The Easley family has a long history in the Bays Mountain area, dating back to the 1700s.

Around 1842, John Hamilton Easley built a log home on what’s now called Bays Mountain Park Rd. The 2-story house is still standing but the ancient logs have been covered with white siding.

In 1889, John’s son Edmund Pendleton (E.P.) Easley built another house nearby on the current Reservoir Rd. And yes, that sturdy Easley house is still standing as well!

Around that same time, E.P. opened a general store beside his house. Easley’s store became a staple for the residents living in the area and on the mountain in the early 1900s. Bays Mountain resident John Quillen (1897-1985) said in an interview that he always went to Easley’s for his needs. Bays Mountain schoolteacher Odell (Harbour) Depew wrote that she and her sister Mary (Harbour) Fincher would walk down to Easley’s store to shop, and then they would visit neighbors on the long trek back up the mountain.

Listen to John Quillen talk about trading at Easley’s Store.

E.P. was married to Sarah Elizabeth Hood and they had 6 children:

• Glenna/Glennie (1895-1902)
• Justin (1898-1982) – married Lochiel Horne
• Arlen (1901-1932) – married Iva Fink
• Edmund/Edmond (1906-1907)
• Claud (1909-1918)
• Iva (1913-1992) – married Garland Hall

Glenna died in 1902 at just 7 years old. Then in 1907 they lost their baby son Edmund as well. In 1918 both Sarah and their 9 yr-old son Claud died. It had to be a difficult time for the family.

Sometime around the 1920s, E.P. closed his store. Because of the new dam and reservoir, there weren’t as many residents living on the mountain anymore. But life goes on and E.P. remarried in 1920, this time to Rowena Susanna Sherfey.

Most of the Easley family are buried just down the road in the Depew’s Chapel Cemetery.

The Bays Mountain History Committee would like to thank the descendants of Iva (Easley) Hall for contributing these photos of the Easley family.