My name is Scott Poag Cannon. I am the youngest son of Michael Shoffner Cannon Jr. and Sarah Lee Poag Cannon. My father was the last of a long line of farmers in the Cannon family. My paternal grandparents were Michael Shoffner Cannon Sr and Myrtle Annice Reaves Cannon. Both were in the later years of their lives by the time I was able to remember anything about them. My grandfather Cannon was already wheelchair-bound after accidentally poisoning himself with an herbicide while killing brush on his farm, which severely damaged his nervous system and nearly killed him.
From the time I was 5 or 6 years old, he would spend most of his time in his chair, where he would read and write. Grandmother Cannon spent the rest of her life caring for his every need. It was during these last 25 years or more of his life that he wrote the following memoirs of what he remembered and was told about his parents and grandparent’s lives all the way back to Civil War times. What follows is a wonderful history lesson of what it was like in the Cannon family from these times.
My memories of my grandfather Cannon are as special as the person that he was. A teacher of history, math and golf at the Columbia Military Academy in Columbia Tennessee, along with my grandmother Cannon, who was head dietitian of the same school.
I want to share this gift of written works left not only to our family but for all to enjoy.