A Little Twig from Ladonia (My Family Tree)

By Mary Katherine James Dowell -- 1987
Provided by Glenn Ann Dowell Hunt

The James' -- (2 of 4)

one of these pieces, that she had given to Aunt Josie, and she, in turn gave it to me many years later.

Grandfather James had three children by a previous marriage. Grandmother James was a good step-mother and she never made any difference between their children and her own grandchildren.

I remember Uncle Sim, Aunt Josie's husband, was a chicken peddler and it was a great delight to play in his wagon. It was a store on wheels. He even carried bolts of material for the outlying farmers wives to choose a new dress from. All kinds of sewing notions, groceries, snuff, tobacco, and candy for the kids. Underneath he wagon was a chicken coop. The farmers and their wives would trade chickens for his wares. I imagine the mobile homes and camper trailers today are modeled from the old peddler's wagons. Everyone looked forward to the day the peddler came by your house. You had your chickens caught and every egg you could find. Then the shopping began. You don't have nearly as much fun today at a modern shopping center as you did when you were a child making your selections from a peddler's wagon.

On the east side of Grandmother James' house was a huge wood pile with plenty of saws and axes. I never saw the pile dwindle down and I don't know who hauled the wood, but I do know who cut all the wood for those huge fireplaces and big old wood cook stoves in the kitchen, David Culberson, "Uncle Cub", my daddy's older brother. He was called Cub, and he should have been called Bear.

The stove in the kitchen had a huge reservoir at the side that was kept filled with water, which was always hot. There was a warming closet on the back of the stove to keep cooked food good and hot until a meal was ready to be served.

Uncle Cub was a character of Pecan Gap. Once Daddy and two older brothers decided it was time for Uncle Cub to leave the family home and start out on his own. But he never did. He got them told off pretty quick. He said, "My Daddy built this house for me to live in and no son of you know what James is going to run me off" and they never did! He kept the home fires burning with the help of his wife, Aunt Lena.

He was always hiding his "spirits". He thought no one knew about it, but he was wrong. Children are smarter that grown ups realize. One day Grandma James came flying around the house with two half gallon fruit jars full of water. She had found them where we had hidden them in the buggy shed....