Calhoun County AlArchives News.....Subject: Meet Our Folks (Lila Roberts Mellon) 1970 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Shirley Mellon Dewberry dewberry@cableone.net July 27, 2010, 6:21 pm The Oxford Sun Newspaper, Oxford, Alabama 1970 Source: The Oxford Sun Newspaper Oxford, Alabama Date: 1970 Subject: Meet Our Folks The Mellon Covered Bridge has been in the news recently since the Oxford Jaycees decided to restore it and make a park of the surroundings. Nestled among trees and quietly hidden from busy nearby Hwy. 78 and I-20, the bridge last winter had the attention of the Alabama Historical Society which recommended it be removed to Anniston and restored. However Jaycees here decided to keep the bridge where it is and to develop a park themselves . News of the bridge's restoration and the development of a park is particularly interesting to Mrs. W.F. Mellon of 101 McKibbon St., whose family used to own that land. Mrs. Mellon's husband's grandfather, W.E. Mellon Sr., was the first owner of the land. He came to this area from Corinth, Ga., and bought the land from E.E. Forbes, she said. Mellon Sr.'s son, W.E. Mellon Jr. who was born in 1850, later bought a 50 acre apple orchard from Miller Hawkins to increase the homestead. "It was a place that was well known all around the country." Mrs. Mellon said. "People would come from all over for apples and cider. The surroundings were so beautiful." A later owner of the land chopped down the trees, she said. The date when the covered bridge was built and by whom was not know by either Mrs. Mellon or her sister-in-law Miss Betty Mellon and Mrs. Nell Mell on Hubbard, both of Oxford. But it has been estimated to be well over 100 years old. Mrs. Mellon who has lived most of her life in Oxford, has a interesting a background as the Mellon property and bridge do. She attended a private school on Main Street here and then studied two years at Judson College at Marion. Married in 1910, Mrs. Mellon and her family lived eight years at the Mellon home near the apple orchard and in Tallapoosa County five years as well as Oxford. Through the years Mrs. Mellon and her sister, Mrs. Jim (Stella Gaines Roberts) Orr of Oxford, have saved newspaper clipping about happenings here. Stories and pictures of the Mellon bridge are included in the pages of their scrap books. Other items tell some of the history of Oxford and the state. Mrs. Mellon has a copy of an 1879 Oxford Tribune. Her father R.G. (Richard Gaines) Roberts, Jr. was editor of the paper two years. She also has an order for men sent July 1, 1863 to her grandfather, William Hornbuckle, who owned a plantation at Marion. He was ordered by the post commander at Selma to furnish 121 "able bodied hands for work upon the fortifications and defenses in and around the city of Selma." Her other treasures include a Confederate 25 cent piece in paper money and a shawl which her grandfather bought after Confederate soldiers ran a p ort blockade at Mobile to get to merchants ships, she said. Mrs. Mellon, who declined to tell her age, said she has become more interested in history since she has "gotten older." She is eager to get her scrapbook completed, she said. "I had so many clippings in the box I just decided I had to get them in shape," she said. She said she may donate the books to the Alabama Room at the Liles Memorial Library. Additional Comments: Name: Lila Lane Roberts Mellon Father: Richard Gaines Roberts Jr. Mother: Eliza Wyatt Hornbuckle Roberts Spouse: William Foster Mellon File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/calhoun/newspapers/subjectm1770gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb