Download
[Page]
[Document]mcc-bc1-290
The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 276
regarding the cultural context of the life and times. This was one of the last interviews conducted before the research project was “put on the back burner.”
The researcher was tasked with other duties at the arsenal. The interviewing research with people of the pre-arsenal communities did not resume until late 2004. She visited Walter Joiner for the third time in February 2005. That visit lasted almost four hours.
Maureen Horton, stepsister to Walter Joiner.
through a bunch of different hands.”
Where Walter's Family Lived
Walter's mother, Parthenia Joiner Horton, is shown on the Army Real Estate Map as owning parcels F-251 and F-253. Parcel F-251 joined on its eastern boundary with the property of Percy Joiner (F-252). Parcel F-253 joined on its southern boundary with Percy's property. Percy (Buster) Joiner, father of Willie Joiner Lacy (Willie Lacy interview), was Walter's Uncle. It should be noted that Buster had a son Claudie, who was named after his grandfather, so the name Claudie Joiner appears in two different generations.
The Timmons Plantation and the Cemeteries
The land where Walter's family lived for generations was the Timmons Plantation, where Walter's great grandmother once lived in a slave cabin and cooked in the fireplace (see Lizzie Ward interview). Walter said the Timmons place “went
The cemetery where Walter's great grandfather, William Timmons, the plantation owner, is buried is not far from the location of the plantation house. Walter said that when he was about 14 years old, he saw the cemetery. It had a brick wall around it. He wouldn't go up to the cemetery; he would just stay by the road. [Black people didn't wander around on White people's property.] The Timmons house wasn't too far from the cemetery, and he thought it was facing east because “it was looking over the hill.” Walter had never gone in the house. It had a big front porch and two chimneys, one on each end. You could see the house from the road because “all that land used to be clear pasture.” This gives us a glimpse of the scene over 70 years ago.
The patriarch of the Timmons Family, John Timmons, was born in 1795. The 1880 Madison County census shows his son, William Timmons, as 41 years of age in that year, and William's wife Annie as 43. This is the William H. Timmons who was the great grandfather of Walter Joiner. Through him, the Joiners' ancestry goes back to England.
276 - (4309)