Download [Page] [Document]
mcc-bc1-383
The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 369
way to gather people, and by the time they got to the church, most of the people would be tagging along in their group. Juanita is older than Edith Woodward Price, who described the church as she remembered it (see Edith Price interview). Edith described a declining congregation, but the church was apparently more active in earlier years. James Long (see James Long interview) said it was Sam Harris Sr. who cut the lumber on his place to build the church, and the men of the community helped to build it. Juanita remembered Stella Tolbert McWhorter had property (D-166) that abutted the church. She said there was a cemetery on the property that had one existing tombstone and mostly unmarked graves. The RSA Cemetery Map indicates no cemetery has been identified on the property described by Juanita. Juanita said the farm was owned by the Butchers prior to the McWhorters. [Note: In viewing pages of the 1880 census that listed the Woodward family, the researcher noticed the name Butcher. A Betty Butcher, age 31, was living in the household of William Jamar, listed as a cousin. In 1882 Betty Butcher married Charles Woodward, who would have then been 27 years of age. In 1880 he had resided with his widowed mother, Susan Bell Woodward.] Juanita said there was a large black cemetery that was still being used. Black farm hands and servants were still being buried there. She said it was located in back of Charlie Costin's (sp?) place. James Long mentioned “old man Charlie Costin worked for Sam Harris Sr. for all those years,” so it is probable that he lived on Harris land. Juanita mentioned there was also a church for the Black people, which was where their family servant, Cleo, went. She couldn't remember a last name for Cleo. She said “Uncle Joe” Timmons was the preacher at that church. He lived on a farm close by and had many children. The she said the name Timmons Hill came from the Timmons family (who were White) and the Timmons plantation, and she noted that the Wilsons lived in a two-story house with columns on Timmons Hill. He owned a gin in Farley. Millburn Lassiter was a grandson of J.B. Harris (Mary's son). He came down from Tennessee to his grandfather's farm, “driving a cultivator and two horses.” Juanita said she first met him there in a corncrib. She was either with her brother or her mother's brother at the time. Juanita and Millburn married when Juanita was 22 or 23 years of age, and Millburn was 24. They were married at the Methodist Church. At first, they lived in a little frame sharecropper house. Juanita said, “There was a grist house between our house and Grandpa's.” Juanita estimated the distance between their house and the big house was about a city block. She said the blacksmith shop was “on the other side of the big house,” and “you couldn't see it from our house.” The yard went down the slope of the hill to shops and sheds. Juanita and her husband had no running water or electricity in the sharecropper house they lived in. They had a kerosene refrigerator, used oil lamps, and went to the big house, for water. After their oldest daughter Hilda was born, Juanita and Millburn lived in the big house with Millburn's grandparents. Ima Jean, granddaughter of J.B. and 369 - (4402)