"Bristol Memories," Liberty County, Florida

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Marnell Wheeler O'Leary
(edited by: Martha English Amos)

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Liberty County, Florida
Bristol Memories


September 13, 1998

I want to thank you for the great job you are doing with my beloved 
Liberty Co. - especially Bristol. I was born there 61 years ago and 
have many wonderful memories of growing up there. It is truly a "Garden 
of Eden". I would like to share some of my memories with you and 
everyone who visits this wonderful website.

I am the daughter of Johnny and Bonnie Wheeler, granddaughter of Rev. 
Clayton M. and Nellie Ritter Wheeler. We weren't a wealthy family and 
I'm sure we had our share of hard times. However, we had all we needed, 
we were happy, we had a paradise to live in, and I never knew realized 
we weren't wealthy. We lived on one end of Lake Mystic, facing the 
beach and a beach house/dinner club. My dad ran the beach house by day 
and was the chef by night at the dinner club. I had my own private 
beach and swimming place - the salty water of the lake was so blue, so 
clear, so beautiful! The roads around Bristol were of the whitest sand 
I ever saw - the only paved roads were the ones that lead to 
Blountstown and Quincy.  
 
 
Special memories center around my grandparents. They were wonderful 
people with a firm belief in God. I felt honored to be his 
granddaughter - I don't know if that was because he was the only person 
I knew who served in the Civil War, or because he lived to be 101 years 
old. They owned the land where the Holiness Church is now, and, I 
think, the surrounding property.

I remember Parley Shular and his family, who were wonderful people and 
good friends to my family. I would go on Easter Egg hunts with them so 
big that they seemed to cover acres!

I remember sitting in a big tree in the middle of town where all of the 
kids played when "Bully" Rankins fell and broke his neck. I'll never 
forget how scared I was!

Another childhood friend was Sara Catherine Chestain. Her mother was 
the principal of the school and her father was the Sheriff. I seem to 
remember my dad being his deputy at one time.

We moved to Kentucky when I was 12, and only came back to visit. This 
past year I went to Bristol to visit my grandparents' graves a Lake 
Mystic Baptist Church, and was amazed at the changes that have taken 
place over the years. I drove around Lake Mystic and hardly recognized 
it due to all the beautiful homes that are now there. When I lived 
there, there were only one or two homes around the lake, with a 
plentiful growth of plant life.

It is a lovely little town - but then I thought it was paradise when I 
lived there many years ago! It was truly a "Garden of Eden" then, and 
remains so today.

Marnell Wheeler O'Leary

(edited by: Martha English Amos)