Wayfarers

I will eventually transfer this material with more explanations and details regarding Charles & Belle Clinton's moves (David & Belle Wolfe until ~1904) from my blog that I used while living in Bulgaria, but for now here is a link to both posts that I 'published' from One Page at a Time:

Wayfarers I & II

The link has pictures & a few explanations.

AFN
DCC
24 December 2008

And We Think We have it Bad - Part IV

Pages 10-12. Part I, Part II, & Part III contain the first 9 pages.

The damage to Pages 11 & 12 comes from having to remove the letter from an adhesive backed photo album page. I would have kept the letter as it was, but I wanted to be able to see the top part of the 12th page and the acid from the album would have eventually destroyed the letter all together.

10

our next door neighbor had &[sic] old chicken eating hog in their lot that was eating them[.] it sure provoked me because they wouldn’t do something with that hog[.] their lot is so close. It is impossible to keep them away it ate up nearly all of their chickens but they seem to think more of the hog than they did the chickens[.] I had to shut up what I had left to have a few to eat[.] I wanted to save ½ doz pullets[?] [.] I don’t know of any one who has any pullets to sell[.] they are real high here have to pay 75cts for small frying size. I am not getting a single egg now[.] looks like they never will

11

start to laying again. I have about 20 little fall chickens[.] I think they came off last of day [page torn] in Sept. I am proud of ??lus?? [page torn] they will get large enough to eat so early. Am writing Sat P.M. & am by myself so thought it a good time to write[.] Dollye went home with Lillian two weeks ago am expecting them to bring her home about next Sat. She generally spends about three weeks with Lillian it is so far & she don’t go very often[.] I was sorry about little George

12

Just being in such a bad fix & hope that ^Essie or Epsie? [carroted in] will enjoy her trip & come back very soon afterward.
Guess I have to stop now havent time to write any more. I have a [tear in paper]gro girl to [illegible 3-4 words][.] she washes dishes sets the table brings in wood & so on. Hope you are getting on as well as when you wrote. I am still feeling very well all but my back have spells with it[.] some times it feels weak nearly all the time[.] I know you are tired reading this excuse bad writing & mistakes & write again as soon as you can
love to all Sister

And that's the letter, such as it is/was. As the letter is today it hangs in my office. As it was, a priceless portrait of 'the way things were' in Middle/South Georgia (depending on who you ask) , and shows that just because 'everyone else' was having a time of it in the 'Roaring 20s' it wasn't necessarily so everywhere. "Everyone said Wall Street fell, but we were so poor we couldn't tell . . ." I've thought about that lyric just about every time I've read through the letter.

In a fit of pre-Christmas 'getting something for myself' (and I suppose for any descendants I may have), I bought a frame in which to put the letter with glass on both sides so that the whole of the letter may be viewed and the letter now hangs in my office. Next up getting the glass that's UV protectant to further protect the letter. But until I can rake up the change it's going to be as it is b/c after pricing, it ain't cheap . . .

Merry Christmas!
AFN
DCC
24 December 2008

And We Think we have it Bad - Part III

Pages 7-9 from the letter dated 13 Nov. 1920, likely written by Ida Benton Lester Ponder.

See part I & part II for first 6 pages and more of an explanation. Below are the scans & text for pages 7-9

7

with him. They told him he had indigestion & wrote to his Dr I n Waynesboro that they couldnt do anything for him[.] said it was in his blood, so I dont think he has ever realized what a bad fix he was in. It seems that one trouble right after another comes in our family[.] now we have one consolation if we would think about in[inserted][.] the bible says The Lord chasteneth[sic] those that he loves. Well I will change this sad subject & write about something else. The Boll weevill[sic] is here now & cut crops short so

8

you dont hear any thing talked about now but hard times[.] just lots of people didnt make a third of a crop[.] we havent made any thing evey[sic] one of our hands came out in debt not able to pay for what we advance for them[.] cotton is so low every body that can is holding what little they made for a better price[.] we havent sold any[.] I havent bought me one thing but a ginghams dress[.] the merchants are feeling it too[.]they are not doing much business. We are having bad luck on every side this year[.] we lost all our hogs but one with cholera, will have to

9

Buy most of our meat & lard next year. Hog cholera went through this county this summer[.] I heard of so many losing their hogs. I have some nice turnips in my garden & some pretty collards. They are the white Georgia collard[.] Some of them looks ^like [carroted in] they are beginning to head up. We dug our potatoes today a week ago made two nice banks which is not as many as we had last winter but it will be plenty for us. Well I didnt get very many of my chickens to eat after all they kept disappearing & found out that

Pg 10-12 to follow

Merry Christmas!
AFN
DCC
24 December 2008

3 dimes worth of Peanuts

-My daddy told me he was sending me off to Martha Berry School, up in Rome, GA. He told me square in the eyes, “If you can’t make it up there, just don’t bother coming back.” So I pretty well took him to heart . . . -Papa (Vernon Tuten) on his dad's words when sending him to Berry School

A.V. Teuten [sic] in 1951 just before his graduation as a member of the second class in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia. It's a little bit more recent picture than this story dictates, but it's the closest one to which I currently have access.

I earlier promised a second story regarding my grandfather’s time at the Berry School in Rome, GA, when it was a boarding school. I suppose I should preface it by noting that the story likely was one handed down through the student population while Papa was there and could likely have taken place before he was in school as he graduated (at least his class ring says such) in 1936, just six years before Berry died. However, the story (as best I can remember it and please forgive the fact that the details are a bit fuzzy) usually went like this . . .

. . . Now, Martha Berry started that school on her own, as a Sunday school. And she got to adding to it as more people came along, sent their children along, you know. So, she had to have someway eventually to support the school so she went looking for outside help—donations.

And one of the folks she went to was Henry Ford, and of course, you’ve heard of Mr. Ford. Well, she told him about the school and everything that they did at the school, and because times were hard he said he couldn’t help but just a little and sent her away with 3 dimes [as he held up his gnarled hand to signify 3]. 3 dimes! I’m sure I would have been discouraged or just tossed it into the next thing that cost 3 dimes for the school, but not Martha Berry.

She went out and bought peanuts [may have been cotton or another crop, but peanuts stick out in my mind] enough to plant with those 3 dimes, and she saw to it that the children at the school helped with the crop, and continued to plant for several years [I think it was 3-5 years, but again, the details . . .].

Then after that 5 years was up she went back to Henry Ford and said, “Mr. Ford, this is what I did with the 3 dimes you gave me!” And she put down three thousand dollars in front of him! Now, after that Mr. Ford, as she called him, was impressed and donated quite a bit of money to the school for its uses . . .

Somehow these stories always seemed longer & more involved when he told them, but like I said . . . to the best of my memory.

In terms of the veracity of the story, I don’t know one way or the other, except that it was one that I always loved to hear Papa tell, and at least according to wikipedia’s (taken always with a grain of salt) article on Martha Berry, the two large ‘castle-like’ dorms on the Berry College campus are named for Ford’s mother & daughter.

What I remember, as I said, I have reproduced and will reproduce here. Most of the ‘stories’ on this blog will come from Papa as he had a propensity for telling them, whether true or not. They certainly inform a strong elemental story of his life and the culture in which he grew up.

In terms of the “next steps” for Vernon (i.e. Papa), I really don’t know much until WWII. I know that he worked with a couple WPA projects and attended UGA and I believe South Georgia College in Douglas, GA (whatever its name may have been at the time). I’ll have more on the war and post-war years up until my mother’s birth later as I have multiple letters that he wrote from various stations in the US & in England during the war as well as a war/mission journal that one of his crewmates kept during their 35 missions.

Merry Christmas!
AFN
DCC
24 December 2008

More later

Pages 7-12 to come tomorrow, or over the next couple days. The 'blogger' isn't being cooperative at the moment and my current state isn't helping things.

AFN
DCC
22 December 2008
Athens, GA

And We think We have it Bad - Part II

Pages 4-6 from Letter dated 13 Nov.1920

4

got to die & leave his family. I have had to go ^through[carroted in] with another sad occasion ^lately[carroted in] [.] poor Gordons[sic] remains was burried[sic] here yester-day two weeks ago, we had reg-ular funeral services in the church & it was awfully sad to me but I feel lots better[.] satisfied to know he is burried here at home in our own cemetery & I can visit his grave & plant flowers on it[.] we have a new one started here only about eight or nine graves there. The Government wrote to ^us[carroted in] about two months ago to know if we wanted his body brought home & we decided we would have it brought. you[sic] asked me about Hemans[sic] neck. well

The location of the 'new' cemetery. Now called Rose Dhu Cemetery where Ida Benton Lester, her husband E.E. Ponder, Ruth Ponder Cates (their daughter), Heman Cates (her husband) and Gordon Ponder (all mentioned in this letter) are now buried as well. Scary what you can do w/ technology these days.

5

I will tell you just how it started. A while after last Christmas a bump commenced growing kinder on the side of his neck it was under the skin[.] it looked just like a wenn[?] just a bumg under the skin he went on & did’t pay much attention to it but in March it commence forming & hurting so bad he went to the hospital in Augusta & had it taken out & the place all cured up nicely but it wasnt long before a notti-er bump came on his neck and far from where the other one was. So he decided he would go to a specialist in Atlanta[.]

6

He went & he told him it was a cancer of the worst type & advised him to go to John[sic] Hopkins hospital in Baltimore as thee best cancer Dr that is known lives there. Well he went & Ruth went with him & the other bump was taken off his neck & it cured up, then in two or three weeks another one came kinder on his side[.] he went back to Baltimore to be treated again[.] they examined him good his stomache & all & found that it was in his stomache & was incurable but they didnt tell him so he was getting so then that every thing he ate disagreed

AFN
DCC
22 December 2008

And We think We have it Bad - Part I

I'll pretty well let the writing that I included with this letter the first time when I transcribed it do the talking/commentary. Below is a letter dated 13 November 1920. Because I want to add a scanned picture of Ida Benton Lester Ponder, the woman whom I believe wrote the letter, I will put the letter up in 4 parts with corresponding transcriptions for each page/scan.

Addendum: This is actually a link to the 'streetview' on google maps that shows the very house from whence this letter was written

Unaddressed letter/no envelope
Written Nov. 13, 1920 in Vidette, GA. (location on google maps) Based on contextual clues it was written by Ida Benton Lester Ponder to her sister Clemmie Lester _____. It is also a possibility that it was written to Clemmie Ponder Cates as she was called ‘Sister’ by her parents (E.E. Ponder & Ida Ponder) and siblings, but contextual clues seem to indicate that it was written by Ida Benton Lester. It is possible that it was never sent or that it was sent and returned later after Ida’s death.

Written on wide-ruled paper, narrow, typical stationary. Yellowed with age in 2007 when I found the letter attached to a card board album page with paste, which resulted in the damage to the eleventh and twelfth pages.

Letter:

Vidette, GA

Nov. 13^th, 1920

Dearest Sister,

Your letter was read about two weeks ago and you know I am always glad to hear from you, will not wait so long to answer this time as I want to tell ^you [carroted in] about Heman we went to see him Tuesday & I really dont[sic] believe the poor fellow can live more than two or three weeks longer. We go to see him every week & he is poorer & weaker every time we go he is getting so weak now he cant hardly talk he is pittyful[sic] to look at

2

& dont[sic] seem to realize his condition he talks now about getting well, he dont [sic] retain a thing he eats all comes back back in a little while after he eats. Ruth says she dont know how he has held up as long as he has had been in the bed now 11 weeks and not a soul has waited on him but her[.] it is remarkable how she has kept up[.] She is looking well[.] Heman says she is a good nurse & he didnt[sic] want any body[sic] to wait on him but her[.] I have offered to stay & help her but it[‘]s this way[.] She has two men boarders & hasnt an extra place for any one to sleep says she is obliged to keep them for they are feeding her family[.]

3

it is a sad affair words cant express my sympathy for them[.] Heman has always been so devoted to his family[.] I’ve always though if he should be taken from them that Ruth couldnt stand it but I think she is becoming rec-onciled now she knows that he cant[sic] live, he is living on morphine now[.] the Dr learned Ruth how to puncture him he suffers so with his stomach he just has to have it, it almost breaks my heart to know he has . . .

The Heman Cates mentioned in the letter married Ruth Ponder, dau of Ida Benton Lester Ponder & Edwin/Edward Erastus Ponder & sister of Dollye Elizabeth Ponder, Clemmie, & Lillian and Gordon Ponder who is briefly mentioned later in the letter having only recently died during WWI.

Tuten, Tuten, ya Dern Tootin'

Such was my grandfather's moniker within a week at the Martha Berry Boarding School (now Berry College) when he was sent off for being a hellion in Appling County. As such it occurred to me to include a couple of his stories that he told multiple times, and which are probably some of my favorites.

The first of which says a lot about myself too, at least I've taken it on as a sort of mantra when it comes to that. To the best of my ability, I'll tell it as he would have.

. . . When I was younger and well, a little wild, my daddy, everybody called him Alex or Uncle Alex [always pronounced Ellick], thought I could use a little straight'nin' out. So, he sent me on up to the Martha Berry School in Rome, Georgia. Now when I first got up there they had us all go around and see the place and finished up lining us all up, and askin' us what we liked to do on farm.

The foreman started on one end, "Anderson, what do you like to do?"

"Milk cows, sir."

"Ok. Barber, what do you like to do?" And so he went on down the line nodding & writing down whatever they said they liked to do on a farm. 'Course he comes to me last with my last name being what it is.

"Tuten, Tuten, ya dern Tootin', now, what do you like to do?"

"Well, I don't like to do anything."

"I don't reckon we'll have a place for you here on my farm then son--"

"Now, wait a minute." I stopped him. "You asked me what I liked to do. You didn't ask me what I could do. I can do anything you've got to do on this farm, but I don't reckon I like to do any of them."

"Is that so? I reckon we've got an understanding then. You can start with cleaning out the hen houses then," he told me with a smirk.

So I cleaned hen houses for a while, but that's not the point. Point is always ask somebody what you want to know, and always answer the question that's asked. . . .

I'll add more later on, but just so I can get this up. There's another story about Martha Berry & Henry Ford, which I don't know whether it's true or not, but it'll be up here later.

AFN
DCC
18 December 2008

A Lost Arcadia

As I often get on a genealogical stint and go head long into research or writing/discovering, on about a once every 3-6 month basis (with some intervals coming in shorter or longer periods), I wanted to use this as a basis for preserving/keeping up with my notes and stories/pictures without having to trust that I would be at my computer in particular in order to have access to some of the dates or pictures or stories.

To the best of my ability these stories and tales will be based on first hand accounts or facts from records. However, genealogy as with any form of history is, often at best, guess work, and many stories will be pieced together based on stories that I have heard from my grandparents when they were alive or from older aunts & uncles or parents.

A prime example, who will be the victim (um, subject) of many stories & suppositions, is my great- grandfather, Charles Everette Clinton (nee David West/Rowland Wolfe). You know there are questions when we can't even agree on his middle name or the spelling of his second self-chosen middle name. I will end this with a picture of his father & youngest son (my grandfather) with promises to return with stories on each.
Great-great grandpa Reece Beckett Wolfe (Charles/David's father) with whom he shared the profession of being a butcher.

Grandpa/'Pa' Robert Harold Clinton, Sr. (Charles' youngest son & child) at about the age of 16 in 1936.

All for now.
DCC
16 December 2008