Another daughter found

The land deeds that I copied in Lamar County, Alabama turned up another surprise. You may remember the post about William and Caroline Sloan selling their land in Alabama and moving to Itawamba County, Mississippi. Well, I finally got around to transcribing some of the other Sloan deeds and was intrigued by an 1880 deed from Samuel, John, James and Joseph Sloan to their sisters Mary and Elizabeth. In addition to the brothers Sloan deeding "our interest" in real estate to Mary and Elizabeth, there was another grantor listed in the deed: Lucinda Merchant.

Who was Lucinda Merchant? I don't know for sure, but I believe that she was a sister to the above-named siblings, and another daughter of Samuel Sloan and Mary Rush Sloan. Isn't it amazing how a simple deed record can lead to the name of another family member?

I found "Lusindia Marchant" living in Lamar County in the 1900 census, at the Military Springs precinct which is the neighborhood of the Sloan family. Living with her was Mary, daughter of Joseph Sloan, who is listed as Lucinda's niece. Lucinda is 75 years old in this census. Then, in the next census of 1910, she is found as "Sindy" age 85, listed as a sister in the household of Willis Sloan, youngest child of Samuel and Mary Sloan.

Further research in earlier censuses revealed that Lucinda was married to Daniel Merchant, who was much older than she, and they were living in Itawamba County - of all places! - with the closest post office being Van Buren. Neighbors were Wardlaws, Blacks, Conwills. This puts Lucinda in or around Peaceful Valley in the 1860 and 1870 censuses, and provides one explanation for why William Sloan, her brother and my ancestor, moved to that area of Itawamba County. Very interesting, indeed!

Lucinda had two children, both sons born around the 1840-1842. In the 1900 census, she indicated that both of her children were dead, and I suspect that they may have died in the Civil War.

Taxi!

When Butch Lambert returned from the war, he operated a taxi service in Fulton with his brother Norma. This advertisement of their company appeared in the Itawamba County Times on January 8, 1946. Many folks in Itawamba County remember A. C. "Butch" Lambert. He was a star on the 1937-1941 I.A.H.S. football teams, serving as captain his last two years. After graduation, Butch entered the Navy and served until his honorable discharge in the spring of 1946. Butch then took advantage of the G.I. Bill and entered school at Ole Miss, trying out for the football team, and taking his wife Ida and son, Butchie, with him to Oxford. In August 1946, proud of their native son, the Times reported on the front page of the newspaper that Butch made the squad of 65 on the team, out of 120 men trying out. "You have been selected for your ability and spirit shown in practice," the letter from then Coach H. D. Drew said. Butch also played under legendary coach Johnny Vaught.

Butch was actually born in Tishomingo County, in the former community of Holcut. I say "former" because when the Tenn-Tom Waterway was built in the late 70s's and early 80's Holcut met its demise when the canal was dug to connect the Tombigbee River to the Tennessee River, and the community now lies under water.

Here is the Lambert family in the 1930 census. Sometime thereafter, the family moved to Fulton.

1930 Census
Tishomingo County, Mississippi
Holcut - Beat Three
A. Grady Lambert 30 MS MS MS farmer
Gertrude 26 MS MS MS wife
Norma H. 10 MS son
Aaron C. 7 MS son
Freeda E. 4 mo. MS daughter

Dulaney children

These are children of Cliff A. and Hassie York Dulaney, not sure which ones, possibly Vetress, Juanita and Faye as they seem to be in some of the other pictures of the C. A. Dulaney family. I found the following news article and thought it a lovely bit for a post:

Fulton News Beacon
July 16, 1931

Local Happenings

Miss Jauineta (sic) Dulaney, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Dulaney of Fulton, will sing next Saturday night, July 18, 7:30 at WDIX the broadcasting station, Tupelo. The public is invited to tune in and hear her. This is the third program.

Carlton McKindrey Robison family

Pictured above is the Carlton McKindrey Robison family, or at least the first three of five sons born to Carlton and his wife, Mary Myrtle Harbor. The little boy standing between his parents is Ross Collins Robison, who is 96 years young and living in Hernando, Miss. Ross told me that he was named after Congressman Ross Collins who was from Meridian. Congressman Collins was a regular visitor at the Robison house during his trips to and from the capitol in Washington, D.C. Ross said that his mother often provided room and board for travelers in the area.

Carlton was the son of John Taylor Robinson and Mahala Jane Shotts of the Tremont-Shottsville area. John Taylor was the brother of my great-great grandfather, George Emerson Robinson, so Ross and I share a common ancestor in John E. Robinson - Ross's great-grandfather and my great-great-great grandfather. We also share a common ancestor William Evans, again, Ross's great-grandfather and my great-great-great grandfather. William's daughter, Martha, was Mary Myrtle Harbor Robison's mother.

You may have noted that Ross spells his family name as Robison instead of Robinson. As I've learned since doing my family research, our ancestral name can be found spelled as Robinson, Robison, Robertson, Roberson, etc. but we all come from the same line. When I first started researching, I tended to discount the other spellings as not belonging to "my" line but quickly I learned that we are all related regardless. I believe that Ross told me that one of his brothers spelled his name as Robinson.

I've visited with Ross a few times, and he is sharp as a tack. Along with his brothers, Ross graduated from Mississippi State University where he received a master's degree in dairy production. He worked for a time as a county agent before moving to Hernando where he was put in charge of developing dairy farms to meet the growing need for milk and dairy products for Memphis and the surrounding area.

Sitting on the horse on the left is Roy, second oldest, and sitting on the horse on the right is Ray, the oldest son. Roy served many years as supervisor of Itawamba County's Farm Security Administration. Another brother, Ruble, was not yet born when this picture was taken, and a younger brother, Rex, died when he was only ten years old in 1928. This picture was likely taken about 1915 or 1916.

Itawamba County Times

August 1, 1946

Robisons Enjoy Family Reunion at Tremont Home

Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Robison of Tremont enjoyed having all their children and grandchildren present for their first family reunion on Sunday, July 28th. A picnic lunch served down on the old Johns Creek was enjoyed by all. Their children and families are Mr. and Mrs. Ray M. Robison, Rud, Carl D., Charlie, Sidney and Mary Ann of Tupelo; Mr. and Ms. Roy F. Robison and Sammie Joel of Fulton; Mr. and Mrs. Ross Robison and Joan and Nancy Ruth of Decatur, Miss.; and Mr. and Mrs. B. R. Robison and Martha Carolyn of Tremont, Miss.

Guests were Mrs. Bunyan Hartsell of Santa Rosa, Texas, Mrs. Hattie Parish of Smithville, Mrs. Lillie Spearman of Tremont and Mr. and Mrs. Quinn Smith of Amory.

Joab Washington Davis

Maybe one day I'll have an actual picture of Joab Davis, but for now all I have is this picture of his tombstone which is located in Providence Cemetery north of Tremont. Joab was the half-brother of James William Anderson "Billy" Davis, my great-great grandfather. Uncle Joab, as my mother remembers him being called, lived near Providence Baptist Church where he was a member his entire life.

Joab and Billy's father was Jesse Davis, who is also buried at Providence. When Billy's mother died while the family was living in St. Clair County, Alabama, Jesse remarried to Mary C. Johnson Caldwell, a widow. Joab was the first child born to Jesse and Mary, and there was about nine years' difference between the two half-brothers. Altogether, Jesse had eighteen known children from his two wives, although several children died before reaching adulthood, and one son died in the Civil War.

In the September 2, 1971 issue of the Itawamba County Times, Miss Zereda Green had this to say about Uncle Joab in her weekly column:

"Mr. Joe Abb Davis, a Sparks Baptist preacher of the Rara Avis community would come to court and sit on one of the front seats. When the lawyers would start arguing a case, Mr. Davis would ease over to Judge Long and say, "Judge I heard a good joke the other day" - tell him the joke low enough to not disturb anyone and they would chuckle over it. In a short time, the judge would untangle his long legs, come down out of the stand and go over to Mr. Davis and tell him a joke. Mr. Davis would usually go home about noon on Tuesday and then the Judge would begin hurrying the lawyers around about their cases - then they would say "I wish Joe Abb had stayed and kept the Judge in a good humor."

Sounds like Uncle Joab was an entertaining sort of a fellow. All of the census records show that he was a farmer, but Miss Zereda's article indicates that he was a preacher too, although I don't know what she meant by a "Sparks" preacher. Also, the following news item from the 1910 newspaper indicates that he was a preacher.

Itawamba County News
July 28, 1910
Eld. Joe Abb Davis, of Rara Avis, has been assisting in the meeting at White Church this week.

For those of you who may not know, White Church is the former name for East Fulton Baptist Church, where I happened to be married to my present husband some thirty or so years ago.

Joab died in 1946, and in his obituary, copied below, I was surprised to learn of another brother! Nathaniel T. Davis was the last child born to Jesse Davis, born when Jesse was 65 years old. How did Nathaniel get left out of the Davis family tree? I haven't found Nathaniel listed anywhere as a child of Jesse, and would never have known about him if I had not seen Joab's obituary. For one thing, Nathaniel was born in 1881, just after the 1880 census. The 1890 census was lost so there is no record of him there, and in 1900 his widowed mother was living with her daughter with no sign of Nathan.

Joab's obituary provided more information that I was even looking for - again, another example of the importance of newspapers in genealogical research!

Itawamba County Times
July 25, 1946

Joab Davis Dies of Heart Attack Past Thursday

Joab W. Davis, prominent farmer of the Tremont community, died at his home on Tremont, Rt. 1 of a heart attack the past Thursday at 7 p.m. He was 79 years old.

Funeral services for the deceased were held on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock at Providence Missionary Baptist Church near Tremont with Rev. Gar Parker in charge assisted by Rev. Rupert Powell, Hester Underwood and Rev. B. C. Chism. He had been a member of the church where he was buried since childhood.

Surviving are a brother, Nathan Davis of Texarkana, Ark.; a daughter, Mrs. Mellie Sanderson of Paducah, Texas, Mrs. Ophelia Grissom of Red Bay, Ala., and Miss Evia Davis of Tront, and four sons, Clifton Davis of Pocohontas, Ark., Oscar Davis of Wichita Falls, Texas, and Garvin Davis and Flavous Davis of Red Bay, Ala.

Hawkins Funeral Home of Fulton was in charge of the arrangements.

Itawamba County Times
July 25, 1946
Bounds X Roads News
A large crowd attended the funeral of Mr. J. W. Davis at Providence Cemetery on Sunday. He will be greatly missed by relatives and many friends.

Fulton Grammar School

Yesterday an open house was held for the newly refurbished old Fulton Grammar School, which was closed as a school facility in 1999 when the new Itawamba Attendance Center was built. My son, Penn, was in the class that has distinction of being the last fifth grade class in the old building and the first sixth grade class in the new building. Like many Itawambians, our family can claim three generations who were educated in that grand old school - my father, my husband and my brother (no, I never walked those halls as a student, having moved back to Itawamba during my 8th grade year), and my three of my children.

Ceilings have been raised to their former height, windows reglazed, new bathrooms installed, walls painted, and the original hardwood floors refinished (just imagine how many children's feet have skipped over those boards), plus central heating and cooling installed. The auditorium's curtains were in shreds, but they have been replaced with lovely new curtains (although without the initial F.G.S. that adorned the original ones).

The community really deserves much credit for not only saving the old Grammar School, but restoring it in such a wonderful, impressive way. Many citizens and businesses came together and donated labor, time, and services, but in my humble opinion, it is unlikely that the building would have been saved, or restored to the extent it has been, without the leadership of Sharion Aycock.

There is still more to be done as not all classrooms have been restored, and there is still a wish list of projects, so additional donations would be appreciated. If you get to town, go by and take a look at the old grammar school yourself.

Lamar County Connections

I spent most of Friday morning in the Lamar County courthouse. It is hard work, and the old records books are heavy and usually dusty, but the pay off is usually good as land records and deeds can provide a lot of information. William Sloan was enumerated in the 1860 census for what was then the western district of Fayette County. In 1867, this part of Fayette County was split off, along with a southern portion of Marion County, to form a new county named Jones County, after a prominent settler of Fayette County. Jones County only lasted a few months and was abolished altogether in November of that same year. In 1868, a new county was formed again out of Fayette and Marion counties, and this time Sanford was selected as the new county's name, in honor of H. C. Sanford of Cherokee County, Alabama. If you search for ancestors from Lamar County in the 1870 census, you must remember that at that time, the county was named Sanford. It became Lamar County in 1877, named, oddly enough, after Mississippi's senator from Oxford, L. Q. C. Lamar, who was greatly admired throughout the South at that time.

Back to the courthouse. The record room yielded several deeds for this family, and I'm still sorting them out. I'll also need to make a trip to the courthouse in Fayette County to investigate earlier deed records. What I learned on Friday is that William Sloan, and wife Caroline, sold 40 acres located in Section 27, Township 14 South, Range 16 West (the top arrow) in 1869 to his brother, Samuel Sloan. Shortly thereafter, the family left for Itawamba County where they are found enumerated in the 1870 census. In 1872, another forty acres was sold to brother Samuel, ocated in Section 34, Township 14 South, Range 16 West (the bottom arrow).

William's land was located in the Bedford community of Lamar County, also called Military Springs at one time, and was just northwest of the town of Vernon. William's son, Jackson, was born in 1853, and according to his death certificate, with information provided by his wife, in Bedford, Alabama. So now I know exactly where my great-great grandfather was born, although a trip to the exact area will have to wait for another day. It is nice to have a map to provide the visual clues. My map is much larger than the one you see, so don't worry about my figuring how out to get there. I've got it marked.

Now I've got to look at the deeds of William's siblings to see where all they lived. As an interesting note, there are no descendants by the name of Sloan left today in the area. Several of William's siblings did not marry, and the of the ones that did, only Joseph had any children. The "last Sloan standing" was Joseph's son, Samuel R. Sloan, who died in 1959, and his will left all of his property to his daughter-in-law, Mae, who was the widow of his son Cleveland C. Sloan.

Bo Morris, local Lamar County historian, once told me that Sam Sloan was an industrious fellow who owned quite a bit of real estate, but never owned an automobile (he died in 1959). Bo's grandfather once overpaid Sam 14 cents, and Sam walked two and a half miles - one way - to repay the 14 cents.

Supervisor's Certificate

In 1955, my grandfather Luke Lee Robinson was elected supervisor for the Fifth District of Itawamba County. Nearly one hundred years earlier, his great-grandfather, William M. Evans, served in the 1880s as supervisor for the Fourth District of Itawamba County.

Luke had to defeat incumbent Leon Berg Davis for the post. Uncle Berg was my great-great uncle on my mother's side. I remember my father telling me about his daddy running against the father of one of his close friends, Frank Davis. My father missed the 1955 campaign and election due to being away for military service at the time, but I think the two men - Luke and Berg - had previously competed for the same post. Berg served three terms as supervisor.

Luke published the following thank you ad in the Itawamba County Times:

"To the People of the Fifth District:

From the bottom of an humble heart, I thank you for the splendid vote given me on August 23.

Friends, it will be my aim during the next four years to render you the service such as your vote of confidence merits.

It makes no difference to me how you voted or where you live I want to be the Supervisor for the entire district.

Again, let me say, Thank you Friends."

Tremont Methodist Church

This is a photo that I absolutely LOVE. It was shared with me last month by Basil Earnest, husband of Annie Stone Robinson who died in 2005.

Annie Stone Robinson Earnest and my grandfather, Luke Lee Robinson, were doubly kin, not too unusual for folks in Itawamba County. Annie Stone (this was what she was called, to distinguish her from her mother who was Annie Mae Stone Robinson) was married to Luke's uncle Mautimer D. Robinson. Plus, Annie Stone's grandmother, Pearl Evans, was Luke's aunt. This gives me a double connection to Annie Stone Earnest too.

Back to the picture. The couple is Walter Dow Stone and Alice Marquilla Evans. Alice was a sister to Pearl Evans Stone, the grandmother of Annie Stone Earnest, and also a sister to Thusie Evans Robinson, Luke's mother. I don't know which child the couple is holding, but it could be their oldest son Hugh who became Luke's future brother-in-law (there's another connection for you - Annie Stone's first cousin married the sister of Luke's wife). However, since Hugh was born in 1897, and this picture is probably post-1900, it is most likely a later child of Dow and Alice's in the photograph.

The best part of the picture, to me at least, is what is pictured in the background. Basil told me that the building is the old Tremont Methodist Church. You may remember previous posts of the Johnson family with the old Piney Grove Church in the background. It's kind of like getting two-for-one in an old picture!

Bobby and Warnie Hood

Pictured above are Robert Washington "Bobby" Hood and Warnie Dulaney Hood. Warnie was the oldest child of Thomas A. "Bunt" Dulaney and Alice C. Moxley while Bobby was the son of Robert A. Hood and Martha Belinda Moore. Bobby and Warnie were married on March 12, 1905 by his uncle, Rev. Joshua Hood, a well-known Church of Christ minister. They had five children together: Ivy Alice, who married Claude Graham; Horace, who married Beatrice Guntharp; Beval, who married Edith Wilson; Ross, who apparently never married; and Verbal, who was married to Loyd Thomas.

Ona Rea, daughter of Horace and Beatrice Hood, shared the drawing below of the old homeplace of Bobby and Warnie.

Davis Brothers

Fellow Davis family descendant, Melissa White Harwell, shared this picture of the Davis Brothers with me recently, and I was thrilled to receive it. My great-grandfather, James K. Davis (of the Valentine's Day post) is seated to the far right. Melissa's grandfather is Leon Berg Davis seated to the far left. In the middle seat is brother John Stonewall Davis who became a coal miner and died in Kentucky. Standing behind are brothers Dew Boyd Davis, left, and Jesse McGee Davis, right. These men were sons of James William Anderson Davis and Annaliza Morrow. Now I am on the lookout for a similar group picture of the sisters in this family which would include Anna Luna Davis, who married George W. Myers; Lizzie Lee Davis, who married Lan Spencer; and Hettie Anderson Davis, the baby of the family who married Elva Cleveland Mason.

I would guess that this picture was made just after the turn of the century. Dew was born in 1895, and he looks to be about five or six years old, maybe seven. J. K. Davis was the oldest son in the family, and he was married in November 1903 to my great-grandmother, Queenie Victoria Davis.

From Logs to Lumber

In keeping with the log theme, here is Dick Wilemon driving a early vehicle, apparently transporting lumber probably created from a portable sawmill. I believe Dick to be Walter E. Wilemon, son of Thomas J. Wilemon and Netha Jane Dulaney.


The above advertised "half-ton chassis" appeared in the 1931 Fulton News Beacon in an ad for Cowden Chevrolet. The illustration looks similar to vehicle above, although not quite. Perhaps the pictured vehicle is a Ford!

Fancy meeting you up here!

Velma Johnson and Dewey Johnson are both seated on a huge log. They were first cousins - she was the daughter of Charles Steven Johnson while Dewey was the son of Napolian A. Johnson. The Johnson families lived in the Piney Grove community of eastern Itawamba County, probably where this photograph was taken. Mrs. Mary Dulaney, niece of Dewey Johnson, provided the identification of the cousins.

Happy Valentine's Day

James Kelly & Queenie Victoria

As a Valentine's Day picture, it just doesn't come any better than this. I used this same photograph for last year's valentine post, and there is no way to top it: Pa and Ma Davis holding hands. My photograph collection has become quite large, and would you believe that this is the only "holding hands" picture I could find from this era or earlier? Love it!