PERRY “SIE” MCCOLLUM OF SOME HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE IN NORTH EAST FAYETTE COUNTY, AL

By
Fred McCaleb

Sie was born in mid 1850s at the McCollum plantation home where Hubbertsville now is. His mother was a black slave and dad was supposedly my ggg ancester James K McCollum. No proof except color. Sie was light brown and many of his children turned out to be nearly white. He was a young boy that did what James K told after the Civil war ended. James K was heavily in debt after the Civil war and decided that the way to clear it was for him and Sie to burn down the Fayette County AL Court house. They supposedly did but never proven. They were badly into it with the law for their meanness. They supposedly tried to get the truth out of Sie by hanging him with a rope around his neck tied to a limb of a tree. Sie said he felt like he was about ready to meet his master until they finally sympathized with him and let him down. He liked to tell about his hanging spell all the rest of his life. He told many other big tales which I have forgotten. He was finally grown and got married in the 1860s. Andrew McCaleb a gg grandpa of mine and married to one of James K’s girls gave Sie a sizeable track of land and told Sie never to let sorry whites beat him out of it. Sie never sold or willed the the land to anyone. He has hundreds of heirs and the place can never be sold. The original deed is still in the Fayette County Court house and will eventually belong to Fayette County if not now. Sie showed my dad and I a home-made coffin he had the local blacksmith Bill Ervin to make. He got it from under an old time bed that James K had. He showed my dad and I how he fit in it and said the master was about to call him home. He died about 10 years later and was the first buried in the McCollum Cemetery by a cedar tree. A good many of the white McCollum heirs tried to bargain for the old bed but I never knew if any succeeded. The cedar tree is just a stump now. Sie told my dad and I that his negroes (he didn’t call them blacks) were too sorry to bury him. I guess they were nice to him later on. They put him a fancier tomb stone up instead of the original. There are 150 or more graves of his heirs and wives buried there now. I guess that is all they will ever get of the Sie McCollum estate is a six foot hole in the ground for burial. I was told that the largest crowd of blacks and whites ever attended Sie’s funeral at White Chapel Church of Christ. I might have been about to get married in Virginia and Sie was up in 90s age when he died. What a man! When I was about 6 or 7 years old my dad worked with Sie’s son Dave McCollum cutting cross-ties for the railroad. They sold them at Tom Hollingsworth store in Bazemore. I still have the broad axe used to hew out the sides of ties. My dad never said much about Sie at that time until I was in my teen years and he took me by to see Sie’s coffin. I was interested in his story ever after and picked most of it up from kindred and genealogy. I hate to mention that Sie had trouble with other women during his marriage. One of Jacob Hollingsworth heirs, son of Felix Hollingsworth and Arla Killingsworth , had the trunk of Jacob that had passed through 3 lifetimes. Jacob was justice of the peace. He gave me the paper concerning Sie getting Fereby X Thornton pregnant. Sie gave 50lbs of bacon and 5 bushels of corn to satisfy her wants of feeding her baby. Some of Sie’s land was about ¼ miles north of Skimming Ridge a one teacher school where I went to school the first 3 years of my schooling. Some of the kids walked across Sie’s pasture and had to be careful about his bull getting them. I don’t know whether Sie or any of his children ever got a little learning or not. Blacks were denied schooling with whites back then. What a shame. There was a McCaleb school house nearby and that may have been a black school. Maybe some of his immediate family learned to read and write. That’s about all most whites could do back then. Some of Sie’s descendants are becoming nurses, big time foot ball players these times and succeeding in many other areas. Two or three of them I found out are working here at Morningside. My McCaleb-Hubbard nurse told me that Sie grew one of the biggest hogs weighing around 1000 lbs. ever grown in Fayette Co. A Montgomery black confirmed it and said Sie’s son Dave grew another about the same size. I met one at the genealogy society meeting in Winfield and gave her the McCollum ancestors on Sie’s dad. She seemed to be a very nice person. I guess they are facing hardships like most all families today. I am sorry I don’t know a whole lot about Sie. I remember him as a great story teller. I thought I would let others know what little I have found out. Story done by Fred McCaleb 93yrs old or young.

CHRISTMAS LETTER 2009

by
Fred McCaleb



I don’t understand many big events today because many TV announcers are sounding like machine guns shooting to me. Just catch something once in a while and so I will try to recall some of the exciting things that happened during my near 100 years of living. The first was a one teacher school across Boxes creek from where we lived taught by Alma Kizzire that made an example out of me and her boy. The 2nd another one teacher school at clover hill. Third was Shannon High School in Miss. Where all grades were taught and I failed 3rd grade under Mrs. Carter. There I read the Memphis commercial appeal about Charles A Lindberg crossing the Atlantic Ocean in his airplane, and in 1927 we honored Thomas Alva Edison’ s death by turning out lights for 3 minutes. You blew out a coal oil lamp at our house and thousands at others for many more years. Transportation had gone from wooden wheeled T model fords to Iron wheeled coupes. We got rides some times when rainy in an enclosed car. What a luxury. Soon my dad got tired of Miss. And we moved back to west part of Fayette County and in a better house. There I went to Kirkland Junior High and from there on to Winfield High. Couldn’t play foot ball, miss bus, and walk 12 miles home. They ran short of funds and I had to finish senior year 6 weeks at Fayette. Harry Hodge’s , one of the better off of Fayette, owned a car and his two boys brought me home from graduation.

I applied and was finally accepted to work my way through Berry College in December. Miss Berry had famous aviator Amelia Earhart speak at Joint Chapel and she left on her trip around the world soon and went down in the Pacific ocean and never returned. I saw Henry Ford 3 times while at Berry. One of his sayings was if a man thinks he can he can if he thinks he can’t he can’t. He was paying the highest wage of $5 per day earlier. He built the rock college for girls and their recreation hall for girls. Many other famous people like Emily Vanderbelt Hammond visited with money and philosophy. Soon I was gone from Berry to the Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad Co in Birmingham Al. at the big salary of 90$ Per month. My folks thought I was well to do. My brother, Hubert McCaleb had a job at Radford Arsenal near Radford, Va at $150 per month. This was nearly 1 yr. before Pearl Harbor and he told me to come there for a better job. I went and was accepted. I was at the Blacksburg Drug Store about 6 months later when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese war planes. War was declared right soon. I worked about 9 mos. Longer at Radford and Glen Wilkes TNT plant taken over from Russia until it exploded one night while I was home sleeping. Two buildings were completely destroyed. Spent two more months taking inventory and Then back to Radford. While at Glen Wilkes I took a Trip to New York and saw the Empire State Building, rode Trolleys for 5cts and did many other things. Got drafted from Radford. They let me stay home one month then thru Ft. McClellan, Atlanta, an hour or two in Washington, D.C. where I visited Congress in session and on to Aberdeen Proving Grounds for winter basic and then Texas where it was hot, then assigned to 428 Tire Company. From there to POE at Seattle, Wa. Then to Pearl Harbor for 6 months. I was driving a truck there and got ahead of the Franklin D Roosevelt convertible and stayed in front being waved on till I was back at Parking lot on side of road in Honolulu. I stopped beside road and watched Roosevelt go by with 2 motorcycles ahead and two behind. They had picked all cocoanuts off trees in Waikike Beach where he was lodging in the fancy hotel. I helped assemble weapon carriers on Sand Island across harbor from my truck lot for a week or two. We had hardest part dashboard to put on. A German POW camp was at our back. They got excited when all the big guns started trying to down a plane without friend or foe id that was missing. Truck drivers rode a small boat across the harbor to work each day. We finally caught a steamship to Saipan in a 7 boat convoy. Tokio Rose said we wouldn’t make it. That sort of tightened us up. We Closed ranks and zig zagged all night. Nothing happened. Finally on Saipan. There the B 29 bomber pilots told us at an out door movie how much of Tokio had been destroyed each day. One showed me thru one of the B 29 planes. They could shoot you down from every direction but one and that a military secret. I was on Saipan when atom bomb was dropped, the greatest event of modern times. Caught a ship back to San Francisco in November and got back home Dec. 21st in time for Christmas. Had Just finished 10000 miles of traveling. I helped my dad build a 2 car garage. He wanted me to stay home. In a month or so I wrote my old employment place about a job and they said I could come back. There I worked about a year until laid off. By that time I had already got married to a nice girl. I was pleased at being talked nice to and not to do or die. We lived together for 60 years until she died 3 years ago. I built a house at Ripplemead, Va. She cried when she had to leave it 11 years later. She was good about taking care of children while I was on shift work at Celanese plant near Pearisburg, Va. My next job was Thiokol Chemical at Huntsville, Al. I blew up an oven the first night after boss had told me to see if I could melt a sample of solid propellant. It would have disabled me if I had been there. I was there eating lunch in a parking lot when President John F Kennedy was shot in Texas. I was terminated when I got adhesion of liner from 5 to 45lbs to sq.in. Six months of un-employment and job was obtained at Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, DC. As chemist. There a $20 bill had to be folded thousands of times before breaking down. Linseed oil was mixed with ink and called special intaglio ink vehicle for printing. Printing couldn’t fade out. Saw cart loads of $100 bills. Saw them burning taken in old scrapped money. Went to counter fitting agent where they were catching counter fitters. One in Birmingham. Al. had never been caught making 1 $20 bill occasionally. Saw them loading big trucks with tons of money and machine gun officers guarding. We went to church one Sunday at a Washington Christian Church and Lindon B Johnson and family came in and sat 2 benches ahead of us with his armed guards. Some time along then I saw the remains of Herbert Hoover at white house. I was on the side walk and saw President Carter walk up Pa avenue unprotected for inauguration. Only recent one to do that. They got in an older new guy to be head guy of my department. I regretted that and got a job with more pay at Ft. Belvoir. There I analyzed gas samples from presidents helicopter that had fallen. Had to be sure but found nothing wrong. Next I analyzed gasoline from Russia. My boss was a Russian Jew. During all my time in Washington I attended ham radio shows. I was a licensed radio operator extra n4eb. I was only genealogist after retiring and getting lightning struck on radio tower and losing good transmitter-receiver. My wife attended my retirement at 63 years of age. I will be retired 30 years the last of December. May I after all this foolishness wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The best to all. Fred McCaleb

Sturdivant History

A Brief History of Mathew P. Sturdivant As We Know It

By Early Dawn Sturdivant Cline

About 1930

He and several brothers came to this country from Holland. (Daughter Bettie Cline later proved that wrong but the statement might be right on the ones further back than Matthew.) They settled in different parts of the country. One brother ,William , settled in Missouri. Mathew came to Virginia. He married Agnes Kent of Halifax County. Mathew bound out all his boys to learn a trade. He, Mathew, became a Methodist preacher, and was the first preacher to preach Methodism in Alabama. After that he came back to Virginia, settled in Nelson County at Massies Mill, and is buried there. (Grave not found, either ran the poor house or was a patient there in old ags.)

He had several children. I only know about three of them. One daughter, I don't know her name, but she lived at Thaxton, Virginia and is buried there. Another daughter, Mary, married a Mr. Diuguid. They lived in Lynchburg and founded the Diuguid Funeral Home, which I understand is the oldest funeral home in this part of Virginia. Although it has passed out of the family, it is still the Diuguid Funeral Home.

The other child, a son, was Pleasant Meade Sturdivant, and my Grandfather. He was a tailor by trade. He and his wife Nancy spent most of their life in Southwest Virginia. He served in the Civil War until he had pneumonia, and was never well after that. The family then moved to Snowville, Va. where they lived until his death in 1882. He is buried in the Christian Church Cemetery in Snowville. The oldest son was Dudley Kent Sturdivant and my father. To him fell the duty of supporting the family. He worked on Dr. Bullocks farm for seven years. There was a woolen mill in Snowville at that time and his sisters worked there and did sewing, weaving, and spinning. They had very little chance for schooling, but studied at home and all the family were very well educated considering the opportunities they had. Bianca was remarkably well informed. She learned to read well at age four. She was expert at weaving, spinning and sewing. She wrote a book but it was never published. She also wrote two poems, "The Graves of Our Southern Heroes" and the "Dark Haired Cavalier." This later poem was about her Sweet Heart, who never came back from the war. Isabella "Aunt Belle" who was crippled from rheumatic fever was also very well self educated, and one of my favorite aunts. (Early Dawn goes into eight pages of family genealogy here which I have listed under Dudley-Sturdivant genealogy. )

This writeup was furnished to the Methodist Church in Alabama to officials trying to get the history of the first preacher Matthew Parham Sturdivant. Lorenzo Dow was a free lance preacher the Methodists had thrown out that came just before Matthew and nearly ever church in Ala seems to want to claim Dow as their very own. Some of the Early Church of Christ preachers were named Lorenzo Dow + last name.

THE DEVIL'S CONVENTION

Submitted by Fred McCaleb


Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his
evil angels, he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to
church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the
truth. We can't even keep them from conservative values. But we can do
something else.
"We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship
experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our
power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have
their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't
gain that experience in Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do,
angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and
maintaining that
vital connection throughout their day!"
"How shall we do this?", shouted his angels.
"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent un-numbered
schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.
"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow.
Convince the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to
work 6 or 7 days a week, 10 - 12 hours a day, so they can afford their
lifestyles.
"Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family
fragments, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures
of work.
"Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still small
voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they
drive, to keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their
homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world
plays non-biblical, contradicting music constantly. This will jam
their minds and break that union with Christ.
"Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their
minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with
billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail
order catalogs, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering
free products, services, and false hopes.
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return
from their recreation exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the
coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's
wonders. Send them to Amusement parks, sporting events, concerts, and
movies instead.
"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip
and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and
unsettled emotion.
"Let them be involved in soul-winning. But crowd their lives with so
many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon
they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health
and family for the good of the cause."
It was quite a convention in the end. And the evil angels went eagerly
to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy,
busy and rush here and there.
Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge.
How about this definition of Busy:
B-- being
U-- under
S-- Satan's
Y-- yoke
Wow huh, makes one think! Satan's goal is to take our minds and hearts
off Christ then steer us toward the cares of the world.
God wants us to enjoy life but He must be first.
If we are too busy for God, then we are too busy.

This is a very good lesson to follow. Patsy

School Prayer

Submitted by Fred McCaleb

Written by a 12 Year-Old-Girl in Boston.

Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule.
For this great country under God
Finds mention of him very odd.
If scripture now the class recites
It violates the bill of rights.
Anytime my head I bow
Becomes a federal matter now.
The law is specific; the law is precise
Praying out loud is no longer nice.
Praying out loud in a public hall
Upsets those who believe in nothing at all.
In silence alone we can meditate
And if God gets the credit-Great!
They are bringing their guns;
I don't dare bring my BIBLE,
To do so might make me liable.
So, now oh Lord, this plea I make,
Should I be shot in school,
My soul please take..
Jodi Morgan

Morris Cemetery, Fayette County, Alabama

Note from Fred McCaleb:
Members of H McCaleb's family descendants should be slightly interested in this cemetery. One of my dad's little brothers, John Franklin McCaleb that died when 2 years old in 1907 is buried here. His rich Uncle Bird McCaleb is buried here also.

Submitted by

Patsy Box Johnson

Location: From Winfield, Alabama travel hwy 78 east to the Glen Allen turn off. Turn right on County Road 129, which will be the Hubbertville hwy. Turn left on County Road 24. Go about one mile to Berea Road and turn right. Morris Cemetery on right.

Nicodemus F. Morris b: 25 Nov 1853 d: 14 Jan 1933

Susan E. Whitehead Morris b: 8 Mar 1854 d: 16 Jul 1901
Luther F. Box b: 20 Sept 1893 d: 24 Dec 1968

Ruth F. Morris Box b: 11 Sept 1893 d: 11 Aug 1911

Reedie Box "Little Reedie" b: 17 Aug 1909 d: 21 Feb 1913

Joseph T. Box b: Jun 1864 d: 7 Jul 1927

Martha F. Whitehead Box b: 1873 d: 1950

Teddie M. Morris son of P.A. & J.M. Morris b: 31 Aug 1903 d: 16 May 1904

Liddie Morris dau of P.A. & J.M. Morris b: 22 Jun 1905 d: 1 Sept 1905

Jerusia Morris b: 12 Dec 1881 d: 19 May 1905

J.F.Whitehead b: 12 May 1859 d: 10 May 1927

Archibald Whitehead, Jr. b: 1822 d: Aug 1861

Martha "Patsy" Anthony Whitehead b: 1824 d: 1911

Archibald Whitehead, Sr. b: 1 Aor 1783 d: 5 Sep 1866

Nancy Smith Whitehead b: 22 Jul 1791 d: 25 Mar 1881

Nathaniel A. "Nathan" Whitehead b: 19, Mar 1861 d: 8 Jan 1873

J.N. Whitehead b:---

Melton Whitehead b: 1910 d: 1912

G. McCaleb b: 31 Aug 1909 d: 19 Nov 1915

T. Nichols son fo W.C.& V.E. Nichols b: 6 Jul 1911 d: 23 Aug 1904

Nellie Mills b: Abt 1829 d: 19 Mar 1905

John Franklin McCaleb b: 10 Dec 1907 d: 28 Jul 1909

Infant McDonald of W.C. & M.D. McDonald b: 26 Apr 1908 d: 4 May 1908

M.D. McDonald b: 1885 d: 1923

E.M. McDonald b: 1912 d: 1923

W.G. McDonald b: 1874 d: 1945

Mary Grigg b: 29 Jan 1879 d: 14 Jan 1942

Doshia McDonald b: 1894 d: 23 Aug 1958

Thomas LaFayette "Fayette" McDonald b: 29 Aug 1863 d: 18 Jul 1941

Ella Moore McDonald b: 14 Aug 1870 d: 28 Feb 1950

Ira W."Tete" McDonald b: 5 Feb 1892 d: 25 May 1954 (Pvt. WW1. 102Inf. Co.K.)

Effie McDonald b: 1870 d:---

Harom McDonald b: 8 Mar 1895 D: 27 Jul 1930 (Pvt WWI)

Avneil Ford b: 1920 d: 1920

H.L. Davis b: 4 Dec 1856 d: 17 Jul 1916

Fred Cockren b: 8 Jul 1920 d: 13 Sept 1921

Byrd McDonald b: 15 Sept 1858 d: 20 Sept 1930

Elizabeth "Lizzie" McDonald b: 18 jan 1863 d: 24 Aug 1950

Ador Miles b: 19 Feb 1906 d: 21 Dec 1906

Myrtle Whitehead b: 25 May 1902 d: 9 Jul 1905

Mary L. Whitehead b: 20 Apr 1901 d: 27 Jun 1901

Molissie Whitehead b: 6 Oct 1904 d: 2 Oct 1905

Elizabeth Crow b: 10 Feb 1828 d: 11 Dec 1909

J.D. Crow b: 24 Mar 1829 d: 6 May 1899

W.N. Guess b: 23 Mar 1873 d: 9 Mar 1899

M.E. Whitehead b: 22 Jul 1861 d: 6 Nov 1924

Melton Whitehead b: 1910 d: 1912

Drury Henry Co Whitehead b: 5 Sept 1831 d: 2 Apr 1914

Mary Jane Anthony Whitehead b: 27 Sept 1837 d: 1 Jul 1916

Infant Norris of Johnny Norris b&d: 8 Oct 1927

Abram Perry Whitehead b: 7 Aug 1859 d: 2 Jul 1937

Donna Alice Tucker Whitehead b: 27 Mar 1866 d: 16 Jun 1964

Clyde Darrel b: 9 Jul 1936 d: 11 Aug 1946

Mary Erwin b: 1840 d: 1898

Elizabeth Erwin b: Nov 1806 d: 3 Jun 1886

Mary A. Morton b: 12 Nov 1857 d: 2 Jun 1859

Luther O. Morton b: 3 Nov 1859 d: 24 Nov 1861

-----b: 15 Oct 1880 d: 19 Jan 1891

L.M. McCollough(wife of W.H.) b: 1 Jan 1846 d: 13 Sep 1909

William Henry Weaver b: 1901 d: 23 May 1957

A. Weaver (no dates)

Christine Whitehead b: 1925 d: 1926

Inf. Whitehead of L.N. 1921

Arzo Whitehead b: 1917 d: 1918

Inf.Whitehead child of G.A & A.J. b: 14 Feb 1932

Ethel L. Berry Whitehead wife of J.F."Frank" Whitehead b: 13 Feb 1894 d: 15 Feb 1926

A.L. Clark b: 2 Mar 1859 d: 22 Jun 1918

Mary G. Sexton b: 23 Feb 1820 d: 12 Jun 1903

Annie Lou Roby b: 12 Dec 1927 d: 27 Aug 1929

Belvie Whitehead b: 22 Jun 1905 d: 19 Nov 1939

Jo Ann Whitehead b: 1940 d: 1942

Lonzo b: 1882 d: 1949

Rosie Whitehead b: 1884 d: 19-

Terry Baccus b: 1947 d: --

Gaines McDonald b: 1876 d: 1948

Preshie McDonald b: 1878 d: 19-

Inf Campbell of Edwin & Aneda b: 15 Jun 1942 d: --

Jim McDonald b: 14 Oct 1886 d: 23 Dec 1929

Susan Shaw b: 25 May 1873 d: 30 May 1941

Harris ?

Josie Morris Davis b: 22 Nov 1880 d: 26 Feb 1925

Nocal Davis child of J.&T. b: 24 Feb 1914 d: 5 Mar 1914

Inf McCaleb son of Alfred & Hester b: 7 Sept 1921

Dexter F. McCaleb b: 6 Feb 1928 d: 21 Oct 1931

Hester McCaleb b: 7 Jun 1891 d: 7 Sept 1958

Alfred Cowan McCaleb b: 13 Jun 1891 d: 23 Dec 1955

Roy Elliott Ala.Pvt. 355 Inf. 92 Div. d: 21 Dec 1929

H.G. Threadway b: 12 May 1835 d: 28 Oct 1877

R.O. Mills (no dates)

J.J. Barnes b: 2 Oct 1865 d: 16 Mar 1934

Mrs. S.M. Barnes b: 1 Feb 1869 d: 19 Aug 1935

Nancy Mills b: 24 Jan 1820 d: 13 Mar 1891 (My Mother)

James E. Mills b: 1815 d: 24 Dec 1910 (My Father)

J.C. Meherg b: 18 Apr 1892 d: 2 Aug 1892 (6mo 15days)

James A. Mills b: 31 Jul 1876 d: 20 May 1899

Alice Mills b: 15 Feb 1878 d: 26 Apr 1900

Martha E. Mills b: 15 May 1881 d: 1 Dec 1903

Rufus S. Mills b: 24 Feb 1851 d: 13 May 1935

Mahala C. Mills b: 22 Dec 1846 d: 3 Aug 1920

William Madison Mills b: 1875 d: 9 May 1958

T.M. Mills b: 1876 d: 1945

George Rosco Whitehead b: 8 Sep 1891 d: 2 Mar 1934 (Ala Pvt 152 Inf 38 Div)

E. Glendon Matthews b: 31 Mar 1923 d: 21 Apr 1929

James McCollough b: 1882 d: 1931

Lucretia Morris McCollough b: 31 Dec 1882 d: 29 Apr 1981

Martha Whitehead b: 1862 d: 1945

Jerome Aldridge b: 1939 d: 1950

Charles S. Lee b: 1864 d: 5 Apr 1955

N.C. Lee b: 1879

Rebecca Rosena Sprinkle Whitehead b: 7 Jul 1866 d: 4 Jun 1935 (Mother)

John Sherman Whitehead b: 10 Jan 1868 d: 5 Aug 1951 (Father)

William McKinley Whitehead b: 27 Aug 1826 d: 13 Sep 1958

Alex Tidwell b: 1881 d: 1952

Missouri Whitehead Tidwell b: Sep 1881 d: 1964

Bertha E. Caddell b: 1882 d: 1943

Thomas E. Caddell b: 1857 d: 1932

Josie Caddell b: 1862 d: 1903

Bozzie A. Caddell b: 1898 d: 1917

Alonzo D. Caddell b: 1884 d: 1918

William H. McCollough b: 31 Aug 1840 d: 25 Aug 1911 (Co. I. 26 Ala Inf C.S.A.)

Our Past Ancestors

Submitted by:
Fred McCaleb

"We are people to whom the past is forever speaking. We listen to it because
we cannot help ourselves, for the past speaks to us with many voices. Far
out of that dark nowhere which is the time before we were born, men who were
flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone went through fire and storm to break
a path to the future. We are part of the future they died for; they are part
of the past that brought the future. What they did--the lives they lived,
the sacrifices they made, the stories they told and the songs they sang and,
finally, the deaths they died-- make up a part of our own experience.
We cannot cut ourselves off from it. It is as real to us as something that
happened last week. It is a basic part of our heritage as Americans."

White's Chapel Church of Christ

by Fred McCaleb

This church was established in 1927 with the following charter members: Bob and Cordia Herren, Jerry and Siddy White, Oscar and Dell Dodd, Mr. and Mrs. Boss Tucker, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hollingsworth, Mr. and Mrs. White Howell, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson Howell, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Hollingsworth.

Some of the earlier ministers were Charlie A. Wheeler, Gus Nichols, A.D. Dias, Chester Estes, W.A. Black, Edsel Burleson, and V.P. Black.

This church is located about 2 miles south of The Bazemore community in NE Fayette County, Ala.

My grandfather James "Jim" Franklin and Rejina Catherine McCaleb lived about a quarter mile down the road from that church. Their children were H (my dad), Walker married Lula Roby, Mary married Lonnie Box, and Verla Married Louie Roby. In 1925, Frank White and his wife lived in a nice framed house, the first one on right south of the church. He was the son of Jerry and Sid White. I have been told that Jerry White was the principle influence in getting White's Chapel started, and the church was named for him. Frank White had gone off to WW1 and lost one of his lungs. He struggled for breath the rest of his life. Best I recollect he had a mail carrier job, therefore had more income than anyone else in the community. One of his daughters married Marshall Wyers. Marshall was a young man that came to Mt. Olive Church to preach on a Sunday or two when I was attending church there in the 1930s. Marshall's son James Wyers is presently (1995) preaching at the Winfield Church of Christ. He does a good job preaching. Much of the attendees are young people, which is rare in a modern church. I like to think the influence of Jerry White and Marshall Wyers is extending on through the years.

The second house on right of road south of White's Chapel was Walker and Lula Roby McCaleb's. Walker deeded a piece of land across the road from his house and toward the church for a community center and a church social building. Home coming dinners and church social events take place there. Walker had three children. They were Arlin, Ilene, and Clifton McCaleb. Clifton and Arlin were active in the church during its' history.

Down the road on the left past Walker McCaleb lived his parents James "Jim" and Rejina C. Hollingsworth McCaleb, Walker's parents and my grandparents. I never knew exactly how good their church attendance was, but assumed they were members at Berea or White's Chapel and maybe attended some events at both places. I stayed at their house one summer and attended a singing school conducted by Homer Colley. I think my brother Hubert and sister Clancy also attended. Needless to say, I failed to learn how to sing. That represented my total training in the musical world, and still no singing improvement.

Next house down the road on the left was the Bob and Cordia Herren house. They raised fifteen children ranging in age from the older ones that my dad played with to the younger ones that went to school at Clover Hill and were in my age group. They were Susan Emma that married John Russell Roby; Duncan Newbern that married Ada Rosena Sprinkle; Elijah Columbus "E.C." that married Myrtle Lee Erwin (my first school teacher. ) Columbus was ordained to preach when young, but later just gave talks at churches. He was mainly a school teacher. Louis Wiley that married Alma Irene Hiten (dau of Raymond Hiten, a school teacher.)Wiley became a C. of Christ preacher. ; Alma that married Walter A. Dodd; Marion Francis that married Lucille Berry; Sherman Theodore who married Lorene Brazil; Robert Howard that married Maggie Lee Hutchins; Velma Neeland that married John Frederick Wyers; C.S. that married ( 1) Dora Bopeep Hollingsworth, and John Sidney "Jigs" that married Evacille Davis. Four of the children died young. I went to school at Clover Hill one year with the last three, and my dad, H McCaleb went to school at the same place with three or four of the earlier Herrens. Some, or all, of these Herrens and families must have attended White's Chapel part of the time. The names of the ones they married may also have attended.

Down from Bob Herren was the Aute and Emma Hollingsworth Tucker Family. Further on over were Wheeler Tucker and the Robys.

The Oscar Dodd and Idella White Dodd lived across the road from White's Chapel during the 1930s. I recollect their daughter Inez and son Garvin "Dits" Dodd. They may have had more. Seems like one may have died of typhoid fever. Their well got infected with the typhoid germ.

Jerry White seems to have masterminded the founding of White's Chapel. Jerry and Siddie Tucker's family that lived were Frances Jane who married William Henry Clark; Idella who married William Oscar Dodd, and Andrew Franklin who married Emma E. Sparks as a second wife. Frank married Velma Johnson about 1915. Frank had to go off to WW1 and Velma died, I don't know if from childbirth or what. One source said Velma walked off and left Frank and died later. Velma was the daughter of T.S. "Ditch" Johnson and Mary Frances McCaleb, a sister of my grandpa Jim McCaleb. Ditch wasn't much good and was in Texas and my grandfather was taking care of Velma and some of the Johnson family when Velma married Frank White. So the McCalebs didn't lack much being kin to the Frank white Children.

Before White's Chapel the church was at Clover Hill, about a mile east of present location. Clover Hill may have needed repairs and was probably about worn out. Whether there was some sort of split that formed Tidwell's Chapel and White's Chapel I never knew as we were away in Miss. at that time.

Frank and Emma Sparks White's children were Frankie Lee White who married Marshall Wyers. Marshall was beginning to be a Church of Christ preacher when I was in my teens (1930s.) Their son James Wyers is the preacher at Winfield Church of Christ (1995.) Franks daughter Myrl Christine married Boss Beasley; son Thomas Loyd married Edith Sue Sherer,; Jerry Calvin married Jewell Brazil?; Juanita Inez maarried "Bill" Black; and there was a son named Eugene Rudolph White.

At the forks of the old gravel road at White's Chapel was a little store run by a Sprinkle, Moses I think. Some of the Sprinkles went to church there. Going north toward Bazemore and across New River was the Holly and Alma Woodard Tucker family. Then in Bazemore was the Howell families and the Tom and Molly McCaleb Hollingsworth family. Tom ran a store in Bazemore back then, and his son Ecter later operated the same store. Many of the Howells and Hollingsworths up there went to White's Chapel. This is about all I have picked up on this church. The cemetery there is full of graves of people I knew, or knew of, that have been put there during my lifetime. It's enough to make one want to cry.

Some of this info was furnished by James "Jim" Herren, son of C.S.,and some was from Herbert Newell's History of Fayette County. Some came from Fred McCaleb who did this write-up.

New River Vignette

By Myrtle Aldridge
Submitted by Fred McCaleb

On Sunday August 4 (year unknown) a series of meetings began at the New River Church of Christ. Curtis W. Posey is doing the preaching, and the public is cordially invited.
This must be at least seventy five times that an event sililar to this has taken place on this same spot. The original building was incorporated into the present one when a remodeling job took place a few years ago.
1886 has been given as the date of organization. Mr. John Tyler McCaleb owned a large farm near by. He gave the land and financed the building of the house except for $18 which was donated by Mr. Jim Wade. Mr. McCaleb was an elder from the time of the organization till his death August 13, 1918.
One of his young daughters was first to be buried in the church cemetery. She was Sarah H. McCaleb Reed. June 13, 1868 to Oct. 13, 1888. She left a small son, Luther, who was reared by his grandfather.
Another daughter, Medora S. Haley, 1866?-1890, also left a small son Wilburn who was also reared by his grandfather McCaleb.
Mr. McCaleb was twice married: first to Elizabeth Susan McDonald whose dates are 1847-1894. After her death he was married to Mattie Drucilla Lee whose dates are 1860 to 1940.
Mr. McCaleb was highly respected by all who knew him. A man once came to him to buy a turn of corn. Mr. McCaleb was busy and told the man to go to the crib and help himself. The man said, "But no one will be with me to check on my honesty." "Oh you are mistaken" replied Mr. McCaleb, "The Lord will be there."
Needless to say, the man could not have then been dishonest if he had had any inclination to do so.
Mr. McCaleb was also known for his generosity. Mr. Huse Haney tells me that during a big meeting he had seen as many as forty saddles on the fence at Mr. McCaleb's home.
Papa Aldridge told me that as a young man, he often visited in this home. On one such occasion, several pallets had to be made down. The next morning Aunt Silla said "Well where did Wilburn sleep last night?" To this her young stepson, Joe McCaleb, replied, "The last time I saw him he was standing in a corner with a quilt over his head, like a tent."
From 1899 till 1911, Mr. McCaleb served as postmaster of the New River Post Office.
Some ministers who have served this churchS: Jeremiah Randolph, whose dates are 1807 to 1894, his son Virgil, whose dates are 1847 to 1908,Green Haley, Joe Halbrooks, C.A. Wheeler, W.A. Tipton, Samuel B. Carson, Howell Taylor & others.
Uncle Joe Holbrooks lived at New River for a period of 16 years. He preached there, in adjoining communities and counties. At the time he was considered a very scholarly man, for he had attended Mars Hill Bible School near Florence.
Some of the older members of this church today are Mr. & Mrs. Bill Hollingsworth, Mrs. Lucy McCaleb and Mr. Oliver Davis and wife.
The morning I visited this cemetery, a gentle rustling of the leaves, bird calls, the flutter of butterflies wings in an ancient crepe myrtle, were the only sounds in this tranquil spot. I was reminded of a poem by Mrs. Ruth E. McCaleb as I stood by l
her grave, in which she described the land which her husband loved, the acres of fine corn through which the wind passed and "Came to rest, with a sigh, at his tomb."

Skimming Ridge School or Boxes Creek School

(On front row third from left is Fred McCaleb)
by Fred McCaleb

From the best info I could obtain from the old timers in the area of this old one teacher school, it was built about 1910-12. It was located on the road between Berea Church of Christ and New River Baptist Church in Northeast Fayette County, Al. It was not built as a church building. Some singings and church events may have been held there in the last years of its duration. Berea probably had a country one teacher school, so did New River Baptist (Killingsworth) church, Clover Hill, Gravel Hill, Philadelphia Church, Glen Allen and other communities around the Hubbartville area. Fayette County had many one teacher schools up to around 1930. The schools in the Hubbartville area were consolidatted into Hubbardville Junior High School which later became Hubbartville High School. Skimming Ridge School operated from about 1912-1927. Travis Hollingsworth came in possession of the school house at end and dismantled it by hand,piece by piece.
I wondered how this building came to have the name of Skimming Ridge. Skimmings were a byproduct of sorghum molasses making. They could be stored in a barrel, let ferment into alcohol, and then boiled off in a still to obtain whiskey. One of the local enterpreneurs saved some barrels of skimmings, dug holes in the ground for the barrels and camouflaged the location. Some local resident came along and fell into one of the barrels. Thereafter the area was known as Skimming Ridge. Boxes Creek School was named Skimming Ridge after the above event.
Some of the earlier students at this school were the Sherrill and Fanny Barnard Killingsworth children : Cecil, Grady, Barnard, Arla and Mae. The younger ones Barbera and Gladys didn't go there.
John and Catherine Hollingsworth Nichols' children Ruby and Jack attended.
Dan and Leona(Mayfield) Swindle's children Mae, Reuben and Talmadge attended.
Wallace and Susan Angeline Tucker Roby's Children Attended. They were Ras, Emma, Louie, Arthur, Mae and Ruth and Willidine. Louie married Verla McCaleb(sister of my dad H.) Ruth Married Arvil Moore. Willidine married a Webster & Mae an Eads.
Judge and Maud Killingsworth Hollingsworth's children Sherman and Shelby attended. I(Fred McCaleb) can recollect when Shelby got burned to death under a T Model Ford truck that had turned over on him one night. He struck a match to see how to get out and gas caught on fire.
Houston and Kate McCaleb Haney's children Avis, Pauline, Lucille and Wilma attended. Their younger children Jimmie Lou and Borden didn't go there. Huse was a famous Church of Christ Preacher.
Billy and Alabama Hocutt's kids Cecil and Sleetia attended.
Billy and Alabama Whitehead were students?
Floyd ,Minnie Tucker, Jerry and Evie attended. Parents were Dee & Mandy Tucker.
Pollard Wakefield's daughters Carrie and Essie were students, and Essie was later a teacher there.
Charlie and Mollie Malone Killingsworthh's children Claudie, Wilburn and Sam attended.
Bud and Sara Hollingsworth's children Maud, Artie, Travis, Pate, Ceburn, and Cleburn attended.
Dude and Georgia Hollingsworth's children Lillie and Luther and Georgia attended.
John R.Hollingsworth's Dodson grand daughter Mabelle and her brother Lawrence went there.
Jim and Velma McCollum's kids were Ila, Wiley, Frankie & J.C.
Frank and Jinnie Box's kids were Ola, Lola, and Zola.
Tom and Bessie McCollum's kids were Ida and Ada.
Sem and Silla Tucker's kids were Sherman, Boss, Pearl and Eurna. John Roby's kids Roy, Early and Cordie Bell attended.
Jim and Mandy Kelly Hollingsworth's children were Ned, Luke, Flonnie, Tom, Alfred, Andy, Bess and Dot.
Curley and Bessie Sprinkle's kids were Basil, Polly, Kate, Mildred and Lois.
Tim and Sleetie Beauchamp McCaleb's attendees were Roy, Houston, and Alton.
Andrew and Julie Dunnovant's child that attended was Marvin.?
Rass and Carrie Sprinkle's kids were Tine, Lou Eva, Bethie, and Fletcher.
The ones I recollect the best were the older children of Ecter and Ethel Hallmark Killingsworth. They were Ola, Eunice, Mildred and I believe also Vivian. We walked to school together, and had to pass over Boxes Creek on a one bannister footlog. Ola got dizzy and fell off the footlog one day. She barely missed falling into the water and drowning. Her face was injured and bleeding. We got help and she pulled through. The above were cousins.
The H and Eza Hallmark McCaleb's son Fred attended this school as his first introduction to the educational world. The teacher Alma Sherrer Kizzire made an example of me and her son Albert. Alma was one of my mother's best girl friends.
One of the pupils that went to this school made a lawyer. He was Jim McCollum. His son Hardy McCollum is mayor of Tuscaloosa, Al.now(1996.) You can never tell what a school or individual will produce or become.Jim's dad was Capt.Newman McCollum. Jim's brother Clay also attended.
Virgie and Minnine Hollingsworth and Felix (their brother and husband of Arla Killingsworth) were early students. Could that have been where Arla met Felix? Their oldest son Howard may have attended there a while. Parents were John T. and Orpha Perry Hollingsworth.
Some of the Joe Kellly children attended this school. They were Jess, Fannie, and Bill.
The teachers I could find out about were Jim and Pollard Wakefield, Pollard and Bet Wakefield's daughter Essie, Thomas Herren, Myrtle Ervin Herren(wife of Columbus), Alma Sherrer Kizzire (later Cannon,), Murry Duncan,Florence Ezell,Fred Johnson, Fannie Little, Kelly Little and Maybell Baker.
The board of education(a paddle or good switch from the woods) resided on the teacher's desk at that time. Obeying easy.
Some contributors for this write up were Ada McCollum Box, Ruth Roby Moore, Arla Killingsworth Hollingsworth and her family, Fred McCaleb and my cousin Eunice Killingsworth.
The classes of old Skimming Ridge School are thinning out now. Only a few of the most hardy that have survived the hardships and temptations of the years are around today. Arla Hollingsworth is about 95. The youngest would be around 70. The house is gone and its pupils are about gone. The bell that called the classes from playing town ball and "Antny Over" still survives on a post at a neighbors' of my Aunt Verla McCaleb Roby Sandlin. I have a VCR recording of the bell. Soon it will be only something to read about. Then the story will not be believed. I felt like I wanted to say something for posterity about my first school. I guess I learned something about reading, writing and arithmetic here and some respect for authority.
The Roby children walked through Sie McCollum's pasture to get to school. Sie's bull would try to run them out of his territory. Sie was a black boy from slave days. He had Bill Ervin make him a coffin many years before he died and kept it under his bed. He said his black (he called them Nigger) kids were too sorry to bury him. All the whites loved Sie. Sie showed my dad and I how he fit in his coffin one day in the 1930's when we stopped by to talk. Andrew McCaleb just about gave Sie the first track of land he acquired and told Sie never to let the white folks beat him out of it. I am not sure, but don't think his estate has been settled yet. There is a nice McCollum Cemetery there where many of his descendants are buried. So many of his descendants must have been better than he thought they would be.
None of Sie's kids had the privilege of attending Skimming Ridge.
Ada McCollum had to walk to school with Alton McCaleb. Alton was a big tease and aggrevated her very much.
I don't recall getting into any fights while attending Skimming Ridge. I was 6-years of age at the time. My cousin Ola Killingsworth was sort of a "mother hen" that looked after her younger sisters and me. I did have fights in other schools later, especially at Shannon, Ms.
School lunches were not packed in a paper bag at that time. One brought his or her lunch in a half gallon lard can. You might have a biscuit with some ham meat or country eggs in it. One might have some butter and syrup or jelly to put on the biscuit.
The pickings were not too good. They just depended on what home grown canned or dried food your mother had at home. Fried apple tarts with plenty of grease in the ingredients were a favorite. The apples were sliced, dried and bagged in the summertime. Later sandwiches from bought loafbread became popular, and the lunch was packed in a paper bag. Then that succombed to the school lunch program under the present socialism. Still the kids liked junk food instead of the good prepared food, and spent their allowance for junk food and dope. There was no allowance at Skimming Ridge, and face was lost if you got a whipping at school you got another one by your parents at home if they found out. Self esteem was earned by performance instead of teaching it.

MY FATHER

by Fred McCaleb

My father was H McCaleb. The H was just a letter of the alphabet and not an initial for a given name. Sometimes it was spelled Aytch. His mother, Rejina Catherine Hollingsworth McCaleb,studied the Blueback Speller (memorized much of it) at the little log schoolhouse she attended. She memorized the spelling of all the alphabetic letters, and for some reason she called my dad's first name H. My dad was born February 18, 1893 in Northeast Fayette County Alabama. His parents were James (Jim) Franklin McCaleb and Rejina Catherine Hollingsworth. Rejina's mother was a McCaleb,Elizabeth (Bet) Jane McCaleb the daughter of Andrew McCaleb. Andrew was an older brother of Alfred McCaleb. Grandpa Jim McCaleb was the son of Alfred McCaleb. So I suppose my father must have been loaded with McCaleb genes.
My father was the oldest of the Jim McCaleb family. Jim and Rejina got off on the wrong start at the beginning of their marriage. Jim and Rejina ran away to Aberdeen, Ms.to get married. Rejina's father John R. Hollingsworth didn't like Jim from the start. Jim and Rejina started farming, the mule died and the crop failed, and by that time my dad was born. Jim was faced with feeding the family. He went to Texas to make a fortune. One of his McCaleb uncles owned a ranch there. Whether he worked for this uncle I never found out. My grandmother went home to her Hollingsworth parents. She and baby H resided there until grandpa arrived back from Texas. I suppose the Hollingsworths took care of my dad and grandma for a year or two. In Texas my grandpa got lightning struck from the legs on down. The lightning knocked the tacks out of his shoes. He kept the shoes and showed them to visitors all during his lifetime. By the time daddy started to school John R. Hollingsworth had given grandma a track of woodland. Grandpa hewed out logs for a one room log house, and had cleared up some land for crops. My dad went to school at Clover Hill. Clover Hill was a church building about a mile away. The church buildings also served as school buildings at that time. Religion and learning were freely mixed. I went to that one teacher school when I was in the third grade. My dad didn't seem to accomplish much learning in school. He was left handed. The teacher tried to make him use his right hand. One of his teachers was Raymond W. Hiten. After my dad got older his father kept him out of school much of the time to help with the farm work. So his education was of a meager amount of book learning. He could write a little and read slowly. In his older days, the main thing he read was the Bible. Mr. Hiten's son Hollis Hiten told me of dad being in the school play one time. Dad played the part of the hoot owl in a tree outside the building. Hollis said dad did real well with that. I suppose dad had the equivalent of about a fifth grade education.
My dad was a farm boy during his youth. Farm families hoped to have boy babies back then. They could help their father do hard work. Grandpa tried to get as much work as possible from my dad. He had a crop to make every summer, and woodland to be cleared of trees every winter. So my dad was trained to use a cross cut saw, a chopping axe, a broadaxe, how to hoe cotton and corn,and how to plow a mule. He knew all about hitching mules to buggies, wagons, and plows. He came up in the tradition of hard work, hard knocks, and bad luck. Not much was done back then to boost his ego. He did manage to buy a fancy riding saddle by the time he was grown. He could then show off by riding his horse or mule at high speed to the church gatherings. I recollect his saddle. It finally deteriorated sometime after I was grown. Owning a fancy saddle and fast horse back in his early days was about like owning a fancy high speed sports car today. Dad's education was more of a learning by doing manual farm labor than of school learning. My dad rebelled against grandpa about the time he was grown. He and grandpa got crosswise about something. Grandpa tried to punish him. He left on a train for Texas to seek his fortune just as grandpa had done. He found a job in The Rio Grande valley as a hand on a vegetable farm. In about six months or a year he became tired of that and wrote a conciliatory letter to grandpa for money to pay railroad fare back home to Alabama. Grandpa sent enough money for the train fare, but nothing for eating. It took two or three days to get back from Texas, and dad was about starved when he got home. He then stayed home until he married my mother, Eza Etta Hallmark.
My dad was more of a sociable being than was my mother. According to Myrtle Ervin Herren, he could be talked into driving the mule wagon with Myrtle and his sister Mary McCaleb to social events. Myrtle described a bob tailed grey mule and a black mule that grandpa had. Dad would hitch the mules to a wagon and drive the girls high speed to an all day singing. Myrtle was amused at how the bob tail mule's tail flopped around as they proceeded to a gathering. Dad must have been easy prey for the girls to talk him into taking them where they wanted to go. Dad was sociable in other ways. He always liked to fox hunt and kept fox hunting hound dogs. He had many fox hunting friends. The friends would talk him into going fox hunting Saturday night. They would stay out all night listening to the dogs run the fox and tell big tales. Also they liked to brag on the dogs. My mother wasn't too impressed with this. I wasn't either. I went fox hunting one time. That turned out to be enough for me for a lifetime. My mother cooked cornbread for the dogs. The dogs were never allowed inside the house as many modern little and big pet dogs are allowed. My dad never expected to imprison his dogs. He wanted them to be free to run rabbits, bark at buggars or do what they wished at night. Dad had too many fox hunting friends. He most always tried to go to church, at least as long as I knew, each Sunday. He was biased against other religious beliefs other than his own. The best I could find out, when young, my dad got into trouble using too much alcohol a time or two. Momma said that soon after they were married, some of dad's social friends got him drunk at an all day singing. He got fined a few dollars. Momma paid off the fine. She also let him know that such behavior shouldn't happen again. Another fellow told me that his daddy and my daddy got into a fight with a black boy at some social gathering. They didn't think the black boy should be there and raised a fuss with him and hurt him. I never thought my dad was biased against the blacks. He and Dave McCollum, a black, used to cut railroad crossties together when I was a little boy. They could hue out eight in a day. The next day they would load the ties on a wagon and take them to Bazemore on a wagon and receive fifty cents apiece for the ties, thereby making one dollar a day. It was hard work, and the compensation was about as good as they could get back then. I still have the broadax my dad cut the ties with.
My dad married Eza Etta Hallmark of northeast Fayette County Alabama. She was the daughter of Samuel Winn Hallmark and Mary Roxie Eason. They were married August 15,1915 at the Hallmark parents home. Daddy had a mule and the fancy saddle mentioned earlier when he was courting momma. He lived about 5 miles from where momma lived. I guess they met at Killingsworth (Now Newriver) Baptist Church. Daddy had some Woodard first cousins that lived near the church. Grandma's sister Martha Hollingsworth married Melton Woodard, and their children were first cousins of my dad. I expect the Woodard cousins somehow made the connection.The cousin Alma Woodard and my momma were big friends. She told me that her and momma were the smartest two in the little school at Killingsworth, and that their teacher tried to get them to take the test to become qualified to teach school at that time. They didn't take the test. Perhaps they were more interested in becoming Mrs. H McCaleb and Mrs. Holly Tucker.
The children of H McCaleb and Eza Etta Hallmark were me, Fred McCaleb born September 7, 1916, Hubert McCaleb born September 28, 1919, Clancy McCaleb (a girl) born September 21, 1921, Thomas Raburn McCaleb born 27th July, 1925 and died two years later, Clara Jean McCaleb born December 26, 1930 in Lee County Mississippi, and Leroy Dewitt McCaleb born May 21, 1934. We were raised up much as my dad had been raised up. By the influence of my mother, we were never required to work many hours on the farm when school was in session. The first three children never had any transportation other than their two feet, a mule drawn wagon, and some train rides. We were required to work in the fields doing hard farm manual labor. The last two children, Jean and Leroy were almost a separate family from the first three. My dad had a Chevrolet pickup truck by the time they were grown. The truck was the only auto he ever had during his life. He paid for it mostly from an allotment from my pay while I was a soldier in WW2. The wheel of progress? had turned slightly by the time Jean and Leroy were grown. I had given them a bicycle to to get around on. So they had a little more than their two feet and the mule drawn wagon. My sister Clancy thought she was a boy, or at least she could do anything a boy could, until she was about 16. We walked across most of the county one day by 1PM to our uncle Arthur Hallmark's House. On arriving there Arthur persuaded Hubert and I to go squirrel hunting. Clancy didn't go with us on that. We walked in the woods the rest of the evening. We didn't have any trouble sleeping that night until 4AM when Arthur came shouting "last call for breakfast." It was the habit of many farmers back then to get up at 4-5 AM and get ready to go to work by daylight in the fields. The work hours were from sunup to sundown with about an hour out for lunchtime. It took most of that to get to the house, eat, and rest about 30 minutes.
Our growing up seemed mostly hardships to me. Our pleasures seemed to be mostly nonexistant. Hubert and I saved our money and bought a Sears and Roebuck 22 rifle for about seven dollars. We went squirrel hunting with that, but killed few squirrels. We practiced target shooting. I shot at many birds. I shouldn't have done that, but the birds were mostly safe. It was very rare that I ever hit one. I got pleasure out of making truck wagons. The wheels were sawed from a black gum log. We would ride the home made wagons down a steep hill in a path winding between the trees.Hubert and I had one little red wagon my dad bought us when very young. We and our friends tore it up in a month or two. Dad never bought us another toy of anykind. That was probably the nicest thing he ever did for me. I had to learn to use what few tools he owned and make things for myself. When I was young I had a click and wheel to run up and down the gravel road. The wheel was a rim off an old wagon wheel hub. The click was a stiff piece of wire with a U on one end. The U fit the bottom back of the wheel and one ran down the road making the wheel turn. Hubert, I, and our Trim boyfriends walked to a few basketball games when in junior high school. Mt. Vernon was only 7 miles away. Wayside was about 6 miles away. I don't know if that was pleasure or not. Anyhow we got our exercise. When I was young I was pretty good at climbing trees. I climbed one slim tree to about 20 feet high. It bent over with me down to about ten feet. I couldn't get back down via the tree, so I had to let drop to the ground. I bent my knees so they would have spring and landed safely. Young boys used to see how wide a ditch they could jump. I think about 6 feet wide was the best I ever did. I built a 2 seat farris wheel one time. Clancy and someone, I think Hubert, agreed to test it. Clancy landed about 12 feet up in the air with Hubert on the bottom. She sort of got shook up but got down some way, I don't know how fast. I had to write that project off as a failure. One of my most pleasurable recollections was when I was at my grandpa Jim McCaleb's house. I was about 9 years old. He was in the field plowing a mule hooked to an Avery cricket turning plow. He let me plow a few rounds and I thought I was really up in the world. No one had ever let me do that before. He had trusted me and let me do something the grown ups did all the time. I was wanting to be like the grownups. You had to set your life to the examples the grown ups provided. There was no radio or tv to let one know how ignorant the grownups were, and how to hate them. The way my grandparents picked up the news back then was by going to some neighbors house nearly every night. They would discuss their problems of the day, what they had heard about the neighbors, etc. There was no instant news back then. When someone died the neighbors would take turns staying up all night. Myrtle Erwin, my first school teacher, said she just loved to stay up with grandpa McCaleb present. He would just keep on talking, and she loved it. I never was as sociable as my grandpa McCaleb and my dad.
My dad mostly raised his family in Fayette County Ala. The first place I recollect living was on Boxes Creek. It was away from everything, even a gravel road. The school there was Skimming Ridge one teacher school. It was about 1/2 mile away. We walked a path that crossed Boxes Creek over a footlog with only one bannister to hold to. Momma's friend Alma Sherer Kizzire was the second teacher I had there. She made an example out of her son Albert and myself. We got the full round of punishments. At the time we lived there my dad and his uncle Jim Hollingsworth had a fish trap on the creek. To have a mess of fish he went to the fish trap and brought back the fish. Sometimes there was a snake in the trap. I recollect my dad having steel traps set to catch mink. Their hides were valuable to put on women's fur coats. Once in a while daddy would catch a mink, skin it, and stretch the hide over a special shaped board to dry. Then he would sell it when dried for about $4. That was cruelty to the mink family to make a little money so the socialites of New York could wear the latest style fur collar on their coat. The next place my dad took the family was a little house on his daddy Jim McCaleb's place. We stayed there a year. Our next door neighbor was Neil Sprinkle who was a county deputy sheriff. My dad liked the sport? of rooster fighting, and that was against the law. My dad ordered steel spurs for his game rooster. One of his social friends came with his rooster. They fought the roosters in one of the mule stables. They fought to the death, and dad's rooster won out. This was in sight of the deputy sheriff's house, and rooster fighting was illegal. We shared a well with the Sprinkles. The well went dry in the summer. Then we got drinking water from Grandpa's drilled well. That well had yellow mineral water in it. My mother did her washing in tubs and washpot heated water from a little stream that ran by the house. She washed when the stream wasn't muddy. There was no running water in the houses. Water was made to run by sending a boy to the well to draw a bucketfull and run back with it. My brother, Thomas Raburn McCaleb, was born at this place in 1925 and died two years later in Lee County, Miss. While at grandpa's place I went to the one teacher school taught by Mrs. Hassie Reed. She traveled to the school, from about 4 miles down the road, in a buggy pulled by her favorite horse. This was the same school house where my daddy had attended classes. He hadn't gained very much " book larnin" there. I must not have learned too much there either. I failed the third grade after moving to Mississippi where there was a better school.But Mrs. Reed was a very nice lady. In the winter of 1925-26 we moved to a place between Nettleton and Shannon,Ms. There they had excellent schools for their time. Mrs. Carter kept me in the third grade for two years. I never failed anything completely after that. The farm my dad had in Mississippi was too wet for farming most of the years. Occasionally the weather would cooperate. My brother Raburn died with membrane croup or diphtheria. Momma held him while he choked to death. All the then family had the malarial. Daddy nearly died with the malarial fever. A big hero of mine in 1927 was Charles A. Lindburg when he flew across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis. I read the Memphis Press Scimiter each day to see if Lindburg was going to make it. After that flight nearly all boys in the school got a leather aviators cap. It was good to shed the rain and to keep the ears warm in the winter. The move to Mississippi was a good thing from the standpoing of education for his three oldest children. From an economic and health standpoint it was a bad move. By 1932 daddy had had enough of Mississippi. He moved the family back to Alabama to a farm on the west side of the Luxapallila river ten miles northwest of Fayette, Alabama. Here he resided until his children had all left him and married. He died October 31st,1958. At this farm he cleared the trees from about 20 acres of land called newground. I was at the other end of the crosscut saw in much of this clearing. In this work I learned to sharpen saws. My dad was left handed and not adept at using tools to make or fix things. At this last place my father lived he was finally able to heve electricity about 1945. After electricity the children installed an indoor bathroom, a well pump for running water, and a refrigerator and electric stove for the kitchen. The family had never had any of this before. He was up in the world. His family had never had even an outside Johnny. They had to use the mule stables, high timber, or high cotton. The Sears & Roebuck catalog was used for toilet paper. Some used corn cobs that were obtained when a turn of corn (about 1 bushel shelled corn) was prepared to take to the grist mill to be ground into meal for cornbread. This sounds crude by present standards, but we were among the well to do. My dad made about $400 a year from the farm. He was too rich for me to get into the CCC camp just before WW2. We would be in super poverty now. Many people now make more than $400 in one day. My outlook on things is quaint and antiquated.
What was it like having a father like mine? I guess the way things turned out I couldn't have been luckier even if I had picked my parents before being born. My dad had some bad habits. The worst of his habits was smoking. That lead to his early death when he was only 65 years old. In his last years he had emphysema and had to do much struggling even to get a breath of air. He tried to be sociable and do what others were doing. I have never been much of a one to try to do what the Joneses are doing myself unless what they are doing sounds logical. My dad was somewhat of a tease and criticizer. He had the habit of foxhunting sometimes with his friends all night on Saturday night. I heard him and one of his foxhunting friends discussing their children one day. The friend told my daddy his children wouldn't do what he told them to do. My dad told the man he didn't have any trouble with his children disobeying. He told him he just didn't tell his children to do anything, therefore you get perfect obedience. As you can see he liked to outtalk the other fellow. He would let a traveling salesman talk his pitch an hour before telling him he wouldn't buy. At the same time if a salesman came along late in the evening he would invite him to spend the night so they could get in some talking. My dad tried to never punish his children while he was angry. He had the good habit of going to church most every Sunday. He was biased against other churches than his own. Only his could have the whole truth. Who in the population isn't biased against something? My dad never heard of psychology, but he was adept at using reverse psychology. When he gave me $2.45 for a Greyhound bus ticket to Berry College at Rome, Ga. to work my way through there, he said he expected me back home in about 2 weeks. I never showed back up until I had earned enough for the first year's tuition. I would have completely lost face if I had left and come back home. When my sister Clancy was ready to go to Berry he told her that education was no good for girls. The only thing they were good for was to have babies. That completely determined her to go to college or bust. She made a more outstanding record there than either Hubert or me. There was no welfare to go to for help in dad's day. When a family was in trouble the neighbors would help out if they knew about the need. My dad would share what little he had and could spare with another family. When we were in Mississippi he found out that Roy Williams and his two sisters were starving. My dad carried a bushel of cornmeal and some homecanned goods to the family. The family was too proud to ask anyone for help, and dad may have saved their life. When I was in my teens, I judged my dad to be sort of ignorant and making mistakes in the way he managed things. When I was older I realized he did the best he knew how with what he had. Later on I knew not to make the same mistakes he had made. Never in my life did I become disloyal to my parents or to my brothers and sisters. My daddy's ways made me want to do better. His influence never steered me in the wrong direction.
I have already mentioned dad's means of transportation: his two feet, saddle and horseback, mules and wagon and finally a pickup truck. The truck was in his last days.
Daddy's religion was Church of Christ, non instrumental type. He was more religious than momma but no better in the practice thereof. The church was the main center of social activities back then. The church building was also the school house. The preachers were self educated in the Bible. Everyone believed their interpretation of the Bible was correct. The churches were small country congregations. The members arrived on foot, on horseback, and on wagons. Mules and horses were tied to trees in the woods around the church buildings. Sometimes a dog came along and came in the building during services. The big events were the Big Meetings held by a preacher in August after the crops were "laid by." The preacher generally got a few conversions during the meeting. Baptizing was in a nearby river or pool. The big events were the "all day singings." All types of people attended the singings. Singers all tried to do their best and make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Many people stayed outside never going into the house. Sometimes there was a whiskey bootlegger around selling liquor to the outsiders. It was not unusual for someone to get drunk. At noon a dinner was spread on a on the ground or in the back of a wagon bed. Some people labeled these singings as "an all day singing, dinner on the ground, and the Devil all around." As mentioned before, my dad got mixed up with the alcohol devils at least once during his early life. People of other beliefs and people with no belief or principle at all came to the singings. I suppose something of a religious nature rubbed on to many of the attendees. The churches had singing schools in the summer when crops were laid by. I went to one or two singing schools. There I learned a little about music, but didn't learn how to sing. My dad never learned anything about singing. I suppose it was not in the McCaleb genes until it got to my daughter Bettie Dawn McCaleb Boswell.That must have come from her mother's family. Part of them couldn't sing either.
How did my dad manage his economic affairs? That was easy. He had nothing to manage. His average income was about $400 per year. He grew most of the things the family ate. He grew enough sorghum cane to make about 30 gallons of molasses. He generally raised 3 fattening hogs so we could have meat and lard. He had a cow or two to furnish milk. He had chickens running all over the place to furnish eggs and fried chicken. He was a squirrel hunter and killed squirrels to eat. He also killed rabbits until they said the rabbits were infected with somekind of disease. At the first place I recollect living he had a supply of fish from the illegal fishtrap. There was no lawn mower. The chickens mowed the yard. We went barefoot in the summer. Sometimes I stepped on a black chicken manure dropping and squished it between my toes. Grandpa Jim McCaleb loaned the money to buy the place. Dad never was able to get all that paid. With his $400 income he bought flour, cloth for women's dresses and men's shirts, two pairs of denim ovralls per boy per year, one pair of shoes per year for the winter, sugar, salt, pepper, soda, spices, coffee etc. The corncrop supplied cornbread for the year and fed the mules for another crop. He had several stands of bees to make honey for the family. He spent part of the $400 for smoking tobacco. That was a shame, but people have to have their nicotine and freedom to die early. We were rich and never starved, luckily. One summer his money gave out. He told us we would have to eat cornbread for breakfast until the crops were sold. My mother and I agreed. Eating cornbread for breakfast was a loss of face for him. He went to the Raymond Harris store in Winfield and they credited him with a barrel of flour for the summer. My dad managed his affairs on what one might call nothing in the way of income. If you don't have an income you have to figure ways to get along without one. That he did. He never believed in credit. I never believed in credit either. Maybe I learned at least that much from him. He had a good credit rating among the local merchants, but never used it unless real hard up.
My dad's attitude toward his brothers and sisters wasn't too good. His oldest sister Mary McCaleb married Lonnie Box. Lonnie did some moonshining and liquor peddling. We drove up to Lonnies in the farm wagon to visit when I was young. I recollect Lonnie giving me a sip of whiskey on one occasion. I reckon dad loved his sister Mary but thought she had married the wrong man. The Boxes were better off financially than our family. When we visited them one time in 1925 Lonnie had a brand new T-model Ford touring car. He took us for a 3 or 4 mile ride. That was my first automobile ride. Daddy would never engage in any shady operation to make money. He remained a financially poor man all his life but rich in other ways. My dad's brother Walker McCaleb when a young man got drunk and into a fight with another drunk. The drunk cut Walker with a knife. Walker lost the use of one of his arms. Dad thought grandpa and grandma always gave Walker preferential treatment by giving him more assistance than they did dad.Walker was the only one of that family that went to high school. There was a boarding high school at Eldridge, Al. Walker went a year there. Whether dads idea of unfair treatment was justified or not I could never tell. My dad loved his sister Verla McCaleb better than the rest. He was dissatisfied that she married Louie Roby when she was only about 14 years old. Louie seemed like a real nice sociable man. His sociability got him mixed up with drinking and drunks. One of his friends killed him and threw him out beside the road sometime in the 1950s. Then Verla raised three nice Roby boys. Her son Roland and his wife are teachers at Hubbardville High School. Verla was a very nice lady and is still living at age 85 in 1995. She had a very hard life and lived more years than any of my dad's family. All the rest have already gone on to the Great Beyond.
My dad made a living by farming. The methods used were crude by comparison to modern ones. Mulepower and manpower were the power sources. The land was broken with turning plows pulled by a mule and operated by a boy or man and sometimes a girl. Corn and cotton stalks were cut,in the spring, by a stalk cutter pulled by 2 mules. The land to be planted to cotton or corn was first middle busted. Then guano from South America was put in the furrow and covered by listing a row with a turning plow. The guano was strowed by hand through a funnel held by the left hand and the right hand put the guano through the hand distributor from a bag on the shoulder. After the rows were made a section harrow was dragged over the tops of 3 rows at a time with 2 mules pulling the harrow. After the rows were prepared, a mule drawn planter was used to plant the cotton or corn. If too much rain came after the seeds came up the crab grass would grow faster than the cotton or corn. The women of the family or younger members did the back breaking hoeing. Farmers finally learned to plant the corn in a furrow instead of on top of the row. That way, if the corn grew faster than the grass, a plow or hoe could be used to cover the grass instead of digging it up. My dad never seemed to learn any of the shortcuts of farming. We generally did things the hardest possible way. There were no pesticides being marketed at that time. They did have paris green for the potato bugs in the garden. In the fall of the year the corn was pulled by hand and thrown into heaps. Then the heaps were picked up and thrown into the bed of the farm wagon and hauled to the corncrib at the barn. The corn crop was used for corn meal for the family and to feed the mules to make another crop, and to feed the hogs to make them grow large to have meat for the family. The cotton was picked by hand into long ducking picksacks that drug behind the picker. Some people could pick about 240 pounds of cotton in one day. I never did pick more than 150 pounds a day and not that much too often. About 1400 pounds of cotton was picked and emptied into a tall wagon bed and pulled to a ginn by the mules to get into a line and wait your turn for the seed cotton to be ginned into a 500 pound bale of cotton. A bale of cotton during the depression sold for as low as $25. The seeds were swapped for cottonseed meal and hulls to be fed to the cows. Enough cotton seeds were kept for next year's planting. The above is not a full coverage of everything that went on, but gives some idea. The cow and horse manure in the stables was hauled to the garden spot or a field where the land was poorer. We raised some beautiful gardens when the only fertilizer used was cow or horse manure.
What did my daddy like to do best of all? Talking maay have been his best sport. Fox hunting combined with talking would have been second or perhaps even first. He loved hunting of any type. He was squirrel hunting when he fell over dead in the woods. My dad loved hound dogs for fox hunting. He also loved squirrel treeing dogs. We once had a small black fist dog that was good at treeing squirrels. He loved all kinds of domestic animals and always treated his plow mules good. He plowed the gentle mule and let me plow the wild one. I don't know if he made his mule gentle or if I made mine wild. It was uncertin whether my mule was wilder or that I made her wilder. Anyway we were both higher tempered than dad and his mule. His mule was named Maud and my mule was named Ida. Ida didn't go for someone trying to ride her. Hubert onetime talked my sister Clancy into trying to ride Ida. Clancy soon had been thrown to the ground. Momma saw all this happening. Needless to say, she was upset. The mules we had before Maud and Ida were Nig and Nance. Nig was a small black mule, and Nance was a small brown mule. I wonder how daddy arrived at naming Nig. I would just love to have a picture of these helpers on the farm. No pictures of them were ever taken. Daddy loved to go to gatherings, church or other type. That gave him an outlet for talking. He wouldn't help momma do anything in the kitchen at home. I found out from a foxhunting friend of his that dad was appointed at a foxhunting convention to make a washpot of brunswick stew. The friend said it was the best he had ever eaten. He must have kept that secret from momma. I guess I have done my wife, Bettie Virginia Cline, that way. Perhaps some of my dad coming out in me. I guess I should say that my dad liked to tease people. I don't think that went over too well with momma.
My dad did'nt have much choice in the way of food. His favorite meat was beef. My mother hated the smell of beef. She had a pet calf during her childhood that granpa Samuel Winn (Bud) Hallmark had killed for beef. That completely turned momma against beef. She didn't want any beef in the house. Daddy would occasionally slip off to Loftis Cafe in Fayette and have a mess of beef with the turnip greens, greasy biscuits, potatoes and the gravy that went with it. The cost of a meal there at that time was 35cents. The foods at home were fried ham, backon, sausage, sorgum cane syrup, big biscuits greased with hog lard, milk with cornbread crumbled in for supper, fried chicken, eggs, gravy, cabbage, collards, beans, pumpkins, beans fresh and dried, black eved peas fresh and dried. butter for cooking and spreading on hot biscuits. Fatback was used in cooking beans, greens etc. The diet was high in fat content. That worked ok for 12 hour day manual labor in the fields. In dad's older days after he had quit being able to do much work, the fat in the diet and the nicotine from the cigarettes ruined his health. He had a heart attack in June 1958 while robbing his bees. Honey was another of his favorite foods. He loved watching the bees. He died Oct 31, 1958 while in the woods doing a favorite thing, squirrel hunting. He told me he heard the angels singing during his heart attack. He loved all day singings. Maybe he is enjoying the angels singing now.
How did daddy get along with momma? They took each other for better or for worse until death did them part. I think momma may have thought he was worse than than she thought when she married him. She didn't approve of several things he did. One thing was the little drinking he did when first married. Another thing was that he spent money for smoking tobacco when it could have been better spent for something else. He teased her about her shortcomings. I recollect him trying to teach her to swim when I was a little boy. He turned her loose in boxes creek to swim on her own. She nearly drowned. She never went swimming again with him or anyone else anytime after that. She burned her hand on the stove. He told her he had sense enough to remove his hand before it burned. At the time of marriage, she was a Baptist and he was a Church of Christ member. He tried during his life to make a Church of Christ member out of her. He never changed her beliefs during her lifetime. She never changed his habits, unless it was his amount of drinking, during his lifetime. Momma had a very hard life milking cows, hoeing cotton and corn fields, cooking on a wood stove, doing the washing by hand with outside wash pots, tubs and washboards. The modern woman wouldn't put up with what she had to do, not even for a 2 week period. Momma stuck with daddy till death did them part, and she missed daddy very much after he was gone. She thought she had a great life together with daddy. The worst she ever did daddy was to refuse to cook him any beef. She would cook fried chicken when the preacher was coming for dinner. We would wait and be the last to eat which was generally the wings. Momma lived 22 years after daddy died. Maybe not eating beef was good for her. Or, could she have thrived on hardships? Don't expect to change your husband or wife very much after you have married them. They will remain the same at best, or maybe even get worse.
My dad got along with the neighbors just fine. Sometimes he talked about what was wrong with them, but he never actually got into fights with them. When the neighbor in Mississippi built a levee around dad's place there to keep the water from getting on the neighbors place, dad decided to sell the land and go back to Alabama. Dad may not have stood up for his rights as much as he should. One of my dad's neighbors in Al. was Thomas Dodson. Thomas was a Primitive Baptist and dad Church of Christ. My dad loved to argue religion with him. They would tell each other what was wrong with each's religion. Thomas was at dad's funeral. He told me that daddy was the best neighbor he had ever had. The community put daddy in as a member of the Kirkland Jr. High school board. I always wondered why they did that since he had such little education. He seemed to be liked by most all in the community. Maybe it was because he was a sociable being.
My dad's last 3 or 4 years were not too pleasant living. He had emphysema from his smoking. On waking up in the morning he had to cough for quite a while before he could get a good breath of air. He had been unable to do hard work on the farm for quite some time. He was renting the farmland to someone else. Before that he had sold the mules. He and my youngest brother Leroy had gone together and bought a John Deere tractor. Soon after getting the tractor, Leroy had been drafted into the army. I think they made a crop or two with the tractor. I think daddy got someone else to run the tractor while Leroy was in the army. When Leroy got back he soon married Laeuna Duckworth. Daddy and Leroy's farming was over. He rented the place from then on till death. During this time the fat clogged his arteries, health fell off fast until his death. He did have the pickup truck during his last days. Jean and Leroy were able to drive him around in that. Dad learned to drive the pickup himself in his older days. He didn't get very proficient, I don't think. But he did have transportation besides his 2 feet and mules.

Phillips Family Cemetery

Copied to computer by Fred McCaleb


Wakefield, G. W - B. Dec. 14, 1804 - D. July 11, 1802

Wakefield, Nancy Mahala, wife of G W. Wakefield - B. Nov. 2,1814 -D. Jan. 6, 1891

Phillips, F. L. - B. Dec. 14, 1847 D Aug. 30, 1922

Phillips, Donia - B. Sept. 14, 1853 D. Jan. 28, 1943

Blount, Emma Hallmark, wife of Henry F.Blount - B. Dec. 16, 1901 D. Nov. 2, 1927

Hallmark, S. W., father - B. July 10, 1856 D. Apr. 15, 1928

Hallmark, M. R. mother - B. May 15, 1866 D. Oct. 14, 1938

Dozier, Ada B dau. of C.H. & W.E.Dozier

Phillips, J.R. - B. Nov. 27, 1845 - D. Apr. 14, 1917

Phillips, Nancey E. - B. Aug. 25, 1862 - D. Oct. 1, 1942

Phillips, John & Nancy - B,.

McCollum, Mary - B. July 22, 1852 - D. Jan. 16, 1906

Eason, Betty - B. 1836 - D. 1912

Eason, Moses - 6, 1832 - D. 1914

Dozier, W. E. - B. 1875 - D. 19_____

Dozier, C. H, - B. 1872 - D. l943

Earnest, Susie Hunt - B. Aug. 23, 1903 - D. Nov. 12, 1954

West off Byler Rd. north of Carbon Hill Rd. - Copied: H. &J,N, Mar. 21, 1959

Following is an update of the Phillips Cemetery done by Fred McCaleb June 25, 2000

John and Nancy Phillips scratched on a real old marker

Hallmark, Arthur April 28, 1894-Aug. 27 1973 Pfc US Army WW1

Hallmark, Nannie Lee Harkins Oct. 30, 1904-Apr. 15, 1997

Johnson, Katie July 21., 1915-May 15, 1966

Johnson, Ruben Nov. 28, 1910-May 16, 1992

Johnson, Doyal Drtti Feb. 4, 1936-------------

Johnson, Nora S. Jo Ann June 10 1933-June 11, 1990

Dozier, Grover C. 1899-1963

Dozier, Gracie N. Feb. 15, 1901-Nov. 5, 1975

Left grave unmarked

Silman, Eula Mae Dozier June 13, 1918-May 16, 1975 Resting in peace

Lowe, “Little Simon” David Ray Dec. 12, 1946-Mar. 27, 1971

Lowe, “Mama Smokie” Helen Gracie July 25, 1924-Dec. 3 1971



TUCKER FAMILY CENETERY

Lawrence, Margaret E. - B. Dec. 26, 1870 - D. Feb. 17, 1941

Tidwell, A. J. - B. Dec. 15, 1820 - D. Oct. 26, 1920

Tidwell, Margaret, wife of A.J.Tidwell - B. July 22, 1823 - D. July 20, 1867 July 20, 1887

Buice, Martha A. - B. Mar. 12, 1849 - D-. Apr. 29, -1927

Tidwell, S. P. - B. Jan. 20, t844 - D. Jan. 17, 1928

Tidwell, Gracy J., wife of S P. Tidwell - B. Oct. 22, 1854 –D Aug. 16, 1924 D. Aug. 16, 1924

Tucker, W, T. - B. June 15, 1880 - D. Nov. 29, 1925,

Heathcock, Willis Leon, Inf. Son of Mr. & Mrs. Pervy Heathcock 1930 1930

Sparks, Elvira - B. 1825 - D. Aug. 13, 1897

Sparks,William B. Mar. 31, 1821 - D. July 25, 1893

Sparks, Phelix B. Apr. 5, 1906 - D. Aug. 4, 1915

S.parks, Alice B. Marr. 6, 1900 - D. Oct. 17, 1900

Sparks, Mary F. - B. Jan. 31, 1891 - D. Apr. 4, 1891

Herren, Aaron - B. May 15, 1835 - D. July 13, 1915

Herron, Mary A., mother - B. Mar. 29, 1841 - D. Apr.25, 1932

Shaw, William - D. Jan. 14, 1956 - 18 Yrs. 5 Mos. 11 Days.

Shaw, Martha Alice - B. Jan. 28,- 1869 - D. June 10, 1909

Shaw, Lula M., dau. of J.M. & M.A,Shaw - B. Dec. 7, 1898 - D. Sept. 7, 1909

Whitehead, Mary 0. - B. Aug. 20, 1878 - D. Sept. 17, 1878

Whitehead, Mary J., wife of G.W.Whitehead - B. Feb.25,1846 -D. Aug. 20, 1878

Whitehead, James - B. Feb.17, 1877 - D. Mar. 13, i877 '

Tidwell, Sarah, dau. o,f A.J. & M.E.Tidwell - B. & D. May 22, 1862

Sparks, Susan - B. 1841 - D. 1888

Sparks,T. -B. July 25, 1847 - D. Dec. 25, 1913

Tucker, Samuel, son of G.W. & Arrenie Tucker - B. Apr. 17, 1892-D.Oct.12,1893

Kelley, Margret - B. July 15, 1877 - D. Oct.-1900

Tucker, Irena - B. July 25, 1855 - D. Oct. 30, 1923

Tucker, G, W. - B. July 8, l848- D. Jan. 31, 1934

Sparks, Clara Nobe, dau. of J.H. & E.L.Sporks - B.May 4,1913 -D. Feb.28, 1916

West of Byler Rd, North of Carbon Hill Rd. - Copied: H. & J.N, - Mar. 21, 1959

Killingsworth or New River Cemetery, Fayette County, Alabama

By: Fred McCaleb
Hallmark, G. T.Harkey, mother -.b Feb. 22, 1866 - D. Jan. 6 1948
Hallmark W. H., father - B. Apr. 1, 1856 - D. Nov. 1, 1937
Woodard, Vester C. - D. July 21, 1958 - 66 Yrs. 6 mos. 21- Das. B Dec. 31, 1891
Flora L. Woodard b Feb. 15, 1896------May 4, 1964
Woodard, Stephen - B. May 21, 1835 - D. Feb. 5,. 1908
Woodard, Mrs. E. J., wife of Steven Woodard - B.Mar.16,1835 D. Dec.31,1921
Woodard, J. T., father - B. July 29, 1870 - D. Mar. I1, 1934
Woodard, Julia, mother - B. Mar. 20, 1875 - D. Apr. 28, 1940
Woodard, Martha J. - B. June 8, 1865 - D. June 6, 1941
Woodard, William Melton - B. Mar. 27, 1866 d. Apr. 21, 1939
Woodard, William Edward - B. Feb. 1, 1897 D. Sept. 11, 1936
Cannon, Terrell F., Jr., son of Terrel F. & Alma Cannon - B. 1929 D, 1942
Mayfield, Inf. of W.E. & M.J Mayfield - B. & D. Apr. 25, 1912
Mayfield, Inf. of Ed & M.Mayfield - B. & D. Jan. 27, 1924
Hallmark, J. M. B. Jan. 18, 1855 - D. June 6, 1916
Depoister, Susan B. Nov. 18, 1842 - D. Oct. 21, 1897
Depoister, R. J. S. Dec. 3, 1880 - D. Oct. 14, 1897
Woodard, Harold A. - B. Nov. 23, 1928 - D. July 2, 1930
Woodard, Floid, Inf. Son of John H. & Sallie Woodard - B.Sept.19,1892-D.Jan.1,1893
Woodard, Etta E., dau. of John H. & Sallie Woodard - B. Mar. 13,1896 -D. Sept. 23, 1913
Woodard, Sallie E. - B. Dec. 2, 1862 - D. Apr. 5, 1934
Woodard, John H. - B. Apr. 4, 1861 - D. Jan. 20, 1915
Woodard, Mamie S. - B. 1888 d 1955
Fowler, J. R. - B. 1871 - D. 1943
Fowler, Inf. of J.R. & S.J.Fowler - B. 1898 - D. 1898
*Killingsworth, Arms of James Samuel - Fingers of James Monroe 11:45 A.M. Friday
Oct. 19, 1903 - Cotton Gin
Killingsworth, The Son of J. M.. Killingsworth
Wedgeworth, Mrs. S. J. B. Oct. 4, 1814 - D. Feb. 14 -1887
Killingsworth, Mollie B. Dec. 5, 1869 - D. Jan. 1, 1936
Killingsworth, Charlie L. - B. Mar. 15, 1872 - D. Aug. 15, 1956
Killingsworth, Freeman - b. Aug. 6, 1830 - D. Aug. 14, or 24, 1883
Killingsworth, N\artho M - B. Dec. 11, 1813 - D 0 July 22, 1892
Killingsworth, James - D. Oct. 24, 1883 - Age 81 Yrs.
Wakefield, J. M. - Co. K. 4 Ala. Cav. - C.S.A. - B. Apr.12,1846 -D. Aug. 8, 1920
Mayo, James M. - B. Jan. 6, 1904 – D. Mar. 21, 1904
Bodds, Elizabeth - B. Aug. 30, 1827 - D. Feb. 22' 1889
Dobbs, J. H. B. Apr. 5, 1822 - D. July 2, 1899
Dobbs, Albert B. Oct. 13, 1835 - D. Mar. 16, 1912
Parker, J.H.M . - B. May 22, 1811 D. Aug. 31, 1893
P_____, S.M.F.- B. Apr. 15, 1879 D. Nov. 23, _____
Hoket, Mary A. B. Apr. 17, 1873 - D. 19_
Hoket, James C.B. Jan. 20, 1941 -
Sherer, Mary Lea B. Sept. 30, 1905 - D. Nov. 2, 1914
Dozier, Adeline B. 1840 - D. Aug. 7, 1906
Roby, M. M. wife of T.L.Roby - B. May 16, 1852 - D. Mar. 3, 1932 - mother
Roby, T. L. - B. Sept. 29, 1849 D. Dec. 22, 1898 ?
Roby, J. R. - B. Feb. 10, 1889D. Oct. 15, 1898
Roby, Noah - B. & D. Aug. 1897
Roby, bleiv. - B. & D. Aug. 1875
Hunt, Floyd A. - B. 1912 - D. 1956 - Ala. Pfc. 99 General Hosp. World War II (B. Sept. 2, 1912 - D. Oct. 11, 1956)
Killingsworth, Emma - B. 1879 - D. 19_
Killingsworth, Henry A. - B. 1876 - D. 1956
Killingsworth, H. K. - 80 Yrs. 4 fi\os. 23 Das.
Eason, Miss h\innie 6, - D. Jan. 3, 1959 - 86 Yrs. 2 Mos.
Killingsworth, W. J. - B. July I1, 1840 - D. Oct. 21, 1918
Woodard, Lewis F. - B. 1898 - D. 1952
Johnson, Sam E. - B. 1896 - D. 1958?
Johnson, Velma - B. 1894 - D. 1955
Johnson, Bethel - B. 1899 - D. 1952
Pickle, Minerva, mother - B. June 6, 1877
Pickle, A. J., father - B. Aug. 8, 1867 - D. Sept. 16,1942
Stubblefield, Sherrel Deann - B. Sept. 22, 1957 - D . June 13, 1956
Killingsworth, Mary , wife of W.O.Killingsworth - B. Sept. 6,1858-D.Nov.18,1883
Kelley, Dau. of J.E.O. & May Kelley - 25 Yrs. 2 Mos. 10 Das.
Tidwell, E. H., wife of J.C.Tidwell, dau. of J. & Mary.Kelly - B. Oct. 31, 1846
D. Aug. 28, 1873 - 24 Yrs. 9 Mos. 27 Das.
Depoister, C. A., son of J:.R..Depoister & Susan Depoister - B, Oct. 3, 1874 - D.
Nov. 23, 1876 - 2 Yrs. I Mo. 20 Das.
Townsend, Nancy V. E. - B. Jan. 24, 1870 - D. Mar. 5, 1915
Woodard, Wiley - B. Sept. 25, 1890 - D. Jan. 16, 1948
Woodard, George C. - B. 1868 - D. 1948
Woodard, Fannie - B. 1893 ----d. 1975
Woodard, Inf. of G.C. & S.F.Woodard - B. & D. Feb. 28, 1930
Woodard, Julia C. - B. Apr. 12, 1867 - D. June 10, 1922
Allred, George R., son of A.B. & M.E.Atired - B. Jan.B,.1915 d. Apr. 28, 1916
Killingsworth, Infants of C.W. & Ada Killingsworth - B. & D. (1) Dec. 8, 1922 (2) D. April 11, 1919
Killingsworth, Ada - B. 1895 - D. 1957
Killingsworth, Claudie - B. 16§3 - D. 1953
Fowler, S. J. - B. 1879 - D. 19----
Chafin, Edie - B. Aug. 29, 1886-- D. Mar. 13, 1888
Sherer, Gilder - B. 1880 - D. 1863
Sherer, Themanda B. - B. 1872 - D. 1876
Sherer, Joel C. - B. 1878 - D. 1901
Sherer, Charlie D. A. - B. 1867 - D. 1869
Eason, J. E. - B. Mar. 28, 1859 - D. Oct. 4, 1888
Dosier, W. D., to my husband - B. Aug. 19,, 1871 - D. Sept. 7, 1909
Sherer, Inf. of I.E. & Li.ilian Sherer B. Jan. 9, 1898
Sherer, Inf. of I.E. & Lillian Sherer B. Apr. 19, 1909
Sherer, Inf. of I.E. & Lilliaa Sherer B. Aug. 15, 1912
Sherer, John M - B. June 5, 1874 - D. Aug. 24, 1907
Sherer, Lillian - B. 1880 - D. 1943
Sherer, Ira E. - B. 1876 - D. 1952
Sherer, Johnathan D. - B. Sept. 6, 1842 - D. June 23, 1911
Sherer, Mary B. - B. April 10, 1846 - D. Arp. 1, 1911
Sherer, Christine Morrison - B. Oct. 30, 1907 - D. Oct. 26, 1909
Sherer, Noses Eason, Inf. Son of Dr. & Mrs. M.E.Sherer - B. May 22,1926-D.Aug.14,1926
Hunt, George A. b. 1900 d. 1907
Hunt, Clifteon B. 1915
Hunt, Ulysses F. B. 1935 D.
Wade, F.E. B. Jan 23, 1888 D. March 19, 1888
Additions June 24, 2001
Ralph H. Hunt Aug. 2, 1909-Jan 24, 1977
Isaac Newton Hunt Aug. 26, 1979—Nov. 12, 1966
Albetrt N. Hunt Jan. 11,, 1906---Oct. 22, 1987
Howard T. Hunt Jan 1`2, 1919-------Pfe US Army World War 2
Addie Lackey Hunt July 9, 1881-----Jan 20 1966
Rebeca H. Pratt Oct. 4, 1939-----Dec. 18, 2000
Melvine Hoket Apr. 9, 1884---Aug. 20, 1970
Lucille A. Sherer Campbell July 10, 1907----------------------
Claud S. Campbell June 15, 1902------September 3, 1996
Mary A. Hoket Apr. 17, 1873-----Jan. 29, 1974
James C. Hoket September 17, 1860---Jan 20, 1941
They were the sunshine of our home but now they are at rest.
Daly F. Dodd Oct. 1901-----Dec. 27, 1978
Effie I. Dodd Apr. 20, 1896-----Nov. 8, 1976
Minnie Woodard Feb 20, 1894----Oct. 11, 1979
Robert N. Wright Apr. 22, 1928------Apr. 9, 1994
Emma L Wright Apr. 6, 1931------------------------
Mother Minerva Pickle June 6, 1877------Mar. 7, 1960
Father A.J. Pickle Aug. 6, 1867-----September 16, 1942
Lester Stephen Woodard Apr. 1, 1907------July 8, 1992 US Army World War 2
Lewis F. Woodard Apr. 25, 1898-------Feb. 10, 1952
Michael L. Garner April 28, 1956----June 19, 1975
Fenton Hallmark April 3, 1893----July 4, 1985
Ida W. Hallmark July 23, 1887------March 26, 1976 Our lives to be continued, prepare to meet us in Heaven
Bryan Woodard September 6, 1900---April 19, 1985
Louise Woodard Dec. 29. 1908---April 5, 1985 In loving memory
Thomas L. Wells April 29, 1924----June 29, 1985
Mary E. Wells June 25, 1929--------------------------------
Ector Hallmark Sept 9, 1902-----1962
Pauline Hallmark April 4, 1907------April 27, 1944
Stephen Russell Woodard September 12, 1890—June 17, 1972 Gone but not forgotten
John L. Woodard June 30, 1921---Mar. 4, 1987
Evil L. Woodard Dec. 25, 1913-----March 9o, 1954
Pearl Anderson Mother Aug. 9, 1916------Aug. 28, 1994 We miss you mother
Cora Ethyl Killingsworth 1900----------------------------
James Samuel Killingsworth 1896----1968
Terrell F. Cannon 1901-1974
Alma Sherer Cannon 1901----1977 My first one teacher school teacher at Skimming Ridge. Fred McCaleb
Kathleen Cannon Thompson 1927-----1969
Mayfield babies
John E. Woodard Nov. 20, 1943----------------------
Margaret Linda Woodard April 15, 1945----July 19, 1997
Alton N. Woodard Nov. 14, 1904----May 23, 1973
Addie J. Woodard July 18, 1907---May 9, 1981
Exie Woodard June 30, 1890----September 28, 1964
S. J. Fowler 1879-----1964
Cemetery Northeast of the Church June 24, 2001
Hubert Milton Baker Son of Lynn and Mainda Baker May 11, 1909-------May 24, 1998
Lila Bay Baker Daughter of W.T. & Mary E. Clements Aug. 7, 1912----May 29, 1998
John Stovall--------------------------
Andrew Jeffrey Stovall May 11, 1972------Sep 13, 1986
Andrew Jackson (AG) Stovall June 2, 1938-----Jan. 1, 1993
Eben Jerome Porter S1 US Navy WW2 September 20, 1926----April 25, 2000
Louise Stovall May 4, 1926---------------------------
Mary S. Aldridge June 25, 1909------May 17, 1885
Pervie B. Aldridge July 26, 1912------September 26, 1992
Bertha Tucker March 24, 1906-----May 26, 1994
John L. Tucker May 17, 1905----Aug. 31, 1970
Geraldine Sims Goram September 21, 1930-----------------
Martha Jean Sims Jenkins Nov. 20, 1927----Jan. 3, 1995
Elsie Woodard Sims April 1, 1901------Dec. 6, 1986
Arthur Sims Pfc Mg Co. 322 Infantry World War 1 Jan 5, 1895-----Feb. 12, 1965
Albert T. Stovall Mar. 7, 1917-----Aug. 5, 1989
Ruthie Mae Stovall Nov. 18, 1920-------March 18,1995 Albert was elected 7 times to Fayette County Commission, served 28 years,
Highway 13 in Fayette County named for him, a frient to all
Harold Stovall June 27, 1939--------Oct. 10, 1965 The rose still grows beyond the wall Sp4 US 53345 905 Co C 2nd Bn 13th Inf
James W. Phillips Pvt US Army World War 2 Feb. 7, 1908------September 24, 1984
Maggie McCaleb Phillips Oct. 18, 1887------Feb. 12, 1983
J. Luther Phillips Jan. 16, 1888-------March 15, 1965
Brady E. Webster Oct. 21, 1907------Oct. 14, 1981
Euna B. Webster Dec. 9, 1911----Nov. 27, 1982
Jesse E. Woodard March 22, 1885-----Aug. 9, 1969
Bettie M. Woodard May 6, 1890----Oct. 15, 1981
Russell D. Stovall June 1, 1919----Jan 7, 2000 U.S. Army ww2
William Dale Stovall , Florida Pfc Co B 35th Inf 4th Inf Div. Vietnam BSM—PH June 11, 1948----Oct. 31, 1968
Dean Stovall Nov. 26, 1927----------------------
Henry W. Miles April 12, 1892------March 3, 1972
Carrie R. Miles Feb. 21, 1898----Oct. 23, 1974
Jack Wakefield Feb. 7, 1901----Jan. 7, 1989
Ruth Wakefield Oct. 5, 1903----July 3, 1980
Arnold Woodard Aug. 21, 1916----April 1, 1981 Married October 4, 1973
Catherine N. Woodard Dec. 30, 1927------------------------------
Clifton H. Stovall Pfc Army Air kForces WW2 Oct. 15, 1913------July 23, 1972
Eldon L. Stovall MSG U. S. Airforce WW2 Korea Aug 20, 1921------Jan. 23,1979
Helen J. Stovall June 3, 1928------------------
Harold R. Walters Nov. 21, 1915------Jan 29, 1982 Pfc US Army World War 2
Frances S. Walters Oct. 20, 1914----Aug. 15, 1985
]eremy Christopher Porter Dec. 1, 1969------April 26, 1990
Rayford Porter September 28, 1922-----Aug. 5, 2000
C.Mildred Porter May 5, 1923-----Jan. 24, 1990
Billie Mareia Farris Aug. 5, 1947-----July 2, 1992
Billy Ray Foster June 20, 1939------Dec. 28, 1992 Married April 20, 1961 Ruth 1: 16,17
Geraldine M. Foster Feb. 22, 1943----------------------------
Eldon Foster Dec. 8, 1911---------------------
Lillie Foster Dec. 19,1905-------April 2, 1972
Harold Killingsworth 1925--------1988
Beulah Killingsworth 1928-------1989
Copied June 24, 2001 by Fred McCaleb No guarantee that every inscription was copied correctly. Cemetery in NE Fayette, Co. Al.
About 5 or 6 miles below Eldridge, Al. Just to right of state highway 13 where a county road crosses. The old part was transcribed from work
Done in 1959 by Herb and Jeanie Newell. Herb is dead and Jeanie said it was OK for me to copy.