Cooperative Living February 2017 - 33

Above: A picturesque cabin in Love.
Right: The Smith family at their Royal Oaks
Country Store. Below: Mountain Top Christian
Church, which has been in existence since the
1800s, continues to hold Sunday services.
In 1894, the U.S. Postal Service was pushing
for a shorter name, since Meadow Mountain
required too much space on the postal
stamp. Sometime that year, Postmaster
Hugh Coffey's young daughter, Lovey, died
of typhoid fever; so, in her memory, the
village was renamed Love.
flowed through. Milk, cream and handchurned
butter were kept in crocks or
glass vessels submerged in the ice-cold
water for freshness. As a child, my
husband Billy remembers loving nothing
better than going to the family spring and
upending a crock to drink clabbered milk,
for which he had a special fondness.
In years past, the community boasted
several general merchandise stores, three
churches, two one-room schoolhouses, a
blacksmith shop, a sawmill and a grist mill
where people could get their grain ground
into meal. Today, the village is sparsely
populated compared to 100 years ago, and
Royal Oaks cabin rentals, owned by the
Smith family, is its only commerce.
Mountain Top Christian Church, which
has been in existence since the 1800s,
continues to hold Sunday services with
many faithful members. One lifetime
member is Ruby Coffey, who was born and
raised in the Love area. Ruby, 92, attended
the Ivy Hill School in the holler where she
was born and remembers walking to
Henry Everitt's store in Love to spend the
night with his daughter, Annie. In later
years when Ruby purchased her first car,
she lovingly washed it in the shallow
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waters of Pannell Branch, which flowed
across the road.
Today, mail is delivered from nearby
Lyndhurst, but years ago Love's claim
to fame was the post office where people
brought their letters and their valentines
for the coveted " Love " postmark on the
envelope. More than once Ruby walked
to the post office and blew the whistle
hanging at the door, summoning the
postmaster for her mail.
First established on April 24, 1894, the
Love Post Office was located in the heart
of the hamlet known as Meadow
Mountain. On May 15 the same year,
Hugh Coffey took the oath of office and
was sworn in as the new postmaster by
Wilson S. Bissell, the acting postmaster
general. Within a short time, however, the
U.S. Postal Service was pushing for a
shorter name, since Meadow Mountain
required too much space on the postal
stamp. Sometime that same year, Coffey's
young daughter, Lovey, died of typhoid
fever; so, in her memory, the village was
renamed Love.
Originally the office was incorporated
into the general store that Hugh Coffey
owned and operated. Although the exact
date is not known, this store later burned
down and was never rebuilt. Coffey retired
after 25 years of service and on Feb. 28,
1919, Gordon Everitt was appointed to the
office of postmaster by Postmaster General
Albert S. Burleson.
The new office was then set up inside
Everitt's private residence and general
store, much like Coffey's before him. In the
late 1920s, Gordon married Pearl Allen, a
much-respected schoolteacher in the area,
and she became not only his wife but his
assistant as well. In addition to their postal
duties, the Everitts operated both a
sawmill and a gristmill, and many times
were outside when folks came by to pick
up their mail. They found a simple
solution to this problem by hanging a
police whistle on a long chain outside the
store. One shrill blast on the whistle told
the postmaster he had a customer waiting.
The post office itself was a humble
affair. It consisted of a corner of the store
that had wooden slats built around it, with
a small slot to pass the mail through.
Pigeonholes housed each resident's mail,
but no box numbers or names were
printed on them. Gordon and Pearl knew
everyone by name, so they had their own
February 2017 | Cooperative Living | 31
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Cooperative Living February 2017

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