(On right) James Daniel Love and Sons Livery Stable

I’ve heard the stories of my great grandfather James Daniel Love. On one trip, he and my grandfather William Columbus Love drove to Nebraska in a “touring car” where they bought a box car load of work mules. The purchase was made and the train nearly underway just as all business in this country halted. You see, it was the late 1920’s and the stock market had just crashed. The sale would have been made null and void if not for the wrangling of a lawyer in North Carolina.

Sadly, my great grandfather’s money was of no worth to those in Nebraska. A time of losers and winners,  Dan Love returned to North Carolina with a fresh stock for the livery stable he owned and operated in Oakboro. Everybody needed work mules. There were chattel mortgages and payment with chickens and promises in word. It was indeed hard times and Dan’s mules sustained both community and family. As an old poet by the name of Mr. Smith told me of his memories of the livery stable, the train would line up perfectly with a shoot where mules were offloaded. People gathered and a large human circle formed in which the mules would be corralled. An event to behold, the people would separate and a man on a great white horse would enter the circle, leading the mules up Main Street and directly into the stables of James Daniel Love and Son’s Livery Stable.

I never knew first hand of James Daniel Love as he died the year of Hazel. And, his wife Florence Geretta Sossamon died in 1957, the year prior to my birth. Stories in witness of this couple’s character along with the following newspaper article speak well of James Daniel and his wife Florence. And from surviving photos, we know the couple were down to earth, living a life of simple means. In this series of posts, I’d like to share all that I have on “Grandpa Dan and Granny Florence.” Theirs was a common love and one worth sharing.

Born 10 Sep 1870, James Daniel Love is the son of William James and Eliza Ann Teeter Love. He married 2 Nov 1890 Florence Geretta Sossamon, the daughter of Columbus P and Lucy Hartsell Sossamon who are laid to rest at the Midland Baptist Church cemetery. We are blessed to have the following portrait showing four generations of this Love family. Note that James Daniel Love is on the far right holding my grandfather William Columbus Love. Seated below is Frances Geretta with her arm around daughter Wrissie Love McLester. And, to the far left is patriarch Jonah Askew Love who lost an arm in the civil war. His son William James, father of James Daniel Love, is seated in the middle.

The William James Love Family

Front Row (R to L): Jonah Askew Love, Dock Fletcher Love, William James Love and wife Liza Teeter Love, Ada Josephine Love(hand on her mother’s shoulder), Florence Sossamon Love and her daughter Wrissie Love.

Back Row (R to L): Mack Halton Love, Elam Croson Love, Crone Simpson Love, Charlie Monroe Love holding son Audie Love and wife Ella Honeycutt Love, James Daniel Love holding son William Columbus Love

James Daniel Love’s family history is one often shared. It’s a rich history full of church, war and country. But how about for Florence Sossamon? I mean, she too has a Love heritage and it’s one that is truthfully more interesting than that of her husband’s. Let’s jump back …way back!

I bet my life would be much different had gold not been found on Little Meadow Creek.