REEDIE AND ADA BOX
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Reedie Fulton Box was born February 21, 1917 in Fayette County, Alabama. His parents were Luther Franklin Box and Ruth Morris. His mother, Ruth, died when he was ten years old. On August 16, 1936 at the age of nineteen Reedie married sixten year old Ada McCollum. They lived for a year in the house Ada was raised in. Since Ada's mother and father's death in 1931 she had had a hard time making a living. She and her sister, Ida, had been alone for five years. After the first year of marriage, Reedie and Ada moved over across Studhorse Creek on the old McCollough place. At this time their daughter, Patsy Anita Box, was born. They farmed the land and raised their crops and had a few fruit trees. When times became hard Reedie got a job with the Illinois Central Railroad. After he worked there a while he started working at the Winfield Cotton Mill in Winfield, Alabama. In 1954 a son was born to Reedie and Ada named, Tommy Franklin Box. Reedie passed away on April 6, 1965 at the age of 47. Ada is still living at the age of 79.
Story in Fayette County Heritage Book
Newman McCollum, nicknamed "Captain", was born March 24, 1846 in Fayette County, Alabama and died August 1, 1914. He was the son of Joseph McCollum and Elizabeth Roberts. He married Mary Phillips Brown on February 17, 1884 in Fayette County, Alabama. They had five children: Rufus Byrd, Virginia "Jennie", Andrew Jackson "Jack", Thomas Goodwin "Tom", and James Murry "Jim". "Captain" McCollum's great grandfather, Henry McCollum, born around 1697, came from Ireland in 1767. Henry settled in Chester County, South Carolina and died there in 1782. Henry's son Newman McCollum born 1774 came to Fayette County, Alabama in 1824 with his wife Elizabeth Gruise. They had four children: Elizabeth, Henry, James K., and Joseph ("Captain's" father). Newman and his sons ran a rather large plantation with the help of several slaves. After the old Newman's death, his son Joseph became the executor to his father's estate.
Story in Fayette County Heritage Book
I can remember when my Ma and Pa died. I was only 11 years old. Ma died in February, 1931. Pa only lived four months after she died. He died June 3, 1931. My sister, Ida, and I had to stay by ourselves or with Aunt Molly and Uncle Byrd McCollum. We would work in the fields for all of them. We would hoe and pick cotton. I got to hot one time and fell out in the field. We had a hard time keeping enough wood cut to build fires with. We would cook on wood stoves back then and had only a fireplace to keep warm by. We ate gruel for breakfast. This was made by boiling meal and water together until it got thick. Thats about all we had to eat back then. We all had to walk to school in those days. I can remember going to Skimming Ridge School. It was only a one room school house. Sometimes there weren't many students in the class. Most children had to help out in the fields during planting time or gather corn in the Fall. I remember my teacher, Mary Hollingsworth, would sit me on her lap to read to me. On the way to school we had to crawl under barbed wire fences and go through pastures where there were bulls and cows. We didn't have money like kids do today. We made do with what we had or make it. We made dolls to play with and would make playhouses with straw from our pine trees. Ma made us dolls out of corn cobs and tied a cloth around them for clothes. My Ma would pick our old goose for feathers to make pillars out of. Pa would let me go with him in a wagon to town once a year for supplies. He would get us a toy or two. I remember one time he got me a doll that cost 98 cents and a french harp. After Ma and Pa died we sure missed them. We had to start doing for ourselves. We would hire out for 50 cents a day. Sometimes we would hoe cotton when the grass was as high as our heads. I remember coming home from the fields at sundown, eat a cold biscuit left over from breakfast , and go the Aunt Jennie's and Uncle Frank's to spend the night. When it snowed we would tie old peices of quilts around our feet to keep them warm and dry as we walked through the snow. We had shutters on our windows and used kerosine lamps for lights. Ma use to fix up cocoa, salt, or baking power for us to brush our teeth with. We chewed a piece of black tupelo limb for a toothbrush. We would drink out of a dipper that stayed on the front porch and bath in a wash pan. No one knew what a bathroom was in those days. We would have to use an outside toilet or go to the woods. For our pastime we would parch peanuts and make popcorn balls. We loved to go to Church back then more than anything. We would get to ride in the back of Travis Hollingsworths old truck. If we didn't get a ride we would walk and have to cross a creek on a footlog. Those were hard times and good times back then. This is the life I lived way back when I was a small girl way back in the early 1900's.
Story in Fayette County Heritage Book
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Wayne T. McDonald
My grandparents Billy William McDonald, born September 24, 1908, and Sadie Beatrice Box McDonald, born April 29, 1915, were two of the most kind and generous folks to have lived their lives together for 51 years. Together they had one son, Floyd Thomas, born May 31, 1935; and one daughter, Winnie Ruth, born April 24, 1938. They were blessed with six grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. They lived their entire lives in and around Glen Allen-Hubbertville communities in northern Fayette County, Alabama. They lived in a plain wooden house that they had built after their marriage, and made their living farming. They grew corn, peas, and watermelons, that grandpa would sell, and they had chickens and milk cows. They would sell the eggs and mild to make money to buy the items they couldn't grow or raise. Grandpa would do his plowing with a white mule that he had obtained, and grandmother would cook their meals on a wood stove that they had purchased. My grandparents faced a lot of hardships during their lives together, but somehow they always came through them stronger than before. Grandmother always said that if you have faith in God that he would help you through all the bad times. Until the last 12 years of their lives together, they lived without the utilities that we take for granted today, like hot and cold running water and an indoor bathroom. They carried their water from a well and they had an outhouse at the corner of the yard. Grandpa told me once when my father was born, that they didn't have any money to pay the doctor, so they gave some eggs for his pay instead. Grandpa and grandmother were very generous and loving folks, no matter how hard the times were, they always took the time to help others when they were in need. They were the kind of folks that would always be there in your moment of need, willing to do whatever they could, never asking for anything in return. My grandparents lived happily together for 51 years, always happy and so full of love for one another, never arguing about anything. On the early morning of December 16, 1983, grandmother suddenly passed away at the age of 68 years. Grandpa took her death real hard, he wasn't the same man after her death. He would just sit and cry and read his Bible, and pray to God to let him die so he could be with her again. It was as if he had lost all his will to live, as if it had died along with her. He told me once that no one knew how lonely he was, and how bad he was hurting, because he knew he could never be happy again without her. I feel that if ever someone could die from a broken heart, this was the case with grandpa, for I truly believe he died from a broken heart. Grandpa passed away March 24, 1986 at the age of 78 years, and was laid to rest next to grandmother in the Morris Cemetery, located in northern Fayette County near the town of Glen Allen. Today these dear old souls lie side by side, waiting for the Lord's return, so they can spend eternity together in heaven, never to be separated ever again.
My mom, Ada McCollum Box born 1919 in Fayette County, Alabama. Her mother and father passed away when she was only eleven years old and only three months apart. She has been our inspiration.