The Recollections of Mary Jo Woodson 1926-1939 The
childhood years during “The Great Depression”
Introduction:
These are
the recollections of My Grandmother Mary Josephine Woodson Humphreys-Barr born August
7, 1926 in Crittenden County, Kentucky to Samuel Leland Woodson and Elizabeth “Coot”
Price Kimbell Woodson. I attempted to accurately transcribe the biography and
stories as she wrote them in 1999, however, in order to enable the stories to
be comprehensive to people who do not know or understand her dialect I have
changed some word usage without changing the meaning of what Grandma was
relating. I will attempt to clarify people, places, and dates. I have attempted
to verify dates between 1926 and 1939 with pictures and census records which I
will source along with the correct place-names and names of the people Grandma
wrote about.
Transcribed in Feb. 2013. By Granddaughter Lori Jo
Humphreys.
“Suddenly
all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are
the result of the love of thousands.”
-unknown-
A young Elizabeth Price Kimbell is smitten with her new
husband returned from World War I- a wounded soldier with one leg. (1919)
Update Correction: Photograph above is Samuel Leland Woodson and his new sister-in-law Mary Margorie Kimbell and brother-in-laws Walter M Kimbell (in dark suit) and James Warren Kimbell
Family Group:
Samuel Leland Woodson (1895-1970)
married 23 October 1919 Paris, Henry County, Tennessee
Elizabeth Price Kimbell (1903-1991)
Sam was 1st married but later divorced Ersie Crider Berry
(1879-1963)
Children of Sam and Ersie both born in Blackford, Webster County, Kentucky:
Aladene Woodson Felty b. 2 Mar 1915 d. 10 Feb 1995
Ollie James (OJ) Woodson b. 4 Sep 1916 d. 14 May 1972
Children of Sam and Elizabeth and places of birth:
Samuel Leland Woodson Jr.
b. 17 Mar 1921 Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky d.
1 May 2010
Richard Guy Woodson
b. 12 Jul 1924 Clinton, Hickman County, Kentucky d. 19
Sep 2004
Mary Josephine Woodson (Author)
b. 7 Aug 1926 Herman McKinley Place, Crittenden County,
Kentucky d. 20 Apr 2021
Sherman Ray Woodson
b. 27 Nov 1928 Marengo, Orange County, Indiana d. 15 Oct
1998
Gladys Virginia Woodson
b. 10 Jan 1931 Alex King Place, Crittenden County,
Kentucky
Doris Jean Woodson
b. 13 Jan 1934 Uncle George Ewell Arflack Store,
Crittenden County, Kentucky
Velma Woodson
b. 1936 Ft. Meade, Polk County, Florida
Elizabeth Woodson
b. 1939
Later Jim, Ben, Faye, and Tom were born after 1939.
Mary
Jo is in the dark colored dress with flowers standing front center. Abt 1940.
I’m the Third Child of Sam and Elizabeth Woodson and the
first girl. Born in Crittenden, Kentucky Aug 7, 1926, I was born at the Herman
McKinley or Wilcox Place in those days they had
the babies at home and all the places had names.
All of this happened just before the crash of ’29. People had no money to
do anything with, times were very bad.
The first Place I remember living is out in the country close to Paola
(Paoli), Indiana. This was on a hill side and we would pull a wagon frame
without a bed on it up to the top of the hill and we, Sam Jr.(1921), Guy
(1924), Sherman (1928), and I would get on it and Guy or Sam would guide it
down the hill as fast as it could go. There was nothing to hold on to but this
long thing down the middle of the wagon. There was a pond at the bottom of the
hill and I was always scared to death this thing was really going fast and this
pond was right in front of where the wagon was going down and we would get
right to it and whoever was guiding the wagon would turn it real fast. I always
knew I would one day fall off it and get run over and get killed but I had to
do everything the boys did.
I have to go back some because I remember where we were living when Gladys
was born. She was born at the Alex King Place in 1931. We must have
lived there in Indiana two or three different times. I remember Sherman and I
were real small and we were playing at the edge of the pond and Sherman fell in
and I took hold of his feet and pulled him out. Mother tells a story about us
living in this house when I was a baby (Uncle Sherman was born there in 1928
so Grandma would have been 2 when he was born. If she was crawling it would
have been in her first year 1926-7.) I always crawled backward and crawled
into hot ashes and I still have a scar where I got burn on my leg. So we had to
live at this place before because I was a baby at this house. We moved a lot
while we were growing up. Along about this time we moved back to the Herman
McKinley place because Mom had some ducks and Guy and I would run the duck
we could have been 3 and 5 but anyway one day we got sticks and was hitting the
duck and brake one’s back and Mom came out and gave Guy a whipping with the
stick and Mom did not whip me and I think Guy still holds it against me cause I
didn’t get a whippin’ HA HA
My father’s people, Dads father’s people lived around Blackford Kentucky
in Webster Co. and Grandma Woodsons’ people were in Belles Mine near Mattoon in
Crittenden County Kentucky, G.P and G.M. Woodson lived in Kentucky,
Indiana, and Florida. They moved a lot so we moved a lot also. I remember
Mothers people lived in Clinton in Hickman County Kentucky.
Back to the Indiana houses. While we were living at this house where we
rode the wagon from down the hill. We had a screen in back porch but as I
remember it was high off the ground as the house was on the side of the hill.
We killed a hog and since it was cold Mom and Dad left the meat on the porch
and we didn’t have freezers. Aunt Velma, Dad sisters, In-Laws lived down
the road and they had two big dogs that night the dogs came down to our house
and jumped through the screen was eating the meat on our back porch so Dad got some
poison and put it on the meat and of course the dogs came back as soon as he
went back in the house. The next morning when he got up the dogs were in our
yard going around and around he had to go out and finish killing the dogs and
take them off and put them in the same
hole. Dad had threaten us children with our lives if we told anyone about the
dogs. (Not that my Dad was mean he wasn’t) But sure enough they came down to
see if we had seen the dogs but Mom said she had not seen the dogs since early
morning and truly she had not. But to this day I don’t think anyone has seen
those dogs since 1932.
Then we moved to another house which was also on a hill. (I must say at
this time in 1999, we went back to Paola, Ind. to my Aunt Velma’s
funeral and I must say there is a lot of hill around Paola and they still call
one of these places “The Woodson Place”)
From this house I started to school. We had moved from the Alex King
place in Kentucky where Gladys was born in 1931 to these two different
houses in Indiana. Sam Jr., Guy and I walked to a one room school that had all
grades in one room. I remember going down in front and sitting in little chairs
in front of the teacher to say our lessons. I remember if we could get the
teacher playing some kind of game she would forget to ring the bell we really
had a good time.
While we lived at this house we had to carry water from a spring down a
hill. We had two rooms that I can remember we ate and cooked in one room and
slept in the other. Mother and Dad and the baby (Gladys) slept in one bed.
Sherman and I slept in another, so there MUST have been a room where Sam Jr.
and Guy slept. There was a lot of things happened when we lived in this house.
Gladys was just a toddler and she could crawl up on the foot of the bed
cross the bed crawl up on a lavatory table cross to the other bed and then back
again. Mom use to say if she could get a toe hold on something up she would go.
So that day someone had sat a Daisy Fly Killer on the lavatory table and it was
sweet so she got up there and pulled out one of the centers and sucked on the
felt part of the Daisy so when Mom found her she was sitting on the lavatory
table. Mom called Dad and he had to go get the doctor. She was almost gone. The
doctor gave her a shot of something and thank goodness we still have her.
As I said a lot of things happened at this house. I think it was a
Smokehouse or a chicken house we saw a big snake inside and called Dad, he got
the gun and shot the snake, the shot went through the wall and hit Sam Jr. on
his boot and he started screaming holding his leg. Mom was screaming “Oh my God
Sam, you have shot Jr.!” Dad came running out of the house pulled the boot off
he just had some red spots. Oh Well didn’t get rid of Sam Jr. either, Thank
Goodness. I don’t know how long we lived there but it sure was an active time
in our young lives the rest of the time we lived very quiet.
We moved back to Kentucky to Sullivan in Union County Kentucky. We
went to school in Sullivan in a two room school we walked to that school also
only about 2 blocks.
Bells Mines, Rosebud District, Crittenden County,
Kentucky or
The Best of Times...
In 1930, We then had an apartment above Dad’s Uncle George Ewell
Arflack (1884-1940) store. Bell Mines, Crittenden County, Kentucky. Daddy later bought the store, a grist mill, rock quarry and strawberry patch. It
was the only store in town and Uncle Ewell owned a hotel across the street. Uncle Ewell had three
daughters. Guy and I would sit at the window and watch the girls clean the
hotel we thought they were so pretty there was Evelyn, Georgia and I don’t
remember the name of the other one. Seen Evelyn again in 1978 at a family
reunion they had all moved to California. (George Ewell Arflack's daughters
were Georgia 1912-2000, Virgie Evelyn 1924-?, Jessie A 1916-?)
George Ewell Arflack (1884-1940)
The store was three levels and big. The store and a big garage on the first
level then went upstairs into the big kitchen which back door was on the level
of the backyard with a concrete slab for a porch. This room was the kitchen and
dining room then up another group of stairs into a very large room where we had
3 beds one in three different corners. This place Sherman had scarlet fever and
was very sick.
We had to go down to Aunt Nell’s (Neighbor Hughie and Nell Lowey)
to spend the night one night every one of us Sam Jr., Guy, me, Sherman, and
Gladys. Of course Sherman was mad because we had to go. We had to hold on to
him to make him go. But guess what when we got home the next day we had Doris,
sweet, loving Doris this was 1934. This was not the last time Sherman got mad
about having to go somewhere to spend the night. He said every time he had to
go spend the night somewhere a baby came while he was gone and he was not going
anywhere else. But of course, he did.
We had a good life while we were at the store. We had a mill to grind corn
into meal and I think we made flour too. We had a big strawberry patch and
pickers came and picked them. We also had a rock quarry where they crushed rock
into lime. As I said this was one of the good times of our lives.
Mother would make a big freezer of Ice Cream and a lot of the cousin’s
would come on Saturday Night to eat it.
Often we would have gypsies come through. The gypsies wore loud bright colored large skirted long dresses, wore lots of beads and wore big hoop earrings. We could here them coming, bells jingling and clanging metal from the caravan wagons coming up the road. Mom would stand in front of the
cash drawer and make one of us children go get what they wanted off the shelf
and bring it to her. Mother would say a Gypsy could get the money right through the
counter like magic and I always wondered how they could get the money out of the drawer if
there were no cracks in the counter, she said they could and we knew that Mom
knew what she was talking about. We always had to run and help Mom when we heard or saw
the gypsies coming. They always came in two or three covered wagons or trucks in a caravan.
One day me, Dad and Sherman were out at the well, (we had a pump and the
gypsies always wanted fresh water) and the Gypsies came.
 |
| Stock Photo of 1930s Gypsy Woman |
The Gypsy lady wanted Daddy to kiss her skirt hem for 50 cents and she would
tell his fortune, but he wouldn’t do it. Dad told her she could have fresh
water and that was all.
The Mean Teacher
I remember this being a good time for the family. But personally, I had a
bad time. At this time when we started to school I had a real bad teacher. Her name was Ida Apple.
(Transcribers notes:1930 Census recorded 2 Public School
Teachers at Bell Mines 1-lived near the Woodsons, Mrs. Allie G Howerton age
31 and 2-lived near the miners, Mrs Mary A Crider age 27)
She gave me a whipping every day
with a ruler on my legs the first period of school. She would call me up to her
desk and make me read out loud and if I missed a word she would hit me with the
ruler and of course I was so afraid of her I could not read so she got the
pleasure of hitting me. I would start asking Mom if I had to go to school the
next day by the time I got home and if she said yes then I would get sick and I
would tell her I was sick until they put me on the bus crying I’m sick. But if
Mom let me stay home she would tell me I had to take Castor Oil. I would take
it and sit on the potty all day long. Since I couldn’t do my reading I had to
stay in at recess and Guy would come and sit with me. We never got to play
outside. This went on for a period of time until Dad and Uncle Ersel King
(Transcribers note:
According to the 1930 Census, Ersel 21 years old lived near the Woodson's with
his twice widowed Mother Marthie E King age 61and half-brother of Grandmother Cora
Elizabeth Arflack Woodson and Uncle Ewell Arflack.) took
me to the doctor and he said that I was so nervous that if I went to school
with that teacher I would have a nervous breakdown. Well, they stopped at the
school on the way home and those two big men took me in the school room and
told her off. Dad said it was a good thing she was a woman or they would beat
her up. I wanted Dad to hit her so bad. They took me out of school.
Beware of the village Dentist
Dad’s Uncle George Ewel Arflack had a garage or work shop at Belles Mine near Mattoon
Kentucky. He worked on cars and wagons. He was also the local dentist. He
didn’t fill teeth he just pulled them. I had a bad tooth so Dad took me to the
garage so Uncle Ewel could pull it. He couldn’t get his tool to hold on to the
tooth so he put a screw driver to the side of the tooth and hit it with his
hand and out came the tooth.
From Kentucky to Florida
Grandma and Grandpa Woodson had sold their place in Indiana and moved to
Florida and just after Doris was born Grandma Woodson came to visit and she
talked Dad into selling everything and going to Florida. (1934) Mom and Dad had
been to Florida before I was born (1926) so they knew how to get there.
James Guy Woodson and Cora Elizabeth Arflack in Opa-Locka,
Florida
Back to the first trip to Florida. The car had to be a big one because
Grandma Woodson, Sam Jr. and OJ sat in the back seat, Dad made a bench and set
this over their lap and Guy, Sherman, and I sat on the bench then Mom and baby
Doris, Little Gladys was in the front seat with Dad. We must have had the
luggage on top of the car.
We started out and stopped at a man’s house called Johnie Brantley
(Transcribers note: Johnie R Brantley, wife Ersie, and son Herschel on 1930
Census Bell Mines, Ky, I wonder if Ersie Brantley and Ersie Crider, Sam's 1st
wife were the same person?) and he gave me two chickens so Dad tied them in
a little coup on the back of the car. It took three days to go from Kentucky to
Florida and we would stop in little cabins for the night. This was the type of
Motels we had in those days. They had two bedrooms or ours did anyway. They had
a little stove in it to keep warm and it had two eyes so you could heat or cook
on it. The first night we were on the
road, Dad killed the chickens and Mom cooked them. Dad and Grandma dressed the
chicken. Dad liked the gizzard of the chicken and Grandma wouldn’t clean hers
from her chicken so Dad cleaned it and found a dime in it and he wouldn’t give
it to Grandma and it made her mad. She said it was hers because it came from
her chicken. The dime was mine because the man gave the chickens to me! At that
time a dime would buy a gallon of gas. Most of the time on these trips we would
buy a loaf of bread, bologna, cheese, and drinks. We would stop and have
picnics in parks which we children enjoyed. We had to go over three mountains;
Lookout Mountain, Mount Eagle, and Mount Signal.
 |
| 1930s stock photo of The Smokey Mountains |
On the first day of our trip (going North or South) we would get to the
mountain foothills, day two we would go over the mountains and on day three we
would get home, either way.
Dad’s Wooden Leg
 |
| Samuel Leland Woodson (1917) |
Dad was in World War I for a short time only because he was on a “Troop
Train” and there was a train wreck in which he lost his foot. During his
life he had to have several operations on his leg. The artificial legs the government
gave were solid and his leg could not get air and the stump would get sore and
infected and he would have more of his leg taken off so it would heal and he
could walk on his wooden leg. The leg was removed to the knee so he could walk
on the knee using his peg leg. He could sit the wooden leg on the gas pedal and
use his left leg on the brake and clutch while driving. Dad was a good driver
but going over the mountains I was always afraid we would fall off the mountain
as you could look down and see where you had been and look up and see where you
had to go. There were no four lane highways back then.
The Frostproof House & Florida Crackers!
This was a big house; two rooms downstairs and big room upstairs. Stairs
were on the outside of the building. Mom, Dad and us girls slept downstairs and
I guess Sherman, Sam Jr., Guy, and OJ slept upstairs. It had a big garage and
in the front was like a carport.
We lived there when Florida had open range and the men would move this big
herd of cattle from one place to another. They would come down the highway. We
would hear the crack of the whips and we knew to run for house! The house had
windows across the front and we would get on the couch and watch the cattle,
they would come across the porch and the yard. They had big long horns and we
loved to see them. This house belonged to Grandma and Grandpa Woodson they had
another house a little way away. It was only two rooms and Grandma and Grandpa
plus Aunt Velma and Uncle Charlie Stroud and their daughter, Wilma Jean all
lived in that house. Grandpa was a carpenter and Uncle Charlie worked in the
canning plant and later worked in the groves. Mother, Sam Jr., and OJ all got
jobs at the canning plant. Aunt Velma
was always supposed to be sick and Grandma had to do all the housework.
 |
| Frostproof, Florida Cannery 1930 |
I can’t remember what Dad did, he couldn’t work in the plant because of his
peg leg. Guy and I had to take care of Sherman, Gladys, and Doris.
One Day we were all out front and we looked up as Doris was running (she
could barely walk) down the road in front of a school bus and I ran out and
grabbed her. Guy and Sam Jr. gave me, Sherman, and Gladys a good talking to. If
any of us told Dad or Mom we would all get a whipping. They made believers out
of all of us, we didn’t tell.
We had a path from Grandma’s house to our house so we wouldn’t have to walk
on the road. We had a window on the end of our house where you could see right
into our kitchen from the path. One night Guy was washing dishes and he told me
to dry them and I wouldn’t do it so he slapped me. Dad was coming down the path
and saw this so he came in and slapped Guy. Dad made me dry the dishes though.
Our Dad’s brother, Uncle John Woodson, was a preacher and he was in
Miami.
 |
| Uncle John Woodson wearing a tie in Florida. |
They had a toy drive and they brought a big box of toys to us that
Christmas. We all got skates and I don’t know what else. But Santa Claus
brought me a doll with a white fur coat and hat. After Mom and Dad went
shopping and came home they hid Santa Claus in a big barrel in the kitchen.
Guess who showed us where all the goodies were hid, Guy showed us the things in
the barrel and said there was no Santa Claus, its Mom and Daddy.
This place was also where my Dad slapped my face, just broke my heart. He
really didn’t touch me. That was the only time my Dad ever hit me. I was
playing jacks and every time I threw out my jacks Gladys would pick them up and
I would have to take them away from her. So I just slapped her face. Dad was
reading the paper and he told me to come there and he just tapped my face and
went back to reading his paper. I died I thought he had killed me.
Some of us would have to go to Grandma’s and wash her supper dishes and we
hated that she wouldn’t let us eat…not even the leftovers.
We went to Frostproof school one time I guess it was, we didn’t go
very long if we did. If we did go Sam Jr. drove us. We went back to Crittenden
County, Kentucky after this house. We lived in this house twice.
The Nunn House in Mattoon, Kentucky
In 1934 we lived in the Nunn House. We didn’t live here very long
but I don’t know how long we lived in any of these houses. We lived there
during the summer and started school there. It was Mattoon School again
but the mean teacher was not there as before. Guy, Sherman, Glenna Nunn and I
played in the Nunn’s wheat bin.
Aladine, my half-sister was married and her son Norman Dale Felty was born.
I remember she brought the baby to see us there.
Sherman and I were sick all the time and I remember Dad saying “I am taking
my family back to Florida!” It was late enough in the year of 1934.
Miami Places
What I remember about the Miami trip, we went to Uncle John Woodson’s. (I
can’t get these trips in order.) These were very hard times, keep in mind these
were the times right after the stock market crash of 1929. The Great
Depression.
Uncle John Woodson lived where the Everglades used to be outside of Miami.
He lived across the canal from a Seminole Indian village.
 |
| 1930s Indians off the Tamiami Trail |
At that time the village was out in
the country but it would be in the middle of Metro Miami today. Uncle John and
Aunt Margaret had two girls and one boy. Doris was a baby so there were eight
of us. Their place was not exactly a house, after a twenty foot driveway there
was palmetto and bushes along the front of the lot. Uncle John had one
building, one trailer, and a brush arbor. Since it was warm in south Florida we
ate all of our meals under the brush arbor. The arbor had a bordered floor. The
men slept in one place and the women slept in another. The boys liked to sleep
in the car. Some of us would go to the road and watch the Indian women wash
their clothes in the canal. They would beat their clothes with rocks. We stayed
there at Uncle John’s until we found a house in Coral Gables. The house
in Coral Gables had a pretty pine grove across the drive and we would slip over
there and play among the trees. We were not supposed to play over there.
Dad would go to the bakery and get bread by the barrel and Mom would fix a
lot of things out of this bread. Bread pudding and French Toast we ate a lot of
bread. Dad only paid 25 cents for the barrel. He got it once a week and we
would feed the birds what we didn’t eat when it was time to get fresh bread.
Dad would take us all fishing along the “Tammie Ammie”. (Tamiami Trail)
Everyone got to fish but me, I had to sit in the car and keep the baby
because there were snakes. Me, Doris, Gladys, and Sherman a lot of times had to
stay in the car.
We would travel down Highway 41 and when we got down between Frostproof and
Ocala we would take Highway 27. We went through Avon Park and Sebring, down
below these towns we got into cattle country and open range. The long horn
cattle would be in the road and we had to go real slow because they would not
move. The cattle would walk beside the car, they always scared me. I was afraid
we would have car trouble. I guess we would still be sitting there if we had
because nobody would get out of the car, there were very few cars on the road
then. We would drive for miles and miles and not see a car and never a house. I
remember once coming home (to Kentucky) we had a flat tire and Dad had to take
the trailer off the car and go to town to get the tire fixed. We went and sat
on the porch of a house to wait for him to get back and the woman there gave us
a drink of water. The water was sulphur water, it was so bad. The woman said it
was real good.
I think we only went to Miami one time during these years.
On one trip to Florida, we came home in a truck. Dad put everything we had
in the front part of the truck then set a bed up in the very back so we could
sit on the side and look out over the tail gate. We had to go through the truck
scales and they asked Dad if there was any fruit in the backend, Dad said no
only to look back and see Guy peeling an orange and throwing the peel out onto
the scales! Needless to say Dad was not happy with Guy! (At that time you could
stop on the side of the road along a grove and pick the fruit to eat.)
Dad cleaned typewriters for a living and I remember we started home one time and Dad ran out
of money. He stopped in a big town and cleaned typewriters to make money to go
on. I don’t remember which trip that was.
Grandpa Richard “Wash” Kimbell
 |
| Richard Washington Kimbell (1878-1955) of Hickman County, Kentucky |
Grandpa Kimbell was the Superintendent of the Home for the Feeble Minded at Frankfort,
Kentucky.
We stayed with them for a while and then again we stayed with them one
summer in Clinton, Kentucky.
 |
| circa. 1911 The Clinton, Hickman County, Kentucky Richard Washington Kimbell family home. |
Grandpa Kimbell spent a lot of time at the Hickman County Courthouse Square
talking with the other men from around there. I supposed they were solving all
of the world’s problems and talking about the “Old days”. Grandpa Kimbell loved
to fish and about once a week he would come home and gather us all up and say
“Let’s go to Columbus and have fish for supper!” So, Mom and Grandma
would get the skillets and whatever we needed to fry fish in the park.
Aunt Laverne Kimbell
We would stop and get Uncle Wesley “Wes”, Aunt Laverne and their three
girls Margaret, Juanita, and Mary Sue and off we would go. Grandpa would go
down where the fishermen were coming in from the days catch on the Mississippi
River and get the fish. Grandpa would pick out only the live fish for the man
to clean and fillet. Mom and Grandma would fry them up right there in the park
and boy, was it good. I remember walking out to the anchor with Effie
and Juanita. The anchor had been left there by the bank after the Civil War now
at the Columbus Belmont Park.
 |
| The Anchor now proudly perched at the park in Columbus, Kentucky. |
Fort Meade, Florida 1936
We went back to Florida. The reason, I know the years, because guess what?
Sherman had to go stay all night with the neighbors, Adams was their
name. And sure enough the next morning there was a new baby. The new baby was
Velma that was in March 1936.
Dad had bought a new car that year, a Chevy and I remember we had caught a
small alligator; we went to a creek down a sand road to catch minnows for it.
We had dug a pit for the gator. We later took the Alligator home to Clinton at
Grandpa Kimbell’s. We had company, I think it was the Sheffields, anyway
we had a car full of kids. Sam Jr. was driving and we met a car on the sand
road and the car turned over, the only one that got a cut was Gladys. Gladys
had stuck her little finger through the dome light.
We went to Ft. Meade School. I was in a school play and wore a
purple paper dress. I had a little yellow plastic handbag and on the way home a
mean little boy ran by me and grabbed it out of my hand. He ran and got on
another bus than us, I never saw the handbag again after that.
Kimbell Corner – Hickman County, Kentucky
 |
| Alva Rilla Weaks Kimbell posing at Kimbell Corner in Clinton, Kentucky 1920's |
 |
| Richard "Wash" Kimbell and Alva Rilla Weaks Kimbell (1940s) |
Great Grandpa Benjamin Kimbell moved in with Grandma and Grandpa Kimbell leaving the
farm that he had inherited from his Father-In-Law, Finis Weaks,(see
note) with no one
living on it so we moved to Hickman County and I lived there until I married in
1943.
 |
| James Benjamin Kimbell (1859-1938) |
 |
| William Finis Weaks (1848-1938) |
(Transcribers Note: Finis Weaks was the brother-in-law of Benjamin Kimbell
and the Father-in-law of his son Richard Washington Kimbell the Farm was
inherited by both Finis Weaks and his sister Elizabeth Bell Weaks Kimbell since
Grandpa Wash and Grandma Alva Rilla were 1st cousin the family
actual relationships were confusing.)
Elizabeth was the first child born there, and Ben was born in the basement.
Burning Down the Old Ben Kimbell House
In 1940, the farm had a four room house on it and I was going to bake a
cake for the 4-H dinner. I built a fire in the cook stove and it was so hot it
burned down the house. I remember Dad was taking the U.S. Census and all
he tried to save was that trunk with the long forms of papers he had been
taking around and writing everyone’s names and information on. Dad had to redo
the census. In the new house, Faye, Jim,
and Tom were born there.
 |
| The new "Woodson" home on the old Weaks-Kimbell Farm |
I think I was 10 years old when we moved to the farm and I was 13 when the
old house burned down. We had some real good friends and neighbors. One family
was The Simmons. They had several children, Mary Helen and Buddy
that were mine and Guy’s close friends. Their Uncle would come and take us to
the show in Clinton and one night coming home we had a car wreck and Buddy was
killed. We had this wreck right after the house burnt down and Guy was in a
body cast. Guy stayed in the hospital for six weeks. Guy had also broke his leg
and he has had to wear a built up shoe ever since.
When the house burnt down, Grandpa and Grandma Woodson came up from Florida
to help us build a new house. Grandpa Woodson was a carpenter by trade so they
built what was later the chicken house. We used it for a kitchen while the
house was being built. They put floors down and put big tents over them and
that is where we slept. When Guy came home in the body cast after the wreck he
was put inside one of the tents. We ate out under a big tree. Most of the
neighbor men came and helped build the new house. If it rained, I don’t
remember that.
Of Course we had a lot of farm animals. When Uncle Wes’ Old nag was too old
to work, she came out to the farm, her name was “Old Burch” we would ride her
all the time, she was so gentle. One day my cousin Helen Jane Rushing
was visiting us. She and I went to get mail riding “Old Burch” and Guy and
Sherman were riding another horse. There was a steep hill and Helen Jane slid
off and pulled me off too. My dress had wrapped around “Old Burch’s” hoof and I
was lying under her, she just held up her leg until I got my dress from around
her foot and got out from under her. I can’t remember whatever happened to that
good old horse.
We lived on a dirt road, about ¾ miles off of the paved road so when it
rained it sure was a mess. The mail and school bus did not come down the dirt
roads. Sometimes Dad would take us to the paved road in the wagon. Mrs.
Gertie Watts was a wonderful old lady living at the end of our road. When
it would rain we had to carry our shoes and socks to meet the bus. Mrs. Watts
would let us wash our feet when we got to her house. The bus stopped in front
of her house and when it was cold she would let us wash our feet in the house
and when it was warm we would wash them on her porch. I sure can’t see anyone
letting kids in their house today. Later the old dirt roads were graveled until
the 1980’s or so when they paved all the roads in the county.
While we lived in the old house Dad and Sam Jr. would go to Florida in the
winter time and Mom would tell Guy and Sherman if they would hurry to get the
animals fed and milking done she would read to us after we ate supper. Most of
the time I would help Mom get supper and help with milking on occasions.
The place never had any water on it so we had to take the wagon and two
barrels down to the country store that had a big well and we would fill these
barrels to drink, wash, and cook with.
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| Aunt Velma Woodson-Stroud & Samuel L. Woodson of front of the "new" house. |
They dug a full size basement. Grandpa and Dad got the upstairs partly
finished; the kitchen was finished before winter set in so we lived in the
basement for a while. I know Ben was born down there in 1941.
After the house burned Dad got us a washing machine after a time it got to
where it was hard to start and since I did the washing and ironing I would pump
on the old washing machine and turn a little screw and after a while it would
start. We heated the water outside in a big old black wash kettle and carry it
to the window of the basement and I would hand it down to Mom. Than I would do
the rest myself, I washed one day and I would iron the next day with a quilt
and a sheet on the table. I would heat the irons on the stove; we never had electric
while I was home.
I married Robert Humphreys in Nov 1943, I think we had electric. The
road was so muddy they had to pull Roberts car in to get me then pull us out.
They shouldn’t have pulled us out… Faye was born in Jan 1943 before I was
married in November but I can’t remember about her birth.
I will add this as I remember that big basement always had beds down there
and we would have three day measles. One night I was washing to go to the
ballgame and Mom was washing my back and she said “Young lady, you are not
going anywhere but to the basement, you got the measles!” We always had to go
to the basement when we got sick so no one else would take whatever it was we
had at the time.
The basement was good for parties too. The kids from school would want to
have a party so they would always ask me if we could have them in our basement.
Peggy and Keith Watts would always ride a horse to the house. Several of
the kids would have to spend the night. We had a couch down there that made
into a bed and the Hopkins boy was so tall we would put a chair on the end of
it for him to put his feet on. When we got older we played “Spin the bottle” in
the living room and we would go outside to kiss the boy.
1941
When Ben was born in ’41 in the basement he was born in the daytime. I had
to stay home from school and Sherman didn’t have to go somewhere to stay all
night. Sherman got off the bus at the country store and all the old men around
the store would tease Sherman all the time. I think it was because he cussed
them so bad and he was just a boy, they thought it was funny. So, the afternoon
Ben was born they said to him, “Well Sherman you are not the baby boy anymore!”
And Sherman called them a few choice names and was so mad when he got home.
Ben was a sick little boy and could not hold any milk down except goat
milk. There is a picture of him milking the goat bought for him. He was milking
it into his bottle then he would put the nipple back on and drink it. I think
he gave the bottle up when he started school. Ben made a fine young man but has
a very bad heart at 59 years old. (At the time these stories were written in
1999.)
We started to Fulgham School the year we moved to the farm. There
was Sam Jr., Guy, Me, Sherman, and Gladys. Gladys was in a play at school, I
can’t remember why we did not have a car because we always had some kind of
car. But I know Mom wanted to go to Clinton to Grandma and Grandpa Kimbells’
and Gladys had to go to school to this play. It was raining and all’s we had
was a buggy wagon and team to get to town. So Dad made an old time covered
wagon and Mom got to Grandma Kimbells and Gladys got to school anyway.
Guy was our farmer but he was too young to drive the team to Clinton. Sam
Jr. had started school in Fulgham but only went one year because he was going
to Florida to live in the winters and helping Grandma and Grandpa Woodson as
they were getting old and he went to high school in Frostproof.
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| James Guy Woodson and Cora Elizabeth Arflack Woodson |
Everyone learns a trade
Dad helped the boys with a trade when they got grown. Sam Jr. went to Western
State College to study millwright.
Guy was sent to an Electrical apprenticeship with a man from Crowley.
Sherman & Ben went to work for the railroad.
Mahlon Stroud, my brother in law, Doris’ husband Dad paid his way through Barber
School in Memphis, Tennessee and paid Doris’ expenses to stay with him.
Robert Humphreys, my husband, studied law and became a lawyer and I
supported him through school and we moved Detroit.
James Pewitt, Gladys’ husband was a salesman and made more money than any of them.
Robert Hancock, Velma’s husband was a farmer.
Dick Finley, Liz’ first husband, no one could do anything with so he was traded in for
James Cook.
Of course we all did some trading some better, some worse.
Charles McBride, Faye’s husband was a career soldier in the Army.
Jim was a very successful truck driver.
Tom studied Law.
Dad had 14 children. Mom and Dad had 12 Children. We all have made a good
living and that’s about all you can ask for these days.
To be continued…
These are the written memories of my dear Grandmother and there are plans to compile the complete biography and photograph collection into print form in the near future. All photographs used are within the Samuel & Elizabeth Kimbell Woodson Family Collection and stock photos were used as well. Grandmother is alive and well as of the publishing date living in Lake County, Florida. Mary Josephine Woodson Humphreys-Barr will be 90 years old this year.
