DAVIS:
Hezekiah Davis
Van Davis
Hezekiah Davis
Van Davis married Mary Ann Carson
Robert M. Davis married Letitia Manley
Lilburn Jasper Davis married Sarah Scott. He was born in Toccoa, Georgia. Died about 1919. She was born April 24, 1846 and died January 8, 1900 in Marion County Alabama. Jasper later married Margaret Filippo. I have record of 8 children, my great grandpa was John Jeptha.
John Jeptha Davis was born on September 20, 1867 in Franklin County Georgia. He died on February 27, 1940 in Marion County Alabama. Sarah Catherine Gay was born February 27, 1867 and died November 12, 1949 in Marion County Alabama. They had 12 children, 2 were either stillborn or died shortly after birth, one died at 14 (Rhetta) of pneumonia and John was bit by a cottonmouth snake on his toe and fell on it. They were in a swamp where he and Dave had been fishing. He died before Dave could get Jeptha and his older brother Gus to help. Oh, yes, Dave did kill the snake.
William Abraham Crow was born July 13, 1864 and died July 11, 1944 in Marion County Alabama. He married Julia Rebeka Hendon was born in Gordo, Pickens County Alabama August 13, 1866. She died on May 20, 1953 in Marion County Alabama. They married February 2, 1885.
Mary Jane Savannah Crow was born on April 22, 1886 in Marion County Alabama to William Abraham Crow and Julia Rebeka Hendon Crow. She died on June 9, 1984 in Guin, Marion County Alabama
Dave Anderson Davis was born on May 17, 1889 in Cartersville, Georgia to John Jeptha Davis and Sarah Catherine Gay. He died on March 3, 1975 in Winfield, Marion County Alabama.
From what my daddy, William Jeptha Cornelius (Bill) Davis told me, my grandparents were hard workers as far back as he could remember. He recalled (being their oldest) of going to the ‘mining store’ as a very young boy to get whatever item his Ma needed each day. Pa Davis (Dave) was a miner who had become ill. I don’t know how long they lived in the mining ‘camp’. From there, Pa became (at some point) a share cropper. For those who don’t know the term, he lived on a farm owned by someone else. They furnished a house, barn, etc. along with acreage. Pa farmed the place and whatever he made was split between him and the owner. When I was a child that was his profession. My memories begin at different farms where they lived and where I would spend time with them in the summer.
My time was ALWAYS during summer revival and Pa would hitch up the mares to the wagon and we would go in the morning for preaching and usually go home with whoever was having the visiting preacher to lunch that day. When it was their turn to host the visiting preacher, they all came home with Pa and Ma. The lady of the house always got up early and while the man did chores, she would cook dinner on a wood burning stove and leave it on the table covered with a table cloth. When services were over at the church, everyone who wanted to, came to the host’s home. Men ate first, ladies second and children last. Dishes were washed and put away and the visiting preacher sometimes took a nap on the guest bed while everyone visited. Then, the ones who farmed would go home to do chores (Pa and ma had chores to do, also) and church started again in the evening. Wagons were lined up at the church, horses tied to trees or rails. It was a wonderful week and I recall many friends I made at their church, some I still stay in touch with her after 70 years.
When Pa retired from farming, he and Ma got an apartment in Winfield and Pa got a job as janitor at the Winfield school. What a wonderful mission field for my bold Grandpa. He never saw folks he felt called to witness of our savior that he told them the plan of salvation. He was a wonderful witness for Jesus and God.
After retirement from the school, Pa & Ma Davis were given a house that belonged to them. My Dad’s youngest brother bought them a two bedroom house with an indoor bathroom. Of course when they lived in an apartment while he worked as janitor, they had indoor facilities. But... this was theirs. We enjoyed so many good times there as a family. We had always felt at home wherever they lived. One day while he was mowing one of the doctor’s yards, he was stung by a bee and had a heart attack from the incident and was rushed across the road to the hospital. Not long after he had recovered, he was mowing a nurse’s yard close by the doctor’s home and Pa was stung by a bee. This also resulted in him having his second heart attack. So... he retired again and stayed home. Staying at home was boring. One day we went to their house for a visit and all their shade trees that had lined the drive way were cut down. When Daddy ask what happened, Pa said, I just cannot sit and do nothing’. He was 71 at the time and I thought he was ancient. I’m 83 and I’m young so I guess Pa was young, too.
Ma Davis was also a hard worker. She was the oldest of five children, born about two years before her daddy’s accident that rendered him blind. She was the only one of his children he ever saw. Great grandmother was expecting the second baby when he became blind. He was felling trees and was hit on the head and upon awakening, he never saw again.
Ma (Vanna) took care of her daddy and was his eyes as he worked in the house while Grandma did outside chores. He hitched the horse to the plow and would have plowed could he have seen. When she was 5, Grandpa had a very small plow made for her and she started plowing at that very young age. She stayed with her parents until the other four were married and/or gone from home. At 29, she met Pa and the rest of that is history. She worked like a man and was a wonderful helpmate to Pa. Her life after marriage was hard but the five children who lived were a blessing at least after I was aware of what went on. She had my dad, then Uncle Spurgeon Leonidas, Aunt Julia, Aunt Lavolia, and Uncle Gaston. There was another baby that was stillborn.
Her life is intertwined with Pa’s but she did many things that were not mentioned. She did laundry in a wash pot and wash tubs in water either from a creek or well. She milked cows and canned vegetables that they had grown. Milk was kept in the well bucket lowered into the cold water. Sometimes, she would have a block of ice and put it in the storm cellar by the back door. The cellar was also under the chicken run. The chicken run doubled as a ‘bathroom’ for all females. Men went to the barn across the road. Life was hard, but it was good.
When I was a child, I was not allowed to wear shorts to Ma & Pa’s house without a skirt over the shorts. This was from age five to teenage. I was so proud of my grandparents when my cousin who is 12 years younger than me was majorette at school and Pa & Ma had a large picture of Deb in her Majorette costume hanging on the living room wall. They grew as their grandchildren did and became a supporter of whatever their grandchildren were involved in.
Ma was a good cook, taking whatever they grew or bought and making delicious meals. The very best was when we had ridden the bus to ErGap (later Guwin) and walked to their house which was about a mile. Ma would have left the cornbread from their supper in the warming oven of the wood burning stove and we had bread and milk for supper. Sometimes she would take sausage she had canned and heat it for breakfast. She canned and preserved everything she could. Visiting with them will always bring warm memories.
SANDERSON GRANDPARENTS:
Benjamin Sanderson died in 1757 in Chester County, NC. I don’t have his wife’s name but they had a son named Joseph Sanderson who was born in 1735.
Joseph married Mary and had James Sanderson who was born October 30, 1764. He married Elizabeth Granade, daughter of John and Anna Granade, She was born in 1806 Limestone County, Alabama.
James and Anna Sanderson’s son, John G. Sanderson, was born February 15, 1806 and died October 11, 1830 in Limestone County, Alabama.
John G. Sanderson married Sarah Bell on July 23, 1817. Sarah Bell who was born in Limestone County, Alabama. They had the following children:
James Mattison Sanderson born June 29, 1821. Married Jane K. Harris on October 12, 1842. He died *January 11, 1900.
Daniel C. Sanderson born 1819 in Limestone County, Alabama.
Eliza Sanderson born 1819.
Elizabeth Sanderson was born March 10, 1827. She married Reuben Stephens Belk February 16, 1843.
William K. Sanderson
Jasper Sanderson born October 10, 1830, died September 10, 1898.
Mary Sanderson
James Mattison Sanderson and Jane K. Harris had the following children:
George Luther Sanderson
Mary Ann (Polly) Sanderson
Joseph B. Sanderson 10-17-1844, died February 1, 1865 in Ohio as POW in U. S. Civil War.
Sarah Elizabeth Sanderson 9-29-1849 to 1928 in Lamar County, Alabama
Daniel S. Sanderson 1-1-1846 died February 1, 1865 in Ohio as POW in US Civil War
William Washington Sanderson (Uncle Wash) born 11-11-1847. Died Marion County Alabama.
Nancy Jane Sanderson Born 2-28-1854 died 1934 in Marion County Alabama.
Jasper Newton Sanderson born 5-22-1856, died 3-22-1933 in Marion County Alabama.
Calvin Calhoun Sanderson Born 2-22-1862, died 9-12-1943 Marion County, Alabama.
Ellar Florence Sanderson born 11-13-1865, died 3-10-1907 Marion County, Alabama.
Laura P. Sanderson, 7-30-1858
George Luther Sanderson died when my mother was 16 so he was not in my life at all except by stories told by Mother. He was an excellent mathematician. He had no formal schooling, “cyphered” in his head. He built the home Mother was raised in. It had a ‘dogtrot’ down the middle of the house. There was a large
Bed sitting room on one side with a dining room and kitchen behind that. Earlier, the kitchen was detached from the main house. All bathroom needs were seen to down the path.
Before Pa married Ma, he was married to Talithia Purser who died shortly after giving birth to their ninth baby. Sometime before her death, Ms. Sanderson saw my future grandma at the spring house getting water for the Sanderson School atop the hill from said spring. She mentioned to pa that ‘Tera Gann would make some man a good wife’. Following her death, he courted and married Tera Gann. He had several children still at home. He had a new baby that was sickly. He and Ma --were happy together and there were six more babies. Mother was the thirteenth for Pa and the fourth for Ma.
With so many children, Pa got Marion County to pay for a teacher and he provided a school building for his and the neighboring children. It was Sanderson School and went through what we would call Junior High.
in particular. I was grown before I knew she was my first cousin.
One day, Pa Sanderson went with his brother to buy a car. After Uncle Cal had made his transaction, the salesman ask ‘Mr. George Sanderson’ if he could help him. Pa said well he had picked out the car he wanted. The salesman asked what terms he wanted it on and Pa said “Cash”.
Returning to the spring house, it was still in great condition when I was a small child. He had a cement floor and was sided with wooden slates with a door and it was roofed. The floor had a trench through the center that butter could be kept cool in. At the end of the trench was a fair sized cement box that held milk (sweet and butter) and any other tall jar that needed to be kept cool. There was a dipper on a hook inside the ‘house’ that served whoever came by for a cool drink of water at Pa’s spring. From that box, the water flowed through a cement half-tube to where washing of clothes took place. Ma washed in a black iron wash pot and #3 washtubs. Clothes were spread on bushes unless she had a clothes line. Lastly, the trough went to two large cement boxes where the horses and cows drank.
There was a large barn across the road from the house and close to the barn. There was a smoke house for smoking mean when they killed a hog, beef or deer. The meat was salted and hung on a hook over a slow burning smoke.
We cousins played in the barn and old school building as small children. Since Pa died of congestive heart failure in 1931 and Ma died in 1943 with pancreatic cancer, I was just five when my Uncle Victor and his family lived in the house with Ma until she died and they moved to Hamilton. Uncle Victor had been drafted into the Army.
She and Pa had six children together:
Joseph Martin Sanderson 11-23-1907, died 11-23-1999. Married Anita Powell 9-19-1942.
Elmer Carroll Sanderson 8-1-1911
GANN
William Carrol Gann married Nancy Harbor. They had several children and I only know of Aunt Belle, Aunt Berma and Aunt Etta Myrtle (Ette) and grandma Tera. Aunt Ette was married to Russell Cooper. I don’t remember their other girls spouses; they had families and Uncle Russ and Aunt Ette had nieces and nephews. Two of those great nieces were Jean Sanderson and Janette Davis. On Jean’s 12th and my 11th birthdays, four days apart, Aunt Ette gave each of us a 6” cast iron skillet. I still have mine and have cooked cornbread in it until I was 80 years old. I moved in with my daughter and no longer use all of my cookware. But Aunt Ette was maybe more attentive to Jean and me that made the best memories.
Tera Gann was born in 1880 in Marion County, Alabama. She died in 1945 in the same area. Her life is intertwined with George Luther Sanderson’s above.
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