Author: owenwbrown

This would be my last year at this school building. The first through third grades used the same building but had a different playground area. That prevented the big boys from picking on the little ones. This was the year of the bullies. L.W. Ward, and Jerry Bozeman were the terror of the yard. Jerry was a leader and L.W. was a follower. I later learned that Jerry’s father was a brute and L.W. really was a decent sort of guy. Love not given is a life wasted.

Jerry left town before he finished fourth grade but not before some of the bigger boys at the high school taught him a lesson about picking fights. L.W. followed the rest of us to our senior year but dropped out of school with one semester left. I never heard from or about him again. Success is based on backbone not wishbone.

Mrs Pickens, my third grade teacher, was the prettiest teacher in the school but “pretty is as pretty does” so they say. She had her favorites and I was not one of them. Her husband taught at the high school but I do not remember what he taught. I studied hard and made good grades but I often got in trouble on the play ground.

The threat of my generation was developing as we entered 1954. Vietnam was preparing to divide into North and South. Segregation based on race in schools was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. I had seen the school that the negro children had in my home town and it was, outwardly, as well built as the white children’s school. I asked my mother where the negro children went when they finished grade school and she told me a bus took them to another town. Their band marched in the fair parade, there was none more exciting.

Dr. Jonas Salk’s vaccine of polio kept us all in line. We had to have the vaccine to go to school. I would have gladly dropped out right then. We went to the county court house three different times, standing in long lines each time. Roy Sanders was not one of the luck children. He developed polio and was confined to a red wagon throughout our grade school years.

I was given permission to take in the local Saturday night movie. It became a ritual as long as the theater survived. Fifteen cents would get you in and ten cents would purchase a coke and candy bar from the local grocery store. There was a balcony for the negro movie buffs. I never thought it was fair for the owners to refuse me admittance to the upstairs. We view things not as they are, but as we are.

The man that was the shine boy at the barber shop taught me how to polish shoes. I did not know then that we were not equal. I am sure that some of the things that I thought were generous on his part was fear of the white man. What is said and what is heard isn’t always the same thing.

I think about how many times I called Mrs.Young’s house cleaner Nigger Mattie. I thought Nigger was her first name. She was a wonderful woman. I would often ride with Mrs. Young when she took Mattie home and that was only if it was raining or storming. She lived on a dirt street in a part of town that was just full of shacks. The ditches were wide and deep and I think she had a wooden board, we called them planks, for a bridge. A brown paper bag was the only umbrella that any of us knew about. A reputation is what others think of you, but character is what you really are.

A kidney had been successfully transplanted. People were introduced to Billy Graham. Under God was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. Comic books were selling at a rate of twenty million copies a month. Mr. Spencer would run us out of his grocery store if he found us reading his comic books. He knew that we had no intention of purchasing one. On the rare occasions when I did purchase one of his nickel comics I had to hide it so that mother wouldn’t found out how I had waisted my lunch money. Sports Illustrated made its appearance but none of us were interested. William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies. It became one of my favorites.

Aunt Myrtle would appear out of the blue during the summer. Her school in Wilmont was just like my school. Even teachers got some of the summer off. She would come by mother’s beauty shop and ask if I wanted to go swimming with her grand daughters. I wanted to go swimming but I wasn’t crazy about being seen with two girls. Dutchie was the oldest and Kathie was the youngest. They turned out to be lots of fun. Your beliefs may change, but the truth does not. Sometimes Aunt Myrtle would pick up Sandy and the four of us would have a great time in the Crossett swimming pool. The best present you can give yourself is a friend.

Fourth grade, different building, different part of town. Mrs. Bunn was my teacher. She taught me that adults can be cruel. I will always remember that she crushed my confidence and self assuredness with one thoughtless statement.

I had asked for a part in a school program and she had agreed, I thought. As we begin practice I was having some trouble with my lines. I knew the lines but for some reason they were not coming hard and fast. I saw her lean over to the principle and say, “he was not my first choice”. I immediately went down and told her that I thought someone else should do the part.

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs.Williams, did a good job of mending my self esteem. You will feel better about yourself when you make others feel better about themselves.

Mother and I moved out of Mrs. Young’s duplex. Mother had a belly full of that old battle ax. She didn’t like it when I road my bicycle across her yard even though her yard was a jungle. We paid twenty dollars a month for the two rooms and shared bath. Mother felt like she could do better.

That winter mother invested in a house on the other end of Cherry Street. It was great. The Stell’s had built a house next door and their old house was purchased by mother for five thousand dollars. It sat on the corner and had three cedar and two pecan trees for shade. The good news was we had pecans by the sack full. The bad news was I had to rake the yard and pick up those pecans forever.

Cub scouts was a big thing. Our den was sponsored by two women, Tommy’s mother and Mrs. What’s Her Name. Sorry, I can’t for the life of me remember her name and what we did as scouts. I do remember the time that the halter top she wore didn’t quite do the job it was built for. I guess that she was getting on up in age because one of her saggy breasts had slipped out of the bottom of her halter. The only normal people are the ones that we do not know very well. She never noticed.

Most of the time we just played football in her back yard while the leaders drank beer in the kitchen. Our den leader lived in a duplex and rented the other side. At one of our meetings we had the opportunity to meet a new family that was moving in. They had the loveliest daughter and she turned out to be my age. I decided that I was in love.

She would have nothing to do with me as long as she thought I was interested. Helen was her first name but I have forgotten her last. Bradford. Yes, Bradford was the last name. Two years later she decided I was worth her while and she asked me to march with her in the sixth grade graduation. I enjoyed telling her that I was going to march with one of the guys. Her family moved away after sixth grade graduation and I never heard about her again. Judging a person gives you less time to love them.

Love is a Many Splendored Thing was one of the top songs of 1955. Anaheim, California was home town for a new theme park called Disneyland.

I would visit that park about five years later. I got separated from my sister and her roommate Yvonne Bettencourt. After wandering around that place for what seemed like days I found them enjoying a soda at one of the outdoor cafes. They thought I was on one of the rides and never believed me when I told them I had been lost.

Albert Einstein died. The civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. become synonymous. Busses are boycotted in Montgomery, Alabama.

While setting in the barber shop on day I heard a story about a negro man that drowned in the Mississippi River. It seems that he had stolen some chains and tried to swim the river with them rapped around his body.

As children we accept so much as truth just because some adult says it is so. About this time James Merridith, a young negro man, enrolled in the University of Mississippi. These same men predicted that he would also steal some chains and try to swim across the Mississippi River. It is easy to see how prejudices get so imbedded in a child’s brain and we accept as fact the fiction that is presented to us. It took years to overcome things that were given freely in my home town.

The best influence a child can have is a caring adult worth emulating.

I understand that pink clothes were becoming a fashion statement for men. It didn’t catch on in my hometown. I owned my first pink patterned shirt some fourteen years later and considered myself quite the trend setter!

Mrs. Williams told someone at church one Sunday night that I could be President of the United States someday if I wanted to. Do you realize what that can do for a fifth grader when he hears his teacher make that kind of remark! She never tolerated any foolishness from this potential national leader. I had to tow the line in her class. Maybe that is why I never went into politics. What is said and what is heard isn’t always the same thing.

Dwight Eisenhower is re-elected as President. There went my chance. What you can do is more important than what you can’t do.

February 8, 1956 marked the death of Grandma Walker at age 81. She died an easy death at her oldest child’s home. Aunt Myrtle said that she called out to grandma, who was in another room, “Momma are you feeling alright?” and her response was “yes Myrtle I am feeling better than I have felt in a long time.” Those were grandmother’s last words. When Aunt Myrtle went in later to check on her, Grandma Walker had died.

The funeral was held at the Jones Funeral Home in Hamburg, Arkansas but friends and family gathered at Mother’s house. Lots of food was shared and Grandma was buried next to Grandpa on a cold and rainy day.

I still visit that cemetery on occasion and remember those two special soles. Those two who have such a special place in the hearts of so many. The church still stands and the highway has now become the main artery between Hamburg and Crossett. I still remember it as an old logging road with a few houses scattered here and there.

The construction of the U.S. interstate highway system was approved by Congress. The suburbs begin to grow at the detriment of the urban neighborhoods. The world starts to get smaller.

The Morrison’s moved next door. He was a friend to all the kids in the neighborhood. He made himself available and all of us took advantage of it. He raised Homing Pigeons and gave three of us, Billy Ray, Donald Ray, and yours truly, a pair after we build a loft for our birds. We would go over every afternoon and watch his birds fly. My life became better. He was a wonderful man that treated me as his own. I miss him!

His daughter’s bedroom window was next to a huge fig bush. In the summer, I spent lots of time talking to her and eating figs. I liked them both. His younger child, Bill, was a funny little boy and it was impossible not to like him. He was, after all, his father’s son. The older Bill gave me my first pair of Homing Pigeons, and along with them, many hours, and years of enjoyment. He helped me build a house for my birds. What a guy!

After his family moved away, he always found time to stop by the house and check on me. Stephen Covey said that, “To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.”

It was not unusual for me to visit with Aunt Estelle and Uncle Claude during the summer. Sometime Sandy and I would ride her horse Buddy and when the rodeo came to Crossett, Byrian would let me ride behind him in the opening ceremonies. Sandy was a good rider and she rode her horse alone.

We always got free passes to the rodeo if you were in the opening parade. On one of those nights, a man’s horse got loose after the rodeo and Byrian and some other riders caught the runaway animal. Byrian jumped on back of the bridless horse and tried to get it under control. As it took off down the deserted back road, Buddy took off after them. The bride slipped out of my hands and fell to the ground. I grabbed the horses mane and held on for dear life and the saddle slipped from the top of the horse to between his legs.

That is probably the only reason the he stopped running on the moon lit road. We eventually found Byrian and rode home. The next day the owner of the horse was upset with Byrian for giving up on his horse. It was an adventure that I would never forget.

The high school band director held an assembly for fifth graders for the sole purpose of recruiting new band students. He told us when we would meet for practice and suggested that we not join just because our best friend is. As soon as I find out that my best friend was interested in joining the band so did I. We both selected the cornet as our instrument. We had about ten or so students join that year and some that joined when we got to the sixth grade.

Elvis Presley and rock and roll was the thing! He had at least three songs on the radio station that year, Don’t Be Cruel, Blue Suede Shoes, and Hound Dog.

Charlie Dumas, Charles Chadwick, and I sang We Three King in the Christmas play. We each sang one stanza as a solo and the rest of the fifth grade classes sang the chorus. There were three classes of fifth graders and each class chose one person to sang the solo part. Mrs Williams thought it would be a good idea to practice during class. Nothing would do but for me to stand next to my desk and sing my solo while the rest of my class mates joined in their parts.

Charlie could hear through the class room wall and told everyone in his class that he had the best voice. I suspect that he was correct for once in his life. He did have a brother that went to Nashville, Tennessee in hopes of making his fortune singing country music. Charlie eventually moved to another town and Charles failed a couple of grades.

We all eventually succeeded in graduating from high school. The classic movie The Ten Commandments hit the big screen. Cuba is hit by Fidel Castro and his revolution.

Life is about not knowing what will happen next.

Mrs. Wilson, Miss Marie as we called her, was a tall thin woman that wore her graying hair in a bun at the back of her head. I remember her husband as a kindly old man that would let me ride his large white work horse. On afternoons when he passed by our duplex I would run out and walk with Mr. Wilson and his fine white steed. Occasionally I would muster up the courage to ask him if I might get on top of that horse and ride. He always said “yes” and as he led that wonder horse, I proudly set atop his back and pretended that we were charging headlong into the old west that I dreamed about.

I owned many horses as I was growing up but all of them were broom sticks in their former lives. Actually I did have a real live horse as an adult. It came much too late to fulfill the fantasies of the younger cowboy. Everyone is a teacher.

Miss Marie became my sixth grade teacher. I don’t remember having a preference when it came to the teachers in the sixth grade. I didn’t really know any of them. It was only later that I found out about my teacher and my plow horse friend.

The Space Age was upon us. The Russians sent Sputnik I into outer space as the first satellite. Sputnik II carried the first living thing–a dog–into orbit. Bobby Thompson’s family named their dog Sputnik after the satellite.

That year classes were divided into what the students called smart, average, and the stupid groups. There were three classes and I was fortunate enough to find myself in the smartest group. It was an experiment that helped students work at different levels and slower pace. I had my first fist fight in the sixth grade and I will never forget it.

I learned how to spin a top. I couldn’t begin to tell you how I figured out the correct way to rap the string around the top, but I did. It was a fad that lots of boys took part in.

Mrs. Yakeman retired as the principle for the first through sixth grades and Mr. Allbritten took over. He fancied himself a sportsman. He formed flag football teams in each sixth grade class. We won the league but only because we didn’t make as many mistakes. I did not make the all star team that played for halftime at the junior high game. I really thought that I was a better player than Harvey but Mr. Allbritten saw things differently.

Harvey went on to become an All-State high school player and made the Arkansas A & M College football team. Harvey later died in a hunting accident that left his wife, Maryland Higginbotham, a widow and his children without a father.

I played center and linebacker on our Critz Hall intermural team at Arkansas Tech. We won two games. Defeat doesn’t hurt very much and victory isn’t as sweet if nothing is invested. There was obviously more to Mr. Allbritten than I thought. If he had chosen me for that team, do you think that I might have been motivated to play high school football? Things happen because of chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.

I remember many years later, returning home for mother’s funeral and a neighbor commented on my qualifying and running the Boston Marathon. He said, “isn’t it amazing that now you participate in sports and when you were in high school all you did was play in the band”.

I thought about that for some time. Isn’t it strange that I played basketball on the junior high team that finished second in the state, was catcher on the high school team that lost in the state tournament to the eventual class A state champions, and ran the mile on the high school track team and all he remembered was that I didn’t have a sporting life because I did not play football.

Oh yea, I do not walk with a limp and I enjoy playing my horn to this very day. A life based on the opinions of others borders on slavery.

Did I mention that I was the Yo-Yo champion that year? I won a bag of candy eggs for my effort. I didn’t do as well in the contest that involved eating crackers and being the first to whistle. Bobby Fischer became a chess champion. He was also thirteen. Wow, just imagine, Bobby and I were both champions.

Little league baseball had officially arrived in my home town. After practicing for years after school we finally had a chance to compete as real teams with fields, uniforms, and all that stuff. We called ourselves the Braves, after the Milwaukee Braves that had just won the World Series by beating the loved and hated New York Yankees four out of seven games. The name didn’t help us at all. We won some games but not enough to impress anyone.

Sixth grade marked another change for all of us. We moved across the parking lot to the high school. Seventh graders were in the same building with all the students through twelfth grade. It was a small school and everyone knew each other. If there were any bullies I didn’t come in contact with them. That’s another story.

The United States conducted its first underground nuclear test.

I had my first real vacation this summer. My brother, and his new wife Nell, invited Miriam and me to travel with them to California. Mother agreed to let me go and gave Miriam money to pay for my part of the expenses.

Garvis had a new 1957 red Buick Special. We looked good in that car. He thought it was great fun to roll up the windows so that other would think that he had an air conditioner. Only the more affluent could afford to have that extra in their car. We got hot on occasions!

I always stayed in the back with the red Falstaff cooler that my brother thought was as impressive as his car. It was an awesome metal box and served Garvis well until it rusted apart. Garvis gave me that Buick in 1967, after he had painted it blue. It was still fast and very special to me. My friends at Tech called it the “Blue Goose.

We traveled until late at night and on occasion we slept in a motel and on other occasions we slept on the side of the road. It was a great adventure. We visited with Uncle Ruby, my fathers only brother, and his wife Aunt Mary, Aunt Sally, one of my fathers three sisters, and her husband Uncle Fulton. They all lived in California and I loved every minute of that stay.

Uncle Ruby and Aunt Sally had two children, June and Bobbi. They were all-american kids and Uncle Ruby was very proud of them.

Aunt Sally and Uncle Fulton had retired and started working in the National Parks. I remember seeing snow, for the second time in my life as we visited them in Sequoia National Park. When we reached the higher altitude we found the snow that had accumulated on the side of the road. We stopped and made a snow man and threw a few snow balls. We were not the only “mannies” out that day. Life is great when you are eleven.

I remember seeing Hoover Dam and visiting the Golden Nugget In LasVegas. I never remember being so hot before or after. That includes those nights that mother and I made pallets and slept on the screened in front porch at Mrs. Young’s.

I know that we eventually returned home but I do not remember there turn trip. Garvis was a fast driver and he evidently turned that red Buick homeward and let her go. I made that trip two years later with my sister and her room mate. We spent much more time in motels. Now where is the adventure in that?

1632 Jasper County History

Jasper County history is recorded as far back as 1632, when traders listed the Seven Islands Crossing on the Ocmulgee River as the place they first traded with the Creek Indians. After the Indians, the first settler was a deer hunter named Newby, who lived in a cabin near the present community of Hillsboro, as early as 1790.

In 1790, George Washington met in upstate New York with the Indian tribes east of the Mississippi.

Jasper County was split out of Baldwin County by an act of the Legislature in 1807 and originally named Randolph by the General Assembly. Monticello was laid out and made the county seat in December, 1808. Monticello was named after President Thomas Jefferson’s estate in Virginia. In December, 1812, the name of the county was changed to Jasper. This was to honor Sergeant William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero who risked his life to save his country’s flag from the British. He was killed in the attempt during the seige of Savannah.

John G. Walker married Elizabeth A. Chapman in Jasper County, Georgia, on December 7, 1817. On January 28, 1819, John G. Walker had purchased 163 acres in Dallas County, Alabama, at Section 5, Township 15, Range 9. He paid $326.15 for the purchase.

This property was located near the community of Whites’ Bluff near the Alabama River. On November 29, 1821, he purchased land in Autauga County, Alabama. He settled there and started raising a family. This property located in the Milton Community is still in the Walker family. (Raymond Walker’s farm.)

Dallas County was created by the Alabama Territorial legislature on February 9, 1818 from Montgomery County, a portion of the Creek cession of August 9, 1814. It was named for U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander J. Dallas of Pennsylvania. The County is located in the Black Belt region of the west-central portion of Alabama and is traversed by the Alabama River and bordered by Perry, Chilton, Autauga, Lowndes, Wilcox, and Marengo counties.

Originally, the county seat was at Cahaba, which also served as the state capital for a brief period. In 1865, the county seat was transferred to Selma. Other towns and communities include Marion Junction, Sardis, Orville, and Minter.

(Source: Alabama Department of Archives & History)

1820 Cornelius Walker

John G. Walker’s first son, Rufus Walker, was born in 1820.

Private Rufus Walker, Company H, hailed from Milton, Alabama. Between 1860 to May 4, 1865 he was a POW having been surrendered by Lt. General Richard Taylor to Major E.R.S. Canby. He was paroled in Selma in June 1865.

James C. Walker was the second son born about 1821, followed by Diede, Cornelius M.C. (This is my Great Grand Father), an unknown son, William A., Jasper Newton, and Martha.

Rufus married Eliza Jane Allen on February 27, 1838, and their first son, William S., was one year old. They resided on property owned by their father John G. Walker.

John moved from his home about the same time that this matter was the subject of everyone’s conversations. It can only be assumed that this was the reason for his departure and move further west. We do know, however, that John G. Walker left his land to Rufus, James C. and Diede, who all had families by then. Cornelius M.C. (My Great Grandfather) also stayed behind and settled for the time being in the same area.

In 1850, John G. Walker, 53 years old, and his wife, Elizabeth A., were residing in Lauderdale County, Mississippi. Records reflect that John G. was still solemizing marriages as a minister of the gospel. However, records of the Baptist church do not list him. (It is suspected that after the Baptist split, John G. was associated with what is now known as the Primitive Baptists.)

In John G. Walker’s household was William A., Jasper Newton and Martha.1 Although it is not yet verified, John G. Walker must have died between 1857 and 1860, probably in Lauderdale or Kemper County, Mississippi.

1797 John G Walker

It is reported that my Great Great Grandfather, John G. Walker, was birthed around 1797.

The Louisiana Purchase was made by President Thomas Jefferson in 1805 and it is believed that John G. Walker’s family was living in Greene County, Georgia about that time.

The region between the Oconee and Ocmulgce Rivers was opened for settlement after the Creek cession was made. The indian leaders of the Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee tribes signed a treaty in 1773 that involved about two million acres of Georgia land.

The Creek Nation was at war against the settlers and there was no peace on the Georgia frontier until the War of 1812 was finished. The indian raids were considered minor but the residents were always on alert.

The Creeks were gone by 1827. Greene County was named after Nathanael Greene. He was a General in the American Revolutionary War. George Washington could not have claimed victory for the young United States without his valued contributions.

I believe that some of the Greene family members also settled in the Nolensville, Tennessee area using their Revolutionary War land grants. John G. Walker’s family was in the middle of this fight for survival in this new settlement that would be Jasper County, Georgia.

General Sherman’s Army passed through Jasper County during the latter part of the Civil War. The Jasper Volunteers and the Glover Guards were major groups that county furnished for the Confederate States.

Elizabeth A. Chapman (could have gone by the name Mary) and John G. Walker were married in Jasper County, Georgia, December 7, 1817. He could have been 20 years old and she could have been 28. Elizabeth Chapman was born in South Carolina, 1789.

Memories, we all have them. The trick is to find the key that unlock what we have stored in our memory bank. I am trying to remember not to forget.

The exact date of my Great Grandfather’s birth is not know but it is generally accepted as 1797. The location was Georgia “the region of the Oconee” in Jasper County. His family settled in Greene County, Georgia in 1805, the same year President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase. John G. Walker and his family would have had to have been Indian fighters to survive as pioneers in their new territory. Great Grand Paw John G. Walker could have been about 8 years old when they moved.

1857

John G.Walker’s daughter, Martha, married J.F. Blanks in 1857, in Mississippi,19 and they moved shortly thereafter to Hamburg, Arkansas, in Ashley County. John G.’s widow, Elizabeth A. resided with them in 1860. William A. and Jasper N. also came to Hamburg with their mother and sister. Jasper N., however, left the family and traveled with the David Lightsey family to Walker County, Texas. In 1860 Jasper married Martha Lightsey in Hamburg, Arkansas. Jasper’s descendants are still in Walker County, Texas.

In Autauga County, Alabama, Rufus, James C., Diede Walker Hunt, and Cornelius M.C. were all raising families and working cotton farms.

In 1850, Rufus Walker owned 21 slaves, and James C. owned 2 slaves. It is assumed by the ages of the slaves that all were of one family and probably came to Alabama from Georgia originally with father John G. Walker. (John G. owned 2 slaves in 1830.) It is interesting to note that by 1860, Rufus Walker had disposed of his slaves and no longer concentrated on cotton farming. He instead was raising hogs.

Rufus and James C. owned adjoining farms which also joined with sister Diede Hunt’s farm. Cornelius M.C. was farming 80 acres near Autagaville.

Rufus Walker sold his farm in November 1849, to Powhatton Kelly and moved further north, about the line between Chilton and Autauga Counties. The farm that Rufus sold in 1849 now joins the old Bob Walker place. (Now Raymond Walker’s farm). The large pond now known as “Kelly’s Pond” was known back then as “Walker’s Pond.”

As the Civil War approached, it was quite obvious that the Walkers of Autauga, Alabama, and Hamburg, Arkansas, and Walker County, Texas, were all States’ Rights advocates, and cast their fates and fortunes with the Confederacy.