Lawrence inherited the 1876 home place and when Albert returned from war, he and Lawrence worked to build Albert and his wife a new home a mile away. The home was completed in 1922 and just a few years later, Albert and Lawrence decided to swap houses. Lawrence met Clara Hyatt, a school teacher, and began to try to start a family. Many years past and eventually the couple decided to adopt a child named Roy (pictured left). To their great surprise and to Roy's delight, the couple was blessed with two more children, Bill and Emma! The couple donated the land across the valley for the Iotla Methodist Church and the Iolta Elementary School. Clara sold some of the land so Macon County could operate an airport.

The Ramsey family of Franklin, North Carolina, was a founding family and still holds over 200 acres in Iotla Valley. The original log cabin site is no longer standing, but the second 1876 homesite, built by "Sug" (short for Sugar) and Rebecca Ramsey still stands guard in the valley.Sug and Rebecca had two sons, Lawrence (on left) and Albert (on right) and two daughters, Emma and Olive. Emma died as a young woman. The 1876 home is owned today by Albert Jr. and Margaret Ramsey.

 

 

 

Emma, my grandmother,was named after Lawrence's sister who had passed early in her life. She too, became a school teacher and married a wonderful husband, Charles Myers (who grew up with her and often"pulled her pig-tails in kindergarden"). The Ramsey family was always compassionate and continued to adopt children to care for in the idyllic Appalachian valley. My grandmother Emma entrusted the historic heirloom to me and my husband, for which we are forever grateful and now offer a peaceful vist to you, in this Peaceful valley.