Clay County Alabama Biographies.....Joseph W. Elder ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.genrecords.net/alclay/ ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb by: Melissa Speed mspeed1@worldnet.att.net January 9, 2004, 11:34 am Author: Vista Strickland The Elders – A History Chapter 1 The first history I have of the Elder family, they were living in Scotland in the 15th century. They migrated to England and Ireland because of religious viewpoints and liberties. My grandfather, Joseph W. Elder, was a descendant of John E. Elder, who, with two brothers, came to America landing at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1669. John, born 1650, came over as a stowaway, working out his passage with a rich merchant. His two brothers later went to Ohio and Michigan. While John was working out his passage with the rich merchant, he fell in love with the merchant’s only daughter. Because of her family’s social standing and financial position, he hesitated to make known his love for her. She did not shun him, and history has it that he went to her father and told him he was in love with a girl but afraid that her father would not consent to their marriage. It was unlawful at that time for a man to steal a girl. The girl’s father suggested that there was no law to prohibit a girl from stealing her sweetheart, so they eloped and married at Dinwiddy County Court House, Virginia. It is on record there to this day. From this marriage were born several boys and girls, one of which was John Elder II> John Elder II was born in 1735. He married Mary Matthews, daughter of Ephram Matthews of Brunswick County, Virginia. George Matthews, brother of Mary Matthews Elder raised a regiment of soldier, became a colonel and fought in the Revolutionary War. He afterwards went to Georgia and was elected governor of Georgia for two terms, then was representative in Congress. He died in Georgia and his remains now lie in a cemetery in Augusta. The records and date of the marriage of John Elder and Mary Matthews Elder were destroyed by fire in Virginia in the war of 1861 to 1865. They raised a family of five boys and two girls. I have a record of all these, but I am giving only the line through which my mother, Nettie Elder Strickland, descended. David Elder, second son of John and Mary Matthews Elder, was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, January 7, 1760. He served in the Revolutionary War in Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. He married in 1786 the first time in Brunswick County, Virginia to Molly Read, a cousin of George Washington, our first president and “father of our country”. From this marriage were two sons and two daughters. He married a second time to Mollie Phillips of Dinwiddy County, Virginia, on January 23, 1797. From this second marriage came eight sons and daughters, some born in Virginia and some in Georgia. David and his older brother, Joshua, moved from Virginia to Georgia, arriving in Clark County (now Oconee) on January 11, 1807. Joshua stayed in Georgia for a few years and then went to Mississippi. David remained in Georgia and died there. When David Elder moved to Georgia he had with him his second wife, Mollie Phillips Elder, since his first wife had died in Virginia. He also had seven or eight children and a large number of slaves. He laid claim and took into possession a large body of land given by the government for his extensive service in the Revolutionary War. He, his sons and slaves went directly into the original forest on Big and Little Rose Creeks and built homes for themselves. Mollie Phillips Elder lived only a few years after moving to Georgia. She was buried in the old Elder Cemetery on Rose Creek in lower Oconee County (then Clark(e)?). After her death, David married Elizabeth Allen in 1813. From this marriage issued three daughters. Elizabeth Allen owned a large number of slaves in her own name, thus, David Elder came into possession and charge of them, also. This gave him labor and ability to clear more land and to enlarge his farming interests until he owned an immense body of land on which he raised cotton and corn for many years. He died in Clarke County (now Oconee) on August 4, 1853, and was buried in the Elder Cemetery. He lived to age of 93. Wych Malone Elder, my great-grandfather, seventh son of David Elder and Mollie Phillips Elder, was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, October 5, 1804. He married Mary Jane Burt of Clarke County, Georgia, who was born January 11, 1809. Their children were Joseph, Ellen, Ann, Francis, Doctor, John, Thomas, Edmond and Mary. Joseph, the oldest, was my grandfather. Wych M. Elder died at Roanoke, Alabama, March 11, 1870. Mary Jane died at Roanoke on February 2, 1884. Wych Elder’s name was originally Wych Malone J [enkins] Elder and was used in full by his father, David Elder, when making distribution of his property in his will in May, 1853. The foregoing information is from a record compiled and written by W. Shannon Elder of Watkinsville, Georgia, in 1935 and given to me by my uncle, Wych Elder, of Rock Hill, South Carolina. In this record it is stated that there were at that time, 1935, more than 1,000 descendants of David Elder living in Georgia and Alabama, mostly in Oconee and Clarke counties, Georgia. The writer of this record says that Ruth Elder, the noted flying girl and the first woman to attempt to fly the ocean, was a great-granddaughter of Wych and Mary Jane Burt Elder. I do not know when Wych and Mary Jane Elder emigrated from Georgia to Alabama, since the record does not say, but he raised his family in Chambers County, Alabama. Wych M. J. Elder was founder of the first Christian church in Alabama. This first church building has long stood as one of the state’s religious landmarks. At the grave of Wych and Mary Jane, near this church building at Lanett, Alabama, in Chambers County, there has been erected a stone marker with the legend, “In memorial tribute to him for his life so consecrated by God, his fellowman and Alabama.” Chapter 2 The Family of Joseph Elder I don’t know what year Grandfather Joseph Elder moved to Clay County, settling in Shinbone Valley, but according to the census he was living in Clay County in 1870 in Flatrock Beat. (My great-grandfather, A.B. Strickland, was listed in the census of 1870 at Flatrock post office.) The following information is from the family Bible: “Joseph W. Elder was born March 22, 1831, and was married to Sarah Jane Manning, who was born April 1, 1834. They married on December 26, 1852. Their children were Permilla Ann Francis, Ellen America, David Brooks, Mary Elizabeth, Sarah Jane, Wm. Doctor, Edmond Hartwell, Viola Vilula, Joseph Jubelee, Polly Prudence, Geanette Artlissa, Wych Malone Jenkins Elder.” Joseph Elder’s wife, Jane, died August 21, 1886, and he married the second time to Rosa Ann Elizabeth Hill Deloach, a widow, of Chambers County, on September 13, 1888. Joseph Elder died November 8, 1913. Rosa E. Elder died May 24, 1917. They were buried by the side of his first wife, Jane, in the Union Cemetery in Clay County, Alabama. Grandfather Joseph Elder, like Great-grandfather Strickland, was against secession, though he served in the Southern Army during the Civil War. Because of an injury to the hip as a child, which caused him to walk with a limp, he was not a fighting soldier. He worked around the camps and delivered food and supplies to the soldiers. He told of the hardships of the soldiers— how many of them almost starved to death, sometimes getting so hungry they would eat dogs. Said that if a fat dog came around camp, it was too bad for the dog. He said that many times he had laid “half-moon” pies in the crease of his hat and slipped them out to half-starved, wounded and sick soldiers. My grandmother was left home with four small children and another born during the war. She had a hard time as did all the wives and children of the soldiers. Grandpa carried a picture of Grandma in his pocket through the war. It was in a little velvet-lined case. Grandma kept one of him in a similar case at home. I have seen these pictures. We have some copies made from them. Grandpa’s looked almost new, while Grandma’s was pretty well worn on the outside. Grandpa Elder settled near the Little Kichemedogee Creek, over the Gray Hill from Union between High Falls Branch and Pretty Branch. He raised his family in a three room log house with an open hall. When Mama was around ten years old, he started building a new house. Before it was finished, Grandma died. Grandpa finished the house and later married Rosa Deloach of Chambers County. The day Grandpa brought his new wife home, Uncle Wych, then around ten years old, fell off a horse and broke his arm. He was close to Grandpa Strickland’s home when the accident occurred and Grandma Strickland bandaged his arm, got him back on his horse and took him home. The new wife was a real mother to the children from the very first and they loved her. Grandpa Elder’s spring was across the “big road” southwest of the house, below a hill edged with beech trees. Big trees grew all around the spring, which was boxed in with a big long box. Clear sparkling water, bubbling up through the white sand, flowed over the top of the box and ran off in a beautiful stream that ran into the High Falls Branch a little above the road. There was a mineral spring a few feet from this spring, from which flowed water all purple and gold with minerals. It had an offensive taste and odor. Some people used it for medicinal purposes. Dr. Mackey got water from there for his wife to drink. There was also another spring a little distance from it where Grandma kept her lilies in winter. She put them in the spring and covered them over with planks and they never froze. Grandpa dug a well in the yard, but had a hard time getting water, and when he did it was not good to drink or for washing clothes. He spent a lot of time and money trying to perfect a method of drawing water from the spring to the house, but nothing proved successful, so they had to carry water for drinking, wash clothes at the spring where they had a “wash place” with tub benches, wooden tubs, a battling bench and battling stick, and a wash pot to boil clothes. He didn’t know then about hydraulic pumps or he could easily have furnished his home with water, probably with no more money than he had spent. Grandpa owned several rent houses—one a little north of his home on the west side of the “big road”, and two on the part of Gray Hill that runs north and south, east of the road. There was also a little log house near the edge of Grandpa’s yard, between the house and horse lot, where Abram Elder, son of a former slave of Grandpa’s father, and his wife, Sarah, used to live. Sarah used to take care of me when we went to Grandpa’s house. I loved her. When Mama was small there were two or three houses near the spring where black people lived. Mama loved them, especially “Uncle Mose” who was old. On bitter cold mornings he would come to Grandpa’s and say, “Mose is cold this morning. He needs something to warm him up.” No one in the family drank, but Grandpa usually kept a little whiskey for medicinal purposes. He would fix a warm toddy, Mose would drink, and say, “Mose feels better now. Much a- bleeged”, then he would go back to his house. I remember a black man lived with Abram and Sarah named Frank. He was a slim man with a flat nose. Abram was shorter and more heavily built. After Uncle Wych married, Frank lived with Grandpa and worked for him. Later he lived with Uncle John Shaddix and Aunt Ellen. He was old and sick when we came to Texas. One day Uncle John came by, taking him to the doctor. He stopped the buggy down at the road and came to the house asking me to take Frank a drink of water. Uncle John said Frank had insomnia and wanted to sleep all the time. I took him some water, thinking about the word “insomnia” as I had never heard it before and it was a long time before I learned that Uncle John had it backward. What Frank had was just the opposite of insomnia. The following was taken from The Clifton Record, Clifton, Texas, dated August 18, 1933, after my mother’s visit to Alabama: “Attends Big Family Reunion in Alabama” Mrs. J.A.F. Strickland has returned from a visit to her old home in Alabama and reports having a most wonderful time looking over familiar scenes and meeting friends and relatives. She had only one sister living there now, but was accompanied on the trip by a sister, Mrs. J.A. Strickland and husband of Luling, Texas, and was met there by two brothers from South Carolina and a sister and sister-in-law from Georgia. They went together to the old home where they were all born and reared to manhood and womanhood, but she says things are so changed that nothing looks natural. She attended a reunion, an annual affair, of the descendants of her Grandfather Elder, who was the founder of Alabama’s first Christian church and also attended a reunion of her father’s family of which the following is an account as it appears in two Alabama papers, The Lineville Tribune and The Ashland Progress: (The J.D. Strickland mentioned in this article spent some two years here in Clifton several years ago and has friends here who will be glad to know that he has made good.) “Reunion of Elder Family” A reunion of relatives and friends of Joseph Elder, deceased, “Uncle Joe” Elder, was held at Mt. Zion church, in the northeastern part of Clay County, July 25, 1933. The following of his children were present: Mrs. Ellen Shaddix of Lumber City, Georgia, Mrs. Sarah Carter, Pyriton, Ala., Mrs. Lula Strickland and husband, John Strickland, Luling, Texas, Jube Elder and wife, York, South Carolina, Mrs. Nettie Strickland, Clifton, Texas, Wych Elder and wife, Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Dorcus Elder, wife of Hartwell Elder, deceased, Lumber City, Ga. There were present 40 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and from 400 to 5000 other relatives and friends of this good and noble man, who spent the best years of his life in this community and who passed on to his well- earned reward of peace several years ago. Since Edmond Elder, my great-uncle Ed, was closely associated with Shinbone Valley, I am listed his family here: Edmond Elder, born 1848, married Sarah Love, who was born 1860 and died December, 1910. Eleven children. Edmond born 1868, married Nettie Blunt. Tillman born 1868, married Leila Webb. Alice born 1869, married John Kilgore. Sam born 1871, married Mary Sockwell. Will born 1874, married Florence ________. Thomas born 1874, married Leila Rogers. Oscar born 1875, married Sarah McGollen. Jesse born 1877, married Lena Winn. Etta born 1880, married Leakey _________. Nora born 1881, married Will Parsons. Edgar born 1890, married Nelma _______. These are all that are listed on this record by H. W. Elder, but if I remember correctly, I knew a girl younger than Edgar whose name was “Leah”. So far as I know, Sam L. Elder never lived in Shinbone Valley, but he visited there a number of times when a boy and my mother was a little girl. Mama knew him quite well—he was the son of Ed Elder, then living in Anniston. The first time I saw him was soon after we came to Texas. He and his daughter, Clarice, a beautiful young girl, visited at Uncle Dock Elder’s, Hamilton County. They lived near Valley Mills in McLennan County. After we moved to Bosque County, which joins McLennan, we came to know the family. Sam and Mary Sockwell Elder’s children were Clarice, Annie, Joseph, Prentice, J. W., Ethel, Winnie Bell, Erma and Euna. We knew Prentice better than any of them for he visited often as a young man and became one of our favorite persons. In later years, we moved farther away, and almost lost contact with them. I don’t know who all of them married. Clarice married A. D. Black, Annie, Roy Black; Joseph, _________, Prentice, Velma Cunningham; Ethel, C.B. Simpson; Euna, George Crosley. Prentice and Velma live in Clifton. Their children are Lee, Amos, Oleta, Dorothy, Betty and Mary. Though we live only eleven miles apart, I am sorry I don’t know all of them. Those I do know, or have met, are Dorothy, Mrs. Bill Turner, a registered nurse who worked for a time at Meridian Hospital, and after moving to Fort Worth became “Mrs. Fort Worth” in 1959. Mary, Mrs. Duane Davis, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Amos, superintendent of Joshua, Texas, schools, and Lee. Joseph, son of Sam, lives in Birmingham, Atlanta. The Sam Elder family is scattered all over Texas. In 1973, Omar Strickland, son of Uncle Malie Strickland, who had moved to Cleburne, Texas, from Lubbock, where he had been teaching, applied for the position of math teacher in Joshua High School. He learned that the superintendent was Amos Elder, my distant cousin. He got the job, and now I have two cousins teaching in the Joshua schools, one named Elder and one named Strickland. Prentice and Velma attended my sister, Easter, and husband’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration in Kopperl, Texas, October 14, 1972, and we attended theirs a month later in Clifton. The only one of Grandma Elder’s people I remember seeing was her brother, Uncle William Manning. He came once and visited at Grandpa’s and we went to see him. Grandpa bought the first cook stove in the community, a large black range with a reservoir for hot water, and a warming closet. He later bought a larger range and gave the first to Aunt Permilla and Uncle Joe Carter. He also bought the first sewing machine in the community, a new home machine. Mama said that when the sewing machine agent came he had a little fawn with him, the first baby deer she had ever seen and while the agent showed Aunt Sarah how to operate the machine, she and Uncle Wych played with the little faun. Grandpa Elder was a teacher of the sacred harp music—only four notes; a triangle, circle, square and diamond, standing, respectively, for fa, sol, la, mi. He taught several singing schools at Union. I have heard Papa and Mama tell of concerts at the close of school, how they marched, wearing headdresses and carrying banners of colored, fringed paper. When the concerts were at night, they carried candles. Grandpa raised his family to sing. After Abram Elder moved out of the little log house at the edge of Grandpa’s yard, Grandpa’s nephew, Oscar Elder and wife, Sarah, lived there with their three girls, Pherla, Pauline and Ruth. When we visited at Grandpa’s we played with them. Ruth was the same Ruth Elder mentioned in Shannon Elder’s record. The Ruth who tried to fly across the ocean in 1927, but failed. It was in 1927 that she and Captain Haldeman, her co-pilot and navigator, left Long Island in a Stinson Monoplane called “The American Girl” to fly over the Atlantic. Lindy had made his famous successful flight some five months before and Ruth wanted so much to be the first woman to fly the ocean, but they had to ditch the plane some 350 miles from the Azores and were picked up by a Dutch tanker. Around 1927, she made films for Paramount, getting $1,000 a day. One was “Moran of the Marines” with Richard Dix in 1922. At her request her ashes were scattered off the Golden Gate Bridge by a crew from an Air Force plane. She died at the age of 74. Grandpa’s place was always busy with hired hands and tenants farming, mending terraces, ditching and improving the farm. Little Kichemedogee had been straightened for a long time, but the field between Gray Hill and the hill on which the house sat was swampy. I can remember Mama helping Grandma cook for the men who worked. Sarah Elder, black, also helped. Grandma had a little brass bell on a handle to ring when the meals were ready. When the bell rang, the men came marching in, the white men sat at a table on one side of the room, and the black men on the other side. The women waited on the tables and fanned flies away with young peach limbs full of leaves. The men talked about how they were draining the bottom land, and Papa told us how it was done. They dug deep ditches ever so far apart, blinding them by covering them with slabs from the sawmill, and then covering the slabs with soil deep enough to be plowed over without disturbing. This made the land tillable. It was rich and grew fine crops. Grandpa was old and lame, so he didn’t do much work himself, but he was a good manager. He had some sheep skins and everyday in summer, after he had eaten his noon meal, he would spread one out on the back porch and lie down for a nap. I can see him now, his hat over his eyes, sleeping, while we children climbed on the banisters and played. He went to Texas the year I was six and stayed a month. Oh, how we missed him. When he came back we were all there to welcome him. I remember that Grandma cried. I wondered why. I thought she should be glad, too, but I didn’t know then that people cried also from happiness. Grandpa and Grandma had a lot of company—their children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters from Chambers County, and Oxford and Anniston. The preachers visited them and one school teacher boarded there. From Chambers County I remember seeing Uncle Tom, Grandpa’s brother, and Aunt Josie Elder, his sisters, Aunt Mollie Chewning, Aunt Francis and Uncle Sheriff Brewster. Whit and Palace Elder, Grandpa’s nephews, and Betty Stephenson, a relation. Uncle Ed Elder, Grandpa’s brother, lived in Anniston and spent much time prospecting for gold, digging ditches and pits on Grandpa’s and Uncle Rich and Uncle Joe Carter’s land, filling the banisters around Grandpa’s back porch with “fool’s gold” (pyrites and pyritees). Beautiful shiny rocks they were! How I would like to have them in my rock collection today. Uncle Ed didn’t resemble the prospectors we see in movies. He was tall and slender and [was] always clean shaven and well dressed. Grandpa was also a slender man, but he wore a long white beard. When he was too old to farm, he built a new house with a basement under it near the edge of the hill above the spring. They had a barn and horse lot for Tommy, the horse, and a lot for the cow, Mot, and a toilet and smoke house. They raised a garden and sweet potatoes, and Grandma raised water lilies and tube roses. Grandma could bake the waxiest, sweetest potatoes, and the most delicious apple pie, the best biscuits and ham with red gravy. JOSEPH W. ELDER’S CHILDREN & FAMILIES Permilla Elder married Joe Carter – children: Lee, Eva, Lovie, Dock, Ezekiel “Zeke”, and Rosie. Ellen Elder married John Shaddix – children: Jim and Mary (adopted). Elizabeth Elder married Gene Newsome – children: Cora and Exer. Sarah Elder married Richard Carter – children: Dora, Iola, Brooks, Harrison, Whit, A.Z., Wych, Lessie, Dewitt and Odessa. Wm. Doctor Elder married Mantie Wade – children: Arthur, Joe, Electa, Myrtle, Russel, Bill, Tennie, Levena, Sam and Anna. Anna died as a child. Hartwell Elder married Dorcas Pate – children: Hilliard, Wyatt, Floyd, Hubert, Zilla, Addie, Howard, Ada and Manning. Lula Elder married John Strickland, son of Gus – children: Ulys “U.S.”, Velma, Ella, Wennis “J.W.”, Ista and David Whit. Ernest died as a child. Jubelee Elder married Lula Hill – children: Russel, Lois, Alston and Ista. Prudie Elder married Riley Spear – children: Joseph Jubelee, later changed to Julian. Nettie Elder married Albert Strickland – children: Bessie, Chester, Vista, Elsie, Easter, and Clarence. Wych Elder married Mary Lee – children: Starling. Later married Ruby (do not know last name). All the Elders, except Grandpa and Grandma, had left Shinbone Valley before we did. Uncle Jube and Uncle Wych went to Oxford were they ran a mercantile business. Uncle Hartwell went to Texas in 1906. He lived at Midland for a time and then went to Georgia, to Lumber City, where he ran a business. He and Aunt Dorcas died in Georgia. His family was still in Georgia last I heard. Wyatt at Vidalia. Uncle Jube and Uncle Wych went to Lumber City, Georgia, and lived for a time. They were successful businessmen there and later went to South Carolina, Uncle Jube to York, and Uncle Wych to Rock Hill. Uncle Jube went from York, South Carolina to Albemarle, North Carolina, where he was in business. He died in Newport News, Virginia in July, 1958. He and Aunt Lula were buried at York, South Carolina. All I know of Uncle Jube’s family is that Russel had a son, Russel, Jr., and two daughters, Catherine and Lynda. Russel died August 31, 1960, at St. Petersburg, Florida. Lois Elder married Roy Kennedy. They live at York, South Carolina. Alston Elder married Louise Cooper and had two daughters, Mary Louise and Elizabeth. Mary Louise married Howard Rae Lasher, Jr., of Greensboro, North Carolina, on March 28, 1959. Aunt Lula Elder Strickland and Uncle John came to Texas in 1903 and lived near Fairy and in Cranfills Gap, and Olin, then moved to Arkansas and Oklahoma, and back to Texas. Uncle John died December 31, 1940 at Coleman, Texas. Aunt Lula died in Jasper, Texas. Ulys “U.S.”, Uncle John’s oldest son, worked for an oil company, and lived at Odessa, Texas. He and Wennis “J.W.” were both in World War I, and Ulys was in World War II. Ulys married a widow with two daughters, Louise and Margie, whom he adopted and changed their names to Strickland. Abbie, Uly’s wife, and Louise were both in World War II. U.S. died in 1971 in Jasper, Texas, and is buried there. J. W. married Opal Luedtke. Had two children, Rose Marie and Joe Bill. They lived in Hull, Texas, and J. W. died there. Velma married a Mr. Williams. He died and she married W. F. Williams (no relation to the other). This Mr. Williams was a friend of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s, and Mr. Eisenhower visited with them when he was in Texas. Ella and Ista never married. Ista lived and worked in California many years. Velma’s husband died, and she, Ella and Ista live now in Jasper. David Whit and wife, Fay, live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Aunt Prudie Elder Spear died when her son, Julian, was born. He was raised by his father, Uncle Riley, and his grandfather and grandmother Spear. He lived and was a druggist in Rock Hill, South Carolina. His son, Joseph Julian Jr., married Marie Elizabeth Dowd in Locust, North Carolina June 21, 1959. (See Stricklands for Nettie Elder.) Uncle Wych Elder’s wife, Mary, died, and he remarried into the wealthiest family in York County, South Carolina, and his wife was an only child. Her name was Ruby. She was a good wife and mother to Uncle Wych and Starling and a lovely woman. Uncle Wych was a successful druggist and real estate man in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He died September 22, 1968. He was always one of my favorite people. He wrote long newsy letters as long as he was able, writing a beautiful hand. Uncle Jube, as a young man, was a writing teacher and taught his younger brother and sisters. The way I remember Uncle Wych, Dr. Bob Hughes, of television’s soap opera (and the only one I watch) “As the World Turns”, looks like Uncle Wych. Uncle Wych’s son, Starling, an only child, was a druggist in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He married Georgia Gatch and had one daughter, Joanne. Joanne married John Calvin Caruthers of Rock Hill. Uncle Dock Elder came to Texas long before I can remember. He lived in East Texas for a time, then farmed in Hamilton County, near Fairy, until 1916 or 1917. He sold his farm and bought a farm at Carlton. Later, he moved to Cisco in Eastland County where he operated the Cisco Coffee House and Cottage Hotel, and later ran a general store. Uncle Dock and Aunt Mantie were both great singers of the sacred harp music, attending all the singings far and near. Uncle Dock was a leader and Aunt Mantie sang treble. For years, the Bosque County Sacred Harp Convention was held at the courthouse in Meridian, Texas. Aunt Mantie, Papa, Mama, and Mr. Charlie Gandy, county clerk of Bosque County, were the treble singers, sitting in the jury box. Uncle Dock, Aunt Mantie, and all their family were jolly and it was great fun to go to their house. After we moved to Bosque, we went back every summer and visited. Once Elsie and I spent a week with them at Carlton, and they visited with us. I loved them all so much. Aunt Mantie died in 1933, and Uncle Dock in 1938. Both are buried at Carlton, Hamilton County, Texas. The Elder name in Uncle Dock’s family is almost gone. Eula, Joe’s wife, and Sam and Tenny are the only Elders left. Bill and wife, Eleanor, both died in 1973 and are buried in Denton, Texas. Sam’s wife, Edith, died in 1973 and Joe died December 2, 1977, at San Bernadino, California and is buried there. Of Uncle Dock’s boys, not one had a son. Arthur and Russel died as young men and had no children. Bill and Eleanor had no children. Joe married Eula Kent and had two girls, Ovie and Leta Mae. Sam married Edith Criswell and had two girls, Imogene and Jeanelle. Electa married Jim Moss and had two girls, Arline and Henrietta. Myrtle married Roy Blakley and had a boy and a girl, J.W. and Vance. Levena married Druid Jones and had five boys and five girls, J.D., Leona, Maymie, Mary Nell, Billy, Wade and Wayne (twins), Alvie Lee, Phylis and Virginia. Uncle Dock’s family had a family reunion every year from 1926 to 1970. We attended most of them and most of our family and part of Uncle John and Aunt Lula Strickland’s family were there. People came from all over Texas and from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona. The first reunion was in a park at Glen Rose, Texas, 1926, and the last in a park at Hico, Texas, in 1970. Hico and Meridian are both on the Bosque River, on the east side. One year on reunion day the river was out of banks, covering the whole valley, running over the bridge here in Meridian and lapping into some houses in town. Hico is 24 miles away, and the highway crosses the river twice between here and the reunion place. It was impossible to cross here, so we went by Glen Rose, 48 miles – exactly twice the distance of the other route…but it was worth it. Joe Elder’s wife and daughter, Ovie, and husband, Clyde Nichols, live in San Bernadino, California. Electa and Myrtle died. Levena and husband, and Sam live in Hico, Texas, and Tenny, who never married, lives in Hobbs, New Mexico. The younger generation is scattered all over Texas, Oklahoma and California. Gary Jones, grandson of Druid and Levena Elder Jones, son of J.D. Jones, of California, made history by winning the AMA National Motocross championship three years in a row – 1972, 1973, 1974 on different makes of motorcycles. Gary also was the first American to win an AMA motocross against the Europeans, and the first to win an AMA motocross series. I saw Gary soon after he had won his last race. A motorcycle had come too near and broken his ankle. He was on crutches. He was twenty-one then. He is working now with his father, manufacturing motorcycles. Additional Comments: This is part of a book written by Vista Strickland entitled "Shinbone Valley - Stricklands & Elders which can be seen in it's entirety at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/al/clay/history/other/gms2shinbone.txt