"Once Upon a Lifetime: in and Near Baker County, Florida," book - v.3 (file 1/3)

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                 Once Upon A Lifetime Vol No. 3
                    In Baker County, Florida

                By La Viece Moore-Fraser Smallwood
                          Copyright 1995

      Copies available from the author complete with photos:
              Rt 2 Box 543 Macclenny, Florida 32063

Permission has been granted by the author for posting to this page.

Contains biographical narratives and genealogical information on the
following Baker County folks:

* Cincinnati Dicks Mobley
* Edgar Kirkland
* Annie Rhoden Combs
* Sippie Canaday Harris Hartenstine
* Josephine Kirkland Crawford Arnold (in file 2/3)
* Lorayne Rhoden & Lillian DuBose (in file 2/3)
* Mildred Wolfe (in file 2/3)
* Elva Combs Dinkins (in file 2/3)
* Nellie Hart (Day-Farris) (in file 2/3)
* Williams Family (in file 3/3)
* Brown, Raulerson Families (in file 3/3)
* The Historic Franklin Mercantile (in file 3/3)
* Acknowledgements (in file 3/3)

_____________________________________________________________________________

                     Cincinnati Dicks Mobley
                           AUGUST 1994

Cincinnati Dicks Mobley is the authentic model of an extinct class of
southern women. She represents a bygone era of uniqueness that defies
description and challenges the writer to the limit of characterization.
Wealth and fortune, prosperity and affluence were her fate, yet they are
concealed in a remote area of her thoughts. Her glory lies in the homage
she feels for her husband, children, friends, faith and family heritage,
not necessarily in that order, because somehow this distinctive lady has
woven them all into one majestic tapestry that embraces her heart and
symbolizes her nature.

Charlton Mobley brought his bride to a newly constructed home after
their marriage on April 3, 1935. Today, very little change is detectable at
222 West Macclenny Avenue, although 60 momentous years have passed into
oblivion. It's what you can't see that has lasted, like the legendary
memories and tangible character of the special people who lived in her
past, and experienced together the tears, the laughter, the triumphs and
tragedies. This is their story because they are Cincinnati's life.

Cincinnati Dicks was born February 3, 1914 to Thomas and Georgia
Satilla Johns Dicks of Columbia County and she is often asked to explain
the unusual family names.

"My mother, who was the daughter of John Marshall and Mary Mills Johns
of Columbia County, was named Georgia for the state, and Satilla for the
river," she said. "When she and daddy started naming their children, they
had a little trouble deciding on a name. My father sat down on the trunk in
their room with a magazine after mama gave birth and said, 'I'll find the
baby a name in this magazine'. It just so happened it was published in a
place called Augusta, Maine, so daddy asked mama how she liked Maine and
she said that it was all right, so that's how my brother Maine got his
name," she said.

"They named me before I was born because they agreed the first girl
would be Cincinnati," she continued. "Then one day after I was born, daddy
carried mama into Lake City from the farm in a horsedrawn buggy, and they
stopped somewhere along the way to show a neighbor named Mrs. Hancock their
new baby. Mrs. Hancock said,'Mrs. Dicks, if you ever have another little
girl, name her Alabama'. So, Mama named my sister Alabama."

Thomas and Georgia were parents of seven children. The five who lived
to adulthood were Maine, who died at age 12 of Hodgkin's Disease;
Cincinnati; Spain; Thomas, who died at age two of burns after he fell in
hot water., Alabama; Denver and Boston.

Looking back, she tells the story of how her grandfather, Joseph
Dicks, left his native land in Liverpool, England: "in those days, boys
were taught a trade and my grandfather didn't like the one he was taught,
which was making brushes," she began. "It's really a sad story because he
was young, in his teens. The last time he visited his home for a weekend,
his mother walked with him as far as she could. He said later that he kept
turning around, looking back at her because he felt it might be the last
time he would ever see her and sure enough it was."

The fourteen-year-old lad apparently hid out as a stowaway on a boat
heading for Canada. Upon arrival in Ottawa, Cincinnati said he obtained
employment working in a quarry. Joseph's wandering spirit eventually took
him to New York where he enlisted in the U.S. Army.

Although he was too young to serve, the persistent youth was accepted
when he persuaded them he was older than he was. He was sent to fight
throughout South Georgia and North Florida in the ferocious Second Seminole
Indian War. Joseph fought in Columbia, Baker, Alachua and Pinellas counties
before his term was up. Two days after he was honorably discharged, his
Army unit was almost completely destroyed in the dreadful Indian Massacre
at Bushnell. For his tour of duty he received a land grant.

Joseph married Sarah Taylor on January 18, 1846 and settled in the
Hopeful Community, south of Lake City. The couple had seven sons and one
daughter.

" My father, Thomas, was their son," said Cincinnati. "He married his
childhood sweetheart, Ellen (Ella) Douglas. They had two children, Bessie
and Reid. Ellen died about three months after Reid was born.

While his in-laws cared for his young son, Thomas continued to work
and care for his other child. Then, before he married my mother, he married
Singer Brown's sister, Lulu. The town of Lulu is named after her.

Their children were Wealthy, Eva, Josephine, Earnest [who died as an
infant] and Freeman. Lulu died in childbirth two years after Freeman was
born. After that, my father married my mother, Georgia," she said.

For a while the couple lived in Columbia County, then later moved to
nearby Union County, where Thomas farmed and raised cattle and sheep on 360
acres of land. His health began to decline, so they sold the farm and moved
to Macclenny with their family.

When dark-complected, dark-eyed Thomas Dicks and his redhaired,
blue-eyed wife, Georgia Satilla, moved their family to Baker County on
December 29, 1929, a rickety, narrow wooden bridge separated Macclenny from
Glen St. Mary. The couple purchased a frame house and five acres of land on
west Highway 90 from Mr. Rufus Louder and that's where Cincinnati lived
until she married Charlton. He worked at a sawmill on the opposite side of
the highway, and only a little distance from her home.

"My daddy wasn't much of a farmer, but he always had something
growing," she said. "He was a crippled man, he cut his foot nearly off
cutting wood when he was real young, and he could never plow or anything
like that. They had mules and plows back then, so he always had someone on
the place to do the farming for him. He tended to his livestock. He loved
his sheep and he had goats, too. He was a kind, good man and known
throughout for his wit and humor."

When Thomas Dicks died at the age of seventy-four, he was buried at
Douglas Cemetery near Lulu next to his first wife, Ella Douglas. Georgia
lived to be ninety-one years old and is buried at Macedonia Cemetery in
north Macclenny.

Cincinnati said her parents were strict, but loving. "Mama was a
little high-tempered and would jerk a knot in you right quick if you needed
it," she said. "She was real pretty, right up to the day she died, and was
always fixed up. She wore a corset, the kind that laced up, and she always
looked nice."

Thomas and Georgia bought a Model-T car and, since Thomas didn't care
to drive and Georgia didn't know how, their spritely twelve-year-old
daughter, Cincinnati, often chauffeured the family.

"Well, in 1926 there was no age limit or driving license required,"
she said.

Cincinnati walked from her home in West Macclenny to attend school in
the two-story frame school-house on unpaved south Sixth Street ("Nowadays,
they ride a bus," she said). She carried her lunch pail filled with bacon
or sausage, biscuit and sweet potatoes, since it was before the advent of
school cafeterias.

"It was good eating. We didn't have light bread back then, but now
days they think they've got to have a sandwich." she quipped.

"That school house was a good strong building but somebody thought it
was too old, so they tore it down." she said.

Cincinnati played basketball on her school's team. Her coach, Ms.
Bernice McRae, thought she was a standout player.

She remembers that the homes of Macclenny citizens in those early
years were mostly frame construction, and were usually graced by a porch
with rockers and a swing. Most families had a few chickens, some a cow, and
maybe even a hog. And almost always a garden.

"The Rowe family had three children, Jack, Kathleen and Marguerite. I
can still vividly remember passing by their house on my way to school, and
the girls would always be sweeping the porch or shaking the rugs because
their mother always had them clean up the house before they left to go to
school." she said.

She graduated in 1933 in a class of 17. They were: W.M. Barber, Lacy
Barton, Minnie Lee Brown (Futch), Emily Cone (Kirkland), Wilma Cook
(Morris), Dolores Hiers (Gainey) , J.W. Hiers, Earle Knabb, Durwood Lott,
Leslie Lyons, Bascom Milton, Arlie Rhoden, Edith Rowe (Brandt), Vernon Tutt
(Brinson), Eunice Walters and Lois Watson (Cheny).

"I met Charlton when I was about 15," she said, "and we had dated some
before I graduated. I still remember the first time I ever met him. Me and
another girl were walking up town and was about where Lowder's Corner Store
was located when we saw a boy named Lee Clark. He wanted to go with my
friend, so he said, 'I got a friend, y'all wait here and let me go get
him'; so he ran back up to the sawmill where Charlton was working and said,
'I got two good-looking girls down here, come go with me and let's talk to
'em'. Charlton did and I liked him the first time I ever saw him, I really
did , but we didn't do no courting or anything.

"Once in a while I'd see him and talk with him. I always liked him,
and cared for him. But finally we got to going together and when it came
time to buy my baccalaureate dress, Charlton loaned me his car to go to
Jacksonville. And, of course, you had to have a hat in those days, too.
Charlton was crazy to let me borrow the car. I knew how to drive, but I'd
never been to Jacksonville before. I took some friends with me and we
didn't know where any stores were or where to go to shop. When we got there
we stopped at the first store we saw. I don't remember the name of it. We
all bought us an outfit and came back home. Charlton had more confidence in
us than I had."

That Charlton Mobley was her first and only love is obvious.

"Charlton was a good man. He was the hardest worker I've ever seen,
she said with pride. " He wanted an education so bad, and he'd walk all the
way from Steel Bridge Road north of town to attend school in Macclenny when
he was a boy. And it was awful bad when it rained, but he'd do it anyway.
He just got wet, but he was determined to go. It's sad to think of just how
bad he really wanted to go to school and make something out of himself. But
Lee, his older brother didn't want to go to school; he wanted to work on
the farm, and Charlton's daddy really knew how to work those boys. It was
unpleasant for Charlton when he would go off to school and be blamed later
for not doing his share of the work. Charlton finally quit school and went
to work on the farm.

"His father, Walton Mobley, was a county commissioner and often got
the boys work building roads. They didn't have modern equipment, such as
graders to work with like they do now. When Charlton would draw a check for
his work, he handed it right over to his daddy.

"When he was 23 years old he decided to leave home. He said to his
daddy, 'have you cashed my last check?,'and his daddy told him he hadn't.
So Charlton told him he wanted it. It Was $47.50, and that's what he left
home with."

Charlton headed down the road with his suitcase, walking towards
Macclenny. Mr. L.N. Lewis stopped and offered him a ride. Charlton informed
him he was going to Jacksonville to look for work. Mr Lewis encouraged
Charlton to stay in Baker County and work for him in the sawmill business.
Charlton told him he didn't have a place to stay, but the persistent Mr.
Lewis told him not to worry, 'I'll get you a place to stay', he said. "And
he did," said Cincinnati, "with Mr. and Mrs. Oglesbee, the nicest people in
the world to room and board with.

"Charlton went to work for Lewis and stayed until the sawmill closed
down four years later."

Charlton was sitting on a bench down at Louder's store when Thaddous
Pickett stopped and offered him a job. Charlton explained that the mill was
shut down and he was waiting for it to open.

"Well, come work for me until it does," said Pickett.

Actually, Pickett worked for the sawmill, owned and operated by two
brothers, John and Augusta Walters. John ran the sawmill, Augusta was a
preacher and supervised the woods (field) operation.

So Charlton went to work for him and that's where he was working when
Cincinnati first met him.

"We just mostly would see each other and talk, wasn't courting or
anything. We finally got to dating a little bit before graduation," she
said. "We'd usually park and sit in his car in front of Mae Power's house
across from Powers Drug Store on Main Street. We didn't go nowhere else, we
didn't know where to go. We just watched people walking the streets because
there was always a lot of people in town, shopping and doing business those
days. They would stop and talk to us and we'd exchange news. It was really
a lot of fun, especially on Saturday night. If I couldn't go uptown on
Saturday night I was disappointed. In those days, there were lots of hogs
and cows roaming around, too; they'd just go right up to the stores. All
the streets were unpaved except for Main Street and there was one red light
at Main and Fifth Streets. The stores stayed open very late for people to
shop, back then. You could get a hair cut if you wanted it at midnight
because Lautice Dugger's barber shop stayed open until eleven or twelve
o'clock at night.

"I never did date anyone else but Charlton. Well, there was this other
fellow, but he wasn't from around here, and there's a story about how that
happened." she said.

"After we started going together awhile we discussed getting married,"
she said. "Charlton even bought a city lot and planned to build us a house
on it. When Charlton first asked me to marry him, I asked him where we
would live. He said we could live in one of the mill houses, but I told
him, 'no, I don't want to live there'. Then he said, 'Well, we could live
with my Ma and Pa'. I told him I didn't want to do that either. Then he
said, 'Well, I could buy that lot on U.S. 90 from Lautice Dugger and get my
brother Lee and cousin Jessie to build us a home'. I told him, 'Oh well, I
would like that. The answer is yes. Yes, I'll marry you.'

"But then there came a pretty young widow to town and he went out with
her and when I found it out I wouldn't go out with him for about two years
and I used some bad language on him, too. I got my brother to go with me
because I knew he had gone to see this girl. I went up to the house where
she was staying and a man came out and I said, "is Charlton here", and he
said,'yes', and I said, 'Well, I want to see him'. Well, Charlton came out
and said, 'What did you come down here for', and I said, 'I came to see
you, and I want to know what you are doing down here; you got no business
down here and I want you to go to hell where you started!" Then I turned
and left. I didn't go with him for two years. He tried a lot of times, but
I wouldn't do it. I'd be walking home from Sunday School and church on
Sunday and he always waylaid me, and I'd go walking on. He'd try and get me
to ride, but I wouldn't do it. Sometimes, I'd stop and talk to him a few
minutes, but then I'd say I had to go and he'd try and get me to get in,
but I wouldn't do it."

Cincinnati moved to Dundee to live with her sister, Eva, and her
husband, Amon Powell. She quickly found work in the local canning plant,
Florida Gold.

"That's when I met this other feller, named Paul Morgan. I liked him
pretty good, and so did my sister and her family. I'd go to a picture show
with him and he'd come and go to Sunday School and church with us on
Sunday. But I couldn't forget Charlton."

Charlton continually tried to contact her, but she would not respond.

"Well, he'd already bought this lot and was planning to build us a
house on it, so you can see how I was mad and hurt. He'd write me and if
Mrs. Thelma Hayes was living she could tell you about the telegrams he'd
send, and you know, it did bother me when I'd get one, and I couldn't help
but cry; but I'd say 'I'm not going to hear his static', and I'd just
stiffen my heart and say, 'if he'll do me that way one time, he'll probably
do me that way again'."

Occasionally she would return to Baker County to visit her parents,
but she would never let Charlton know she was home.

"I'd see him pass by from my parents house, but I never let him see
me."

Then Paul Morgan proposed marriage.

"He thought there may be someone back home and he'd always say, 'don't
story to me', but I did."

Charlton's letters continued. "Come back and marry me," he would
write, over and over.

Finally, Cincinnati informed Charlton she was coming home for a visit
and informed him of the time her train would arrive in Jacksonville.

"Paul took me to the train in Dundee and carried my luggage aboard. He
was so good to me," she said. "I hope he's done good in life, I haven't
seen him in years because I never went back."

Charlton was promptly at the train terminal when she arrived in
Jacksonville.

"He liked to have fainted." She said. "He hadn't seen me in two years,
and I'd bought myself some nice clothes and make-up. He would take deep
breaths two or three times."

They talked, but that's all, she said. Cincinatti informed him she
would be travelling by bus to Macclenny and not in his car with him.

"I told him I had a lot of thinking to do and I wasn't promising him
anything." she said. Charlton was shocked.

After three months at home, she agreed to see him again and talk.

"I finally made up with him and it was wonderful from then on," she
said. "I know I made the right decision, I can honestly tell you that. I
hadn't forgotten him, I couldn't. Its hard to forget someone you really
care for. He started building on the house right away."

Charlton was still working for the sawmill. He was encouraged by his
employer, Mr. John Walters, to select the best cypress logs the company had
and then see that they were made into the lumber of his specifications. He
hired long-time Macclenny contractors -- his brother, Lee, and cousin,
Jesse Mobley -- to build the five-room home with a porch all the way across
the rear and a partial porch on the front, paying cash as it was
constructed.

Charlton was boarding at the time with Mrs. L.A. Barnes. When it came
time to get married, the new house still had to be furnished, so he
obtained permission from the Barnes' for Cincinnati to move in with him
until they could obtain furniture.

On April 3, 1935, Cincinnati and Charlton went to judge Frank
Dowling's house to pick up their marriage license, and then on around to
the home of his employer and her pastor, the Reverend Augusta Walter's
house, to be married. Lautice Dugger, Charlton's long-time friend,
accompanied the couple and stood as a witness. The pastor's wife stood with
Cincinnati.

"I didn't even tell my mama and daddy," she said. "I didn't even talk
it over with them. I told Spain that night what I was fixin' to do, and
when Charlton came to pick me up, I just set my suitcase in the window,
went out the back door, and picked it up as I went by. Mama and daddy were
playing solitaire in the front room. They never knew I was even gone. Spain
told them the next morning at breakfast. They loved Charlton so they were
tickled to death."

The young couple spent their first night in Charlton's room at the
Barnes home, and both went to work early the following morning.

"I got off work on Thursday afternoons while I was working for Bob
Knabb at his mercantile store, and usually Charlton had Saturdays off, so
when he got off on Saturday, he drove to Jacksonville by himself to get our
kitchen supplies," she said. "He got a real good sales lady and he told her
he'd just got married and he wanted to buy everything for the kitchen, and
honey, she fixed him up with everything, long spoons, long fork, and so
forth. He had a car load of stuff when he got home. Then Mr. William Lion
Matthews, a merchant -- who was father of Willie Mae Gilbert, who with her
husband had a trading post in the city -- told Charlton he'd take us to
Jacksonville and let us pick out the furniture we wanted and buy it
wholesale. He said he'd add ten percent to it for his cost. So I went with
him on Thursday and he carried me to Swindall Powell." she said.

"You know, some people think Charlton was stingy, but I know better --
he wasn't. He paid for our house as he went. Now, it wasn't wired or with
plumbing, but it was built solid and paid for. And when he bought our
furniture, he paid cash. Charlton believed in saving up for what you wanted
and paying cash. I picked out a living room suite, two bedroom suites, and
a kitchen cabinet that was a dandy, you could pull out the leaf for a work
place and it even had a place to store your flour. Oh, it was so nice and I
was so proud of all of it. I didn't have a stove, but Mr. Matthews offered
me a nice kerosene stove for six dollars. It didn't have an oven, but it
had five burners. My kitchen was narrow and it fit right in. It didn't look
too good, but I got me a board and covered it with oil cloth and made me an
apron to go all the way around it. I tacked it on and I could pull it off
when I went to use the stove and put it on when I finished. It looked real
nice in the kitchen," she said.

"You see how wide those base boards are?" she said, pointing to
twelve-inch boards that lined the base of her floor. "Well, that's all
cypress, and now days some houses don't even have base boards.

"Me and Charlton were always a team, we worked together. Charlton was
a good husband, good father, and a good business man. To let you know just
how good a businessman he was, well, if you knew all his holdings at one
time, you'd agree, especially when he started off with $47.50. At one time
he owned 4,000 acres of land, but he sold some and gave some to the
children. Charlton was good to his children, they didn't dread their daddy.

"Charlon was such a good worker that one day his boss said if he had
ten men like Charlon he'd run the rest of 'em off," she smiled. "Charlon
always tried to work too much and too hard, and one day some of those guys
he worked with asked him, 'why do you work so hard, you are going to cause
us to lose our job because we have to work harder,' and Charlton said, 'you
all are working to keep your job, I'm working to do better'."

At the sawmill, Charlon worked the log ramp, hauled logs, and was
trusted to mark all logs that came off the truck so the men could get their
honest pay wages. Often he came in late at night, waiting on the last log
truck to come in, even if they were very late.

"He considered it was his obligation," said his wife. "And he wanted
to make sure he did his job good."

"I was pregnant with our first child when we got electricity and were
able to wire for lights in our house." she said.

"Frank Wells, who was City Manager, sent for me one day to go to the
community center, and he signed me up for a little bit of money. I never
did find out what it was for, but I used that money to have my house wired
for electricity." she said. "We still didn't have plumbing and we continued
to use an outdoor toilet with a dirt floor, and that was terrible, having
to get up and go out there at night" she said. "Later, the government had
everyone build nicer ones to their specifications with a wood floor.

AS the tidings of their first-born became a reality, Charlon expressed
concern.

"Charlon was as scared to death of childbirth as he was of a cocked
gun. she said. " He had a brother that lost a wife when her twins were
three weeks old, we thought from neglect, not proper care, so Charlon
really wanted me to have good care.

"Charlon would take me in to Jacksonville in the turpentine truck to
see the doctor. He'd put me out wherever it was most convenient because it
was hard getting that big old truck into town. He would go on to the docks
or wherever he was going and if it wasn't too far, I'd walk on or I'd get a
cab on to the office that was in the Cohen building. You know, we just
didn't have a lot of money and you could walk if you didn't have the money.
Young people don't know what hard times are. We managed to pay as we went
along."

As the birth drew nearer, Charlton insisted that she go into
Jacksonville to be closer to St. Luke's Hospital when the time arrived for
delivery.

"We had former neighbors who lived near St. Luke's, and they invited
me to stay with them until time for my delivery," said Cincinnati. "I
didn't want to go, but Charlton insisted; he was so scared.

So I went and stayed two or three days and oh, I couldn't stand it --I
was just so homesick. So when I went in to see my doctor I asked if he
could tell me how much longer and explained to him about my being in
Jacksonville with my friend. He said he would have to put me on the table
for an exam. I told him I wouldn't mind this time, that I'd crawl under the
table if it would do any good and I could just go home. So he put me on the
table and examined me and said, 'you won't have this baby for at least a
week', so I told him I was going home. He walked out in the office with me
and said, 'Mrs. Mobley, you're not going to have this baby for another week
or more, so you might as well go on home'. He really helped me to keep from
hurting my friend's feelings. So I got on the bus and went home.

"Now you talk about somebody being happy. When Charlton drove up and
he saw me walk out on that porch, he was the happiest thing in the world.
He said, 'I've been so miserable, I couldn't hardly stand it, but I wanted
you to be close so nothing would happen to you'."

Three weeks later Cincinnati went into labor. Charlton called Seashole
Ambulance Service in Jacksonville to transport her to St. Luke's Hospital
for the birth of their first child. The date was January 20,1941 and they
named their son Wayne Cherill.

"Charlton had a telephone put in our house so we'd have it to call an
ambulance when the time came. At that time Macclenny had a small telephone
company owned by Mrs. Mattie jean Thompson, who was also the operator. In
those days you would just ring her up, you didn't have numbers to dial.
Sometimes you could ring her up and get her and sometimes you couldn't.
Poor old thing was trying to raise her grandchildren and she'd be busy
cooking or something. She had a hard time.

"Dr. Neal Alford charged $50 for delivering Cherill. I stayed in the
hospital for two weeks after he was born. Back then, they didn't want you
to come home early like they do now. And, even if you had your baby at
home, you stayed in bed back then. Charlon would have let me stay a month,
to be safe, if he could have." she said.

When their daughter, Carolyn Rivers Mobley, was born in 1942 Charlon
once again gave Cincinnati the royal treatment.

"He called the ambulance again." she said. " A very good friend,
Minnie Crews, rode with me and Charlon drove the truck. Minnie stayed with
me through the night, but the next morning Charlton took her to the bus
station to catch a bus home so she could get her children off to school.
Carolyn was born at 1:30 that afternoon by Dr. W.R. Schnauss."

Times were hard for the couple. In the beginning, Cincinnati washed
her clothes in a lard can out in the back yard.

"I'd boil them in the can and it wouldn't hold very much. When you
would get them to boiling, the water would boil over and put the fire out.
Then, if the train came by, cinders would fall on them. We'd always try and
wait until the train passed before hanging out clean clothes to dry. A
passenger train came through going west every morning and one would pass
through going east in the afternoon.

"One day, Charlton was passing by Gilbert's Trading Post and saw them
unloading some wash pots. He came home and told me to run up there and get
us the largest iron wash pot they had.

"We put our name on the list with Mr. Corbett Yarbrough to buy an
electric cook stove and a refrigerator. It was about two years later when I
got my washing machine. And I was so proud of it. It had nice big rollers,
not like mama's little ones. if you put a pair of dungarees in mama's, it
would flip up and you'd have to tighten it back down. Mine had them big
rollers, and man, it would really wring them clothes out dry and a pair of
dungarees would go through without any trouble.

"I took in washing to pay for my washing machine. We had to put it on
the back porch. My three rinse tubs were in the yard. I pumped water from a
pitcher pump to fill them and then had to take the clothes up and down the
steps to rinse them."

Meanwhile, Charlton expanded into the turpentine business.

After the sawmill, where he was employed, moved to Nassau County,
Charlton worked for Southern Resin and Chemical Company at Pine Top, west
of Glen St. Mary, for the next nine and a half years.

The thrifty Charlton had an opportunity to buy two trucks and
remaining year's contract for hauling pine gum from Mr. Bridges.

"We had a truck, and a semi trailer," said Cincinnati. "Charlton went
from camp to camp, loading pine gum to take to the company to convert into
resin and other materials. Then he'd take it to the loading docks in
Jacksonville," she said.

With two toddlers underfoot, Cincinnati was holding down the
homefront, and working with her ambitious husband as well.

"After Carolyn was born, I'd put her bassinet in the turpentine truck,
take Cherill and go help Charlton wherever he needed me." she said.

"Well, before I'd leave everyday, I'd have to get up early and milk
our cow, feed our chickens, tend to the garden and sometimes it would take
me an hour just to cut the okra. I'd get my babies bathed and dressed and
cook dinner. The children and I would eat, then I'd make Charlton's lunch.
Sometimes I'd drive all the way to Slocom, Blackjack, Fairview, Chiefland
or Williston, just wherever the camps had a load of gum ready."

As a favor, before leaving the city, Charlton would usually pick up
grocery orders to deliver to the people who lived in the turpentine camps.
That courtesy was beyond the call of duty, but being the good man he was,
he did it.

Most turpentine camps were located deep in the woods reachable by a
two-lane path called a log road, usually impassable if it rained.

When I'd get near to some place like Slocom, I would stop and wait on
Charlton to bring the barrels out to me." said Cincinnati. "I could time it
almost perfectly because I'd hear Charlton coming in his truck loaded with
about 18 barrels just minutes after I would arrive. Sometimes he'd have
someone to help him unload onto my truck or sometimes I'd help him. Then
he'd go back to the camp for 18 more barrels. I'd usually leave with 36
barrels and me and the children would drive on into Jacksonville to the
docks and unload.

"As we made money, Charlton would buy land with it every time he had a
chance. Some had pine trees already planted, and when it didn't he'd plant
pines on it. We both worked, he didn't do it by himself, but he had the
plan and I helped him with it. We were a team.

"After my mama got an electric refrigerator, I borrowed her old ice
box. I thought it was real nice and I was proud of it. We put it out on our
back porch and every night I'd put a dime on the top of it and the next
morning the iceman would leave me a ten-cent block of ice. I couldn't nurse
my babies, so I had to have someway to keep their baby bottles cool."

For several years, Charlton had been asking Cincinnati to consider
having another baby. When her sister, Alabama, who had married Charlton's
brother, Luther, gave birth to a son, Thomas, in 1952, Charlton fell in
love with her baby and approached Cincinnati again.

""Well," she said, "I won't give you just one, but I will have two.
Otherwise one would seem like an only child since Cherill and Carolyn are
so much older," she told her doting husband.

Cincinnati turned 40 years old on February 3, 1954 and on February 11
gave birth to their third child, Michael Dicks Mobley. She said she was the
talk of the town. Two years later, on October 14, 1956, another son,
Patrick Michael, weighed in at 12 pounds. This time Cincinnati, at age 42,
was the rage of the town.

By this time the couple had a car and Cincinnati drove into
Jacksonville for her doctor appointments.

The little family grew in size and other responsibilities entered into
their schedule. Besides school, there was Sunday School, too -- something
Cincinnati believed to be most important.

"I always went to church and took the children," she said. "I've been
a Baptist all my life and Charlton was sprinkled when he was small and his
folks attended the Methodist Church at Macedonia. While we were dating,
he'd go with me sometimes, but after we got married and had our children,
Charlton was under conviction a long time but just wouldn't surrender.

"Well, sometimes Charlton would decide to go to church and he would
say, 'let's go to so and so church tonight', so we'd visit several
churches, but eventually he got to going more and more to my church.

Then they started building on Faith Baptist Church where my mother was
a charter member and Charlton helped them build it. I thought surely
Charlton would join that church. Carolyn offered to join with him at Faith
Baptist where her grandma went and I told him I'd change, too, because I
thought we should all go to the same church. But Charlton wouldn't hear of
it, and one Sunday he had gone out to his daddy's house while we all went
to church. We were surprised to see Charlton walk in and sit down with us.
He was late, but when they sang the song of invitation, he was the first
one up there.

" I remember that day so well because our former neighbors had some
harsh words with Charlton concerning our chickens. We really didn't have
that many but it was just enough to aggravate somebody and if one got out,
well, it naturally went where it wasn't supposed to. When they moved, a
friend said to Charlton, I heard you run your neighbors off'. Charlton told
him he didn't mean to and didn't know it if he had.

"Charlton told this person that he had even tried to keep his men from
making noise with the trucks when they'd drive up to the house, to avoid
disturbing his neighbors. He told him he had talked to his men repeatedly
about being quiet." said Cincinnati.

"But I knew the neighbors were upset over Charlton's chickens. I never
liked chickens that much and I couldn't blame our neighbors. The chickens
would get out of the pen and mess with her flowers and she'd sic her dogs
onto the chickens and that's what it was about," she said.

. Well, the night he accepted the invitation to join the church, our
former neighbors were sitting right up ahead of me. I saw them whispering,
I don't know what they were saying, but when it came time for the members
to go up to speak with Charlton, they went up to speak to him. Charlton
apologized to them, the good Lord, and everybody else, and I was so happy
he did because we had been friends a long time. I was glad we were all
friends again."

The Mobley's never indulged their children, but saw that they had the
necessities of life.

"We didn't spoil our children. Charlton didn't do the discipline, I
was the one who done the whipping if they needed it, but I had easy
children to manage. I started off in the beginning and we had little
trouble with them even as teenagers. We brought them up in Sunday School
and church. They had good teachers and friends. We talked to them a lot."

The Mobley family was without television long after most of their
friends and family had bought a set. In 1972 when the Mobley's son, Mike,
was 18 years old, he began to ask his daddy to buy a television.

"He would go over to his girl friend's to watch television and come
home and say, 'Daddy, I wish you'd buy us a television and we'd be like
they are in All in The Family. You could be Archie, mama can be Edith and
Carolyn can be Gloria and I'll be Meathead'. Well, Charlton surprised us
and went out and bought one. That was in November."

A few weeks later, on December 13, the family suffered the greatest
tragedy of their lives when their son, Mike, was accidently killed.

"Mike loved it [the TV] and enjoyed it those few days before his
death," she said.

When Michael died, the family issued the following statement: "Our
hearts are broken to have lost Mike, but we are grateful to God for each
day that we did have him." Cincinnati says their faith sustained them in
their anguish.

Cincinnati's close friend was Mrs. Leona (T.J.) Knabb. She often
invited her to Eastern Star meetings. The local chapter was named in her
honor.

"She and Mrs. Nettie Dorman kind of took me under their wings and I
served as Worthy Matron for the local chapter three times."

She has also served for two years as Macclenny Woman's Club president.

In 1959 Cincinnati and Charlton hired their first baby sitter.

"And I think it was the last, too," she said, laughing. The occasion
was the first Miss Baker County beauty pageant ever to be affiliated with
the Miss America Pageant. Their daughter, Carolyn, was one of the 33
contestants. The couple was elated when their beautiful and talented
daughter, a high school majorette, won the title.

Cherill and Carolyn, who had graduated from Macclenny-Glen High School
together in 1959, enrolled in Young Harris College in north Georgia. After
their first year, Carolyn transferred to the University of Florida and
Cherill joined the Marines and went off to Parris island. The family was
proud when Cherill was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal for bravery in
rescuing several wounded Marines from an exploded land-mine field. Cherill
was also awarded the Purple Heart for injuries received in the incident.

"Carolyn was easy to get homesick." said Cincinnati. "I think the
people thought I was enrolled over at the University I went over there so
much."

Carolyn studied to be a chemist and after graduation accepted a job in
Cape Canaveral, now Cape Kennedy. That's where she met Roger Tyndall. The
couple married on February 15, 1969 in Macclenny.

"I'm real proud of my children. Patrick is a real hard worker, like
his claddy. He is an engineer with CSX. Cherill is very attentive and comes
over every morning to make sure I am up and dressed and okay. Carolyn lives
in Amelia island Plantation and comes home regularly and calls very often."
she said.

Cherill married Kathy Padgett on May 6, 1992. They have a daughter,
Jackie, and Cherill has Julie Ann and Richard Mobley from a previous
marriage.

Patrick married Dicey Crawford September 14, 1988. They have one son,
Jeremy.

Carolyn, a former Green Bay Packer Golden Girl cheerleader in Green
Bay, Wisconsin, travelled with her mother in the summer of 1968 to Cairo,
Egypt, where they rode camels near the pyramids and the Sphinx. Their trip
to the Middle East included a tour of Israel and a special boat ride on the
Sea of Galilee.

Carolyn and her husband, Roger, launched a contest news letter that
was so successful it was later purchased by McCall Magazine.

Cincinnati helped out in its infancy. The first mailing was sent to
20,000 persons and when the subscriptions began pouring in they were all
overwhelmed. The success of their ingenious enterprise has afforded the
couple a life of world travel and other interesting ventures.

Cincinnati lost her beloved Charlton on August 29, 1992. The couple
celebrated their golden anniversary in 1985. They never fell out of love
and together they spent 57 rich and fruitful years.

Life without Charlton was almost unbearable. She admits to countless
lonely days and nights. The children encouraged her to keep active.
Following Charlton's death, she and Cherill took an absorbing and inspiring
tour to see the stunning sites of the west. She added a garage to her home,
gleaming white siding, and screened the front porch. In the future, she
plans to do other improvements, such as new wiring and modernizing the
kitchen. But one thing that will never be changed or obliterated in the
home Charlton built for her 60 years ago, is the memories.

In 1993 Cincinnati's children honored her with an 80th birthday party.
They invited the entire county, and most of them came. Her talented and
enterprising daughter, Carolyn, planned the menu and prepared most of the
food single-handedly for the enormous crowd.

Before the event, the children asked their mother what had been the
most important things in her life, and Cincinnati answered by saying,
'Three things: accepting the Lord, getting married, and having four
children'. The fascinating program, charted by her children, centered
around a mesmerizing video-taped vignette of her life directly focused on
those three things. As a larger-than-life photo of Charlton flashed on the
screen that day, a tear fell from Cincinnati's eye onto her cheek, and in
spite of the huge crowd of onlookers, a smile of courage and steadfastness
emerged. She's a woman composed of unwavering convictions, and an
unchanging character that is uniquely woven into an abundance of rare
stamina and fortitude.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Historical Sketch of Dicks Family

The following sketch was researched by members of the Dicks family --
Archie Dicks in England, Denver and Trammel Dicks, Lake City, Florida and
drawn from primary source documents in the possession of the Drew Dicks
family.

I am especially indebted to Denver Dicks and his wife Laverne of Lake
City, for the time and effort they gave to supply me with copies of the
family photographs and records used in this account of the DICKS FAMILY
HISTORY.

On July 14, 1784, Joseph Dicks of the parish of Bishopstrow and
Eleanor Fry of the parish of Heytesbury, were married at Heytesbury Parish
Church in their native country of England. The couple had eight known
children: William, 1785; Mary Ann, 1787; Charlotte, 1789; Jacob, 1791;
Eleanor, 1793; Isac, 1795; Sarah, 1798, and Joseph, 1808, who died in
infancy.

Joseph and Eleanor's son, William, married Jane, whose last name is
not known, in the parish of Heytesbury, in 1802. Their first son, Joseph,
was born in 1802 and died in 1805. Maria was their next known child, born
1816, then Kezia in 1818, and another son named Josephin 1819 and Sophia in
1820.

During the period between the first and second child, William who was
in the army, participated in the Battle of Waterloo, where he was wounded.
He never fully recovered from the injury and died July 30, 1820, at the age
of thirty-five.

The couple's son, Joseph, was born in England on January 22, 1819. it
was the custom in that time for young boys to become an apprentice and
study assigned trades. Young Joseph was given the task of learning to make
brushes. it was required that the youth live a number of miles from his
residence to be near the brush training center or factory. On one
particular weekend after he had visited his family, his mother accompanied
him part of the way on his return trip to the brush factory. Bidding
farewell to her son, she turned toward home and later, Joseph was to
describe how he watched her fade from his sight, knowing that they may
never meet again.

Soon after, he boarded a ship in Heytesbury, England, that was bound
for America. The long and perilous journey took him across the Atlantic to
where his ship docked on the Canadian shore. Joseph is said to have worked
for a while in a quarry in or near Ottawa, later making his way to New
York. He joined the U.S. Army on September 24, 1838, in Rochester and was
assigned to Company "C" 2nd Regiment. During this time, the Second Seminole
Indian War was raging and his assignment was to serve within the Florida
and Georgia frontiers where considerable trouble with the Indians was
occurring.

By the end of December 1838, he was stationed at Fort Andrews, located
on the Fennholloway River about four miles southwest of Hampton Springs and
about ten miles from the Gulf in what is now Taylor County. According to
his military records, his stay at this fort was a very short one.

By February 1839, Joseph was in Fort Fanning near what is now Fanning
Springs, located where U.S. 19 crosses the Suwannee River. The April 1839
records show that he was in Fort District 16, East Florida, where he served
for the remainder of 1839. This location is about six miles south of
Alligator, now known as Lake City.

Beginning in April 1840 he was stationed at Fort Number 15, East
Florida, in what is now Union County and in the vicinity of Providence. In
June 1840, he was listed as being at Bee Tree Branch, which is near
Hawthorne. By August of 1840, he was at Fort King near Ocala, where he was
stationed for a full year.

In December of 1841 he was moved to Fort Moniac, East Florida, located
on the Saint Mary River near the Florida-Georgia line at a point called
Hogans Ferry in Baker County. His last place of service in Florida was at
Fort Shannon in April 1842 near Palatka on the St. Johns River.

From Palatka he was transferred to Buffalo Barracks, New York, where
he finished his five-year term of Army service on September 24, 1843.

Joseph's personal data on his military records show his height to be 5
feet, 4 inches tall, age 22, hazel eyes, brown hair and dark complexion.
His birthplace is listed as Wiltshire, England, occupation farmer.

Joseph and his first wife, Sarah Taylor, were married in Ocala on
January 18, 1846 according to records on file in that county's clerk of
courts office. Family history accounts say the couple met in south Georgia.
The 1850 Federal census records reveal the couple was living in
Thomasville, Georgia. In 1859 Joseph received a land grant issued by the
U.S. Government at Newmansville, near Alachua. It was signed by President
James Buchanan on April 1, 1859 and involved more than 200 acres. During
his life, Joseph Dicks operated a farm, owned a country store and ran an
enterprising sawmill business. The land later became a part of the farm
belonging to the couple's son, Henry Dicks.

The 1860 census records disclose he and his family were living in
Columbia County within the Hopeful Community.

It is believed that Joseph purchased the 'Squatter' improvements of
Johnny Markham. A short time later he took his entitled Land Grant, earned
by military service, located near the Markham Improvements. Exact
descriptions indicate the granted lands are the N 1/2 of the NW I/4 of
Section 1, T 55, R 27E and the S 1/2 of the SW I/4 of Section 36, T 4S, R
27E. One hundred sixty acres were involved and in 1984 was owned by R.P.
Dicks, Rodney Dicks, and Robert Cox.

Joseph corresponded with his family after his arrival in America and
while living in Columbia County, Alligator East Florida. When his mother,
Jane, died in England in 1864, Joseph received a letter from his sister,
Sophia. It was sent from Heytesbury, England, and addressed to Joseph
Dicks, Alligator, East Florida and the complete text is as follows:

Heytesbury, England

Dear Brother:
Tis now a long time since we have heard from each other and God only knows
if these few lines will find you in the land of the living but I do
sincerely hope that one of your family is still alive to send us back word
something about you. It was, I know, useless to write during the war and as
Florida was one of the states against the Government, letters would not be
sent to you, but as now peace is proclaimed and the postal route open I do
hope we shall correspond again. In the first place, I must say that our
poor mother has been dead two years. She was very helpless and childless
for years and we had a great deal of trouble, but I done all that could be
done to make her comfortable and she was quite resigned to death. I am
thankful to say that I, and my husband, is both pretty well as we can
expect. My son, Joseph Dicks Haines is at work in London and doing well.
Maria has been married four years and has two children. Her husband (whose
parents live next door to us) is a city missionary in London. They visited
in summer and father and I have been to London since. My next, Sarah, is in
service in London and our youngest Henry is just six years old. My sister
Maria and husband is quite well. Their family is growing up fine young
women. We had one living with us apprenticed to a dressmaker here. My
sister, Kezia and husband and two children is well and living at Knock.
Their son is a carpenter, their daughter a dressmaker. I shall say but
little about your old friends. Aunt Betty Courtry is dead and many more of
our relations of whom I will try and say more in a future letter. I hope
this will find you and your wife still alive and well and also your
children. I hope you will get this letter that you will lose no time to
write back and tell us all the particulars, how you fared during the war,
if you lost your property and if any of your children, that is the boys,
(?) themselves as soldiers. We shall wait with anxiety to hear for I can
assure you we have been very uneasy and in great trouble about you. You
will give our kind love to your wife and family. I hope you will soon
recover what you have lost. I know things with you is expensive but you
have a better chance that we. Times here is bad, very little trade and food
is dear all but bread. Men only get nine shillings a week and no chance of
getting better. No land as with you to be bought to help a family. You must
work for just what they chose to give you as all the farmers is agreed to
that but we thank God we have not (busted ?), and have not the trouble for
my husband looks at home and to the welfare of his family first. This is
one reason that keeps us above many who spend too much of their time in the
Alehouse and leave their children destitute. Now I just come to conclusion
as I almost fear my letter may never reach you as directed this to
Alligator East Florida, but I hope it will find you all right. Your
sister's husband and all our family join in kind love and well wishes to
you and family, trusting to hear from you as soon as you get this.

We remain your loving brother and sister, James and Sophia Haines.

In later years, Joseph is said to have crossed the ocean once again to
pay a visit to his beloved family in England

Joseph had been born into an Episcopalian Church membership in
England. In America, he joined the Methodist Church at Ebenezer. He was
remembered by his family as constantly offering the blessing before meals
and faithfully reading his Bible daily.

He has been described by those who remember him as "displaying some
imperfections of life," but highly regarded as "rigid in honesty in his
business dealings". He was very successful in productive agriculture and
farm management. He is remembered as a loyal, patriotic American, and as
disapproving slavery. He is said to have worked long and hard in all his
endeavors.

Sarah was a member of the old Providence Church and Bethlehem Church
before becoming a charter member of Hopeful Church. She faithfully traveled
by wagon, horse back and even foot over dusty, unpaved roads to regularly
attend the old Providence Baptist Church, which was seven miles from her
home. She later had 18 grandchildren who became members of Hopeful Church.

Many family members have endeavored to piece together the Joseph and
Sarah (Taylor) Dicks family history. In addition to those named at the
beginning of this sketch, the family group sheet of Donna Jean Robartson
Alcorn of Fort White, is the most complete. Ms. Robartson listed family
records in possession of Margaret Ernesteen Beasley Graham of Union County
as her source of information for much of the information.

According to Ms. Alcorn, Ms. Graham said some of the Dicks children
died of plague. All presently known Dicks family data is presented here in
hopes that it will be helpful to future family historians.

JOSEPH, Born: January 22, 1819 in England. Died 20 December 1899 in
Columbia County, Florida. Buried Hopeful Baptist Church Cemetery in
Columbia, County.
Married SARAH TAYLOR in Marion County Florida January 18, 1846.

SARAH TAYLOR: Born July 3, 1822 in Thomasville, Thomas County, Georgia.
Died October 29, 1896 Columbia County, Florida. Buried Hopefull Baptist
Church Cemetery.

ISAAC DICKS Born October 19, 1846 in Georgia

WILLIAM PENN DICKS Born September 29, 1847 in Georgia, Died December 8,
1914.

JOHN DICKS Born January 15, 1850 in Georgia [Ebenezer cem]

JAMES P. DICKS Born May 6, 1852 in Columbia County Florida, married Ellen
Smith March 9, 1876, Died Nov. 24, 1924.[Hopeful cem]

GEORGE WASHINGTON DICKS (called "Doctor") was born Sept. 5, 1856 in
Columbia Co. Fl.

ROBERT DICKS Born Sept. 13,1857 in Columbia Co., Fl.

SARAH MARGARET DICKS Born May 7,1859 in Columbia Co. Fl. Married William
Jackson Marguss Nov. 15, 1877

HENRY DICKS Born Oct. 23, 1862 in Columbia Co. Fl. and died May 5, 1936.
[Hopeful cem]

JOSEPH ZACHARIAH DICKS Born May 29, 1865 in Columbia Co. Fl. Died Nov. 12,
1939 [Mt Tabor cem]

THOMAS DICKS Born Sept. 12, 1868 in Columbia Co., Fl. Married (1) Ellen
Douglas, (2) Lula Brown and (3) Georgia Satilla Johns [Douglas cem]

CHILDREN BORN OF JOSEPH DICKS (1819-1988) AND POLLY TAYLOR:

Polly was the younger sister of Sarah who lived in the Dicks household, and
bore Jessie and Stephen for Joseph.

JESSE DICKS Born October 9, 1852, Died May 2, 1918. Buried in Ebenezer
Cemetery, Columbia County, Fl. Elizabeth, 1 st wife of Jesse, born Oct 1,
1857, Died March 20, 1879. Mary A. 2nd. wife of Jesse, Born Aug. 16, 1841,
Died April 3, 1893.

STEPHEN SPARKMAN DICKS ( later changed his surname to that of his mother,
Polly Taylor, and thus was STEPHEN SPARKMAN TAYLOR. Jessie and Stephen,
with their mother Polly, were listed on U.S. Federal census records as
children living in the household of Joseph and Sarah Dicks. [12 Apr 1855-12
Jul 1918 Swift Creek cem]

Joseph and Sarah were separated by her death in 1896. Sarah was the
first person to be buried in the Hopeful Church Cemetery. Joseph died three
years later, in 1899, and is buried beside his wife.

Following the death of Sarah, Joseph married Adaline Carrol from
Suwannee County whose maiden name was Brewer. They were United in marriage
by the Reverend Scott Ware in the Henry Dicks home on November 5, 1897. A
record of this is on file in the Clerk of Courts Office in Columbia County.

A pension act of 1892 provided benefits for veterans of the Indian
War. In early January 1893, Joseph applied for the pension, which was
granted. He drew the pension of eight dollars a month until his death.
After his death at age 80 in 1899, his widow, Adaline, drew the pension
which was increased in 1908 to twelve dollars per month. She died in 1923.

REMEMBRANCES OF DENVER DICKS, SON OF THOMAS AND GEORGIA DICKS, AND HIS
WIFE, LAVERNE (JOHNSON) DICKS.

"My father, Thomas Dicks, was the youngest of nine children born in
Columbia County to Joseph and Sarah Dicks in 1868. He was an easy going
man, known for his wit and humor. He had been widowed twice and left with
several children to raise. His in-laws kept the baby while he continued to
farm and care for his daughter. He married again to Lula Brown, and the
town of Lulu is named for her, and they had five children before her death.
He needed someone to be a mother to his children. One day he went visiting
at the home of John and Mary Johns of Columbia County with the idea of
courting one of their daughters. There appeared to be some confusion as to
which daughter he was interested in, so Thomas later wrote a letter stating
his interest in their daughter, Georgia. This did not set well with her
mother since Georgia had older unmarried sisters. However, they were
married when Georgia was 26 years old and Thomas was 44. The services were
held on the front porch of Georgia's home. Her mother was angry and did not
attend. Instead, she sat on the back porch. Years later, when Georgia was
asked why her mother was so angry, she replied, 'if you had a good pack
horse, and it ran away, how would you feel?'

"My parents had five children that lived to adulthood. We all took
turns working in the fields, rotating staying home and cooking for the
family.

"My mother often told the story of when a neighbor, Carl B. "Dinty"
Moore, asked her husband, Thomas, which of his three wives he loved the
best, he replied, 'it would be a blame fool who loved a dead wife better
than a live one'.

"Before daddy married his second wife, Lula Brown, there was an
interesting event that happened in her life. She made a trip to Hagan,
Florida, to visit her aunt. The townspeople of Hagan were looking for
another name for the town, since their mail was continuously getting mixed
up with the town of Hague, near Gainesville. Since she was the first person
to step off the train they named it after her except someone got the
spelling mixed up from Lula to Lulu. Anyway, the town was named in her
honor, changed from Hagan to Lulu. Lula was visiting her aunt in Hagan, but
she also had an admirer (boyfriend) there, and maybe he had influence in
naming the town after her. Lula was reared near the Olustee Monument
location. Her brothers were Millard and John Brown (known as Singer)."

Laverne Dicks spent many hours of her time listening to Denver's
mother, Georgia, tell stories of the family.

"She told me about one interesting event when her grandfather paid
someone to serve in the Civil War for him, and the man got killed. There
are records showing where her grandfather deeded the man's family 500 acres
of land and a small amount of money."

Laverne related another story that has left a lasting impression on
some Dicks family members.

"Denver's father, Thomas, couldn't hear very well. When Denver and
Boston were young boys they were out in the chicken yard one day, and
Boston saw a rooster sitting in the hen nest. He came running to the house
telling his mama, 'that ole rooster is out there in that hen house sittin'
on the hen's nest and laid an egg in it. Mr. Dicks was sitting across the
room saying,'what, what, what did he say, Georgia, what did he say'?

She went over to him and yelled, 'Mr. Dicks, he said the rooster laid
an egg'. So now, when someone is saying something that is really
insignificant, and says, What did you say?, we just say, 'the rooster laid
an egg,' meaning, it's not important. Georgia always called her husband,
Mr. Dicks, instead of Thomas, or Tom," she said.

Denver said that when his father was just a small boy, he and two of
his brothers had gone into the mule lot to play one day when their parents
were not at home.

"A mule kicked daddy and actually left an indentation in his skull,"
said Denver. "His older brothers took some mud from the mule lot and put it
on daddy's head to stop the bleeding. At first they didn't plan to tell
their parents because they knew they were not supposed to play there, but
of course they had to. He never went to a doctor, but he always had this
scar on his forehead. Daddy always combed his hair kinda odd, flipping it
over to one side and it was kind of piled high in the front. when he went
outside the house he always wore a hat to hide that scar." he said.

"Another thing Denver's daddy always did was to take a tablespoon full
of whiskey before his meals," said Laverne. "He'd always measure it out in
the spoon before his meal."

"Well, he began that when he developed low blood pressure, and a
doctor over in Lake Butler told him, 'Tom, if you'll take a little sip of
whiskey before each meal it will increase your appetite,' so he did," said
Denver. " He'd measure it out in the spoon just like he was measuring
medicine. And he'd give us youngins' a sip if we wanted it. Once he did we
never wanted anymore of it, because it would burn our throats."

My mother was the last of her brothers and sisters to die. She lived
to the age of ninety-one." Denver Dicks, September 1994

Thomas and Georgia Dicks generated many more interesting stories as
they lived their lives and reared their children through the pioneering
early turn of the century days and on through the historically acclaimed
Great Depression when some men survived and some didn't. To capture a small
sketch of those times, told by others who shared those days with them, is
priceless information and certainly a work of love.

Thomas and Georgia Dicks left behind a legacy that casts much honor on
their names and one of which they can be very proud. Unless the first-hand
stories are shared by this passing generation, their individual characters
will pass into oblivion. It is hoped that in some way, the contribution
made here, by members of their family, will serve to enhance their memory,
much more so than just having their names etched on a tombstone placed in a
cemetery plot, or on some record in a dusty courthouse basement.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                   Edgar Kirkland of Macclenny
                          December 1993

More than 50 years ago, in December 1943, when Edgar "Ed" Kirkland
stepped off the Greyhound bus on Main Street in Macclenny, there was no
hero's welcome, although in his frayed and shabby duffle-bag, he carried
many medals -- among them the Purple Heart, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Good
Conduct, WW 11 European Theater of Operations medals and infantry badge.
The Baker County farm boy had come home without fanfare and that's the way
it has always been because, until now, Ed Kirkland has never talked about
what made him an unsung hero.

Twenty-year-old Kirkland left Macclenny on November 22, 1942, after
being inducted into Uncle Sam's Army to help win a raging war being fought
on European soil. With little combat training, he left Virginia on a boat
that took 26 days to reach his destination of Italy. Kirkland had lost 26
pounds from seasickness. He was immediately tagged as a rifleman and sent
to the front lines where he found that his Baker County training as a poor
backwoods sharecropper's son had prepared him for survival -- more so than
many of the fallen city soldiers from across America that fought with him.

Kirkland's luck ran out when his unit of the 85th Infantry Division
was ambushed by Germans on a routine patrol one day about two years later.

"The Germans just run out and cut us down with bullets, then they
threw hand-grenades at us. When I came to that day, my body was covered
with blood, my head was coiled around on my stomach and I could feel the
heel of a German soldier's combat boot slightly touch my body. He was
straddling me with a bayonet in one hand and a hand grenade in the other.
Then suddenly I felt him reach down and touch my body, ripping off my
watch, which had been a gift from my brother-in-law. Thankfully, he walked
away and left me for dead," Kirkland said.

Kirkland was thirsty but had no water. In his pocket were a few sulfa
pills that he had been warned not to take without water. His pain was too
great, so he chewed them up anyway. Next to him a young 17-year-old soldier
began to moan. "Water, water, please give me some water," he begged.
Kirkland told him there was no water. Not long after, the young soldier's
voice grew faint, then ceased. Everything was quiet, and Kirkland said he
realized that he was the sole survivor of the attack.

American medics slipped in after dark to reach the carnage. Kirkland,
barely alive, was loaded on a stretcher and carried half way down the
mountain. At that point, the task was turned over to German prisoners of
war who stumbled and fell on the rough terrain, rolling Kirkland off the
stretcher three times. When Kirkland reached one of the M.A.S.H. Units, his
wounds were cleansed. He had been shot six times. one bullet was lodged in
his lungs. A buckle from his combat boot was embedded in his ankle.

Kirkland was flown to Naples where he underwent an operation for his
injuries.

Back in Baker County, Kirkland's mother, Dollie (Carrol) Kirkland
Johnson, was dutifully notified by telegram of his injuries. Joe Kirkland,
his father, had deserted the family before his birth, leaving Dollie to
manage their 10 children alone.

"I guess he had all he could take. In about three years, Mama
remarried a man named Ealie Johnson, who had ten children too. Then he and
Mama had three of their own so that was 23 all together," he said.

"We moved around a lot, sharecropping, and the old houses we lived in,
you could throw a cat through the walls. We never did have anything but an
old fireplace to keep us warm, and all us kids would gang up together to
sleep at night with warm quilts that Mama made us."

Kirkland said he never saw his biological father. "He died when I was
17 years old. He never sent Mama one dime for us kids. I didn't go to his
funeral," he said.

Kirkland said he'd always been told that when he was born he was so
tiny he had to be carried around on a pillow and that his skin was so
transparent you could see the intestines in his body.

"Mama was so undernourished and I'm sure that's why. My daddy had left
her with 10 kids and nothing else. We were both lucky to survive."

"I only went to the 6th grade in school, then I had to quit and help
Mama sharecrop. We mostly raised what we ate. Us kids would go out and pick
a bushel of peas in the field and Mama would cook 'em in a big ole pot and
we'd have grits and corn bread and some kind of hog meat. We drank cow's
milk when we had it. Back then there was no fence law and the piney wood's
cows would roam up to the house to sleep in the road at night. Us boys
would go out there to catch 'em and hold 'em until one of the other kids
could milk 'em. Sometimes we'd get 'em upside the fence and stick one of
his old horns through the fence and we'd hold the other horn and then milk
'em while she'd kick. We'd take a pot and sit it down under her. Her little
udders were so little we'd have to milk with our fingers like this," he
said, pressing two fingers together with his large rough hands.

"Us boys stayed in the river fishing when we weren't working in the
fields. That was food on our table. Sometimes, we'd go at night, and even
if we got home at midnight mama would get up and fry'em so we could all
eat. We knew where every log was in that river," he said. "We learned early
on how to survive."

"Mama's livelihood depended on us children because my stepfather, who
really was very good to us, had a stroke when I was about seven, and never
could do anything else again," he said.

That early survival helped him endure the long patrols and meager
conditions through Italy, outsmarting the enemy, surviving three major
battles and numerous attacks. Kirkland found out he was as strong as the
strongest. Today he realizes that even more. "Some of them soldiers would
just cling to us crying and hollering for their mama," he said. "We'd stay
out for weeks in the cold with only a rock for our heads, and even when
they'd pull us back for a couple of weeks for R&R, it was hard on most of
'em trying to sleep and rest in the cold and damp army tents. Some of 'em
just wasn't cut out for it like I was," he said.

"I walked all the way through Rome running the enemy to the other side
and I walked all over the little Alps," he said. " My job was to hunt
Germans. We'd march continually, camping at night sometimes we could even
hear them talking we were so close. When we'd come up on 'em, or them us,
we'd have it out right there. Most of the time we'd beat 'em," he said.
"There were many times when I'd be on the front lines for two weeks at a
time that I wouldn't even pull my shoes off or change my clothing. The Army
would try and send someone up every night with three little cans of rations
each. Then they would fill our water canteens. Sometimes they didn't come
so we'd do without. We never had enough food and water but we always had
plenty of bullets," he said. 'When we'd kill the Germans we used a little
shovel to dig a shallow hole to put him in and cover him up, all except for
his feet We'd leave them sticking up."

"What about the injured?" I asked him. "We wouldn't injure em. He'd be
dead when we left him," he said emphatically.

Kirkland said if his patrol came upon a dead German soldier they never
took anything from the body or touched him in any way. " We learned never
to take anything off of 'em, 'cause if you did, the Germans might have a
booby trap on him, like a hand grenade, and when you turned the body over
the pin would pull out and blow you up. Americans put booby traps on our
soldiers, too, and if the Germans came to rob him, they'd get blown up," he
said.

Then came the day in December 1945 when he had accumuated enough
points to come home. Was he prepared? Had he received psychotherapy to deal
with the trauma of front line war and the serious injuries he'd received?

"No, there were too many of us wounded. You just toughed it out or
died one," he said.

The Greyhound bus doors swung open, let him off, and hissed closed. He
looked around. Not too much had changed. Hopefully he would find his mama
at home. No one had notified her of his homecoming. There were few phones
back then and his mama wasn't one of the lucky ones who had one. An old
friend, Leonard Mikell, came by in his car, and offered him a ride home. He
was glad. He was anxious.

"I got out of Leonard's car and saw Mama sitting at her sewing
machine," he said. " She was..." -- his voice broke, as tears welled up in
his piercing blue eyes and fell gently down his rugged cheeks -- "She was
... well, she was real glad to see me. She and my sister, Rosie, began
spreading the word to the family that I'd come home. We gathered together
and sat up all night talking. They were all real happy to see me."

No one mentioned the war, or his injuries, that night or ever. Maybe
they were waiting on him, and maybe he was waiting on them. He doesn't
know. So he pushed it to the back of his mind where it has been hidden
until this interview.

"The government gives me a small pension and all of my medicines. I've
had open heart surgery twice. They give me glasses but not dental. I've
been trying to get some more out of 'em for about a year now but they won't
do anything about it. They can carry it off and give it to these other
countries, you see, but they won't give it to us."

He recently framed his medals. He hopes that the two children, Penny
and Jeanie, who were biological sisters that he and first wife, Camilla,
adopted, will want them someday, or perhaps his grandchildren.

Today, Kirkland lives with his second wife, Nona Holloway, on the
banks of the St. Johns River in Palatka, next door to his son and
daughter-in-law, Rex and Flo Holloway. Flo is the daughter of Harold and
Fay Milton of Macclenny.

"I fish when I want to, and keep the grass mowed," he said. "It's real
peaceful there. I don't think about the war, I don't even watch war movies
on TV. It upsets me when I hear the guns. Where I live, I can only hear the
birds chirping and sounds of the woods."

Kirkland treasures the memories of his family. He considers his
heritage one of great wealth.

His mother died in 1966. He misses her. She may never have known about
his war experiences, or his many medals, but that's okay. One thing he
knows for certain and it matters the most: It was the endurance through his
earlier days with a strong family background of love and survival together
that made him a hero. He saw that in his family's face when he came
marching home -- alone -- that day, and that was the best, most lasting,
and most necessary hero's welcome of all.

_____________________________________________________________________________

            Annie Rhoden Combs of Sanderson, Florida
                               1993

Annie Mae (Rhoden) Combs has lived almost a century in Baker County.
Her once strong and melodious voice that frequently rang out in harmonious
gospel tunes is barely audible above a whisper now and her former active
life is more sedate and tranquil. But her bright eyes twinkle and a ready
smile creases her face when she talks about "the joy of her life," her
husband of 40 years. Fred Combs died in 1964, but Annie likes to remember
things that remind her of him.

She was one of eight children born to dark haired, blue eyed Easter
Ann Raulerson and William (Billy) Rhoden "somewhere in Baker County" on
September 11, 1906. Her parents, who married in Baker County on February
17, 1895, lived most of their lives in the Cuyler section of the county.

It was a loving home where Annie remembers being rocked on her daddy's
lap while he told her wonderful stories, or perched on her mother's knee
listening to old fashioned Primitive Baptist gospel tunes. When she was of
age, Annie walked the three miles to the three-room Cuyler schoolhouse with
her siblings, Ulyss, Hassie, Roy, Carl, Thelma, and Myrtle Lee. Here she
finished the seventh grade before marrying Fred Combs at the age of 18.

The couple first met at a county-wide singing convention, an event
quite popular at the turn of the century in Baker County.

"I liked him right away, thought he was the cutest thing I'd ever
seen," she smiled. "And he left the girl he was with to come sit with me,
so I knew he liked me too," she said in a 1993 interview.

Fred received permission from Billy Rhoden to court his pretty
daughter. He was allowed to "come calling" but it was understood that "time
was up" at 8 o'clock. Annie's parents, and the rest of the family, usually
joined the couple on the front porch of the home while they courted.

Annie helped her parents on the farm doing all the usual farm chores.
There was always something to do as the family grubbed a scant living from
the poor soil. There was little or no money for many of the things we take
for granted today, she said. For instance, the family used frayed oak twigs
for toothbrushes while soda or salt substituted for their toothpaste.

"If you had a toothache back then you just pulled it out because there
were no dentists available," she said with a shudder. Her brother, Hassie,
was called to serve in the Army in France during World War 1, and Annie's
family worried about his safe return. They knew life was fragile. A baby
brother named Clyde had died. But Hassie survived the war.

Mother Easter Ann made the family's clothes on a pedal machine. "There
was no such thing as nice wool sweaters or coats to wear," Annie said,
adding that her mother made the family's warm coats from flannel material.

Her grandparents, Newt and Dora Ann (Thompson) Rhoden lived in walking
distance of her home and she visited them often. And the family shared many
meals together.

She remembers that the Rhoden family held many square dances in their
home and that her father stood guard to make sure things went well because
in those days many people drank moonshine.

It was important to her father for families to enjoy being together
without any problems. Annie loved to dance. And she admits, "before I met
Fred, I was a big flirt with the boys." She had lots of boyfriends who
would visit her at home; they listened to the radio or just talked on the
front porch.

When the Rhoden's neighbors had square dances in their homes, the
family would hitch up their mule and wagon and attend. But the ride home
was intensely dark with only the twinkling stars and beaming moon offering
them dim light as they rumbled along the sandy country road. No one even
thought of danger like being robbed or harmed in anyway, she said. There
were no locks on their door at home because, she noted, "there were no such
things as intruders."

Annie remembers seeing her first car one day when she and her family
were traveling down the dusty dirt road in their mule-hauled wagon on their
way to a singing convention. The car was driven by Mr. Knabb.

"He pulled up beside our ole mule and invited my daddy and mama to
take a ride with him. Some of us children got to come along too while my
oldest brother drove the mule on home. It was a great invention, that car!"
she said.

Church was also the hub of the family's social life in
turn-of-the-century Baker County. At one Sunday School box supper, Annie
had prepared a delicious box dinner for a lucky bidder -- Fred, she hoped.
But Fred lost his bid to another boy who was anxious to impress Annie.

"They almost fought, but I still had to eat with the other boy," said
Annie. "However, Fred came over to me later on and said, 'let's get
married'. And I said, 'Well I'll have to think about it, ' but it didn't
take me long to say 'yes'," she said.

The Rev. Earl Taylor married the couple February 1, 1925 on the front
porch of her parent's home. Annie was 18. Fred, who was born in Baker
County on September 17, 1904, was 20.

"My older sister had tried to tell me what to expect after I got
married, but I didn't believe it," she said shaking her head. "But I
believed it later!" she laughed.

Life for the couple was not easy, even though they lived with Fred's
parents. It was during the Great Depression. The family ate a lot of lima
beans and white bacon, Annie remembers. Fred would often go into the woods
to kill birds for their supper or catch fish in the nearby river or creek.
He worked at a sawmill for a while and Annie described their home as
resembling a chicken house that was thrown together.

She had her first child, Willie, on November 25, 1925. At the sawmill
(or log camp as it was often referred to), she and her little son, Willie,
rode up and down the tracks on the log train to pass the time. And Fred
taught Annie to drive a log truck. Sometimes, she said, they'd even go into
Lake City on the log train to see a movie.

When Fred's sister-in-law, Agnes, died from complications in
childbirth 11 days after her son was born, Annie and Fred took the baby
into their home. Fred's brother, Russell, who was the baby's father, had
named his little son Fred Combs, Jr. in Fred's honor. The couple called him
"Bunny" and he instantly became as one of their own. Until they could get
the baby's formula regulated, he was nursed by Rosa Taylor, who had a small
son named Aubrey (in later years Bunny married Rosa's niece). Bunny's two
older siblings, Betty Lou, aged two, and Russell Jr., aged four, remained
with their father after he married Corene Raulerson. The couple then had
nine children of their own.

It was 15 years after the birth of her first child, Willie, that Annie
gave birth to her only daughter, Mary Carolyn.

Like many other men in the county, Fred indulged in drinking but after
his marriage and birth of the children, he gave it up and become a
minister. Ofttimes during his sermons he would preach about his conversion.
He would tell personal stories -- like the time he stole a bible from a
restaurant in Lake City. After he was converted to another way of life he
returned to the restaurant to make restitution.

During the early '30's the couple met in the homes of friends and
neighbors to practice their Congregational Methodist religion but, when the
group began to grow, Fred, with the help of some other men, built bush
arbors throughout the area to house the growing attendance.

Then in 1936, Fred and some other members of the local congregations,
who were seeking a deeper spiritual experience than the Methodist group was
offering at the time , heard about the Congregational Holiness Church. They
traveled to the church's headquarters and campgrounds in Carrollton,
Georgia, to attend one of the denomination's conferences and to learn more
about it. They were very impressed with the Holiness doctrine and movement
and returned to Baker County to share their new- found knowledge with the
other local church members. Many, like Fred, were looking for a doctrine
built on the laying on of hands and one that believed in receiving the gift
of the Holy Spirit. And, too, locally there was much discontentment over
the subject of music. Some members did not believe the church should have
music and some, like Fred, did.

Many of the Congregational Methodist members converted to the new
movement and thus began the first Congregational Holiness Church movement
in Florida. Fred served as State Superintendent of the Florida Church
Conference for 18 years. Today there are 16 such denominations throughout
Florida, two active in Baker County, one in Sanderson, and another in
Manntown, south of Glen St. Mary. At one time there was a church of this
order in Taylor.

In 1946 the couple bought a modest little home in Sanderson for
$1,200. The family did without indoor plumbing until 1956, but Fred had
installed a bathtub for the family on the back porch and they hauled water
from a hand pump in the back yard to fill it when they bathed. Many couples
married on the front porch of their home and until his death not one couple
that he married had divorced.

Fred served as Baker County's Road Superintendent for 19 years. In
those days it was Fred and a three-man crew who tended to all of the
county's roadways, often using mule teams to pull the road graders. The
church grew as Fred preached wonderful sermons at the Sanderson
Congregational Holiness Church where he and Annie often sang duets
together. As the children flourished and grew, Annie enjoyed her role as a
minister's wife and mother. She entertained many visiting revival ministers
and once hosted a missionary from India in their home.

She was an excellent seamstress. In addition to sewing for individuals
she was contacted annually to make the graduation dresses for the student
graduates in the black elementary school in Sanderson. For a short time she
worked as a cook at the Sanderson school cafeteria. At the time, Mary
Carolyn was four years old and the teachers let her sit in the first grade
class with the other students while Annie worked. When she turned five, the
first grade teacher, Eunice Dobson Burnett, was willing to have her stay in
the class but said she would have to study the same as the other children.
When the school term ended that year, Annie gave up her cafeteria job, but
her bright little daughter passed easily into second grade and eventually
graduated from Baker County High School at age 16.

As the Church's Superintendent in Florida, Fred was often invited to
participate in revivals and deliver sermons for other Congregational
Holiness churches. He worked for the county from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m.. Annie
would have supper prepared when he arrived home and then the couple, with
Mary Carolyn, would drive as far away as Palatka to preach, and most of the
time it was late into the night when they would drive back home to
Sanderson. With little sleep, Fred reported for work early the next day,
and Mary Carolyn to school.

Sometimes the revivals would last as long as two weeks, but Fred would
faithfully drive back and forth each day and night. There were many times
when he had to pay his own travel expenses. Sometimes the church would take
up a "love offering" or supplement his expenses by giving him food from
member's gardens. He was dedicated to his ministry, regardless of the
sacrifice.

Annie and Fred loved gospel music and often sang together during
church services and in revivals, accompanied by their daughter on the
piano. Annie's favorite song is "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder, I'll Be
There."

Music in the church was so important to Fred that he started his
little daughter on piano at the age of six. Mary Carolyn became the first
piano student of Virginia (Crews) Combs whose grandfather, Willie Crews,
Sr., was pastor of the church at Manntown. The piano lessons cost
twenty-five cents. Today she is one of the most accomplished pianists in
the county.

Church and family were the most important things in the couple's life.
They adhered closely to the strict church doctrine, however they allowed
their children a certain amount of freedom of choice. For example, their
son, Bunny, played basketball, even though they didn't attend the games.
Mary Carolyn was a member of the school band, but they never attended a
performance. As time went on they reluctantly purchased a television. Annie
did not cut her hair, or wear make-up. It was against church doctrine. Her
daughter had to comply with those rules as well. Annie's mother, who was of
the Primitive Baptist faith, lived the last five years of her life with
Annie and Fred and they saw that she regularly attended her church services
until she became an invalid.

Fred and Annie never turned down a calling regardless of how far away
it was. They enjoyed the opportunities they had to share their faith and
testimonies. On one such occasion, in 1964, the couple had gone to Douglas,
Georgia. Annie remembers that Fred was preaching a good sermon when
suddenly he stopped speaking and went to sit down. Other ministers quickly
gathered around him. In minutes an ambulance was summoned and Fred was
hospitalized. It was his heart.

I was standing outside his hospital door. I knew it was bad. Then they
came and told me he was gone. He was the joy of my life and, oh yes, I look
forward to being with him again someday." she said.

After Fred's death, Annie had little income. She was an excellent
cook, and obtained employment with the Macclenny School Cafeteria where she
worked for many years.

She underwent open heart surgery at the age of 78 in 1984. In 1985 she
suffered a stroke. Her once beautiful waist-length hair that had never been
cut because "I kept the old ways in our religion," is now bobbed short for
easier maintenance. Her rosy complexion is almost as smooth as it was in
her teens, and she tells her secret for beauty: "I've always used Jergens,
Ponds or Avon Moisture Cream," she notes proudly. She respects the "old
timey ways" of her church and wears no make-up, except for Coty powder.

She enjoys having her children stop by for visits, and they faithfully
do. Bunny, who has worked for 30 years as a correction officer in Raiford,
and his wife Faye (Yarborough) have five children -- Charlotte, Jared,
Renee, Clayton and Bruce. Willie, who lives in Folkston, served in World
War 11 and the Korean War. He later retired as a diesel mechanic. He has a
son Freddie. Willie and his wife, Alice (who died during open heart
surgery), had an adopted daughter, Dana; a daughter, Durenda, and a son,
James, who are all deceased. Mary Carolyn and her husband, Watson Goodwin,
operate Watson's Supermarket in Sanderson. They have a son, Ricky. All
together they have presented her with 10 grandchildren.

"Life in Baker County has been good to me and if I could leave a
message to my family and friends that I'll always be remembered by after
I'm gone, I'd say, 'Live a good life and raise your children right. Then
when the roll is called up yonder we'll all be there."

Annie Combs died in Riverside hospital on February 13, 1994 following
the death on January 27 of her oldest child, Willie. She is buried in
Taylor Cemetery next to her beloved husband, Fred, who preceded her in
death by 30 years.

On August 19, 1994, the Florida District of Congregational Holiness
Church, at their annual camp meeting held in the tabernacle in Glen St.
Mary, presented Annie's children with an honorary plaque that reads:

              UPON THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH

In loving memory this plaque is dedicated to Sister Annie Combs for her
faith and commitment to God and her church. Because of her example, the
Florida Congregational Holiness District is strong and thriving today.

The plaque holds a distinctive place of honor in the new Congregational
Holiness Church in Sanderson.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                Sipple Canaday Harris Hartenstine
                               1993

It has been as American as apple pie, the life of Sippie Canaday
Harris Hartenstine. Like the ornate plants and colorful flowers she grows
all around her modest white frame home on north College Street, she has
lived a remarkable life. Always neat and orderly, always making things
beautiful, she is as exceptional as the era of time she has thus far lived
through.

Like her many plants, her life has been varied, but with lots of
tender loving care, she, like them, has blossomed. Born in Charlton County,
Georgia, 83 years ago, Sippie was the last of eight children born to Aaron
Canaday, a prosperous cattleman and farmer and his wife, Alice Crawford
Canaday. Her mother died in childbirth when she was two.

The oldest of her sisters, Sarah (who later married Benjamin Foy
Fish), became her mentor until her father remarried. And, though the
marriage to Rosa Mae Rhoden dissolved after a few years, she acquired a
brother, Otis, from the union, whom she adores.

"When I was a little girl, my father would catch a train in Moniac
about twice a year and go into Jacksonville to buy staples in large
quantities such as a barrel of flour and large sacks of rice and sugar,"
she said. He'd buy large bags of green coffee and then we'd roast it and
grind it with an old-fashioned hand grinder."

Sippie said she and her brother Lonnie would usually get to go with
him. "We'd buy our supplies and arrange to have them shipped to us. Then
daddy would take me and Lonnie across the St. John's River on the ferry
boat to the south bank where there was a zoo. In those days there wasn't a
bridge across the river like today," she said.

As she grew up in those lean Depression years, she became
indispensable to the community and her name became synonymous with
charitable work. It was a time when neighbors helped neighbors and she
assisted everyone possible. She taught others how to sew and cook and when
a neighbor died, she helped to make the casket linings for the homemade
cypress caskets because, at the time, there was no local funeral home
available to residents. The chore would usually take all night. Many times
she helped to bathe the corpse and lay the body on a cooling board,
covering it with a sheet. Two pennies were placed on the eyes to close
them. Then she helped dress and ready the corpse for burial.

"In those days all the women wore their hair long and would usually
style it in a large ball on the back of their heads, " she said. "That's
the way they were laid to rest in those days."

Sippie helped widowed neighbors care for their young children ,
cutting their hair, sewing their clothes, teaching them responsibilities
around the home and how to prepare for life in many ways, never wavering in
her generosity.

As she grew older, she developed a thirst for knowledge and she
attended South Georgia Junior State College in Douglas, Georgia, to pursue
a teaching career. After she passed the test and acquired a teaching
certificate, she joined other area natives -- like the late B.R. Burnsed
and his wife, Myrtle, Rev. George Chism, former Baker County Sheriff Paul
Thrift, and Rubye Crews -- teaching school in the county. She remembers
some of her students as the Katie Long, Orie Crawford, Wardie Powell and
Cleo Canaday.

While still in the grip of the Great Depression, Sippie married county
native Vandie Harris at the home of a Reverend Rhoden in Macclenny. The
year was 1929. The couple moved in with her mother-in-law, Emma Harris, who
was widowed. They also shared the house with Vandie's brother, Isaiah, and
his wife, Bertha Mae (Rewis). The day her son Van was born, the family
gathered, as it was customary. It was cold, and they pushed her bed next to
the fireplace for warmth. The county's physician, Dr. P.A. Brinson,
delivered her son.

In about a year the little family found a place of their own near
Taylor. Another son, Dwight, was delivered by a neighbor midwife, Phanie
Harvey. Sippie settled into housekeeping, Vandie farmed, and she became the
first president of Taylor P.T.A. She sewed all the family's clothes on a
pedal machine, and used cloth diapers for her babies, washing them without
modern equipment such as running water or electricity.

Then, in 1941, things changed for the family. Vandie took a job with
United Life insurance Company and the couple purchased the little white
frame house at 64 College Street, where she has lived for more than five
decades.

"When my father died, I used my inheritance to attend beauty school,
something I had always wanted to do," she said. After she graduated, six
months later, she took a job with Mrs. Delia Dykes at Dykes Beauty Shop.
Later, she opened her own shop on the south side of her home, which became
"Sippie's Beauty Centre". From her working station, she has been able to
watch the bustling activity on Main Street as well as the neighbor children
grow up and away for more than 50 years.

When the Harris family moved onto the block, they were surrounded by
neighbors with small children who played cowboys and Indians together as
well as marbles on the then unpaved sandy road. Some grew up, like her son
Van, to play on Macclenny's first football team. Dwight played both
football and basketball.

Some of her neighbors, and their children, were the Frank Wells (Betty
jean), Richard and Carrie Davis (Violet, Katherine and Dickie), Joe and
Homie Dobson (JoAnn and Joey) and Leo and Ada Dykes (Johnny, Wiley, Dub,
Billy and Ruby), George and Alma Raulerson and some of their younger
children (Violice, James, Sara and Gedone).. Kate Wolfe and Mrs. Walter
Dobson were her back-door neighbors.

The telephone company was directly across the street and the operators
(one of whom was the late Dorothy Byrd ) kept everyone abreast of anything
eventful going on. The owner at the time was Mattie Thompson. The
neighborhood was always full of activity.

"We only had to walk straight down the block to the Morris House to
eat, and we did regularly, because I couldn't cook as cheap as we could eat
out," she said. " And, too, I was busy with my flourishing business from
sunup to sundown."

The two-story landmark Morris House was a gathering place for almost
everyone in Macclenny, especially those who worked. It was operated from
1940 to 1957 by Georgia natives P.L. and Mary Jane Morris, who moved into
the county in 1929. Their boarding and dining house was renowned and
patronized by governors and U.S. Senators. Because Mrs. Morris felt it was
more economical, the food was always cooked on a wood burning stove.
Sippie, Vandie and the boys joined other town people, estimated at one time
by the Morris couple to be 150 a day. They sat at the long banquet table
while they were served bowl after bowl of hot, delicious, home-cooked food
that was available to customers three times a day, seven days a week.

"When they first started serving dinners in 1940, they charged 35
cents for weekday meals and 50 cents on Sunday. During the war, prices were
frozen at 50 and 75 cents," she said.

"When the Morris family closed the famed dining room in 1957, dinners
were $1.29 including tax, and 50 cents for small children," she said,
adding that the famous eatery was closed in 1957 because the couple's
earnings exceeded the maximum amount permitted while collecting retirement
benefits from Social Security . That, she said, ended one of the last of
its kind when it faded from the American scene.

The family also enjoyed Baker County's other landmark eatery, the
famous Hotel Annie, which was a block in the other direction near the
present-day Chamber of Commerce on Main Street.

" People from Jacksonville and other surrounding areas would drive out
to eat, especially on Sundays," she said. "And they were famous for their
delicious fried chicken."

"It was a great time to be raising children," she said. "We didn't
worry about them so much in those days."

Former neighbor Dickie Davis remembers when he and the other neighbor
children would hide behind the trees with sling shots, particularly when
Mr. Martin Barber came to town on Saturday. "He always came in his horse
and wagon for grocery shopping at Ira Walker's store located where the
present-day Senior Citizen Center is," said Davis.

"We'd hit the ole horse and cause him to rear up," he said, with a
mischievous smile on his face. He also remembers the area children
gathering at the local bowling alley, located directly across from the
downtown Chevron station.

"I was run by Billy Walker's daddy," he said. "It was the first
bowling alley I'd ever seen and we could bowl for ten cents. All of us had
a good time hanging out there."

Davis said many good times were had on the block and he remembers
Sippie's family with fond memories. He remains close to her children and
others who lived on the block as well. "Back then we were really like a big
family," he said.

At the time Sippie was raising her sons, the county had a large
community center where the children gathered to play basketball and hold
community events. It was built by the WPA.

"I traveled all over when my boys played ball," said Sippie. "There
were four of us mothers who never missed a game and we all rode together
for years."

Her friends, all gone now, were Carrie Davis (mother of Dickie), Anna
Newmans (mother of our former sheriff, Joe), Mable Chessman (mother of
LuClare, Noel and Dewitt), and Beatrice Piatt (mother of Alvin).

In 1958, after 29 years together, Vandie died. Sippie kept working in
her beauty shop with regular customers she had coiffed for two decades.
Then she met county native Earl Walker in 1960, remarried and continued to
live in the same location. In 1966 Earl died. In 1969 she married retired
Lt. Col. Ralph Hartenstine and, until his death in 1992, the two spent 23
happy years together.

"The house holds many memories," she said. "That's why I'd never want
to move away."

Her son, Van, is a retired engineer who lives with his wife, Sharon,
in Atlantic Beach. Dwight is a pharmacist with a large firm in Orlando,
where he and his wife, Sara, live.

She enjoys tending her yards and still busies herself in the beauty
shop with faithful customers, one who is 97, and another 100. Her prices,
once 50 cents for a shampoo and $2.50 for a perm, have kept up with
inflation, of course. Gone are the days of the antiquated heated-clamp
perming machine that easily burned her customers' hair. Gone are the
neighbors (except for Marjorie Wells), and the hustling, bustling days of
the active neighborhood families. Gone are the Morris House and Hotel
Annie, the bowling alley, movie theater, and community center. Gone are her
three husbands, and most of her friends. But still around are memories and
still around is the enormous desire she has to be of service.

In 1992 the local Sertoma Club bestowed on her their most coveted
tribute, the annual "Service To Mankind" award.

If she is not in her yard, she can be found mingling and reminiscing
with the few old timers left who remember the "good old days." She is
active in the Woman's Club and cherishes her relationships with many
friends that she has made throughout her long life in the county. She has
been an active member of the First Baptist Church of Macclenny for 45
years. In 1954, she served as Worthy Matron of the local Leona Knabb
Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star. She is a member of the Baker County
Historical Society and Friends of the Frank Wells Nursing Home. Through her
participation in these and many other community activities she has made a
storehouse of friends.

Sippie never fails to support any worthwhile activity for the
community. When an effort was made to place park benches on Main Street in
memory or honor of others, one of the first to contribute was Sippie when
she purchased one in honor of Ralph. She requested that it be placed in
front of the Chamber of Commerce Building because of Ralph's continuous
contributions and support to activities that pertained to building up the
community.

Although her pace has slowed physically, she never fails to keep up
with what is going on around her, and stays in close contact with her
friends and family.

Often, her brother Otis drops by, laden with fresh vegetables he grows
year-round in his garden, and she cooks them up for her friends. She not
only tends her flowers and shrubs, but she is still assisting those in
need. She is a remarkable person.

And though the world around her may have changed, and in many
instances even disappeared, Sippie Hartenstine still rates the same -- she
is just as downhome as apple pie has always been.