We are nearing the completion of the major restorations on the Tiner Hendrick house. We disassembled the porches and the breezeway, took down the chimneys carefully and prepared them for reassembly, cut the house into pieces for the move, moved the house to a new safe location, and rebuilt the porches and breezeway. We are in the middle of re-roofing the old house and will soon reassemble the chimneys. There is still work to do: restoring windows, staircases, banisters, siding, doors, painting, etc.
As the roofers were taking off the 17,000 wood shingles Jesse Tiner bought in 1887, they found an old hammer in the soffit near the attic. It was only 8 inches long. The head was made of iron. The handle was worn smooth from years of use. The head was held on to the handle with 3 square nails. We don't know the story of how the hammer ended up in its hiding place and remained there for 139 years. But we can imagine.
I was remembering some stories from the diary that might have been related to this little hammer. So I thought I would just look them up to remember them better.
This story is about the time when Jesse Tiner's brand new house almost burnt down. He was working on covering (roofing) the new house when the fire broke out in the kitchen. Jesse and his family were using the first little cabin that they had built in 1881 as a kitchen and dining room as they moved into the two-story house.
From some old photographs we have been able to tell that there were two small brick chimneys in the little house at one time, one in the back room and one in the front room, in addition to the fireplace at the very back of the house.
The roof of the house was covered with tin later, making the evidence of the chimneys unavailable. When the roofers took the tin off, we were able to see the holes where those chimneys to the stoves had been.
When the fire broke out in the kitchen, Jesse and his helpers, who were working on the wood shingles on the new house, rushed over from their position on the roof of the new house to put out the fire. They knocked down the chimneys and saved the entire house from being engulfed in flames. He was pretty shaken up about it. He or one of his helpers could have dropped the little hammer in the commotion and, if it had landed or rolled into its hiding place in the soffit, might never had been able to recover it. It's a good story, anyway.
But the story gets even more interesting. On July 9, 1887, 139 years ago, one day before the fire in the kitchen, Jesse hired Jack Wilson (colored) to work on covering (roofing) his house.
Jack Wilson is the father of Jesse Wilson, the man who built and was the principal of the two-story Black school in Sutherland Springs in 1899. You can read the story of the building and the burning of the school and the lives of Jesse and Coral Wilson in the blogs below. The school is described as the handsomest building in Sutherland Springs. It was burned down the next year, and Jesse Wilson, the principal of the school, was accused of arson. Court records show that the case was dropped a few months later. Jesse Wilson married Coral Lott, another educator, and they moved to San Antonio where they were schoolteachers and principals in Black schools for 40 years.
But in 1887, Jesse Wilson, the son of Jack Wilson, was sixteen. Perhaps he was helping his father put the wood shingles on the new house Jesse Tiner was building. Were he and his father part of the "we" that were "covering on the new house"? Did that experience inspire him to build a two-story Black school eleven years later? It is a shame that, although Tiner's community was able to put out the fire in his cabin and save his house from burning down. The community was not able to save Jesse Wilson's school from burning to the ground.
In 1903 Richard Nobles, another Black tenant farmer of Jesse Tiner and later a purchaser of Mr. Tiner's property, rebuilt the school next door to the Tiner property, and there was an attendance of 100 Black students at the school that year. Richard Nobles wife, Rachel Nobles, was the great grandmother of Pastor Ray Warren of the Haven Oaks Community Bible Church in Sutherland Springs. He is also the great nephew of Carol Lott Wilson.
I am a child of the 60s. I remember fondly Peter, Paul, and Mary's rendition of Pete Seegers's protest song.
If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land
I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
If I had a bell, I'd ring it in the morning
I'd ring it in the evening, all over this land
I'd ring it in danger, I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring in love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
If I had a song, I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening, all over this land
I'd sing it in danger, I'd sing out a warning
I'd sing in love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
Well I got a hammer and I got a bell
And I got a song to sing all over this land
It's the hammer of justice, it's the bell of freedom
It's a song about love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
Jesse Tiner probably spent a long time wielding the little hammer that was found inside the soffit of his house before it became lost. From what I know about Jesse Tiner from his diaries and from my acquaintance with his descendants, he was an advocate for justice, freedom, and love between his brothers and sisters all over this land. He has passed down to us a song to sing and a story to tell.
Help us to preserve those stories by contributing whatever you can to the Tiner Hendrick House Restoration Project. You can donate through Zeffy in the right column or by writing a check to the Sutherland Springs Historical Museum, P. O. Box 334, Sutherland Springs, Texas 78161.
Thanks.
