Betty J Martin

A Woman of Vim and Vigor Betty J Martin

A Woman of Vim and Vigor is fiction based on the life of my Great Great Grandmother, Nancy Whitsett. She was born in 1840 to Nathan Whitsett, a school teacher in the Clinch Mountains, and Elizabeth Coffey, whose family migrated from Wilkes County, North Carolina to the Clinch Mountain town of Thorn Hill, Tennessee. The story follows the Whitsett and Coffey family through their marriages, children, and the lives of these Clinch Mountain families. Nancy married Carter Dalton at the age of 14 and the story takes the reader through her court struggles and victories. The reader will get a glimpse of the how the Civil War affected East Tennessee and how her families were neighbors in Missouri with the young Dalton Gang family. The importance of religion in their mountain culture is discussed along with their knowledge of "making do" and using every resource to feed their families. The writer hopes this story will be inspirational to all the descendants of these pioneers who paved the way.