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Onady Randolph Mills is pictured here with all of her children except Burl who was deceased at the time this photo was taken. The occasion appears to be Onady's birthday - note the cakes. Pictured left to right are Henry, Rachel, Onady, Clinton, Beatrice, Millard and Herschel. Since Burl died in 1959 and Henry died in 1963, this photograph must have been taken sometime between those years. Onady was the daughter of Henry Randolph and his third wife, Lucinda Rachel Fowler. Henry was born in 1836 in Georgia to James Randolph and Nancy Sanders. This family moved to Old Tishomingo County before 1860, settling near Hickory Plains in what is now Prentiss County. An 1860 map of old Tishomingo County shows the village of Hickory to be along a road between Jacinto and Marietta. Onady's mother, Rachel, was the daughter of Posey Fowler and Mary Gotcher (Goocher) who moved to the area from Perry County, Alabama about 1840.
I'm not sure how Onady got her name. It is certainly an unusual one. I've seen it on several deeds and census records as Odie, and more importantly written as Odie in her own Bible, so I wonder if perhaps it originally was Odanady, which was eventually shortened to Onady.
9 comments:
I'm really enjoying your articles. Your blog is a must-read each morning with the morning paper! I wonder if the name Onady was derived from the name Oneita? I know there was an Oneita in my family and the name was pronounced as "onadey" around these parts. Please keep the wonderful articles coming!
Bob Franks
Bob, that is a good to know about the pronounciation of Oneita - I bet you are right about the origin of Onady. It is certainly a name out of the blue as I haven't found another one in the Randolph-Fowler database of names. Glad you are enjoying the articles!
Mona
Mona,
I have a charcoal and chalk drawing of Henry and Rachel Randolph in it's original frame.
I'll try to photograph it and put it on the web for all Randolph History buffs.
Oh, that would be wonderful! That will thrill so many Randolph descendents! I've collected quite a bit of Randolph family information if you are interested. My e-mail is mmills *AT* ms.metrocast.net. Thanks!
Thanks, I'll email you this week.
I also have a picture of Allen and Ora Randolph (my g'grands) in their wedding attiar. I is very early stages of photography at least in the Southeastern US.
The story I was told, that they had just been married and a traveling photographer came along. They changed into their wedding attair and had the picture made.
This picture would have been made in the Randolph Home Site that has in Itawamba County near Gilmor's Chapel Cemetary. Perhaps this same photographer made pictures of other Randolph's that day. From every story I've heard it seems there were multiple family groups living in that one compound.
Yippee! I can't wait to see it, and would love to see the photo of Allen and Ora too! In fact, I'm greedy when it comes to old photographs and would love any copies that you have!
Mona,
Do you know why so many of the folks in the Marietta/kirkvile area moved to Nettleton in the late 1930's?
I've wondered the same thing. Why did they move? I think it came down to jobs, especially after the depression. Didn't several of the men get work as carpenters in Nettleton? I don't know about the Randolphs, but the Mike's grandfather Mills was a gifted woodworker as was his Uncle Hershel, and probably others too.
Plus, our state as a whole was moving out of the agricultural era of small farms about that time too. But why Nettleton? And odd that it was such a large group of them that moved.
Odie was my grandmothers grandmother. I have her old bible (Eldred F Mills Jones). Odie was married to Jess Mills. I didnt see him mentioned here. My great grandfather was Millard Mills (Odie and Jess son) and he was married to Syble M Johnson Mills. Odie had 3 brothers Allen, Chatt and Hick according to mamaws bible. Thank you for publishing this. I love reading more about my family!
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