Fred McCaleb---Historian

by

Patsy Box Johnson

Fred McCaleb was born 7 September 1918 in Fayette County, Alabama to H McCaleb and Etta Hallmark.

The first time I met Fred McCaleb I thought to myself that this is a very smart and kind man. I had heard so much about all the research he had done on his mother and fathers side of his family. He helped Loretta West Wilson write the McCollum Book. She lived in Arizona and descended from Loretta McCollum Tanner. After she and Fred completed the McCollum Book she passed away. Fred continued to get the book out to as many descendants of Newman McCollum as he could. The book sure helped all of us genealogist with our McCollum research. Since my mother, Ada McCollum Box, descended from Newman McCollum then I was able to connect a lot of our lines by reading the book. I contributed the information on my mother’s side of the family to Loretta and Fred.

Fred has spent many long hours researching and recording cemetery transcriptions. He has several pages on the internet with his work on them. What made me appreciate what Fred did with his work was it was almost all handwritten. He had done such a great job collecting information that he was considered the best genealogist in Fayette County, Alabama.

Every year on the third Saturday of May my mom, my aunt and myself would go to put flowers on my daddy’s grave. Fred and his wife, Bettie would meet us there and we would talk for a while. We always enjoyed meeting and visiting with kinfolk that came to clean off the graves of their loved ones and just visit and talk.

Fred is thought highly by everyone he meets and he and Bettie will be remembered by all for years and years to come.

Here is a Christmas Letter he wrote and sent out to his and Bettie’s friends.

Christmas Letter

by

Fred

I will try to cover some of the things that have happened to me and some of my thinking during the year of 1997 in the lines that follow.

The first part of the year I was inclined to brag about myself. I was bragging about being 80 years of age and how strong I was in old age. I had been telling people that I intended to start bragging upon reaching 80, so I was fulfilling my dream. I entered a “run for Wendy Home for Unfortunate Youth” in January. It was a five mile run, but I walked four miles at a brisk pace and won first place trophy in the above 65 group. That was the first trophy I had ever won in athletics. Got cheering at the end of the run and all that delightful stuff, so that made me feel good abouit myself.

The rest of the winter was sort of uneventful except for going to church at Winfield for most of the Sundays. On the way back from church on pretty days I would walk the last two and a half miles. Some of the ones along the way thought that was unusual for a man 80 years young, since many of the ones 50 and above couldn’t walk a quarter of a mile. So all that made me feel good.

In the last week of May 1997 Bettie and I went to the work program at Berry College in Rome, Ga. I had graduated from there 56 years ago, so felt at home around that place. We helped with the chair bottoming program where we have learned a large amount about doing that in the last two years. We were kept full of good food and drink and plenty of things to attend while there. Our coworkers were old and many hard of hearing, but my hearing and understanding seemed good, or at least better than some much younger. I was interviewed and recorded on tape by an attractive young college student and later received a copy of the tape. I told her what Berry was like when I was there.
On leaving Berry College we went to Johnson Bible College near Knoxville,Tn.
There we attended what sessions we wanted to and went on a trip to the mountains and on a trip to the Museum of Appalachia northwest of Knoxville. There was a walk up a mountain, a walk along the Holston river and a walk through the Museum. The Museum had how the pioneers had lived. We have lived in the greatest era the U.S. has ever had. May this be a crude age to the future generations.

Back home it poured rain all during June. I lost what was planted late in the garden. About the last week in June I had a light stroke. This took the bragging and optimism out of me. I had about 4 weeks of physical therapy in learning to walk again. I was hoping to get back strong in my walking again, but this hasn’t happened yet. I can walk and stagger along slowly. For this I am thankful as many people are left completely handicapped. I am not supposed to talk about being old, but there is a constant reminder that not too many days to be around these parts are left for me. I can still use the computer for genealogy and to write letters. In this I am only a youngster of 81 years. Enough of all my problems.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. Fred McCaleb
Christmas Letter 1998