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Levi made a long table of pine boards for the top, which was put onwith homemade nails. The base and legs of the table were walnut heldtogether with wooden pegs. He made a peg leg bench, by splitting a smallping tree, using half of it with the legs pegged together at an angle.The bench has a fine slick finish on it because it was san on by so manypeople. It wasptobably hand planed at first but it is thought Levi madethem in the 1840s or 18550s when his family was soo large. The bench was used by Levi and family, then Hiram's children andmany cousisns, then the Eldridge Caldwell family. Today the table and bench can bee seen in the kitchen at the SheltonHouse in Waynesville, NC (Museum of North Carolina Handicraft). In 1858 He built a larger log house of poplar logs fitted togetherwith dovetail corners, two stories high. It had the kitchen out back witha dogtrot between the two buildings and a porch all the way across thefront. This was the first house in Cataloochee to have a closet, whichwas a inclosed area under the stairs. He later built a second house just down the road. He did not get toenjoy it very long, due to the Civil War. He was captured in 1863 anddied in 1864. He only got to live in it five years. This is the houseJonathan Woody and his children moved into with Levi's widow Mary Ann andher children. After her husband died and his wife died, they got marriedand raised the fourteen children there. This story was told by Eldridge Caldwell. There was one summer theyhad a drought that lasted all summer. It was so hot and dry most of thecrops failed. The branches almost dried up. The creeks were very low. Byfall of the year it was clear to Levi there would be a food shortage thatwinter, and he set out to hunt some game. As he walked through the woods, the dry leaves under his feet madecrackling sounds, which would alert any animal. He would have to travelto a spot where he expected some wildlife to pass and wait quietly. He waited a few hours at several different places, but no game cameby. Finally, in late afternoon he got lucky and shot a deer. He put the deer across his shoulders to carry it home. He had takentime to reload his gun, which he carried under his right arm with thebarrel in his left hand. He had walked for about a half mile, whensuddenly he heard a limb snap! He jerked his head back just in time tosee a tomahawk fly in front of his face and stick in a tree! It barelymissed his head.He whirled around to see an Indian coming at him. Hewanted that deer. Levi had his gun positioned to where he could get hisfinger on the trigger and fired point blank from his waist. There was notime to lay the deer down, to sight his gun. He shot and killed thatIndian. Levi was badly shaken because he was almost killed, then had tokill someone in self defense. He threw the deer down and ran over to seewho he was. It was not one of his beloved Cherokees, but a renegadepassing through Cataloochee. He buried him and the tomahawk was kept inthe Caldwell family for many years. Levi , age fourty-eight, and his son Hiram, age thirteen, werecaptured up on Cove Creek Mountian, where they were helping CaptianHowell defend Cataloochee, from Kirks Raiders. they were tied up andmarched down to Young Bennett's second house, which was located near theintersection of the old road (Hwy 184) to Cosby, Tenn. and theCataloochee Turnpike. There they tied Levi and Hiram to a porch post ofBennett's house. Somewhere along the way the raiders had found somewiskey. They went inside and started drinking and playing cards. whilethey were occupied, Hiram managed to chew the rope off Levi's hands, andthen Levi untied Hiram's hands. When the raiders came outside, they hadset the house on fire, intending to burn Levi and his son. Hiram and Levistarted running, and the radiers jumped on their horses and ran afterthem. Levi and Hiram knew the country well. They ran down the mountian onfoot off into the roughest places for a horse to get through, but theraiders managed to keep close on them. Finally somewhere around the Hallplace they ran into the thick Laurel. Hiram being young and strong,managed to escape, but Levi being older couldn't run anymore. The raidersdragged him to their camp. The next day they made him walk and run infront of the horses, then put him in a stockade and held him prisoner. Healmost starved to death, and the severe cold was agony. Somehow he managed to escape somewhere in Tenn.. He started on hislong journey home. The trip was very hard for him in such a weakenedcondition. Food was scarce everywhere. The women and children were notstrong enough to do much farming and barley able to feed themselves, butsomehow these kind of people managed to provide a little food for thispitiful man. Levi had to be very careful not to run into any Union sympathizers.He was gone almost a year before he got back home. He was so sick and insuch pain with every breath, Mary ann tried her best to nurse him back tohealth, but he lived only about a month before he died from the effectsof abuse and hardships he had experienced. The family thought he had acollapsed lung from having to run so hard when the raiders chased him onhorseback. He was buried in the cemetery on the steep hill behindPalmer's Chapel. There is a marker at the grave for levi and Mary Ann whowas buried there beside him in 1891, even though she had married JonathanWoody after Levi's death.
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