Clay County Alabama Biographies.....Stricklands of Shinbone Valley 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb by:
Melissa Speed mspeed1@worldnet.att.net January 9, 2004, 11:10 am

Author: Vista Strickland
                                  Stricklands
                                   Chapter 1

	We learn from available records that the name Strickland is derived 
from the residence of its bearers at a place of that name in Westmoreland 
County, England.  It is probable that all the Stricklands originated in the 
ancient Westmoreland County family.  Families of this name were residents at 
early dates in English counties of Westmoreland, Cumberland, York, Lancaster, 
Suffolk and Oxford, as well as in the city and vicinity of London.  History 
says “they appear to have been, for the most part, of the landed gentry and 
nobility of Great Britain.”
	I don’t know from which branch of the family n the British Isles we are 
descended.  Legend has it that we are the descendants of one of four brothers 
who came to America from England, date unknown.
	Our family first lived in Virginia.  They moved from there to Georgia.  
The first family that I have record of is Solomon Strickland, born in 1735 in 
Virginia, married Martha Ann Atkins [inaccurate, wife was Amy Pace], and died 
in 1818 in Madison County, Georgia.
	I have no record of Solomon’s family, except one son, Ezekiel.  Ezekiel 
married Elizabeth [Jane] Hayes in Georgia and was the father of Elisha, 
Elizabeth, David and Wilson Strickland, among other sons and daughters, names 
unknown to me.
	Elisha was born in 1780 or 1790 and married Mary Ann Holly [sp, Holley] 
in Morgan County, Georgia.  He was a farmer and country school teacher and was 
the father of Ancel, Hardin, Troup, Betsy, Ann, and Jane by his first wife.  By 
his second wife he was father of Solomon, Simeon, another son—name no known, 
and Caroline.  He later came to Alabama, died there, and is buried in Union 
Cemetery in Clay County.
	My great-grandfather, Ancel Butler Strickland, was born in Georgia in 
1816, married Agnes Lewis in Georgia.  He, with his wife and brother, Troup, 
and sister, Betsy, moved to the Kentuck region in Talladega County, Alabama, 
across the mountain and west of Shinbone Valley, what year, I do not know.  He 
was father to Jane, Augustus, Artemus (called Dick), and Sidney (called Bud).  
His wife, Agnes died and he married again to Rebecca “Becky” Spruill, who was 
born in South Carolina.  Later he moved to Shinbone Valley and settled on 
Kichemedogee Creek, a relatively large stream running east across the valley.  
Another smaller stream, the Kichemedogee, ran into the big creek from the north 
about a half-mile west of Ancel and Becky’s house.  This was at that time in 
Talladega County, but later, about 1846, a line was drawn through the county 
forming Clay County.  Thus, Ancel was placed in Clay County.
	On this farm on the Kichemedogee, Ancel raised a large family.  Ancel 
and Becky were parents of Marion (called Dock), Emily, Clay, Tom, Tilda, Reed, 
Tolbert, Laura, Bass and Josie.  After many years, Becky died, and Ancel 
married for the third time Mrs. Sarah Shaddix Panel, a widow, and was the 
father of Oliver.  He lived here until his death at the age of 84.  My father 
and mother took Bessie, my little sister, to see him when he was in bed sick 
before he died.  He loved Bessie so very much, calling her his “red headed 
baby”.  Bessie died September 5, 1894, at the age of 18 months.
	This place of Grandfather Ancel’s, in the old days, was beautifully 
kept and was a gathering place in the community for young and old.  With so 
many boys and girls in the family, a schoolteacher boarded there in addition to 
two hired hands.  There were stables full of livestock, and bees humming around 
the door.  An orchard of apple, peach and pear trees, sweet with blossom in 
spring and luscious with fruit in summer, and a well-planned garden furnishing 
vegetables and flowers for the home.  Sweet smelling spice pinks and other old-
fashioned flowers grew in the beds in the garden with walks between.  Lily 
trees, altheas, as we know them today, bloomed in the yard which was of red 
clay and smooth as a floor.
	Large black walnut trees grew around the yard.  Walnuts were gathered 
and kept in the walnut house.  On Sundays there was usually company.  The men 
would sit on the broad front porch or under the shade of the trees, eating 
walnuts or apples, and talking while the women and girls entertained indoors, 
talking and showing off their handiwork.  The boys (my father was one of them) 
played marbles on the marble yard under a giant, wide-spreading red oak that 
measure three feet in diameter in 1880.  This tree was still living in 1919 
when my father visited there.  How much longer it lived, I do not know.
	This place of Great-grandfather’s was a grand place to our father.  He 
loved his grandpa and so did my mother.  He talked about him a lot, but never 
said how he looked, only that he had red hair.  I had pictured him in my mind 
as stockily built, red-haired, with a forceful air about him.  In 1973, I saw 
my first picture of him and Grandma Rebecca.  He was a slender man with pale 
eyes, I suppose blue, as were my father’s and brother, Chester’s, and so many 
of the Stricklands.  Papa said Grandpa’s hair was dark red and curly.  It was 
very dark in the picture.  He had a slim face, clean shaven that wore the most 
humble, kind and gentle expression—almost timid!  Grandma Rebecca had dark hair 
and eyes and a kind face.
	About a hundred yards down the hill behind the house, in a cool shady 
spot, was an inexhaustible spring of delicious sparkling water, rising cool and 
constant from beneath the hill—the only source of water for their home.  My 
Grandfather Clay Strickland loved to laugh and tell of a funny incident that 
took place at this spring when he was a boy.  The spring was walled up with 
rocks and had a trough made of a log hewn out to run the water to another log 
trough where the stock drank.  A branch ran off from this and was a mud hole at 
times.  A steep bluff rose at the back of the spring where trees grew and forms 
a perfect grapevine swing.  When the boys came in from the fields they would 
stop at the spring and water the mules and swing on the swing.  One day at 
noon, while they waited for the mules to drink, John Hix, one of the hired men, 
climbed the bluff, grabbed the grapevine and said, “I’m going to take one good 
swing.”  With a running start he was off, away out over the spring, over the 
muddy branch, and then “snap”, the grapevine broke, and “splash” he went into 
the mud!  He hit it sitting down and bogged up to his waist.
	Grandpa Ancel was a great talker and the only subscriber to a 
newspaper.  Naturally, the community looked to him for news of the country, and 
when President Garfield was assassinated, the men gathered there to read the 
news.  He was not a religious man; though, not an infidel, he was not a 
believer in the Christian religion.  He believed there was a god who created 
and ruled over the universe, but didn’t believe in Christ.  Why he was like 
that we do not know.  He was a good moral man—a man with a high sense of old-
fashioned, “all-wool yard-wide” honor.  He said his religion was truth and 
honesty.  He went to church sometimes, but never went in the house.  It was not 
unusual for men to go to church services and stay outside, sitting on a log or 
wagon tongue, whittling and talking.  His children all grew up to be religious 
men and women.
	Grandpa Ancel always wore homespun clothes, except when attending 
court, as he often did, sometimes for a week or two at a time.  On these 
occasions he wore a nice black “store-bought” suit.  He served as justice of 
the peace in Talladega County for a time and was justice of the peace in Clay 
County for thirty years.  His brothers, Hardin, Solomon and Sim, and his 
sisters, Jane, Caroline and Anne, later moved to Alabama, settling in Clay and 
surrounding counties.  Solomon lived in Meringo County, and served several 
years as state representative from his district.
	Ancel was not a slaveholder, though his brother, Hardin, and probably 
his other brothers were.  There were slaves in Shinbone Valley.  It was said 
that one man in the valley stayed in the field on horseback, with a whip, 
driving his slaves, both men and women as they worked.  If one got sick or gave 
out and couldn’t work, he whipped them.  The slave women of this man had 
nothing to wear in the summer except guano sacks with holes cut out for the 
neck and arms.  Ancel didn’t believe in slavery.  When the Civil War came, 
though living in the south, he and his family were in sympathy with the north.  
In fact, practically all the little community of Shinbone Valley wanted to 
remain in the Union.
	Ancel served as home guard throughout the war, and four of his sons, 
Gus, Dick, Bud and Doc, fought with the South. Bud and Dock died in the war and 
Gus was captured by the Federal Army and sent home on parole after taking oath 
not to take up arms against the government.  When he arrived home, he was sent 
back to the Army and forced to fight.  He was again captured.  They were 
fighting in a small stream and the battle was fierce.  The water of the stream 
was red with blood.  Gus ran for cover under an overhanging rock upstream.  Two 
other men were hiding there.  The Yankees found them and told them to throw 
their guns into the mud.  They did and were taken prisoners.  Gus was certain 
he would be killed this time, but was sent to Rock Island Prison in Illinois 
where he remained until the war was over.  Dick deserted the army and hid in 
the woods but was tracked down with bloodhounds and sent back.  My grandfather, 
Clay, was sixteen years old during the war and though they were taken sixteen 
year olds, he was so small he never had to go to war.  Ancel’s sons, all except 
Bass, married and raised their families in Shinbone Valley, Clay County, 
Alabama.  Bass went to Georgia and married and raised his family there.
	Among the pines, not far from the home, was a small log house where 
each boy, as he married, took his bride and lived until his father bought him a 
farm. He then moved out and started farming for himself and the little house 
stood waiting for the next bride and groom.
	As was stated in previous records of the characteristics of the 
Stricklands in America is true of the old line of Stricklands in Clay County, 
Alabama.  They were kind by nature, loyal to family and friends, strong of will 
and courageous.  They were all farmers.  Clay and Tol each ran a country store 
on the side for a time, and Tom was a miller, running the McClintock mill and 
Smith mill on a part-time basis.
	Ancel’s old home remained in the hands of the Stricklands around 110 
years.  In 1949, it was sold to the government by the heirs of Tom, son of 
Ancel.  The house had fallen down and the place had grown up with every kind of 
bush and three so that it was impossible to get around.
	
	Evidently, as time passed, especially during the post-war period, land 
became harder to get and money with which to buy it more scarce.  My 
grandfather, Clay, son of Ancel, married Mary Moore from Randolph County on 
August 19, 1869, and moved into the little house among the pines—the honeymoon 
house.  They remained there until after their first two children, Etta and 
Albert, were born.  Then Grandfather Ancel gave them a farm about one-half mile 
down the Kichemedogee on the opposite side of the creek—the south side—and they 
moved into it.  This home sat on a high ridge, not on top, as the ground sloped 
upward to the south for about a quarter mile before reaching the top.  Large 
oaks grew around the house.  My father’s childhood centered around this place 
and he especially remembered a chinquapin tree that grew at the back of the 
barn below the hill on the west.  Eight children were born to Clay and Mary at 
this place.  They were Sanford, Roberta, Lula, Julia, Josephus and Rufus 
(twins), Northern and Gamaliel.  
	I have heard from different sources that no better man ever lived than 
my grandfather, Clay Strickland, and from the memory I have of him, I believe 
it is true. He was a quiet man, and unassuming.  Small of stature, usually 
weighing around 125 pounds.  He had blue eyes and dark brown hair that he 
wore “roached” up above a high forehead.  His jaws were square and he had a 
deep cleft in his chin, though it was covered by a short beard from middle life 
on.  From the age of forty-three, he was a devoted member of the Church of 
Christ and a perfect Christian gentleman.
	Mary, Clay’s wife, was a small woman with pale blue eyes and light 
brown hair.  She was not physically strong, but industrious—too much for her 
strength.  She was a great lover of beauty and used her hands to create 
beauty.  The words of Lemuel’s mother to her son in Proverbs might well have 
been spoken for her.  When in speaking of a virtuous woman, she said, “She 
layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hand is on the distaff…she is not 
afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household is clothed with 
scarlet.  She maketh herself coverings of tapestry…she looketh well to the ways 
of her household, and eateth not of the bread of idleness.”
	Mary was busy carding and spinning, knitting and weaving.  She wove 
beautiful, bright colored coverlets of wool and lovely white double-woven 
counterpanes with fringe around them.  Her family was clothed by her hands and 
her house furnished with linens woven by her.  She gave my father a black, 
purple and beige wool coverlet and a white counterpane with fringe when he 
married.  We still have the coverlet, though it is faded and worn.
	At that time the community centered in the little village about two 
miles up Kichemedogee Creek from Grandfather clay’s.  The village then had a 
post office, called Dempsey, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and the Church 
of Christ building which was called Mt. Zion.  About a quarter mile west, 
across the little valley, was a Baptist church, cemetery and schoolhouse.  This 
was called Union.
	In 1887, Clay bought a farm on the “big road” about two miles north of 
Union and moved onto it.  At this new home, the house was on a hillside at the 
foothills of the mountains, edged by piney woods.  Pines grew down to the yard 
on the west and the road ran right under the yard on the east.  Several large 
stone steps led from the road up to the yard, which was level and hard clay.  
The house was made of logs and was in two parts, as was the custom when it was 
built—the “big house” and kitchen.  The “big house” consisted of the living and 
sleeping rooms, with a long front veranda, and a fireplace almost as wide as a 
room.  The kitchen, where the meals were prepared and eaten, sat some distance 
from the “big house”.  It also had a large fireplace.  The well was under a 
shelter with an oaken bucket, standing in front of the kitchen door.  Water was 
drawn by windlass and “teekle”.  Clay dug this well with a pick and shovel.  It 
was ninety feet deep and never ran dry.
	There was a spring of cool water around the hill, under tall trees, 
where pink honeysuckles and wild roses bloomed in spring. Also, there was an 
apple orchard below the road and large persimmon trees around the horse lot.
	Another child, Hixie Ann, was born at this home.  Clay and Mary lived 
here until their older children were grown.  There was a short time that they 
lived “in the mountains” in a new house that Clay built on Pretty Branch, about 
a half mile over the hill west on a forty acre farm he had given to Albert, his 
oldest son and my father, and later bought back.
	Mary died while living in the mountains, and Clay moved back over on 
the road.  It was here that he ran the country store.  He later married Octavia 
Smith, daughter of Dave and Antonette Smith.  After a time, he sold his home on 
the road and built a new house on “Tavie’s farm” on Kichemedogee, almost 
directly across the creek from his father’s old place.  He purchased more acres 
adjoining the farm, and half interest with his father-in-law in a cotton gin 
and mill.  He helped run them in connection with his farming.	
	This house, like his other homes, sat on a hill.  In the yard two water 
oaks were planted by Gamaliel “Malie”, Clay’s youngest son then, who was almost 
grown.  Below the hill was a spring.  Ironwood trees grew around the spring and 
under those trees were a number of beehives that supplied the table with honey, 
a delicacy they were never without.
	Clay raised a second family at this place where he lived until he died 
in 1919 at the age of 71.
	Going to Grandpa Clay’s was not like going to Grandpa’s.  His second 
wife was a younger woman, my father’s age, and didn’t want to be 
called “Grandma”, so we called her “Tavie”.  They also had young children, so 
it was more like going to visit an uncle.  We loved them, but more as an uncle 
and aunt.
	I knew only thereof Grandma Strickland’s family: Malie, Josephus and 
Allen Moore, Uncle Malie lived in Georgia, Uncle Seph lived most of the time in 
Anniston and was a street car conductor.  Uncle Allen lived in Shinbone 
Valley.  They were Grandma’s brothers.

 
                                  Chapter 2
                            Grandpa Clay’s Family
(copied from the S. M. C. Strickland Family Bible)

S. M. C. (Sicero Marion Clay) Strickland and Mary P. (Palestine) Moore married 
August 19, 1869.
S. M. C. Strickland and O. E. (Octavia) Smith married August 8, 1901.

BIRTHS

Martha Etta Strickland – March 21, 1871
J. A. F. (James Albert Franklin) Strickland – March 9, 1873
Sanford M. Strickland – October, 1874
Effie Roberta Strickland – January 1, 1877
Lula Strickland – November 11, 1878
Josephus E. Strickland – March 25, 1883 (twin)
Rufus Ervin Strickland – March 25, 1883 (twin)
William N. (Northern) Strickland – January 7, 1885
Julius Gamaliel Strickland – July 21, 1887
Hixian Florence Strickland – November 23, 1889

BIRTHS
(second marriage)
Zilphy E. Strickland – March 6, 1903
Renzo E. Strickland – July 25, 1905
Emily Strickland – December 8, 1907
Bessie Strickland – August 6, 1910

DEATHS

Rufus E. Strickland – July 17, 1883
Sanford E. Strickland – August, 1890
Mary P. Strickland – January 13, 1901
S. M. C. Strickland – October 14, 1919

	Etta Strickland married William “Bill” Pritchett, October, 1889.  Their 
children were: Effie, Harrison, Myrtle, Robert, Daisy, Claude, Flora, Odessa, 
Theodore, Alice and Inez.
	Albert Strickland married Nettie Elder, February 4, 1892.  Their 
children were Bessie Etta (died 1894), Chester, Vista, Elsie, Easter and 
Clarence.
	Roberta Strickland married Scott Clark, October 15, 1891.  Their 
children were: Allie, Ida, Dewey, Ernest, Cora, Eunice, Early, Douglas, 
Claudine, Lucretia, Roberta and Frank.
	Julie Strickland married Bill Joe Shaddix, October 7, 1897.  Their 
children were: Vida, Cassie, Carson, Homer and Albert.
	Lula Strickland married Campbell Carter.  Their children were: Mae, 
Myrtle, Josie, Iran and Marvin.  She later married Andy Smith and they had one 
child, Lola.
	Josephus Strickland married Cora Newsome, January 25, 1903.  Their 
children: Irvin, Lela, Eugene, Edward, Ezelle, Lucille, Audrey and Vitura.
	Northern Strickland married Buela Brown, January 1, 1905.  Their 
children: Jewel, Maybell, Grace, Ruth and Bernice.
	Gamaliel “Malie” Strickland married Ola Newsome in 1907.  Their 
children: Florilla, Gladys, Flavil, Clyde, Omar, Clay, Warren, Calvin and Odell.
	Hixian Strickland married John Hudson in 1907.  Their children: Duell, 
Dennis and Sherrill.
	Zylpha Strickland married Garrett Wade, November 29, 1918.  Their 
children: Avaline, Marion Clay, Aubedine, Garrett, Jr., Margaret, Eugene, 
Erline, Paul, Shirley, Florence Ellen and Barbara Nell.
	Renzo Strickland married Era Butterworth.  Their children: Helen, 
Dennis, Verna, Travis, Donald and Lou Neal.
	Emily Strickland married Roland Banister.  Their children: Annie Paul, 
Jimmie Sue, Tommie Lou and Marion Clay.
	Bessie Strickland married Columbus Dingler.  No children.
	James Albert Franklin Strickland, my father, and oldest son of Clay and 
Mary Strickland, was born March 9, 1873, in the little house among the pines, 
the little honeymoon house.  He married Geanette “Nettie” Elder, the youngest 
daughter of Joseph and Jane Manning Elder, in a home wedding.  Charlie Swan, 
minister of the Christian Church officiated.
	A wedding supper was served after the ceremony.  Turkey was usually the 
main dish at wedding suppers, but Grandpa was not raising turkeys at the time, 
and Nettie didn’t like turkey.  She suggested having chicken instead.  I have 
the platter this chicken was served on, a large, heavy ironstone china 
platter.  A dinner was served at Grandpa Strickland’s the next day with all the 
relatives and close friends attending, as was the custom in those days.
	Grandpa Clay, Albert’s father, gave him a forty acre farm “in the 
mountains”, on Pretty Branch.  They moved to it on March 4th, one month after 
their marriage.  The place consisted of two rooms, built of logs, a smokehouse, 
barn, log crib and stable.  There was a garden fenced with rails, a few apple 
trees and a sugar pear tree.  It was in this house that their three eldest 
children were born—I was one of the.
	My father and mother loved to talk about this home where mountains 
loomed in the background and pink and white “honeysuckle” (azaleas) and ivy 
bloomed along the crystal clear mountain brook that sang along the way past 
their door.  Mother told of how she loved to play along the banks of the branch 
and wade in its water in the summer; track rabbits in the snow over the fields 
in winter, and of their old dog, Tige, their faithful companion.  She told, 
too, of the sweet music of the swamp sparrows, the sweetest bird music she ever 
heard.
	It was this house that lightning struck the second year of their 
marriage.  My father was in the crib shucking corn and mother was spinning.  It 
was drizzling rain and Mother had been out to drive some goslings back into the 
yard and had just returned to the spinning wheel when it struck.  It swept the 
chimney clean, covering everything in the house with soot.  It knocked the head 
of the spinning wheel around, but didn’t touch Mother.  When my father got to 
the house she was lying on the bed rolling and screaming, her face black with 
soot, and she couldn’t hear anything for a time.
	The lightning ran along one of the logs of the house, hit a large 
poplar tree in the yard, ran to the ground, dug a hole under the garden fence 
and ran along a row of onions across the garden, cooking them.  A bottle of 
bluing sitting on the shelf was shivered so all the bluing ran out, but the 
bottle was left sitting upright.  A hen was sitting on some eggs at the back of 
the house.  She flew off the nest frightened to death, but, contrary to the 
saying, “if it thunders nearby, eggs won’t hatch”, nearly all of those eggs 
hatched.
	While living [t]here, my mother spun and wove material and made my 
father a suit of clothes, some woolen dresses, and beautiful red and purple 
balmarals (woolen half slips).  She spun and wove blankets and sheets, also 
material for bed tick, as well as knitting all the socks and stockings.
	After six years my father sold this place back to his father and moved 
to Oxanna, about fifteen miles north, and worked for an iron mill as a 
teamster, hauling iron ore.  After living in Oxanna and in Choccolocco Valley 
for awhile, he moved back to Shinbone Valley where he farmed and preached.  He 
entered the ministry in 1900, preaching for a number of Churches of Christ.  
Father preached and worked with the Mt. Zion church from 1904 through 1908, 
when he, with his family, moved to Texas.  He was minister for the church at 
Fairy, in Hamilton County, Texas, preaching for meetings at different places 
all over the county.
	In December, 1911, he moved to Bosque County, near Clifton, and 
continuing farming and preaching—going back and holding meetings in Hamilton 
County, and in Coryell, Cherokee and Limestone counties, always hoping for the 
time when he could spend more time in the Lord’s work.  He always seemed to 
feel as did Paul when he told the Corinthians, “Woe is unto me, if I preach not 
the gospel.”  He and Foy E. Wallace, Jr. organized a church in Valley Mills, 
and he and Clarence Bryant organized one at Kopperl, and he was totally 
responsible for the organizing of the church in Meridian in 1938.  He spent his 
last nineteen years working with the church in Meridian, preaching some, 
serving as an elder, teaching and directing singing until his last illness.
	He served four terms as justice of the peace, and two terms as county 
treasurer of Bosque County, holding office until his death.  During his years 
in the courthouse he kept a Bible on his desk, reading and discussing it with 
his friends in his leisure time.  He had many friends, among them young boys 
who came in and talked with him.  A police officer once told him that all the 
boys in Meridian loved him and would do anything he asked.
	His labor in the Lord was not in vain, for all the churches he helped 
establish are thriving, working churches today.  He was truly a man with the 
interest of the Lord at heart, happiest when teaching His word, or directing 
the singing of praises to Him.  A man with a song in his heart, and a voice 
with which to sing it to the last—singing at home and at work, morning, noon, 
and night.
	My father and mother celebrated their 60th anniversary February 3, 
1952, with an open house.  A joyous occasion.  They observed their 65th quietly 
at home with lots of flowers and neighbors and a few friends dropping by.  The 
following I wrote for their 65th anniversary:
			Flowers of Love
	They strolled in the woods in springtime
	Picking violets, blue,
	Pledging their sweet young love
	Vowing to forever be true.

	They trod through summer showers,
	And equinoxial storms,
	Picking the sweet flowers of life
	From among the thistles and thorns.

	Now they walk through the woods of autumn,
	Where the leaves are purple and gold.
	The way has been long, and sometimes rough,
	But they have found joys untold.

	And their steps are firm, and their hearts are light,
	As they look to the heights above,
	Where they’ll press on hand-in-hand,
	Picking flowers of love.

	Albert, my father, and Nettie, my mother, both died in Meridian, Texas, 
and are buried in Meridian Cemetery…Albert died on May 15, 1957, and Nettie on 
April 15, 1968.  My dear father and mother, for whose loving care and Christian 
influence over my life, and that of my brothers and sisters, and for their wise 
counsel down through the years, I am deeply grateful.

                             Chapter 3
                      My Father’s Brothers & Sisters

	We were never closely associated with Aunt Etta Pritchett and Aunt 
Bertie Clark and their families.  We never lived near them.  I remember being 
at Aunt Etta and Uncle Bill’s once below Union and once on a high hill above 
Macedonia, and we visited at Aunt Berite’s and Uncle Scott’s once in Oxford and 
once below Union.
	Aunt Lula “Lulie” and Uncle Campbell Carter always lived in Shinbone 
and were our close neighbors one year.  We loved Uncle Campbell, and missed him 
so after he died.
	Uncle Seph (most people called him “Joe”, but Papa always called 
him “Seph”, so he was always Uncle Seph to me) and Aunt Cora lived in Oxford.  
When I visited them in 1968 Aunt Cora was almost an invalid with arthritis, but 
she got on the telephone and soon a large number of their family where there.  
I enjoyed them so much.  Uncle Seph and Aunt Cora were so sweet.  Aunt Cora 
died May 24, 1975.  About 8 a.m. Edward called me and said she had died.  At 
8:30 Levena Elder Jones called from Hico, Texas saying Myrtle Elder Blakley, 
her sister, had died there.  Aunt Cora and Myrtle were Mama’s nieces.
	I guess Uncle Northern Strickland and Uncle Wych Elder were my favorite 
uncles when I was a child.  They gave me more attention.  Uncle Northern was 
interested in things that interested me.  He loved the mountains and streams 
and all outdoors, and told me all kind[s] of fascinating things about them.  
They were our neighbors once after being away for some time—as far as New York 
part of the time.  He had all kind[s] of things he had made in the foundries—
miniature anvils, frogs, lizards, etc., scattered throughout their home for 
door props, paper weights and what-nots, all made of iron.  A big rabbit, 
painted white sat in the garden, where I loved to climb a tree and eat 
nectarines.
	I have visited twice in his colonial home on Gray Street in Oxford.  It 
is beautiful and so interesting.  Chester made some lovely pictures of it with 
its beautifully landscaped grounds, all done by Uncle Northern.
	In an article in the Anniston Star December 1, 1963, was a history of 
this home, saying “This charming colonial home at 112 Gray Street, Oxford was 
once the home of the mother and grandmother of America’s former First Lady Mrs. 
Lyndon B. Johnson…the Patillo home…”  and that Uncle Northern had an abstract 
tracing ownership of his home back more than one hundred years.  Uncle Northern 
wrote us such interesting letters about the relatives, and interesting places 
around Oxford.
	J.G., Uncle Malie Strickland and Aunt Ola and three children came to 
Texas in 1913, coming to our house.  He went to Agee in Hamilton County, lived 
there and near Hico awhile and moved to Bosque County where he raised his 
family of two girls and seven boys: Florilla “Flo”, Gladys, Flavil, Clyde, 
Omar, Clay, Warren, Calvin and Odell.  We loved about thirty miles apart most 
of the time, but visited as often as we could.  I have spent many happy hours 
in their home and love them very dearly.
	Theirs was a musical family.  They all sang, Aunt Ola and Flo and some 
of the boys played the piano, and the boys and a string band popular in the 
community.  Five of the boys and Flo were in the service in World War II.  All 
came back safe and sound.  They were all Christians.  Flo married Mitchell 
Davis; Gladys, Leonard Peterson; Flavil, Modell Jones; Clyde, Inez Hill; Omar, 
Lois Turner; Clay, Irma “Peggy” Stewart; Warren, Eleanor Herrada; Calvin 
married Margie Payne; Odell, Dorothy Smith.  Calvin’s wife, Margie, left him 
and married another man.  Later he married Audrey.  Clyde’s wife, Inez, died 
and he married Dorothy.
	Flo has no children.  Gladys has two: Doris and Elaine.  Flavil has one 
girl, Austine.  Clyde’s children: Tommy, who died at age 14, Eugene, James, 
David, Judy, Dennis and Kenneth.  Omar has two, O.C. and Marvin.  Clay has a 
son and daughter, Kim and Vickie.  Warren one son, Vance.  Calvin two boys, 
Dean and John and two adopted, Wanda and Lonnie.  Odell has Debbie and Greg.
	Flavil lives at Marble Falls, Texas.  Clyde is a forceful gospel 
preacher with a church of Christ at Mountain View, Arkansas.  Clay lives at 
Jacksonville, Florida.  Warren is teaching in Delmar College in Corpus 
Christi.  Calvin lives and teaches high school in Carlsbad, New Mexico.  Odell 
is in Chicago.  Omar lives in Cleburne, and teaches in high school in Joshua, 
Texas.
	Uncle Malie moved to Arkansas in 1957.  Lives near Hiwasse.  Aunt Ola 
died November 2, 1974 [and] is buried near Hiwasse.  Uncle Malie lives alone 
with his log, stands straight as a young man, mows his and Flo’s yards and 
helps Mitchell on the farm.  [He} [i]s an elder in Hiwasse church of Christ.  
Gladys lives at Gravett, Arkansas.
	Omar Strickland’s wife, Lois, lived with us while he was overseas in 
World War II.  Their first child, O.C., was born while she lived there, so they 
seem like part of our family.  O.C. and wife, Sharon, and children, Lya, Aaron, 
Jenifer and Martha live at Elkhart, in east Texas.  Marvin and wife, Debbie, 
Shane, Sherilee and Sarah live near Knoxville, Tennessee.  They most always 
vist me when they come to Cleburne, about twice a year.
	We came to Texas when Grandpa Clay and Tavie’s children were small, but 
we came to know and love them.
	Bessie married Columbus Dingler.  No children, but they took Bessie’s 
niece, Annie Paul and Cordell Watson’s children after Annie Paul died, and 
educated them.  Larry is a doctor, living in Galveston.  Shirley’s husband, 
Steve Farnsworth, is studying medicine now.
 
                              Other Stricklands in Texas

	Grady and Allie Clark Dowdey, granddaughter of Clay Strickland, were 
born and raised in Alabama.  They lived in Newberg community in Comanche 
County, Texas.  Both taught school, farmed, and raised and educated two sons, 
Ben Clark, who is Dr. Ben Dowdey, M.D., of Dallas, and Hoyt of Fort Worth.  Ben 
was one of the doctors on duty at Parkland Hospital in Dallas where President 
John F. Kennedy was taken after being shot, and where he died.
	Egbert Strickland, son of Dick Strickland, came to Texas and lived at 
Lanham and Cranfills Gap.  He went to California, married and died there and is 
buried in Cransfills Gap Cemetery.  My father conducted the funeral services.
	Will and Milla Strickland Glover, daughter of Dick Strickland, came to 
Texas in 1908.  They lived at Cranfills Gap and died and are buried there.  
Their children were Dallie, Cora, Matilda, Carl, Lomis and Norton Glover.
	Dallie and Cora both married in Alabama and both came to Texas.  I 
never knew Dallie’s family, she married Reuben Cotton.  Cora married Harvey 
Taylor.  William and Earl are two of their children.
	Tilda Glover married Bill Hughes and lived at Cranfills Grap.  Their 
children are Carl and Jewel Dean.  Dean and husband, Sam Dunagan, live in 
Stephenville, Texas.  Their children are Terry, Sandra, Kay, and Jonnie B.  
Carl Glover married Amy Stewart.  I never knew his family.  Lomis Glover 
married Via Stephens and lived at Cranfills Gap, and later at Indian Gap in 
Hamilton County, Texas.  Their children are Vida Dee, Arville, A.D. and June.  
Lomis died in Indian Gap.
	Norton, the youngest son of Will and Milla Glover, married Ella McGuire 
and is the father of Ray, Bobby Gene and Ammie Lou.  They all live in Fort 
Worth.
	The follow tragic report is from a Fort Worth paper.  This happened a 
number of years ago.  Four of the victims were descendants of Ancel Butler 
Strickland, great-grandchildren of Will and Mill Strickland Glover.
		“6 Die in Crash of Truck, Auto”
	Baytown, April 8 (UP) – A blazing gasoline truck-car collision and 
explosion killed six persons, including a mother and four children, last night 
two miles north of Baytown.
	Killed were Mrs. Mary Edna Taylor, 33, of Liberty, Texas, and her four 
children, Leonard E., Mary Isabel, 12, Linda Elane, 10, and John Harvey, 6. 
	The truck driver, Milton Heath, 26, of near Baytown, also perished in 
the explosion that ripped through the two vehicles when a car smashed a hose in 
the gasoline trailer.
	Frank White of the Department of Public Safety said the truck was 
rolling down a slight incline on State Highway 146 when Heaton apparently 
slammed on the brakes and the trailer jackknifed into the path of the car.
	Earl Taylor, the husband and father, was a member of the fire 
department that was called, and discovered while fighting the fire that it was 
his car and all his family burning up.
	I attended, with Grady and Allie Dowdey, the funeral services of Tilda 
Glover Hughes on August 22, 1978, at Cranfills Gap.  Cranfills Gap was her 
home, but she had been living with her daughter in Stephenville since the death 
of her husband, Bill.  She was buried in Cranfills Gap Cemetery.  Fifty or more 
people ate lunch at the Methodist church that day, most of them Glover and 
Strickland descendants, and my relatives.  Howard Strickland and wife, Winnie, 
were there from Texarkana.
	Rufus Moore, son of Allen and Georgia Ann Strickland Moore, and 
grandson of Dick Strickland, went to Haskell, Montague County, Texas, in 1908 
and moved to the Agee community in Hamilton County in 1910.  Later moved to 
Bosque County, near Clifton, and bought a farm there.  He moved to the plains 
of west Texas in 1926, and settled at Tahoka.  He and wife, Dona, both died and 
are buried at Tahoka, Lynn County, Texas.  He raised a family of seven girls 
and two boys, Clealis, Lois, Allen, Arlie, Lela Mae, Launa, J.C., Jaunelle and 
LaFayne.
	Clealis married Othelle Freeman, and has one daughter, Othelda.  Lois 
married Charlie Terry and had one son, and a daughter who died.  Arlie married 
Orbin Aycock and had a son and daughter, David and Kala.  Lela Mae married 
Ralph Collins, their children are Kenda, Roger Dale, Eddie and Mike.  I hear 
from the occasionally, but that is all I know of the family now.  Only Clealis, 
Lois and Arlie, and some of the others live [in] Tahoka.  Allen lives in 
California and the others are scattered over west Texas.
	Campbell Moore, son of Allen and Georgia Ann Moore, came to Texas as a 
young man, lived and worked around Clifton, went into the U.S. Service in World 
War I.  He came home on leave to spend Christmas, took sick and died at the 
home of his brother, Rufus.  He was buried in Clifton Cemetery, Clifton, Bosque 
County, Texas.
	In 1975, at an arts and craft show here in Meridian, Lois Turner 
Strickland (Mrs. Omar) and I stopped at the booth of beautiful paintings and 
noticed that the artist was Loveta Strickland.  Talking with her, we learned 
that her husband is Clinton Strickland, son of Barney Strickland, who was the 
son of my great-uncle, Tol Strickland.  Barney was raised in Shinbone Valley.  
Lois had known Clinton in North Alabama.  Loveta operates Loveta’s Gallery just 
outside of Waco.

                        Chapter 4
          The Children of J.A.F. and Nettie Strickland
                   (my brothers and sisters)

	Chester Strickland volunteered and was in service in World War I.  
Married Elsie Wilson in Hamilton June 20, 1920, lived in Hamilton and ran a 
filling station and tire business.  They had two children, Gladys and Raymond, 
moved to Bledsoe in Cochran County right near the state line of New Mexico in 
1925.  Was a pioneer there, built the first residence and store in Bledsoe.  
They lived in the house, Elsie ran the store and Chester worked at construction 
work.  He helped build the first schoolhouse for eight pupils, and was 
secretary of the board until he and his brother-in-law built a ten room school.
	He was elected Tax Assessor and moved to Morton, the county seat, 
served two terms, and entered the dry-cleaning business.  Then he served two 
terms 1943-1947 as County Judge and County Superintendent.  IN his last year in 
office he was secretary-treasurer of County Judges and Commissioner’s 
Association of West, Texas.  He was post commander of the American Legion, 
president of the Morton Lion’s Club, volunteer fireman and direction of the Dry 
Cleaners Institute.  He built a large cleaning plant that worked 14 hands, 
while he farmed a little on the side.
	He was a strong worker in the church of Christ and a family man.  He 
loved his wife and children, his in-laws, his parents and brothers and 
sisters.  If there was anything he could do for them or anyone else he did it.  
He gave land and a lake to the town of Morton for a park.  It is known as 
Strickland Park.
	Chester died August 15, 1974, and is buried in the Morton Cemetery.  
Gladys married Arlin Mullinax and had one child, Carrie Ann.  Carrie Ann 
married Jessie Wynn Tyson.  They had a little boy, John David.  Carrie Ann died 
December 18, 1971.  Gladys “Pat” teaches in the Morton school.  Raymond is an 
engineering architect for Mobil Oil Company, with offices in Irving, Texas.  He 
and wife, Shirley, live in Chico.  Their children, Lynda, Vickie and Randy live 
in Irving and Houston.  Elsie, Chester’s wife, a lovely person, lives in Morton.
	Elsie, my sister, married Hurshel Jones on April 20, 1919, in Valley 
Mills, Bosque County.  They lived in Bosque, McLennan and Hamilton counties 
before moving to Carlsbad, New Mexico where they lived for twenty-three years.  
Hurshel operated a salt business at the potash mines, then worked with a school 
in Carlsbad.  Elsie worked in a jewelry store.  They raised roses and dahlias 
in their yard as a hobby, furnishing flowers for the church and other events.  
At one time they had 57 varieties of roses growing.  Theirs was a beautiful 
place in the town of Carlsbad, near the famous Carlsbad Caverns.
	They moved back to Meridian, Texas in 1963.  Hurshel and Elise 
presently reside at the Meridian Geriatric Center.  Recently they celebrated 
their 60th wedding anniversary with a small family gathering.  Hurshel still 
loves to grow flowers and plants.  He also loves a good game of forty two, and 
enjoys writing poetry.
	Robert, Hurshel and Elsie’s only child, lives in Fort Worth with his 
wife, Virginia “Sam”, and their teenage daughter, Jeananne “Pidge”.  Robert has 
three other daughters and a son.  Pamela, the oldest, is married to Joe Speed 
and they live in Fort Worth with their children, Jeffrey and twins, Robert 
Corey and Melissa Carol.  Cameo is just finishing law school in San Francisco, 
California.  Jan is nutritionist for the Administration on Aging over five 
states.  Lives in Dallas.  Bob is a junior in high school.
	Easter, my youngest sister, married Harvey Marshall October 14, 1922 in 
Bosque County, Texas.  They lived on a ranch in McLennan County until 1931, 
when they moved to Kopperl to farm.  They still live there.  Easter loves 
working with her hands, raising flowers and shrubs, and making beautiful things 
for the home.  She is a very quiet and unassuming person.  Harvey is now 
retired, but keeps busy gardening and keeping up the home and car.  Is an elder 
in the church of Christ in Kopperl.  Three of their boys served in World War II.
	Their oldest son, Leo and wife, Martha Helen, live in a beautiful split-
level home in Cliff Oak addition, Clifton.  They have two daughters, Jan, a 
Junior in Baylor University in Waco, and Myra, a Sophomore in high school.  
Harvey’s and Easter’s daughter, Reva and husband, Harry Callahan, live in 
Kopperl.  Their children are married.  Cindy, the oldest, is married to Dr. 
Morris Wilkins and lives in Whitney.  Patricia and husband, Ronnie Armour live 
in Fort Worth and their family.  Dia and Billy Jack both live in Kopperl.
	J.C. Harvey’s and Easter’s second son, lives in Hewett with his wife, 
Betty.  Their children: Linda, Ronnie, Peggy, Donna and Sandra, are all married 
and live in Hewett and Waco.  Eddie, the third son, and wife, Joyce, and 
daughter, Beverly, live in Fort Worth.  Randy, their son, is in the U.S. Army.  
Gene and wife, Bobbie, and son and daughter, Gary and Paige, live in Fort Worth.
	Maxine, the youngest daughter, and husband, Joe Bob Scruggs, live in 
Edge-Cliff Estates near Joshua, Texas.  Their boys, Ricky and Michael, live in 
Burleson and work there.  Sebrena, the daughter, married Joe Steadman June 10, 
1978 in a lovely church wedding that looked like an old-fashioned valentine.  
They live in Burleson.
	Sunday, June 4, 1978 I drove to Lake Whitney, near Kopperl, after 
church services, to a reunion of the Marshall family.  There were 64 there, all 
relatives of mine except 10, and what a wonderful day of visiting, eating, 
horse shoe pitching, water skiing and boat riding!
	Clarence Strickland, youngest son of Albert and Nettie Strickland and 
my brother, married Louise Winnett in Clifton, Bosque County, Texas February 
22, 1933.  They had two boys, Leon and James Oscar “J.O.”, and loved in 
Clifton, Meridian and Fort Worth.  Louise left Clarence and the boys and 
married another man.
	In 1946 Clarence married Vera James at Amarillo.  They lived there 
awhile and moved to Fort Worth where they were raising a family of two boys and 
two girls.  Clarence worked at different occupations—farming, taxi-driving, 
appliance man for Tex & Chuck Butane Co. of Fort Worth, then appliance man and 
electrician on his own, [i]n the meantime building with his own hands, their 
spacious five bedroom house at 5000 David Strickland Rd. in Fort Worth.  Vera 
was an Avon lady, beautiful and sweet.  She died April 9, 1970 and Clarence 
died with a heart attack June 13, 1974.  Both are buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery 
in Fort Worth.  Clarence was a sweet singer, with a heartbreakingly beautiful 
tenor voice.  For a time when he was young, he with three other boys, had a 
program on radio, broadcast from Fort Worth, known as “The Melody Boys”, with 
piano, violin, two guitars and Clarence singing.  Like our father, he loved 
music, and taught his family to love it.  Vera, Jack and Carroll sang 
beautifully.
	Leon, oldest son of Clarence and Louise, started directing singing for 
church services at the age of eleven.  Later he was director for the church 
here.  He graduated from high school with honors, was judged best actor, and 
received the Brooks award for being the best football player.  He attended 
Abilene Christian College, spent four years as a paratrooper, married Ailene 
Williams of Bosque County, and has been teaching speech and drama and directing 
dram at Tyler Jr. College since 1969.  He paints the scenery on the backdrops, 
makes the accessories for the stage—houses, stumps, angels, or whatever, in his 
shop in the college, and directs the plays.  Ailene operates a computer in the 
college.  Their children, Kemp and Sheila are grown, and still at home.
	J.O., youngest son of Clarence and Louise, married Ernestine Boedecker 
of Meridian.  They live in Meridian.  J.O. works for the State Highway 
Department, is a member of the City Council, and Assistant Fire Chief.  
Ernestine in the Sheriff’s Dispatcher.  Kenneth, the oldest son, works for the 
Santa Fe Railway in Louisiana.  Janice is in college in Stephenville.  Bryan 
and Rhonda are in high school.  And there is baby Kristina who stays with a 
baby sitter.
	Jack and Carroll, the two oldest of Clarence and Vera’s children, are 
married and live in Fort Worth.  Danny works with Nash Mfg. Co., and is still 
at home at 5000 Strickland Rd., with his dog and his music—guitar and piano.  
Is engaged to marry, but waiting for the girl to finish college.
	Toni, the youngest, spent every summer with me after her mother’s death 
until her father died.  She brought her Bible, bicycle, flute and stereo, and I 
enjoyed her so much.  We attended meetings, singings and other activities over 
the county.  Walked a lot, picnicked and laughed a lot.  I have missed 
Clarence, Danny and Toni so much.  They came often, and we drove all over 
Bosque County, back roads and all.  After Clarence’s death, Toni went to live 
with an aunt and uncle in Amarillo.  Her uncle died and she later became the 
foster daughter of Calvin Warpula and wife, and lived with them and their 
children.  Calvin is now Speaker on World Radio Bible Broadcast at West Monroe, 
Louisiana.  Toni is attending Freed-Hardeman College at Henderson, Tennessee.
	I would like to write about all the younger generation, but time will 
not permit.
	
 
                                Chapter 5
                    Descendants of Albert & Nettie Strickland

1ST GENERATION
James Albert Franklin Strickland		Geanette Artlissa Elder 
Strickland
Father						Mother
Born March 9, 1873				Born December 11, 1875
Clay County, Alabama			Clay County, Alabama
Children					Born		   Place
Rochester Cornelius Strickland		March 11, 1896 Clay County, Ala.
Vista Vitura Strickland			January 1, 1898 Clay County, Ala.
Elsie Euthera Strickland			August 17, 1900 Clay County, 
Ala.
Easter May Stricland				April 3, 1904 Clay County, Ala.
Clarence Horton Strickland			January 3, 1911, Hamilton 
County, Tex.

[Note: 2nd & 3rd Living Generations Omitted for Internet Publication]