A Little Twig from Ladonia (My Family Tree)

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

William Andrew & Elizabeth Miller Nowell -- (2 of 2)

suppose he was destitute. He gave up so much and ended up with nothing. He came back to Ladonia after my grandparents moved from the farm to Church Street in Ladonia. Daddy Roan heard he was in town and looked him up and told him Emma did not need him now, but she certainly did need him when she was a child. "Vinegar" Roan told him if he caught him on Church Street he'd shoot him. Andrew left and that was the last they ever heard of him.

After W. A. left Mary Elizabeth (I'm named Mary for her) took her two little girls and went home to her parents, Adam T. and Hannah Miller. They lived where the Ladonia Public School is now located. He owned and operated a flour mill just south of their home. They had two younger daughters, Autchie, and Arizona, about the same ages as Mother Roan and her sister, Lizzie. So the four little girls grew up together and shared the love of a happy family.

One day, Adam T. was sitting in a swing on the back porch mending harness. A well was being dug by the side of the porch and the clay caught the attention of the four energetic little girls. They immediately began their trips outside for the clay and would bring it on the porch and mold things out of it. Adam T. took it as long as he could and finally told them they would have to stop because they were getting the porch muddy. They paid no attention and kept up their work. He told them if they did not stop, he would have to whip them. That was an unheard of thing. He had never whipped them and they did not believe he would. They kept making their trips outside for the clay. Then he did it! He folded the harness he had mended and swatted each little bottom as they passed by. They were certainly four surpised little girls. Mother Roan said that was the first and only time he ever hit any of them.

My grandmother told how they would go to the orchard and cut long peach tree switches. The girls would take turns slowly moving the switch across the table to keep the flies off the food while the rest of the family ate.