More of Nick Morris Diaries by Fred

Nick Morris Diary Necrology 1913-1930 by Fred McCaleb

1913 June 19 Mrs. Butler

1914 Feb. 21 Reedy Boz
28 Josie Davis baby died
Mar. 2 George Wakefield
3 Josie’s baby 10 days old died
April 2 D. C. Whitehead
2 Mrs. Emma Ehl

1915 Jan. 24 Emma Williams Dau. Born
July 16 Made coffin for Gen Davis
Sept. 16 Babe of J. R. Hiten died
30 Dau. Born to Lane & Cora Morris
Nov. 20 Helped bury Tim McCaleb’s little girl

1916 April 15 George Kelly

1917 Oct. 31 J. Jones Haney
Dec. 21 Fred Ervin Friend of my dad. I may have been named for
Jan. 22 Mrs. Minda Harkness
May 12 Helped bury Larry’s baby
April 8 Mrs. Wiley Hollingsworth
12 Frank Smith of Okla.
Aug. 11 George Caddell

1918 Feb 1 D. M Harkins
D. M. Patterson
June 1 Mrs Sam Clark
18 Helped bury Lonzo White
Lonzo Baby Buried
12 Mrs Sam Clark
Oct 12 Helped make coffin for George Grigg
12 Bage Caddell
Dec 13 Don Sprinkle

1919 Feb 10 J. R. Anthony
June 15 Mary Guess

1920 April 14 Mrs Weavers baby
July 19 H. S. McArthur
Dec 11 J. J. Jones

1921 Jan 1 John E Tucker
Feb 30 W. A. Lee
1921 May 16 G. D. Wakefield
July 28 Baby born to Zilpah Clark
Aug 8 Mc Baby buried
15 Kilby & Vergie Corpreys baby
Oct 15 Hassie Nichols
31 G. W. McDonald

1922 Jan 16 Old lady Gann
Mar 11 Ras Tidwell
May 7 Son Born to Cora Morris
Sept 30 Isaac Perry
Nov 15 Nick Whitehead
1 Shirley Artory ?

1923 Feb 25 Tinie Had boy last night
Apr 1 Bud Williams
Aug 7 J. B. Whitehead of Brilliant
July 2 President Warren G. Harding of Ca.
Aug 7 Mrs Don McDonald
Nov 24 John M Barnes
Dec 25 Mrs Icy McCaleb
12 May McDonald from falling tree

1924 Jan 30 Lois Anthony
Feb 20 Mrs Pender
2 Woodrow Wilson
Mar 15 Frank Tidwell
Apr 19 Mrs W. W. Kelly
26 Mrs Sophia Walker
June 21 Mrs Ann Haney
3 Alex McCaleb
Nov 7 Mary Whitehead

1925 Feb 26 Josie Davis
June 5 James E. Early Bham.
Oct 31 Henry Aldridge
Nov 20 Joe Wakefield
22 R. P. Caine died in Fayette

1926 Feb 16 Helped bury Ethel Whitehead
27 Helped Make coffin for Miss Annie Phillips
Mar 7 Mr. Pierce Hubbard
4 T. D. Davis Married
April 13 Bettie Smith died
May 4 Car wreck killed someone
June 4 H. B. Moore in Tex.
1926 July 4 Mrs Wakefield by lightning
5 Susie McDonald died last night
Ervin Whitson electrocuted (no Date)
27 Tim McCaleb died ( I ate My first grapefruit at Tims)
Oct 4 Conley Berry died 3 AM

1927 Jan 21 Myrtice McCaleb died
May 10 J. F. Whitehead
Aug 11 Ruth died this am
Oct 9 Babe of Mrs. John Norris

1928 Jan 21 J.F. Aldridge dies
Feb 2 Rhinalda Jones son died
23 W.H. Billy McCaleb died at noon
April 28 J. R. Baccus
May 7 Bashie Perrys funeral
Aug 18 Ida Harris
19 Ida and babe buried
Oct 5 Josie born+

1929 Jan 25 Senator O. W. Underwood
June 17 J. N. Sprinkle died suddenly
July 8 J. T. Box
Aug 13 J. M. Haney at Haleyville
28 Lillie Roby
Oct 29 Rosalee Ervin I believe lst buried White’s Chapel
29 Preacher J. M. Wade
Nov 24 Sandy Flippo
Dec 23 Joe E McDonald
20 Roy Elliott

1930 Jan 4 Mrs O. C. Dobbs
Mar 23 Nick Morris (Author Went to Jasper Hospital diagnosed
With prostrate cancer by Dr. Hollis of Winfield and that’s all he wrote. Said
he
was there 2 wks. He must have got back home unable to write. Don’t know when
he died. I was glad to bring his deaths up to 1930 as he hadn’t done that. I
guess
he hoped to live many more years much as people today do. I didn’t know the
last names of some of the ones he called by first names. He would have done
better

He lived up to the main entrance to the high speed auto ago. His wife and
daughter hade a ride to Berea Church in sons 2 door Ford Sedan. He had helped
paint a Ford truck or two and son had wrecked one truck. He had driven a
delivery truck for a company he worked for. Dr. Barsele was one of the dentists
back then. They didn’t patch teeth back then. If it got infected and hurting
the
remedy was to extract. Dentists were feared. Dr. Green Was another Dr. which I
don’t know what kind. He saw an airplane pass over. I saw one of the early
dare devil sort of planes fly at Winfield in cow pasture while at Winfield
High School. They flew upside down and every other way imaginable. A big cotton
mill was built in the pasture and it moved to a foreign country 10 or 20 years
ago. Nick attended all political rallies and elections. He was interested in
the school at Glen Allen, helped build it and upkeep , took census of students
that would attend. He and family went mainly to churches at Berea, Elam, and
Clover Hill. Went a few times to White’s Chapel, to New River, to
Hubbardville, to Glen Allen and to the black church above Bazemore. Many of the
times he would tell who was preaching. He hardly ever went many times to same
church before trying another one.

He and my grandpa’s brother Bird McCaleb visited at least once a week.I never
did figure out why. Bird didn’t work at toiling or do any for Nick. Nick must
have gone for advice or to sell Bird something like making out mortgages for
him. Bird’s children helped Nick pick cotton and do other things. A. C.
Alfred McCaleb later lived somewhere near Nick

Cotton sold for 5 1/2 c per lb in 1909, 7c lb 1914, 12C 1912, up to about 20c
1918, up a little in 1920 and down to about 5c in depression days of 30s. It
has been above 60c per lb in the 1990s and later. Sort of slumps very badly
with depressions.

Nick stripped cane, made molasses, pulled fodder, gathered corn and picked
cotton in the fall until the last years of his life. Early in the spring he
broke up land the old fashioned way with mules and turning plows. Women and
children hoed millet, corn, cotton and garden. They also fed mules, slopped the
hogs, milked cows. Nick got to where he helped his wife wash the clothes in his
last. His wife seemed to go places to visit on her own.

I will try to mention some of the places he went to store and to mill. They were
Hollingsworth store, William Ervins shop to help make coffins, to stave mill in
Glen Allen to work and hauled strips for wood, to gin in Glen Allen, Beasley
store, Raspberry sawmill, Curt Hubbards, to corn grinding mill in Glen Allen or
Bazemore, Tilly sawmill, Tom Perry mill, Kelly multiple mills in Bazemore and to
Winfield many times.

Nick’s house seemed to be open to all that wished to visit, especially his
children, to William Ervin, Bird McCaleb and children, politicians, and
seemingly to all. No one goes much further than the TV set today. He was
willing to help most anyone in trouble, to make a coffin or dig a grave. He was
a center of news and complained of being too sick to work many times in thee 15s
and 20s. He helped repair phone lines, put in phones, went to Winfield for
batteries, put in relay stations, dig well at Berea, repaired church benches,
hauled many loads of wood by mule and wagon and at last strips by truck, took
cane to molasses maker, helped with Kelly school, to U. S. court in Bham. For 3
weeks out of one month, talked about a big whiskey still raid at Austin
McDonalds and the agent accidentally wounding self with gun and no trial, WW1
registration and hostilities ceasing, split boards and repaired roof on own
house and outbuildings, attended most all elections, worked on road maps,
watched boys cut bee tree for honey, saw the 1920 census enumerator, moved for
about a month to near Jasper and worked in store, and then came back, worked in
stores in Glen Allen & Bazemore, adjusted and cleaned gin saws and gristmill
rocks, family reunion at Glen Allen, tick eradication law, half soled shoes,
helped eat a possum, said what weather was most every day, told about dry
spells, about a railway boiler explosion, about wife Bip’s nearly a month
trip to Texas, about Virgil Whitehead moving to Neddleton,Ms. And Virgil coming
back to visit and Nick going to Ms. To visit one other and Virgil, to all day
singings at different churches and at Curt Hubbards, about his wife selling
about 40 acres of land for 25 dollars and 2 years to pay, about big protracted
meetings and how many saved, about peddler Sprinkle, about hanging of Harry
Mark of Fayette, about writing Senator John B Bankhaed and brother
Reprasentative William Bankhead big congressmen in his late years and my
early time, about son in law Dock and Jenny Hollings leaving for Ark. Oct. 7,
1925 and 1927 Jennie back for a while, then Nick and wife went to visit Ark.
For about a month and there seemed to be no bad feelings toward each. They had
been faithful to visit all through the years. Nick seemed to hold no bad
feelings against anyone. He was just too busy most of the time. There were 2 or
3 places where he seemed to be referring to my grandpa McCaleb. After 1927
Cover Hill was moved to about a ½ mile away and is now Tidwell Chapel and
White’s Chapel started by Jerry White. There seemed to have been no argument.
Some of this data is not done too well but it’s my best at 92 years old. I
salute Nick Morris for telling what it was like in first part of 20th century.
Done by Fred McCaleb.

Unhappy Americans

submitted by Fred

"The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I
found rather hard to believe. It must be true, given the source, right?

The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the
direction the country is headed, and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with
the performance of the President. In essence, 2/3's of the citizenry just
ain't happy and want a change.

So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, ''What are we so unhappy
about?''

Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?

Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and
heating in the winter?

Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job?

Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time, and see more
food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean
without having to present identification papers as we move through each state?

Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way
that can provide temporary shelter?

I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the
world is just not good enough.

Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and
provide services to help all, and even send a helicopter to take you to the
hospital.

Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home. You may be
upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained
firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish
the flames thus saving you, your family and your belongings.

Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or
prowler intrudes, an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will
come to defend you and your family against attack or loss.

This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and
pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90 percent of teenagers own cell
phones and computers.

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that
are the envy of everyone in the world?

Maybe that is what has 67 percent of you folks unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, overfed, spoiled brats the
world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S., yet has a great
disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people
in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have, and what we
hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the President who took us into war and has no plan to
get us out? The President who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this
the same President who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The
President that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be
the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in
keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks?

The Commander-In Chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you
and me? Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did
this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn't take a look
around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad?

Think about it...are you upset at the President because he actually caused you
personal pain OR is it because the "Media" told you he was failing to kiss your
sorry ungrateful behind every day.

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to
serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no
draft in this country. They didn't have to go.

They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general'' discharge, an
''other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case scenario, a ''dishonorable''
discharge after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans?
Say what you want, but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds, it leads; and
they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and
guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows
this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells , and
when criticized, try to defend their actions by "justifying" them in one way or
another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write
a book about "how he didn't kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it
this way"...Insane!

Stop buying the negativism you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off the TV,
burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage.
Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially
more good than bad.

We are among the most blessed people on Earth, and should thank God several
times a day, or at least be thankful and appreciative.