Wilkinson County  GA		Bios   Thomas Wynn

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by 
Gervaise Wynn Perdue  gperdue@mindspring.com

http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/wilkinson.htm Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Georgia Table of Contents:

"MINGO"
During the 1970's and 1980's I spent many hours and days
with Thomas Wynn and heard him talk about what life was
like as he grew up in that part of Wilkinson County, GA
called "Mingo". His family's home was near his
grandfather Braswell "Braz" Wynn's home.  Braz was a son
of William "Bill" Wynn, Jr. (1790-1870). Thomas carried
me several times to where the Wynns lived near Salem
Church. He knew almost everyone buried in the Salem
Cemetery and how they were related--most of whom were
Wynns or connected to them. What he remembers about his
life there intrigued me; therefore, I encouraged him to
put it in writing. I told Thomas (my third cousin) that I
would type the story for him and he has given me
permission to share it with others. Please do not try to
contact him concerning this story. Gervaise Wynn Perdue

MY MEMORIES OF 'MINGO' Wilkinson County GA

Thomas E. Wynn May 1988

My Dad and Mother (Samuel Braswell Wynn, Sr and Nannie
Elliot Wynn) were wedded April 20, 1917. They lived with
my Grandpa, Braswell "Braz" Wynn, I think, when the first
child was born. They built a home across the road from my
Grandpa. Their children are:  Geraldine Elizabeth Wynn,
born an died may 28, 1918;  Samuel Braswell Wynn, Jr.
born Oct 19, 1919;   Thomas Elliot Wynn, born Jan 3,
1921;  William Hinson Wynn, born May 10, 1922;  and
Kenneth Wynn born Nov 7, 1923.

I guess the first persons I remember are my parents, then
my brothers. We brothers got along fine as we were
growing up in Mingo, Wilkinson County, Georgia. We had a
few quarrels and disagreements, but nothing serious. I
remember dogs, cats, chickens, mules, hogs, cows and
Grandpa's white horse.

The most that I remember about Grandpa was after he was
sick. Mostly of how Aunt Nora would help him out on the
front porch to sit in his chair, get him a nice red
potato and cut it in half, get him a spoon, and he really
enjoyed scraping the potato and eating it raw.  Aunt Nora
would have to scrape me some from the other half. When we
were small we called her "No-ter". Sometime Braswell
would get up on the arm of Grandpa's chair, and I would
climb up on the back of the rockers trying to get close
and talk too, but he would take his walking-stick and pry
me off. I guess I was rocking his chair and making him
uncomfortable. Most of the time I would sit in the swing
with Aunt Nora.

Grandpa "Braz" had a Black man that sat near the woodpile
under an evergreen tree. His job was to hitch "John" the
white horse to the buggy anytime Grandpa wanted to go,
maybe to the swamp.  I remember him leading the horse and
buggy up to the front gate for Grandpa to get in it. I
remember Aunt Nora running out near the swamp lane gate
once and yelling for someone to go hunt Grandpa. "John"
had left him in the swamp. someone drove "John" and the
buggy back to find Grandpa. He got out at the POLLACK
place to look at a crop of corn and didn't tie "John"
good enough so "John" left him.  I remember Grandpa got
real sick and my Dad cut a poplar tree about 10" in
diameter and sawed four cuts about 8" long to put under
the bed posts so it would be higher and easier to help
Grandpa while he was in bed. Soon, Grandpa died, 23 Nov
1925. Aunt Nora picked me up and carried me in to see
him.  She was crying. I thought she was laughing so I
tried to laugh and squirmed down and went out of the
house. I guess that was the most wagons and buggies I had
ever seen at the funeral. There sure were a lot of people
at the funeral.

I don't know if I was staying at Grandpa's house before
he died or not. My parents tried to get me to stay home
for a long time. Aunt Nora had some sawmill boarders
living there with her in Grandpa's house. I guess I
enjoyed the attention I got from them as well as the "T"
cakes and jelly and all the "goodies" I got from Aunt
Nora. My favorite was a biscuit with a hole punched in it
and syrup poured in the hole. My stay ended there when I
stayed home until it was dark and no one would go with me
across the road. I went out on the porch and across the
yard fence was something like I had never seen--big eyes,
big teeth, shining like it had a light inside the head.
After my Dad took the lamp out to see if he could find
it, my Mom had talked me into staying home. I often
wondered if they had fixed something to frighten me into
staying home.

As the four of us boys grew up, there were many things
that happened. The goats would get out some time at night
and liked to congregate in front of the house under the
Chinaberry tree. They would bleat and bah-h-h-h.  We
called it "talking". At two o'clock in the morning they
would keep all of us awake. One morning my Dad found
three or four up on the wagon shelter. The hands
(workers) had left the wagon too close to the side of the
shelter and the goats jumped up on the wagon, then on to
the top of the building.

We had plenty of things to do. I don't remember asking
anyone what we could do, like the kids do today. We would
go with Dad to a sawmill and watch them saw lumber, help
him load up slabs and strips for firewood. We got oak
slabs for the fireplace and pine strips for stove wood.
We patched fences with strips to keep pigs from getting
out. Once, we took some of the strips and made a tower
with room enough for all four of us in it at the top of
the tower. It was 15 feet or more high. We found an old
auto horn and got a sewing machine frame with pedal and
pulley on it, put a string around the armature or rotary
of the horn and around the pulley. We would pedal and the
horse would turn and blow as if it was on the car
battery. After blowing it quite a bit one evening, some
nearby neighbors came by and asked if someone had been
broken down in a car or had trouble because they heard a
car blowing the horn an awful lot.

I went to Salem School All fours of us children did. A
lot of things there was interesting other than books.
But, I learned a lot of things in books. The ball games
were played with home made bats of flat boards and balls
made from string or thread by taking a sock apart.  The
water cooler on the porch was interesting to me. Just
turn a small lever and water would come out. My Mother
got me an aluminum cup that would fold up and had a
cover, too. I could drink water then when I didn't even
want any.  I was too small to help get the water in the
cooler from the Spring. Grady (Smith) and some of the
larger boys would do that. Once Grady found a King snake
and Rattlesnake and the teacher took all of us down
toward the Spring to watch the King snake swallow the
rattlesnake. The teacher thought it good that we all see
this one time. The teacher was going to whip Eddy
(Thompson) for something and he decided not.  He picked
up a piece of firewood to hit the teacher but Woodrow
grabbed him and got the wood. Eddy went home and didn't
come back. The teacher would teach some of the kids in
the front of the room while some of the older kids had
some at the blackboard. I got in the most trouble on the
way back and to school.  There was a branch down the hill
from Salem and school. It was easy to get your shoes and
socks wet, and sometime get wet all over. The teacher
could get me home or at school.  She was my Mother!

Soon school was at Toomsboro High and we rode the bus to
and from school with Mr. "J" (T.J. Holland).  I was proud
to be on Mr. "J's route". He bought a new truck often and
made the body of a design that looked better than the
other busses. And even before Toomsboro School some
interesting times for me was when my Dad came home with a
brand new 1927 Ford Car. Everyone that could drive would
take it for a drive, maybe over to the church and back.
Later on, my Brother Brazwell had learned that when my
Dad came home in the car, he could turn the ignition on
and sometime it would crank. When it did we would rid out
to the crib, backup and back to the house and around the
big oak trees--back out to the crib or mule lot. Once it
stalled at the lot, and wouldn't crank. My Dad came and
got it. I think he enjoyed the fact that my Brother would
drive. Most every trip that we four boys went wit him, he
would let us steer it. He would slide over to the right
side and say, "Drive, Bras, Tom, Bill, Ken"...whoever was
in front with him. I've seen Kenneth get the wheel and
drive when he had to stand up to reach it.

Our ages were close so we all were about the same size
and enjoyed playing the same way. We were all shy. We
called it "shamefaced" then. If a stranger spoke to us we
would all "grunt". Once a man came up and asked, "Where
is your Dad, boys?" We all "grunted"! The man was
puzzled! In a few minutes our oldest brother got enough
nerve to say, "Us got some goats". I guess the man
thought this was good, and maybe he could find out where
our dad was. He said, "You have!! Where is your Dad? He
got "four grunts"!"

If a car came by we had four places on the fence to sit
or stand so we could see it go by. One of the hands
(workers) noticed this and told my Dad, who said,"You are
like Mr. so and so up above Toomsboro, every time a car
came by that man's house his "younguns" would run out and
climb on the fence to see it pass and tear the fence
down". He had to rebuild it every time a car passed. We
got out of that as we built Flying Jenney, Ferris Wheels
and all kinds of toys or things to play with.

Bill was nearly killed with the Flying Jenney once. He
would get it turning real fast by pushing it from the
center, then running out from inside to watch it turn. It
hit him and knocked him out for awhile. No bones were
broken, but he didn't do that any more.

We made a Ferris Wheel once. Braswell and I went below
the gin house and cut some poplar poles, put two in the
ground with a hole through each one at the top. They were
about 4 feet apart and maybe 10 or 12 feet high. We would
cut two more, maybe 16 feet long, bore three holes in
each, one at the center and each end, cut a 3/4 " pipe
with a hammer and chisel--three pieces, one long enough
to go through the two poles in the ground with the two 16
feet poles on it from the center holes. We made seats
from 8": boards to hang from the pipe through the ends of
the 16 foot poles. We braced it good and one of us got in
the seat near the ground and held it steady while another
climbed up and sat in the top seat, then kicked off from
the bottom and rove over and over. Once Mr. Jay stopped
the school bus and watched us ride it for a while after
brining us from school some of our neighbors came and
rode it. no one ever got hurt on it.

We had plenty to do all the time. We'd take the dog and
go to a field and make the dog dig field mice. We built a
boat once to put in Little Sandy Creek. It was really
heavy. We made it out of pine boards. There wasn't enough
water to float it hardly, but we didn't care. We had fun
with it by turning it upside down and getting under it.
sometime people would come by and we would have to run
and get our clothes on, or maybe stay under the boat. I
think maybe Little Sandy was where we learned to swim.
The best place to swim was in Big Sandy Creek, up form
the bridge (Messers Bridge). This was not quite two miles
form our house. Our friend, Bo (James Coombs), Jewel
(Coombs), Walter (Lewis), Clayton (Lewis), Grover
(Lewis(, Wavy Earl (Lewis) sometimes would go swimming
every day. Some of the Sunday evenings when it was real
hot, you could hardly get in. There were swimmers from
everywhere. Baby Taylor always brought a plow line with
him. He would tie it to a tree on the bank and hold
himself back while gong in the water and pull or help
pull his weight out of the creek. he would laugh about
it. He said 340 pounds was hard to carry up the bank of
the creek.

We had plenty of work to do also while growing up.
Replanting corn was one of the first, trying to sue the
hoe with one hand and drop the corn with the other was
tough! Chopping cotton and hoeing the grass out was bad,
too. I got better as I grew older and stronger.

Plowing was O.K.--breaking up land with a turning plow
was easy. Siding corn or cotton with a "scooder stock"
(is what we called it) was easy when I got tall enough
that I didn't have to put the handles over my arms to
pick up on the plow. I could lay off a fairly straight
row for corn, cotton or whatever. Finally old "John" was
traded off for a mule and my Dad named her "Julley Ann".
Dad din't think "John" would live long, so he made a
trade with someone across the Oconee River. Mom said she
thought Dad was ashamed to be seen bringing that mule
back home because he sent her to get the mule with
"John". She thought once that "Julley Ann" would never
pull the buggy home. Later on I made a small bale of
cotton with her. "Julley Ann" couldn't hear you say,
"Come up!"  After you yelled that several times and hit
her with the line, she would get started. Then you would
have to be careful not to cough or speak to anyone
because she would stop!

Making syrup was something that we all had a hand in
doing. We washed a lot of jars and bottles to put syrup
in. My Dad got a not of new gallon cans too. Dad was the
one that cooked it. We had 3 roller cane mill. Different
ones took turns to feed it. The "plummings" had to be
carried away, and cane stacked near the mill to be fed
into it. We had a barrel with a burlap bag for a strainer
to catch the juice in. I liked the juice by catching a
cup full before it went through the strainer. It seemed
as if you could taste the burlap bag in it if you got it
out of the barrel.

There were two kettles bricked up into the furnace and
always before starting, plenty of firewood was hauled up.
There was a shelter over the furnace. Also, there were a
couple of barrels to put skimmings in.  Sometimes there
were as many as six or eight grown ups there--all busy.
The back kettle was where Dad finished cooking the syrup.
I guess it had better heat. many times if you got in the
steam from the kettles too much, your clothes would get
sticky and stiff. Your hair would too. When it was all
over and after the syrup was put in the bottles, jars and
cans and carried to the smoke house, the skimmings were
left to be fed to the hogs. (They usually left one
barrel) A couple of jars was put on the table--real good
syrup, biscuit and meat.

We used the kettles to heat water in  when we killed
hogs. The hogs were scaled right in the kettle, then
pulled out and the hair scraped off. If they needed more
scaling, you dipped the hot water out with a bucket and
poured on the spot that needed it. Before Mom went to
Milledgeville, GA to work, Sid and Ivey and my Dad had
some nice hogs to kill and it was taking a long time so
we all went to bed. The next morning my Dad cam in (about
the time he should be getting up) and went in and fell in
the bed with his clothes on. Mom couldn't get him to
answer. She went to the syrup mill. There the hogs were,
hanging up and gutted, but that was all. The fire had
burned outside of the furnace and cooked the sides of a
couple of them. (It looked worse than it was) Mom went to
the care to see if they have been off in it. They had!
She looked for booze left inside but only found Sid's
cap. She was "boiling" for what happened to the hogs. She
got a long stick, picked up the cap, went with it to the
cow lot and found the biggest pile and put Sid's cap in
it and stirred it good! She was pretty much upset about
the hogs. She got some help and saved the meat. It wasn't
as bad as it looked anyway.

When making syrup, sometimes when the skimmings worked
off, a lot of folks would have to drink some of them. Dad
might sometime but he knew if he did anyone  could tell
because they sure would make you smell bad. Dad would
find some homemade whiskey.  Mom awakened me one morning
about 1:00am and said, "Listen, isn't that your Dad's
truck running?" Sure enough, it was. I could hear it
"chug", "chug", idling. Mom said it had been running like
that since 11:30pm and for me to go see what was wrong.
Well, Loyd Alexander was moving his saw mill boiler but
couldn't get it up the sand hill to the church. So he
took the teams and let the tongue down. My Dad's old
truck came down the hill and came to a stop with the
front axle rubbing the tongue. He was asleep against the
steering wheel so I had to help him get over to the right
side of the seat. It took a while to back the truck up
the hill. I couldn't go around the boiler so I went over
to the Loui Field, opened a gate and drove through the
swamp and back to the housel Cousin Mamie (Mrs. Wavy
Lewis) sent word for me to come get him once. He had hit
a stump after leaving from down near their home He had
broken the wind shield and cut his nose. I didn't think
he was a big drinker--just certain times he would get too
much.

I found out that I could sell bottles in Dublin, GA once
--pints, half pints, and quart bottles for two cents,
three cents and five cents. I worked for a long time
finding these bottles with no break or crack in them. I
had to wash them clean. Finally the man that ran a little
joint down back of Pierce and Orr's Hardware Store said
to bring them in. One Saturday, I had them all in a
burlap bag, loaded up to go to Dublin. We parked in the
hitching lot so it wasn't far to carry the bottles. I
walked in through the crowded place so he saw me.  He
"blessed me out" about bringing them in the front. he saw
it was too crowded and too many people had already seen
what I had so he worked me on through to the back and
outside. We counted them and checked for breaks. He
looked at me and said, "Son does your Dad drink?" I said,
"A little." I knew then he thought my Dad had drunk what
was in every bottle. Those bottles came from everywhere.
I think I got a little over $4.00 for them.

During the depression, my Dad lost 200 acres of land
across the creek called the Z. Fordham place and 900
acres that he got from Grandpa Braz Wynn.  The tax
collector would come by and I've heard Dad say to him,
"Take 25 acres off the Z. Fordham's place for tax. Also
I've seen him give meat to pay the taxes on his land. The
bank finally took the 900 acres more or less, so Dad
rented the house w were staying in for awhile.  We also
got "free not to be Sold" flour. Soon, our hose was sold
to Mr. Mitchell and we were asked to move out. I think we
all felt bad. Mom had already gone to work, but Dad was
determined to stay. He got Mr. Wavy Lewis to put a door
and a couple of windows in the old car shelter that was
on the other side of the road on Granpa's place. It took
us awhile to admit that we were staying in a car shelter.
We would meet the busy up at our house and Mr. "J" would
let us off up there. I'm sure he could see that we were a
little ashamed of our new home.

I don't know why I had to cook but I would try--meat,
biscuit, syrup, and cornbread. We could eat the biscuits.
Mr. Bud came over one time and saw what a mess I was
doing so he showed us how to take the left over biscuits
and put them in a jar with some water and let them sour;
then mix the new flour with that sour mixture and the
biscuits would do better. Soon, we would get some milk
and I learned to do better but still it was syrup,
biscuit and meat. We had a few chickens so we ate eggs,
and we had a garden. Mr. Bud showed me how to put a
little meat in the turnips or grease from the fat back,
to make them taste better. I liked Mr. Bud Carroll. He
had four boys that were good friends to us. He old my Dad
that it looked as if he and Dad were brining up a bunch
of soldiers for "Uncle Sam". I guess he was right. We all
went. He would always try to help u with better ways to
fix something to eat and do things.

We also had all the "measles, mumps, fevers, etc." but we
never did get "lice". Mom had a hard time finding out
what made us sick once. We all turned a pale green! Bill
found a cigar and we decided to help him smoke it. He
smoked most of it because he found it. Mom found out what
made us sick when she mentioned that some poison would
kill us and if it was treated with the wrong thing the
treatment might kill. After she said that, Bras or Bill
told. Bill sure looked like he was going to die. The only
way I could feel like anything was to lie on my back. Mom
didn't whip us though. I think she was glad it wasn't rat
poison or something.

We visited our Aunts and Uncles, not as much with Uncle
Bob and Aunt Mable Wynn (Robert Lee and Mary Belle
Fountain-Wynn). They didn't have any children. Once we
were in Dublin and when we started home a big rain
stopped us at Uncle Jess and Aunt Nellie's (Nellie Wynn
Finney). They decided to make us stay awhile and eat with
them. Aunt Nellie called her son, Bob, to get a ball bat
and they went into the chicken yard. Aunt Nellie would
pint at a chicken and Bob would hit it in the head with
the bat. I think they got about five chickens. That way
was new to me. I always saw them wring their necks. Of
course, they would have to catch the chickens, too.
Visiting Uncle Nat and Aunt Cleo (Nathaniel Wynn and Cleo
Shirley Wynn) was often and there was Uncle Jim and Aunt
sue (Susan Wynn Taylor and James Thomas Taylor) right
across the road from each other. And as we got older the
Stephensville swimming hold in Big Sandy Creek was the
main thing during the summer. Uncle Gus and Aunt Lemah
(Leman Wynn Watkins), we visited some, but most all of
them came to Grandpa Braz's house. I've seen that porch
full of people, sitting around talking and enjoying life.

My Dad would sometimes talked about his Uncles and Aunts
and a lot of how the Wynns came to "Mingo". He would show
us the old cedar tree where Bill Wynn (William Wynn, Jr.)
first turned his oxcart upside down and made his home
under it. The tree is standing today (1988( but dead. He
would tell us about bill's trip to Savannah, Georgia once
a year in an oxcart. He would get salt, maybe some
"calico" cloth, nails, and few other things. They made a
lot of their clothes.

What interested me was when some of them built a new
house and all the neighbors had helped put it up. The
floors were somewhat rough and had a lot of splinters. So
they would get sand and put over the floor and give a big
dance. Now those people knew shoes were hard to get, so
some of them danced in their new homemade socks. After a
night of dancing on the sanded floor, the floor was nice
and slick, but the new socks didn't have a bottom. Some
of them that danced in their shoes wore holes in the
soles of them.

The corn crops of the first Wynns that settled in Mingo
were eat up by coons. Dad said the Indians had to show
them how to keep the coons out. He didn't say what they
did but said without this, they couldn't have any left to
eat or feed to the stock. When they had a number of
fields cleared and farming, they were down in the swamp,
so they would plow on the way from the house to the field
in the swamp in the morning and the same in the evening.
This way they had a row of corn or whatever for nearly
two miles. If they were siding corn in the swamp field,
one side of the long row of corn would be worked in the
morning and the other side in the evening.

After I saw some of the C.C. C. boys come home for a
short stay, I thought that was the place for me. I knew
those shinny shoes that they wore would be just what i
needed--everyday and Sunday. I was tired of trying to
pull one end of a cross cut saw and it not very sharp,
snaking out logs and loading on a truck , cutting black
gum block and rolling them up on the truck, which was
hard work.  December of 1939, I had joined the 3-C's and
had left Mingo. I was in Oregon all of 1940, 19 years
old, and really enjoyed it.

I never forgot Mingo though, and I never will.
Thomas E. Wynn  May 1988

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