Diary of Nick Morris

by

Fred McCaleb

The Diary Of Nick Morris
of NE Fayette County, Alabama
1891-1930

This diary was written mostly one line for each day and a page for each month.
He put down what he did, where he had been, and who he had visited or who had
visited him. He even said when it had rained or when it was dry. Who preached
at the churches, what churches and schools were in the community.How many rails
he could split in a day, and how many loads of manure he could haul.
He seemed to be a very intelligent man for his day. His mother was Sally
Hackworth, the daughter of Nickodemus Hackworth. His mother was an early
teacher.Went to a school for women in Tuscaloosa that may have been part of the
University of Alabama, but no records of that school can be found now. He could
make or repair a wagon or buggy, or shoe a horse. He was a farmer, a carpenter,
a tax assessor and collector for the community. He was a local politician, and
associated and wrote letters to the high and mighty such as the Bankheads. He
helped with the bookwork in some of the local stores. He was a store clerk at
times, but didn't have that as his regular job. He was mostly a farmer.
He mentioned experimenting with a water telegraph for communication between
himself and William Erwin, a long time friend and Blacksmith. He cut and hauled
the poles, strung the wire. I never could tell by his notes whether he ever got
his telegraph working or not. He did say he made a drum with a crank on it at
the Erwin shop. Also a water tank which must have been some kind of battery.
Later he was stringing the first telephone lines for the community. He was the
repairman and fixer for the old crank em up short and long, telephone system.
The community begin to know what everybody else was doing. He also installed
the telephones, and replaced the batteries.
He faithfully wrote his Ma(Sally Morris) until her death. Later he wrote
regularly to his daughters and sons and in laws that had moved away from the
community.
My grandpa's brother Bird McCaleb seemed to have been his best neighbor and
friend. Billy Erwin was another big friend.
The first years of the diary is a good lesson on how busy the old farmers were
from 1890-1920.About what it took to make a living back then. He was very busy.
I would have hated to have kept up with him.
The rains seemed to have been about as uncertain and unpredictable then as they
are now.
When he became old and unhealthy in the 1920s he had to depend more on getting
a neighbor to help out with the hard work.
Nick appeared to have been a Civil War Veteran. He mentioned attending at least
4 conventions, two of them in Arkansas.
He mentioned seeing an airplane fly over in early twenties. Also riding to
church with his son Phil in a Ford touring car. He painted a truck cab. The
modern age was upon him and his life was at its end.His diary stoped before the
end of April 1930. Last entry said he had been to Jasper Hospital 2 weeks for
postate gland trouble and that's all he ever wrote. What a man.
Diary copied for posterity by Fred McCaleb & Patsy Box Johnson.

Christmas Letter 2006

by
Fred McCaleb

Hello everyone,

I will try to write a Christmas letter on my 91 first year of age. That is a
little hard to do but maybe I can manage to recollect a few of the times I have
gone through. In the early 1920s I was attending a one teacher school in a
dilapidated building and walking about ¾ of a mile to school. Country people
had to walk or ride in a mule drawn wagon. People in Fayette had maybe 3 or 4
wooden wheel t model Fords. A solid wheel truck or two. The only fast
transportation was on the train. You could catch a train in Fayette today and
be in Washington, D.C. tomarrow. T model Fords had to be pulled out of mud
holes on the country roads if it rained.

Things had improved a little by the late 1920s. We had moved to Miss. And was 3
miles from school where we walked over new graveled hiway 45. My brother and I
practiced with sling shots shooting glass insulators off the phone lines beside
the road. Once in a while Mr. Temple would pick us up in his enclosesd t Model
Ford if it were raining. Mrs. Temple was the sister of Senator Rankin of Miss.
At that time. She said the only time Mr Temple used his head was for a hat
rack. Us McCaleb children picked strawberries for them in the spring for 3c per
quart. Our house got on fire in kitchen one time and moma sent me up on roof
with a bucket of water to put it out. It worked. I rode in my first a model
Ford car in Miss at 50 miles an hour. I had already ridden in a model t ford
and an early ford truck in Al before then.

In all these early years we had no medicine except castor oil and
turpentine,and quinine for malarial, no penicillin, no sulfa drugs, no radio,
no intertainment except home made, no motorizedTransportation. If one got sick
with a bad disease he was a goner. My grandfather Hallmark got sick with
pneumonia and died with my uncle Arthur trying to give him drugs that were no
good. My little brother Thomas Raburn died with membrane croup in 1927. My
mothers nursing sister in Fla died same year. It was a terrible blow to my
mother. I can recollect her washing me for Raburn’s funeral nervous and
crying. About 1930 my father had a spell with malarial chills and nearly dying.
I had a small spell also and dreamed I was falling in a well and fell out of bed
on the floor. About that time my father decided he had had enough of Miss and
decided to move back to Al. We moved back in Arthur’s t model truck and dad
drove the team of mules back in wagon in 2 days.

Quinine was the malarial medicine back then and I took some of it in the first
year back.
Alabama had gone to Jr Hi School and home made t model buses and I didn’t have
to walk to school. I went through rest of 7th grade and 8th and 9th there. I
guess I learned a little about taking care of my health there. Then on to
Winfield Hi mostly in Bud May’s home made bus. Came out about 3rd in grade
level at Winfield. Had some good teachers, Miss Eigan history, Miss Guin
English, Mr Blanton biology, Mr Hunt agriculture and the principal taught
chemistry. Had to stay with my McCaleb grandparents one year and catch the bus
week days from there. Came home week ends on a Winfield bus and walked about 5
miles from there. My grandmother lived in flat woods section. She said never
let schoolteachers tell you the world was round, It was flat according to her
notion.
I never could quite believe that, but I didn’t argue. I took typing at
Winfield and was always glad I did that. Traded a young cow for a 2nd handed
typewriter which I still have. I learned a good bit about old times from
grandparents. The last year at Winfield the school was out, on account of
finances, for last 6 weeks. I transferred to Fayette and graduated from there
in a trying 6 weeks. I guess I spent the shortest time there for any one ever
to graduate. I only recall 3 people. They passed the sales tax the next year
and said the schools would never be without money again. They have increased it
several times since then and are still out of money most of the time.

From the time I graduated I finally got a little start in life. Tried to join
army and navy and they said I couldn’t see. I sassed them and they told me to
get the hell out of the recruiting station. I applied 3 times at Berry College
and finally go accepted there. Graduated from there and got job a Tennessee
Coal Iron & Railroad Co. The biggest manufacturer of steel in the world for
about $90 per month with some overtime. They were rolling steel at ½ mile a
minute and plating rolled sheets with tin. I was analyzing tinned plates for
amount of tin. A phd was running hardness and softness tests for $125 per
month. Said he had worked at a filling station before that. The sound in the
place was nearly like roar of thunder. You could get killed real easy. I caught
the bus home on time off. My parents thought I was doing real well. I shared
some of the money with them. They were developing sulfa drugs and penicillin at
this time. My brother informed me that I could make $150 per mo at Radford
Ordnance Works. I went up there and got hired immediately. This was dangerous
if you didn’t make every move correctly. It was common to see a tin bldg.
that had blown up overnight. I analyzed nitro glycerin part of the time. It
reacted fast part of the time but none ever blew. I bought my first car at
Radford, an a model Ford. My room mate went with me to show me how to drive. I
drove from then on. Drove it to Al and back two or 3 times. I was going to give
it to my dad when the army finally drafted me after a tnt plant blew up where I
was working and was home in bed when it blew. My dad started to Fayette with it
and wrecked as soon as he hit the road. Busted 2 or 3 doz eggs and tore up one
of front wheels. I fixed the car and sold it. Wished I had it when back from
army.

I got back from the army in Dec 1944. They hadn’t started making new cars yet.
Helped my dad build a 2 car garage in Jan and Feb. They were making advances in
black & white tv. Advances were made in atomic energy in the 30s and while I
was in army. 3 atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan. Principles of computing
were being studied. We owned our first black & white tv in early 50s. The
transistor hadn’t been developed.
Tubes made them work and they were large. The transistor came into existence
about 1960. From that smaller and more reliable black and colored tvs and
radios were made.
E mail was being worked on and in early 80s got a big start with c64s.It is now
working
Great along with many other things such as aviation. Fred McCaleb