Clay-Talladega County AlArchives Biographies.....Joseph W. Elder
************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm
************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Melissa Speed mspeed1@worldnet.att.net January 9, 2004, 11:34 am
Author: Vista Strickland
The Elders A History
Chapter 1
The first history I have of the Elder family, they were living in
Scotland in the 15th century. They migrated to England and Ireland because of
religious viewpoints and liberties.
My grandfather, Joseph W. Elder, was a descendant of John E. Elder,
who, with two brothers, came to America landing at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1669.
John, born 1650, came over as a stowaway, working out his passage with a rich
merchant. His two brothers later went to Ohio and Michigan.
While John was working out his passage with the rich merchant, he fell
in love with the merchant's only daughter. Because of her family's social
standing and financial position, he hesitated to make known his love for her.
She did not shun him, and history has it that he went to her father and told
him he was in love with a girl but afraid that her father would not consent to
their marriage. It was unlawful at that time for a man to steal a girl. The
girl's father suggested that there was no law to prohibit a girl from stealing
her sweetheart, so they eloped and married at Dinwiddy County Court House,
Virginia. It is on record there to this day. From this marriage were born
several boys and girls, one of which was John Elder II>
John Elder II was born in 1735. He married Mary Matthews, daughter of
Ephram Matthews of Brunswick County, Virginia. George Matthews, brother of
Mary Matthews Elder raised a regiment of soldier, became a colonel and fought
in the Revolutionary War. He afterwards went to Georgia and was elected
governor of Georgia for two terms, then was representative in Congress. He
died in Georgia and his remains now lie in a cemetery in Augusta. The records
and date of the marriage of John Elder and Mary Matthews Elder were destroyed
by fire in Virginia in the war of 1861 to 1865. They raised a family of five
boys and two girls. I have a record of all these, but I am giving only the
line through which my mother, Nettie Elder Strickland, descended.
David Elder, second son of John and Mary Matthews Elder, was born in
Brunswick County, Virginia, January 7, 1760. He served in the Revolutionary
War in Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. He married in 1786 the first time
in Brunswick County, Virginia to Molly Read, a cousin of George Washington, our
first president and father of our country. From this marriage were two sons
and two daughters. He married a second time to Mollie Phillips of Dinwiddy
County, Virginia, on January 23, 1797. From this second marriage came eight
sons and daughters, some born in Virginia and some in Georgia.
David and his older brother, Joshua, moved from Virginia to Georgia,
arriving in Clark County (now Oconee) on January 11, 1807. Joshua stayed in
Georgia for a few years and then went to Mississippi. David remained in
Georgia and died there.
When David Elder moved to Georgia he had with him his second wife,
Mollie Phillips Elder, since his first wife had died in Virginia. He also had
seven or eight children and a large number of slaves. He laid claim and took
into possession a large body of land given by the government for his extensive
service in the Revolutionary War. He, his sons and slaves went directly into
the original forest on Big and Little Rose Creeks and built homes for
themselves. Mollie Phillips Elder lived only a few years after moving to
Georgia. She was buried in the old Elder Cemetery on Rose Creek in lower
Oconee County (then Clark(e)?). After her death, David married Elizabeth Allen
in 1813. From this marriage issued three daughters.
Elizabeth Allen owned a large number of slaves in her own name, thus,
David Elder came into possession and charge of them, also. This gave him labor
and ability to clear more land and to enlarge his farming interests until he
owned an immense body of land on which he raised cotton and corn for many
years. He died in Clarke County (now Oconee) on August 4, 1853, and was buried
in the Elder Cemetery. He lived to age of 93.
Wych Malone Elder, my great-grandfather, seventh son of David Elder and
Mollie Phillips Elder, was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, October 5,
1804. He married Mary Jane Burt of Clarke County, Georgia, who was born
January 11, 1809. Their children were Joseph, Ellen, Ann, Francis, Doctor,
John, Thomas, Edmond and Mary. Joseph, the oldest, was my grandfather.
Wych M. Elder died at Roanoke, Alabama, March 11, 1870. Mary Jane died
at Roanoke on February 2, 1884. Wych Elder's name was originally Wych Malone J
[enkins] Elder and was used in full by his father, David Elder, when making
distribution of his property in his will in May, 1853.
The foregoing information is from a record compiled and written by W.
Shannon Elder of Watkinsville, Georgia, in 1935 and given to me by my uncle,
Wych Elder, of Rock Hill, South Carolina. In this record it is stated that
there were at that time, 1935, more than 1,000 descendants of David Elder
living in Georgia and Alabama, mostly in Oconee and Clarke counties, Georgia.
The writer of this record says that Ruth Elder, the noted flying girl
and the first woman to attempt to fly the ocean, was a great-granddaughter of
Wych and Mary Jane Burt Elder.
I do not know when Wych and Mary Jane Elder emigrated from Georgia to
Alabama, since the record does not say, but he raised his family in Chambers
County, Alabama. Wych M. J. Elder was founder of the first Christian church in
Alabama. This first church building has long stood as one of the state's
religious landmarks. At the grave of Wych and Mary Jane, near this church
building at Lanett, Alabama, in Chambers County, there has been erected a stone
marker with the legend, In memorial tribute to him for his life so consecrated
by God, his fellowman and Alabama.
Chapter 2
The Family of Joseph Elder
I don't know what year Grandfather Joseph Elder moved to Clay County,
settling in Shinbone Valley, but according to the census he was living in Clay
County in 1870 in Flatrock Beat. (My great-grandfather, A.B. Strickland, was
listed in the census of 1870 at Flatrock post office.)
The following information is from the family Bible: Joseph W. Elder
was born March 22, 1831, and was married to Sarah Jane Manning, who was born
April 1, 1834. They married on December 26, 1852. Their children were
Permilla Ann Francis, Ellen America, David Brooks, Mary Elizabeth, Sarah Jane,
Wm. Doctor, Edmond Hartwell, Viola Vilula, Joseph Jubelee, Polly Prudence,
Geanette Artlissa, Wych Malone Jenkins Elder.
Joseph Elder's wife, Jane, died August 21, 1886, and he married the
second time to Rosa Ann Elizabeth Hill Deloach, a widow, of Chambers County, on
September 13, 1888. Joseph Elder died November 8, 1913. Rosa E. Elder died
May 24, 1917. They were buried by the side of his first wife, Jane, in the
Union Cemetery in Clay County, Alabama.
Grandfather Joseph Elder, like Great-grandfather Strickland, was
against secession, though he served in the Southern Army during the Civil War.
Because of an injury to the hip as a child, which caused him to walk with a
limp, he was not a fighting soldier. He worked around the camps and delivered
food and supplies to the soldiers. He told of the hardships of the soldiers
how many of them almost starved to death, sometimes getting so hungry they
would eat dogs. Said that if a fat dog came around camp, it was too bad for
the dog. He said that many times he had laid half-moon pies in the crease of
his hat and slipped them out to half-starved, wounded and sick soldiers.
My grandmother was left home with four small children and another born
during the war. She had a hard time as did all the wives and children of the
soldiers. Grandpa carried a picture of Grandma in his pocket through the war.
It was in a little velvet-lined case. Grandma kept one of him in a similar
case at home. I have seen these pictures. We have some copies made from
them. Grandpa's looked almost new, while Grandma's was pretty well worn on the
outside.
Grandpa Elder settled near the Little Kichemedogee Creek, over the Gray
Hill from Union between High Falls Branch and Pretty Branch. He raised his
family in a three room log house with an open hall. When Mama was around ten
years old, he started building a new house. Before it was finished, Grandma
died. Grandpa finished the house and later married Rosa Deloach of Chambers
County.
The day Grandpa brought his new wife home, Uncle Wych, then around ten
years old, fell off a horse and broke his arm. He was close to Grandpa
Strickland's home when the accident occurred and Grandma Strickland bandaged
his arm, got him back on his horse and took him home. The new wife was a real
mother to the children from the very first and they loved her.
Grandpa Elder's spring was across the big road southwest of the
house, below a hill edged with beech trees. Big trees grew all around the
spring, which was boxed in with a big long box. Clear sparkling water,
bubbling up through the white sand, flowed over the top of the box and ran off
in a beautiful stream that ran into the High Falls Branch a little above the
road. There was a mineral spring a few feet from this spring, from which
flowed water all purple and gold with minerals. It had an offensive taste and
odor. Some people used it for medicinal purposes. Dr. Mackey got water from
there for his wife to drink. There was also another spring a little distance
from it where Grandma kept her lilies in winter. She put them in the spring
and covered them over with planks and they never froze.
Grandpa dug a well in the yard, but had a hard time getting water, and
when he did it was not good to drink or for washing clothes. He spent a lot of
time and money trying to perfect a method of drawing water from the spring to
the house, but nothing proved successful, so they had to carry water for
drinking, wash clothes at the spring where they had a wash place with tub
benches, wooden tubs, a battling bench and battling stick, and a wash pot to
boil clothes. He didn't know then about hydraulic pumps or he could easily
have furnished his home with water, probably with no more money than he had
spent.
Grandpa owned several rent housesone a little north of his home on the
west side of the big road, and two on the part of Gray Hill that runs north
and south, east of the road. There was also a little log house near the edge
of Grandpa's yard, between the house and horse lot, where Abram Elder, son of a
former slave of Grandpa's father, and his wife, Sarah, used to live. Sarah
used to take care of me when we went to Grandpa's house. I loved her.
When Mama was small there were two or three houses near the spring
where black people lived. Mama loved them, especially Uncle Mose who was
old. On bitter cold mornings he would come to Grandpa's and say, Mose is cold
this morning. He needs something to warm him up. No one in the family drank,
but Grandpa usually kept a little whiskey for medicinal purposes. He would fix
a warm toddy, Mose would drink, and say, Mose feels better now. Much a-
bleeged, then he would go back to his house.
I remember a black man lived with Abram and Sarah named Frank. He was
a slim man with a flat nose. Abram was shorter and more heavily built. After
Uncle Wych married, Frank lived with Grandpa and worked for him. Later he
lived with Uncle John Shaddix and Aunt Ellen. He was old and sick when we came
to Texas. One day Uncle John came by, taking him to the doctor. He stopped
the buggy down at the road and came to the house asking me to take Frank a
drink of water. Uncle John said Frank had insomnia and wanted to sleep all the
time. I took him some water, thinking about the word insomnia as I had never
heard it before and it was a long time before I learned that Uncle John had it
backward. What Frank had was just the opposite of insomnia.
The following was taken from The Clifton Record, Clifton, Texas, dated
August 18, 1933, after my mother's visit to Alabama:
Attends Big Family Reunion in Alabama
Mrs. J.A.F. Strickland has returned from a visit to her old home in
Alabama and reports having a most wonderful time looking over familiar scenes
and meeting friends and relatives. She had only one sister living there now,
but was accompanied on the trip by a sister, Mrs. J.A. Strickland and husband
of Luling, Texas, and was met there by two brothers from South Carolina and a
sister and sister-in-law from Georgia.
They went together to the old home where they were all born and reared
to manhood and womanhood, but she says things are so changed that nothing looks
natural. She attended a reunion, an annual affair, of the descendants of her
Grandfather Elder, who was the founder of Alabama's first Christian church and
also attended a reunion of her father's family of which the following is an
account as it appears in two Alabama papers, The Lineville Tribune and The
Ashland Progress:
(The J.D. Strickland mentioned in this article spent some two years
here in Clifton several years ago and has friends here who will be glad to know
that he has made good.)
Reunion of Elder Family
A reunion of relatives and friends of Joseph Elder, deceased, Uncle
Joe Elder, was held at Mt. Zion church, in the northeastern part of Clay
County, July 25, 1933. The following of his children were present: Mrs. Ellen
Shaddix of Lumber City, Georgia, Mrs. Sarah Carter, Pyriton, Ala., Mrs. Lula
Strickland and husband, John Strickland, Luling, Texas, Jube Elder and wife,
York, South Carolina, Mrs. Nettie Strickland, Clifton, Texas, Wych Elder and
wife, Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Dorcus Elder, wife of Hartwell Elder,
deceased, Lumber City, Ga.
There were present 40 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and from
400 to 5000 other relatives and friends of this good and noble man, who spent
the best years of his life in this community and who passed on to his well-
earned reward of peace several years ago.
Since Edmond Elder, my great-uncle Ed, was closely associated with
Shinbone Valley, I am listed his family here:
Edmond Elder, born 1848, married Sarah Love, who was born 1860 and died
December, 1910. Eleven children.
Edmond born 1868, married Nettie Blunt.
Tillman born 1868, married Leila Webb.
Alice born 1869, married John Kilgore.
Sam born 1871, married Mary Sockwell.
Will born 1874, married Florence ________.
Thomas born 1874, married Leila Rogers.
Oscar born 1875, married Sarah McGollen.
Jesse born 1877, married Lena Winn.
Etta born 1880, married Leakey _________.
Nora born 1881, married Will Parsons.
Edgar born 1890, married Nelma _______.
These are all that are listed on this record by H. W. Elder, but if I remember
correctly, I knew a girl younger than Edgar whose name was Leah.
So far as I know, Sam L. Elder never lived in Shinbone Valley, but he visited
there a number of times when a boy and my mother was a little girl. Mama knew
him quite wellhe was the son of Ed Elder, then living in Anniston.
The first time I saw him was soon after we came to Texas. He and his daughter,
Clarice, a beautiful young girl, visited at Uncle Dock Elder's, Hamilton
County. They lived near Valley Mills in McLennan County.
After we moved to Bosque County, which joins McLennan, we came to know the
family. Sam and Mary Sockwell Elder's children were Clarice, Annie, Joseph,
Prentice, J. W., Ethel, Winnie Bell, Erma and Euna. We knew Prentice better
than any of them for he visited often as a young man and became one of our
favorite persons.
In later years, we moved farther away, and almost lost contact with
them. I don't know who all of them married. Clarice married A. D. Black,
Annie, Roy Black; Joseph, _________, Prentice, Velma Cunningham; Ethel, C.B.
Simpson; Euna, George Crosley. Prentice and Velma live in Clifton. Their
children are Lee, Amos, Oleta, Dorothy, Betty and Mary. Though we live only
eleven miles apart, I am sorry I don't know all of them. Those I do know, or
have met, are Dorothy, Mrs. Bill Turner, a registered nurse who worked for a
time at Meridian Hospital, and after moving to Fort Worth became Mrs. Fort
Worth in 1959. Mary, Mrs. Duane Davis, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Amos,
superintendent of Joshua, Texas, schools, and Lee.
Joseph, son of Sam, lives in Birmingham, Atlanta. The Sam Elder family is
scattered all over Texas.
In 1973, Omar Strickland, son of Uncle Malie Strickland, who had moved to
Cleburne, Texas, from Lubbock, where he had been teaching, applied for the
position of math teacher in Joshua High School. He learned that the
superintendent was Amos Elder, my distant cousin. He got the job, and now I
have two cousins teaching in the Joshua schools, one named Elder and one named
Strickland.
Prentice and Velma attended my sister, Easter, and husband's 50th
wedding anniversary celebration in Kopperl, Texas, October 14, 1972, and we
attended theirs a month later in Clifton.
The only one of Grandma Elder's people I remember seeing was her
brother, Uncle William Manning. He came once and visited at Grandpa's and we
went to see him.
Grandpa bought the first cook stove in the community, a large black
range with a reservoir for hot water, and a warming closet. He later bought a
larger range and gave the first to Aunt Permilla and Uncle Joe Carter. He also
bought the first sewing machine in the community, a new home machine. Mama
said that when the sewing machine agent came he had a little fawn with him, the
first baby deer she had ever seen and while the agent showed Aunt Sarah how to
operate the machine, she and Uncle Wych played with the little faun.
Grandpa Elder was a teacher of the sacred harp musiconly four notes; a
triangle, circle, square and diamond, standing, respectively, for fa, sol, la,
mi. He taught several singing schools at Union. I have heard Papa and Mama
tell of concerts at the close of school, how they marched, wearing headdresses
and carrying banners of colored, fringed paper. When the concerts were at
night, they carried candles. Grandpa raised his family to sing.
After Abram Elder moved out of the little log house at the edge of
Grandpa's yard, Grandpa's nephew, Oscar Elder and wife, Sarah, lived there with
their three girls, Pherla, Pauline and Ruth. When we visited at Grandpa's we
played with them. Ruth was the same Ruth Elder mentioned in Shannon Elder's
record. The Ruth who tried to fly across the ocean in 1927, but failed. It
was in 1927 that she and Captain Haldeman, her co-pilot and navigator, left
Long Island in a Stinson Monoplane called The American Girl to fly over the
Atlantic. Lindy had made his famous successful flight some five months before
and Ruth wanted so much to be the first woman to fly the ocean, but they had to
ditch the plane some 350 miles from the Azores and were picked up by a Dutch
tanker. Around 1927, she made films for Paramount, getting $1,000 a day. One
was Moran of the Marines with Richard Dix in 1922. At her request her ashes
were scattered off the Golden Gate Bridge by a crew from an Air Force plane.
She died at the age of 74.
Grandpa's place was always busy with hired hands and tenants farming,
mending terraces, ditching and improving the farm. Little Kichemedogee had
been straightened for a long time, but the field between Gray Hill and the hill
on which the house sat was swampy. I can remember Mama helping Grandma cook
for the men who worked. Sarah Elder, black, also helped. Grandma had a little
brass bell on a handle to ring when the meals were ready. When the bell rang,
the men came marching in, the white men sat at a table on one side of the room,
and the black men on the other side. The women waited on the tables and fanned
flies away with young peach limbs full of leaves. The men talked about how
they were draining the bottom land, and Papa told us how it was done. They dug
deep ditches ever so far apart, blinding them by covering them with slabs from
the sawmill, and then covering the slabs with soil deep enough to be plowed
over without disturbing. This made the land tillable. It was rich and grew
fine crops.
Grandpa was old and lame, so he didn't do much work himself, but he was
a good manager. He had some sheep skins and everyday in summer, after he had
eaten his noon meal, he would spread one out on the back porch and lie down for
a nap. I can see him now, his hat over his eyes, sleeping, while we children
climbed on the banisters and played. He went to Texas the year I was six and
stayed a month. Oh, how we missed him. When he came back we were all there to
welcome him. I remember that Grandma cried. I wondered why. I thought she
should be glad, too, but I didn't know then that people cried also from
happiness.
Grandpa and Grandma had a lot of companytheir children, grandchildren,
brothers and sisters from Chambers County, and Oxford and Anniston. The
preachers visited them and one school teacher boarded there.
From Chambers County I remember seeing Uncle Tom, Grandpa's brother,
and Aunt Josie Elder, his sisters, Aunt Mollie Chewning, Aunt Francis and Uncle
Sheriff Brewster. Whit and Palace Elder, Grandpa's nephews, and Betty
Stephenson, a relation. Uncle Ed Elder, Grandpa's brother, lived in Anniston
and spent much time prospecting for gold, digging ditches and pits on Grandpa's
and Uncle Rich and Uncle Joe Carter's land, filling the banisters around
Grandpa's back porch with fool's gold (pyrites and pyritees). Beautiful
shiny rocks they were! How I would like to have them in my rock collection
today.
Uncle Ed didn't resemble the prospectors we see in movies. He was tall
and slender and [was] always clean shaven and well dressed.
Grandpa was also a slender man, but he wore a long white beard. When
he was too old to farm, he built a new house with a basement under it near the
edge of the hill above the spring. They had a barn and horse lot for Tommy,
the horse, and a lot for the cow, Mot, and a toilet and smoke house. They
raised a garden and sweet potatoes, and Grandma raised water lilies and tube
roses. Grandma could bake the waxiest, sweetest potatoes, and the most
delicious apple pie, the best biscuits and ham with red gravy.
JOSEPH W. ELDER'S CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Permilla Elder married Joe Carter children: Lee, Eva, Lovie, Dock,
Ezekiel Zeke, and Rosie.
Ellen Elder married John Shaddix children: Jim and Mary (adopted).
Elizabeth Elder married Gene Newsome children: Cora and Exer.
Sarah Elder married Richard Carter children: Dora, Iola, Brooks,
Harrison, Whit, A.Z., Wych, Lessie, Dewitt and Odessa.
Wm. Doctor Elder married Mantie Wade children: Arthur, Joe, Electa, Myrtle,
Russel, Bill, Tennie, Levena, Sam and Anna. Anna died as a child.
Hartwell Elder married Dorcas Pate children: Hilliard, Wyatt, Floyd,
Hubert, Zilla, Addie, Howard, Ada and Manning.
Lula Elder married John Strickland, son of Gus children: Ulys U.S., Velma,
Ella, Wennis J.W., Ista and David Whit. Ernest died as a child.
Jubelee Elder married Lula Hill children: Russel, Lois, Alston and
Ista.
Prudie Elder married Riley Spear children: Joseph Jubelee, later
changed to Julian.
Nettie Elder married Albert Strickland children: Bessie, Chester,
Vista, Elsie, Easter, and Clarence.
Wych Elder married Mary Lee children: Starling. Later married Ruby
(do not know last name).
All the Elders, except Grandpa and Grandma, had left Shinbone Valley
before we did. Uncle Jube and Uncle Wych went to Oxford were they ran a
mercantile business. Uncle Hartwell went to Texas in 1906. He lived at
Midland for a time and then went to Georgia, to Lumber City, where he ran a
business. He and Aunt Dorcas died in Georgia. His family was still in Georgia
last I heard. Wyatt at Vidalia.
Uncle Jube and Uncle Wych went to Lumber City, Georgia, and lived for a
time. They were successful businessmen there and later went to South Carolina,
Uncle Jube to York, and Uncle Wych to Rock Hill.
Uncle Jube went from York, South Carolina to Albemarle, North Carolina,
where he was in business. He died in Newport News, Virginia in July, 1958. He
and Aunt Lula were buried at York, South Carolina. All I know of Uncle Jube's
family is that Russel had a son, Russel, Jr., and two daughters, Catherine and
Lynda. Russel died August 31, 1960, at St. Petersburg, Florida.
Lois Elder married Roy Kennedy. They live at York, South Carolina.
Alston Elder married Louise Cooper and had two daughters, Mary Louise
and Elizabeth. Mary Louise married Howard Rae Lasher, Jr., of Greensboro,
North Carolina, on March 28, 1959.
Aunt Lula Elder Strickland and Uncle John came to Texas in 1903 and
lived near Fairy and in Cranfills Gap, and Olin, then moved to Arkansas and
Oklahoma, and back to Texas. Uncle John died December 31, 1940 at Coleman,
Texas. Aunt Lula died in Jasper, Texas. Ulys U.S., Uncle John's oldest son,
worked for an oil company, and lived at Odessa, Texas. He and Wennis J.W.
were both in World War I, and Ulys was in World War II. Ulys married a widow
with two daughters, Louise and Margie, whom he adopted and changed their names
to Strickland. Abbie, Uly's wife, and Louise were both in World War II. U.S.
died in 1971 in Jasper, Texas, and is buried there.
J. W. married Opal Luedtke. Had two children, Rose Marie and Joe
Bill. They lived in Hull, Texas, and J. W. died there.
Velma married a Mr. Williams. He died and she married W. F. Williams
(no relation to the other). This Mr. Williams was a friend of General Dwight
D. Eisenhower's, and Mr. Eisenhower visited with them when he was in Texas.
Ella and Ista never married. Ista lived and worked in California many
years. Velma's husband died, and she, Ella and Ista live now in Jasper.
David Whit and wife, Fay, live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Aunt Prudie Elder Spear died when her son, Julian, was born. He was
raised by his father, Uncle Riley, and his grandfather and grandmother Spear.
He lived and was a druggist in Rock Hill, South Carolina. His son, Joseph
Julian Jr., married Marie Elizabeth Dowd in Locust, North Carolina June 21,
1959.
(See Stricklands for Nettie Elder.)
Uncle Wych Elder's wife, Mary, died, and he remarried into the
wealthiest family in York County, South Carolina, and his wife was an only
child. Her name was Ruby. She was a good wife and mother to Uncle Wych and
Starling and a lovely woman. Uncle Wych was a successful druggist and real
estate man in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He died September 22, 1968. He was
always one of my favorite people. He wrote long newsy letters as long as he
was able, writing a beautiful hand. Uncle Jube, as a young man, was a writing
teacher and taught his younger brother and sisters. The way I remember Uncle
Wych, Dr. Bob Hughes, of television's soap opera (and the only one I watch) As
the World Turns, looks like Uncle Wych. Uncle Wych's son, Starling, an only
child, was a druggist in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He married Georgia Gatch
and had one daughter, Joanne. Joanne married John Calvin Caruthers of Rock
Hill.
Uncle Dock Elder came to Texas long before I can remember. He lived in
East Texas for a time, then farmed in Hamilton County, near Fairy, until 1916
or 1917. He sold his farm and bought a farm at Carlton. Later, he moved to
Cisco in Eastland County where he operated the Cisco Coffee House and Cottage
Hotel, and later ran a general store.
Uncle Dock and Aunt Mantie were both great singers of the sacred harp
music, attending all the singings far and near. Uncle Dock was a leader and
Aunt Mantie sang treble. For years, the Bosque County Sacred Harp Convention
was held at the courthouse in Meridian, Texas. Aunt Mantie, Papa, Mama, and
Mr. Charlie Gandy, county clerk of Bosque County, were the treble singers,
sitting in the jury box.
Uncle Dock, Aunt Mantie, and all their family were jolly and it was
great fun to go to their house. After we moved to Bosque, we went back every
summer and visited. Once Elsie and I spent a week with them at Carlton, and
they visited with us. I loved them all so much.
Aunt Mantie died in 1933, and Uncle Dock in 1938. Both are buried at
Carlton, Hamilton County, Texas.
The Elder name in Uncle Dock's family is almost gone. Eula, Joe's
wife, and Sam and Tenny are the only Elders left. Bill and wife, Eleanor, both
died in 1973 and are buried in Denton, Texas. Sam's wife, Edith, died in 1973
and Joe died December 2, 1977, at San Bernadino, California and is buried there.
Of Uncle Dock's boys, not one had a son. Arthur and Russel died as
young men and had no children. Bill and Eleanor had no children. Joe married
Eula Kent and had two girls, Ovie and Leta Mae. Sam married Edith Criswell and
had two girls, Imogene and Jeanelle. Electa married Jim Moss and had two
girls, Arline and Henrietta. Myrtle married Roy Blakley and had a boy and a
girl, J.W. and Vance. Levena married Druid Jones and had five boys and five
girls, J.D., Leona, Maymie, Mary Nell, Billy, Wade and Wayne (twins), Alvie
Lee, Phylis and Virginia.
Uncle Dock's family had a family reunion every year from 1926 to 1970.
We attended most of them and most of our family and part of Uncle John and Aunt
Lula Strickland's family were there. People came from all over Texas and from
Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona. The first reunion was in a park at Glen
Rose, Texas, 1926, and the last in a park at Hico, Texas, in 1970.
Hico and Meridian are both on the Bosque River, on the east side. One
year on reunion day the river was out of banks, covering the whole valley,
running over the bridge here in Meridian and lapping into some houses in town.
Hico is 24 miles away, and the highway crosses the river twice between here and
the reunion place. It was impossible to cross here, so we went by Glen Rose,
48 miles exactly twice the distance of the other routebut it was worth it.
Joe Elder's wife and daughter, Ovie, and husband, Clyde Nichols, live
in San Bernadino, California. Electa and Myrtle died. Levena and husband, and
Sam live in Hico, Texas, and Tenny, who never married, lives in Hobbs, New
Mexico. The younger generation is scattered all over Texas, Oklahoma and
California.
Gary Jones, grandson of Druid and Levena Elder Jones, son of J.D.
Jones, of California, made history by winning the AMA National Motocross
championship three years in a row 1972, 1973, 1974 on different makes of
motorcycles. Gary also was the first American to win an AMA motocross against
the Europeans, and the first to win an AMA motocross series. I saw Gary soon
after he had won his last race. A motorcycle had come too near and broken his
ankle. He was on crutches. He was twenty-one then. He is working now with
his father, manufacturing motorcycles.
Additional Comments:
This is part of a book written by Vista Strickland entitled "Shinbone Valley -
Stricklands & Elders which can be seen in it's entirety at:
http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/clay/history/other/gms2shinbone.txt
This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/
File size: 31.7 Kb