have been if we had gone to New York?"

The Gentry sisters about 1915. Left to right: Dorothy, Louise, and Jessie Lee.

The large beautiful houses and churches in Franklin were overwhelming to a child so young. The churches with their steeples and stained glass windows were and still are different than those in the mountains. The houses in the mountains were modest, made of frame or logs . We lived at first on Third Avenue, North, in the last house on the right side going down from the square. The house still stands. A little trolley car ran in front of the .house from Franklin to Nashville.

The Gentrys' first home in Franklin as it looks today.

The first people I remember were Lottie and Louise Lunn. I remember the lovely curls they had. The Truett family lived across the street. There were three children in that family, I believe. I remember the girls Thelma and Katherine Truett--pretty girls. They were older than me. Also the Reese family lived on the street, grandparents of Ethel Lee and Mary Elizabeth and David Hoover . Ethel Lee was just a baby then, I'd say, about a year or one-and-a-half years old.

Judge Eggleston lived in the big house on the corner of Third and Bridge. I would go to the Corner Drug Store every time I got a chance to see if Judge Eggleston happened to be there. He was such a huge man he had to sit in two ice cream chairs. I was so amazed. I was so bashful. I sure did not want him to see me looking at him. He was a nice kind man.

Judge Eggleston's house as it looks today.

The Tohrners lived across the street on the other corner. The Tohrners had three daughters, Hazel, Annie, and Stella and a son, Martin. They ran a store on Main Street. In those days it was called a dry goods store; they carried clothes, shoes, etc. The Lunn girls, the Truett girls, and Hazel Tohrner put on a show in the back yard at the Eggleston home. They had dresses made of crepe paper. The Lunns and the Truetts sang, and Hazel Tohrner danced. Admission was a penny. I thought it was just wonderful. I was so fascinated with the gazebo. The gazebo is still there today.

The gazebo today.

Mrs. Gant lived in the third house from the corner going on the right side toward Bridge Street, the second house was Agnes Bennett's, and the house on the corner was the Rose place. I'm not sure who it belonged to. Lottie and Louise's grandmother Mrs. Ormes was married in that house. (The children and I lived in the Rose house when we came back to Franklin from Chicago in 1960.) The house behind the old Interurban station the Green Williams family lived in. Their daughter Jennie married Dr. J. O. Walker. The brick building across from the Interurban station was called West Point. The house back of it Dr. Howlett lived in and had his office. He had two daughters Maxie and Virginia. Dr. Harlin Perkins Cochrane also lived on that street. All those houses are still there but the Howlett house.

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