My step-uncle decided to move back to Mahanoy City where he formerly lived.  He opened a liquor store on Main Street, but in less than a year he abandoned the business.  It had left its effect on him, however, and as long as he lived it stayed with him.  Not many years afterward, he died from its use at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.

By nature he was kind and generous.  When he moved to Mahanoy City, I went with him and boarded there for a few months until an incident happened that changed my whole life.  Once a year Lanier's troup and brass band from California would play at Mahanoy City.  The character of the play this night was East Lynn.  I was not in the habit of going to shows or plays, but I decided to go one night.  When I arrived at my boarding house, I found the door locked.  After a few minutes of thinking, I came to the conclusion that I would change my boarding place.  As the night air was chilly, I went up to the Lawton coal mine. I sat near the steam boilers until the early morning.  Then I went to the boarding house and got ready to go to work.  In the mine, I spoke to a companion of mine, Walter LEWIS.  I knew that his father kept a few boarders.  I told Walter what happened to me the last night and asked him to see his father about taking another boarder.  Next morning Walter told me that there was room for me.  I was glad to make the change, but I did not know who I would meet there.

That evening I packed my trunk, threw it on my shoulder and carried it half a mile, to Pine Street.  It was not so crowded.  I had better conditions there.  I got better acquainted with the LEWIS family.  There were the father and mother and three sons.  After the evening meal, my attention was attracted to a young woman who came in after we all had eaten supper to help Mrs. LEWIS wash the dishes.  After we all had eaten we would retire to the second floor.  I had no opportunity to see who the young lady was.  One day I caught a glimpse of her as she was leaving for her home, only a few doors above.  I recognized her as the young singer who sang with another young lady of the same age, at a Welsh Baptist Sunday School exhibition.  The title of the song was "Old House at Home Where My Forefathers Dwelt." It was a great surprise to me as I had never forgotten her or the song.

I thought of many ways to get acquainted with her and decided to speak to her when she was leaving the boarding house.  As she came out the low floor door I spoke to her and asked her if she would sit on the porch and talk a while.  After some hesitation, she said quietly, "If you want to speak, you can come up on my porch." I gladly accepted the invitation.  We sat together for about one hour and talked about things that were going on around us and made an engagement to meet again.

As I returned to my boarding house and thought over our conversation, I felt that I had met a real woman and I looked forward to another meeting.  Little did I think that that first meeting in the year 1873 would continue, unbroken on to the year, 1933.  It was broken then by death.

On November 19, 1936, a beautiful day, I walked to Lynnhurst Cemetery in Knoxville where she now rests.  My memory goes back to those happy days.  As I stood alone by the mausoleum, my memory went back and I thought of an old song, "We have roamed and we have loved amid the bowers when the downy cheeks were in their bloom; now I stand alone mid the flowers while they mingle their perfume o'er thy tomb." Oh! The hours grow sad while I ponder near the silent spots where thou art laid and my heart bows down when I wander by the streams and the meadows where we strayed.

For nearly two years we kept meetings, thrice a week.  One winter evening, January 9, 1875, we decided to go to the pastor, Rev. Thomas, of the Welsh Baptist Church.  I can remember right well, some snow was on the ground when we reached his home.  We were not sure that we would find him at home as it was then only eight o'clock p.m.  We were fortunate in finding the pastor and his wife at home.  The pastor's wife was the only witness to our marriage.  As we had no arrangements made for our home and knowing that empty houses were hard to find, I went to my boarding house and my wife to her father's.

In about one week, we found two rooms with a private family on the second floor, not a very convenient home to begin a new life in.  To reach our rooms we had to go down the front steps leading into a dark alley under the house, to the backyard, and then go up two flights of stairs to our rooms.  We had trouble in getting what little furniture we had up those narrow stairs.  Annie and I did not let those little inconveniences worry us.  We had to put up with the odor of sauerkraut cooking underneath our rooms.  They were a German family with several children and used kraut with every meal.  We would both smile when the odor would be unusually strong.  We lived here only a few months, then found a better location in the same part of town.

We moved into six different houses in nine years before we were settled.  Owners of empty houses would call on Annie, wanting her to rent, as they knew their rent was sure.  Our seventh move was to Jellico, Tennessee, in 1884.  Our home was in Kentucky, less than a mile from Jellico, a border line town, from the years 1865 to 1875.