James Aston Golmon Family

James Aston Golmon was born in Franklin County, Mississippi on July 28, 1886 to the marriage of Albert Gatlin Henderson Brown Golmon and Sarah Burnetta Godbold.

James was first married to Margurett Lucinda Barfoot circa 1902.  Margurett died on December 28, 1926 and is buried in the New Salem Cemetery in Franklin County, Mississippi.  The tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Renee Guy.

The 1930 U.S. Census shows James Golmon (widowed) and children living in Ward 7, Franklin Parish, Louisiana.

Following the death of Margurett, James married a second time to Sarah "Sallie" Armfield Guice. Sallie was the widow of Enos Nathaniel Guice.

The 1940 U.S. Census shows James, Sallie and James Jr. living in Ward 3, West Carroll Parish, Louisiana. The census record also notes their home in 1935 as Madison Parish, Louisiana.

James Aston Golmon died on April 19, 1959 and Sarah "Sallie" Armfield Guice Golmon died on February 10, 1961.  Both are buried in the New Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. The tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Karen Klemm Pinckard.

The following children were born to the marriage of James Aston Golmon and Margurett Lucinda Barfoot:

Roy, 1910-? (m. Sadie)
Ray, Sr., 1912-1984 (m. Inez Rushing, 1913-1988)
Mae, 1914-2009 (m. Ernest Marvin Roberts, 1911-1991)
Albert Thomas, 1917-1978 (m. Eugenia, 1923-1994)
James Aston, Jr., 1924-1945

Ray Golmon, Sr. and Inez Rushing Golmon are both buried in the New Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.  The tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Karen Klemm Pinckard.

The following children were born to the marriage of Ray and Inez Golmon:

Ray, Jr., 1931 (m. Bernice W., 1938)
Pauline, 1935 (m. George Larry Henslee, 1933)
James Alton, ca 1937-ca 1940
Jerry, 1938 (m. Elva Weeks, 1940)

Mae Golmon Roberts and Ernest Marvin Roberts are both buried in the New Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.  The tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Karen Klemm Pinckard.

The following children were born to the marriage of Mae and Ernest Roberts:

James Marvin, 1934-2008 (m. Angie)
Larry Lynn, 1940
Joe L., 1953
Ronnie
Tommy Gene

James Aston Golmon, Jr. died while serving his country in World War II as part of the Army Air Forces, 72nd Bomber Squadron, 5th Bomber Group.  He is classified as Missing in Action as of May 18, 1945.  A memorial marker for Staff Sgt Golmon was placed in the Natchez National Cemetery, Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi.  The memorial marker photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Karen Bink.

Childhood Memories of Flora Crawford Eschenburg, Part 4

The following transcript is from the childhood remembrances of Flora Kathryn Crawford Eschenburg who was the daughter of Samuel Cooke Crawford and Rachel Victoria Seal.

Part Four - Weather Signs, Medicine and Superstitions

Weather Signs

With our new radio, we could not receive weather reports daily as we do today so we relied a great deal on weather signs handed down from generation to generation.

• If it thunders in February, it will frost in April on that same date.

• If cattle huddle together or seem restless, this is a sign of a change in the weather.

• If animals grow thick hair, it is a sign of a bad winter ahead.

• If it frosts three consecutive days, it will then rain.

• If it rained while the sun was shining, the saying was, "The devil is beating his wife."

• If the horns of a quarter moon turned downward, this signifies a wet moon and the water will pour.

• A ring around the moon enclosing stars within the ring tells that it will rain within that many days.

• If the sun sets behind a bank of clouds, it means rain.

• If a rooster crows before midnight, it's a sign of bad weather.

• The first twelve days after Christmas represent the twelve months of the year and one can predict what kind of weather to expect each month.

Medicine

For people who lived in the country, it was not easy to get a doctor when needed.  People relied a lot on home remedies.  Some that I remember are:

• For croup, use mullen tea.  Mullen was a plant that grew wild.

• Catnip teas were given for various ailments.

• Mustard poultices made from crushed mustard seed were place on the chest for any deep congestion and especially for pneumonia.

• Poke salad was eaten in the spring to bring good health.

• Sassafras tea made by boiling the roots of a sassafras bush was a good spring tonic.  Sugar was added to enhance the taste.

• Sugar and turpentine were given for coughing.

• Woolen underwear or long johns must be worn until May 1st or you might be exposed to illness.

• When hot packs needed to be applied, a bag of hot cornmeal mush, or hot salt, was used.  Hot water bottles were not available then.

• Asafedeti [Asafetida] worn around the neck helped fend off germs.

• Pneumonia was quite prevalent and when one was weak from the results and needed a quick "pick-up" they were sometimes served hot hog-foot tea.  This was made from boiling the hog feet and drinking the water.  Now we know that this provides an easily digested form of protein.  Today our gelatin is made from this source.

Superstitions

• I have already mentioned that Papa didn't like starting anything on Friday unless he was sure that he could finish the job.

• Some people believed that if a screech owl screeched near their home it meant a death in that home within the year.

• Some believed that if you planted a weeping willow tree in your yard someone in your family would die within a year.

• Black cats were always bad luck.  If one crossed your path, you'd better turn around and go back the way you came, find another path, or make the sign of the cross and spit to break the spell.

• Some believed if they dreamed of the dead it would rain.

• A lightening bug in the house was a bad omen.

• Starting someplace and having to go back before reaching your destination was a bad omen.

To Be Continued...

**********

Special thanks to Joan McLemore for allowing me to share her Aunt Flora's childhood remembrances.  Joan is the daughter of Flora's older sister, Dell Crawford Meadows.

Note:  Parts 1-3 of 'Childhood Remembrances of Flora Crawford Eschenburg' can be found in the Tags List on the right side of the blog, under the tag titled Crawford Family.

Friday's Faces from the Past - Linemen

Sidney Collins, Ed Jones, Guy Price - REA Linemen, December 1960

Family Recipe Friday - Cruse Chisum's Divinity

When my mother made Divinity at Christmas time, she always used this recipe given to her by Roberta Cruse Graham Chisum.  Mrs. Cruse was the wife of Edward Walling Chisum, Jr.

My mother - Christmas 2007

Childhood Remembrances of Flora Crawford Eschenburg, Part 3

The following transcript is from the childhood remembrances of Flora Kathryn Crawford Eschenburg who was the daughter of Samuel Cooke Crawford and Rachel Victoria Seal.

Part Three - Customs

Almost every farmer raised his own food.  We had chickens and eggs.  The hogs provided ham and bacon as well as sausage and lard.  The cows provided the milk, butter and beef.  

In the garden, we raised sweet potatoes, peanuts, watermelons, and cantaloupes.  We raised sugar cane and had a syrup mill with which Papa made syrup for our family and for the community.

The mill was turned by mules pulling the pole that caused the inside grinders to turn.  Men stood outside poking stalks of cane that had been stripped of the fodder into the grinder.  A spout directed the juice into a vat.  There was a large sectioned pan into which the juice was poured. This pan was over a furnace that heated the juice to a boiling stage, producing syrup.

It was such great fun to get to go to the cane mill after school.  Papa would let us bring friends home with us and give them a drink of cane juice.  This was a great treat for us and for our friends.

Mama made lye hominy from corn.  This was another great treat.  It tasted differently from the hominy bought in cans today.  She also made lye soap, using ashes and lye and some other ingredients, most of which I can't remember.

Hog killing day was a big event in our lives.  Usually two or three neighbors came to help us and five or six hogs were dressed out in one day.  The meat was salted down for a few days and smoked with hickory wood for preservation and for good flavor.  The intestines were cleaned and used for sausage casings and, of course, for chittlins.  Some of the meat was ground and seasoned to stuff in the casings.  This was smoked for the most delectable sausage ever tasted. Our dad had a talent for seasoning things just right.  Souse (or hoghead cheese) was made from the hogs' heads which we boiled.  We also pickled the pigs' feet.

We did buy a few things like coffee, sugar and flour.  However, the coffee was bought green, then roasted and ground at home.  We made our own corn meal from the corn we raised and ground at the grist mills.

For light, we used coal oil lamps fueled with kerosene.  In 1924, our family bought and installed a dynamo system that gave us our electricity.  We were among the very first, and few, that had such a system to light the house.  What a luxury those electric lights were.  This system also made it possible for us to have a pump to pump water into a tank.  We got our first real bathtub with running water.

When a man built a house, the chimney was often made of clay and straw with sticks forming the structural supports.  We had a brick chimney at our home, but when my brother Bud married, he and Papa built a small house and made the chimney from mud and moss which they shaped over a wooden frame.

When new ground needed to be cleared, it meant cutting all the trees and brush so that the land could be used for farming.  The farmer would have a "Log Rolling".  All the neighbors would come, bringing their whole family.  The men joined in the cutting of the trees and brush while the women cooked the meal.  Most of the women brought food already prepared.  A large table was spread outside and we enjoyed a neighborhood feast.  Of course, there were errands for the younger ones to do, like taking water and coffee to the workmen.  It was an enjoyable day, as well as a work day.

Everyone made their mattresses and quilts and often their feather beds.  I remember having to pick the down from the geese to make feather beds, and there was nothing like sleeping on a feather bed in the winter.  When quilting time came, the women gave quiltings at different homes until everyone had their quilts finished.  

One thing that stands out in my memory is that people helped each other whenever and whatever the need.  If anyone was sick, it was not unusual for the women to go "sit up" with the sick person, sometimes staying all day or all night if needed. 

My school teacher in the sixth and seventh grade was Georgia Westbrook [Peniston].  She liked to tell us what things were like when she was growing up.  She said her father made caskets for those who couldn't afford to buy ready-made ones.  To make the casket, a pine or cypress board was shaped to be more narrow at each end than in the middle.  Then, to make the side pieces curve to fit this, the boards were placed in boiling water to make them pliable.  Then the sides were nailed to the bottom board.  The top board that sealed the casket was the same shape as the bottom board.  I remember seeing homemade caskets in our community.  I think our father made one for a neighbor.

At Christmas, we would find and cut our own tree and gather holly.  We always hung our stockings by a chimney.  However, children did not get the lavish things they get today.  We usually got an apple, an orange, some nuts and candy.  The girls usually got a doll, although sometimes they were rag dolls made by our mothers.  The boys often got fireworks.  Very few toys were received, but I think this served to make us more inventive.

We made our own playthings, often with spools, corn cobs, shucks, and scrap lumber.  However, at Christmas, all the treats were appreciated because they were not always available at other times of the year.

Telephones came to Sicily Island around 1918.  There were two in town.  One was at the Chambers Boarding House and the other was at Steele's store.  

Chambers

Former Steele store

We got our first car around 1925.  About 1928, we got our first radio, but not everyone could listen at the same time because it had only earphones instead of a loud speaker.

 To Be Continued...

**********

Special thanks to Joan McLemore for allowing me to share her Aunt Flora's childhood remembrances.  Joan is the daughter of Flora's older sister, Dell Crawford Meadows.

Note:  Parts 1-2 of 'Childhood Remembrances of Flora Crawford Eschenburg' can be found in the Tags List on the right side of the blog, under the tag titled Crawford Family.