Page 40 - Discover SPRING 2022

Family Tree CONTINUED

you get this sticky juice all over your hands, purpose.
and sweat and dirt, it smelled terrible, and so
“Dad was one of the first ones in that
we got our $5 and a very good lesson… that
neighborhood that ever left… I guess… and
we didn’t want to do that for the rest of our
brought a lot of modern ideas back,” Joe
lives…”
recalls. “Dad went around and made lists of
When their grandparents ran the farm, it people who would subscribe to power and
was a subsistence farm. Tobacco was grown as phone service to prove to the utility company
a cash crop, and for the most part the family that the installations would be profitable.”
was self-sufficient.
Lib remembered her Dad as a man of
“My grandmother uncommon vision.
never bought anything
“Daddy was one of
except sugar, and salt, and
the few native people
pepper and things like
that thought having this
that… the rest of it they
lake was a good idea
just grew on the farm,” Joe
for economic reasons…
explains, with more than a
he was active in the
hint of pride in his voice. “I
Ruritan Club and went
can remember her making
to Richmond numerous
soap when I was growing
times, seeing various
up… did her laundry in a
people… about putting in
big pot in the backyard.”
a (public) dock”. He didn’t

After their Dad took think that people whose
over the farm, things land didn’t abut the lake…
began to change. It wasn’t should have to pay to put
just the conversion from a boat (in the water). He
subsistence farming to got the first one, granted to

the dairy operation. The whole area was the Penhook area.”
beginning to change dramatically.
Indeed, there is now a commemorative
Emmett Jefferson was an agent of change. plaque on Jefferson Dock Road, which leads
In his early life, he worked at a store in to the boat ramp. It recognizes Emmett

Roanoke, and eventually was drafted to serve Jefferson’s efforts in establishing Penhook
in the First World War. While serving in Boat Dock.
Europe, he carried a standard GI Bible in his
Lib echoed the sentiments of many of the
pocket, along with a letter from his wife-to-
landowners who opposed the formation of
be. These would eventually stop a bullet and
the lake. “Most of the people that lived here
save his life. He would return with a sense of
were not thrilled about it… if they had, say

38 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SPRING 2022