Biography of Uncle Minor Ogden and Aunt Nannie Smith Ogden of Spearsville, Union Parish Louisiana Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by Lyle Smith, 2/2005 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================= JOSEPH MINOR OGDEN husband of NANCY JANE SMITH (Nannie) Born October 6, 1882 – Died January 18, 1980 “Uncle Minor” By Lyle Smith, 2004 ================================================================================== “Uncle Minor” This story begins with Rev. Benjamin Ogden, a Methodist minister (who was probably one of the first ancestors of Minor Ogden to cross the Mississippi River.) He moved his family from Tennessee to what was then Missouri Territory (now the state of Arkansas) in 1816 or 1817. It is unclear where he first settled because at that time Hempstead County covered the entire southwestern portion of what is now Arkansas. It does appear that Rev. Benjamin Ogden settled near El Dorado around 1820, or possibly upon his arrival in 1817. He preached throughout the region until his death in 1838. This Rev. Benjamin Ogden was the great-great grandfather of Joseph Minor Ogden, here-after referred to as Uncle Minor. Uncle Minor’s great-grand father was Isaac Ogden (son of Rev. Benjamin Ogden) who married Milinda Reed. Isaac was born August 19, 1797 in North Carolina. He died September 29, 1859, in Arkansas. Milinda was born December 21, 1801, in what is now the state of Missouri. She died May 18, 1860, in Arkansas. Her parents, Robert and Helen Reed and grandfather William Reed were the very earliest ancestors of Uncle Minor to cross the Mississippi River. The Reeds moved from Tennessee to what is now southeastern Missouri back when it belonged to Spain. They received a Spanish land grant, but this region became part of the Louisiana Purchase in December of 1803. They survived the devastating earthquake of 1806, and spent the years 1807 to 1817 fighting the United States government to honor the Spanish land grants and to be compensated for damage from the earthquake. They lost and so had to move in 1817, and came south to Hempstead County. The son of Isaac Ogden was Isaac Nathaniel Ogden. He was Uncle Minor’s grand-father. Nathaniel had a farm not too far from the Olive Branch Methodist Cemetery in southern Union County. This was in Johnson Township and the post office was Hillsboro then. He married Elizabeth J. Blanks. Nathaniel was born November 28, 1822, in Union County, Arkansas. They were married September 18, 1851, in Union County, Arkansas by Ezeriah Pepper, Justice of the Peace. This marriage being duly filed and recorded February 10, 1853, in Book “B:, Page 73-B of Union County Marriage Records. He died July 1, 1877, and is buried in Olive Branch Methodist Cemetery in Union County, Arkansas. Elizabeth was born December 1, 1832, in Georgia. She died April 6, 1891, and is buried in Olive Branch Methodist Cemetery. The child of Nathaniel Ogden and Elizabeth Blanks was William Robert Ogden (Bill). Bill Ogden was born July 7, 1852, in Hillsboro, Johnson Township, Arkansas on his father’s farm not too far from the Olive Branch Methodist Cemetery in south Union County. Nathaniel Ogden’s father, Isaac Ogden had moved there in 1838 and bought land from the government in 1839. Bill died December 28, 1942, in Spearsville, Louisiana. Sarah Ann Elizabeth Breazeal (Eliza) was born June 7, 1854, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She died September 18, 1929, in Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana. They were married April 8, 1875, in Union County, Arkansas. Bill and Eliza were both buried in Spearsville Cemetery. Eliza Breazeal Ogden was the sister of Hosea Woodford Breazeal with both of them being children of Hosea Bright Breazeal and Sarah Elizabeth Mayfield. Bill and Eliza Ogden lived in Union County, Arkansas after their marriage and their two eldest children James Robert Ogden (Bob) and Sarah Elizabeth (Bettie) were born there. Then in late 1879 or early 1880, Bill and Eliza moved across the state line to her father’s farm. Bill Ogden farmed there in 1880 and remained there through about 1886, (tax records). The 1880 census shows Bill and Eliza and their children living in a separate house that adjoined the household of her father, Bright Breazeal, and brother Hosea Woodford Breazeal. Since Bill Ogden did not buy his own farm, it appears that he worked the farm of his father-in-law, Bright Breazeal. According to Union Parish Tax records and the birth records of his younger children, Bill and Eliza returned to Union County, Arkansas. There they both belonged to Smyrna Primitive Baptist Church. About 1898 Bill and Eliza moved back to Spearsville, for good and bought their own farm there. So, Joseph Minor Ogden was born near Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana, almost certainly on or near his grandfather’s (H.B. Breazeal) farm. The children of William Robert Ogden (Bill) and Sarah Ann Elizabeth Breazeal (Eliza) were: 1- James Robert Ogden (Bob) was born December 8, 1875, at Hillsboro, Johnson Township, Union County, Arkansas. He married Mary E. Williams (Mollie) August 21, 1897, in Union Parish, Louisiana. He died July 18, 1969, at Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana, and was buried in Spearsville, Cemetery. 2- Sarah Elizabeth Ogden (Bettie) was born September 20, 1879, at Hillsboro, Johnson Township, Union County, Arkansas. She married William Lafayette Rockett (Willie) December 5, 1909. They were married by Elder Woody K. Smith, Primitive Baptist Minister. She died July 12, 1951, in the Camp Creek Community of Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana. Bettie was buried in Camp Creek Cemetery. 3- Joseph Minor Ogden was born October 6, 1882, near Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana. He married Nancy Jane Smith (Nannie) October 17, 1906, in Union Parish, Louisiana. He died January 18, 1980, in Bernice, Union Parish, Louisiana. He was buried in Spearsville Cemetery. 4- Martha Ogden was born December 1, 1885, near Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana. She married Joseph A. Templeton October 6, 1901, in Union Parish Louisiana. She died July 29, 1981 at Minden, Webster Parish, Louisiana. Martha was buried in Spearsville Cemetery. 5- Annie Ogden was born December 2, 1890, in Jackson Township, Union County, Arkansas. She married Charles Heard Cherry November 9, 1913, in Union Parish, Louisiana. She died July 29, 1914 in Union Parish, Louisiana. She was buried in Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana. 6- Rosa Lea Ogden was born March 26, 1892 in Jackson Township, Union County, Arkansas. She married Armon Smith November 6, 1907, in Union Parish, Louisiana. She died February 20, 1929 at Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana. Rosa Lea was buried in Spearsville Cemetery, Union Parish, Louisiana. Uncle Minor Ogden: I doubt there will ever be another like him. He was funny the first time I saw him and he was still funny the last time I saw him! Uncle Minor was one of those fellows you just liked to meet and liked to talk to, or just listen to him. I can remember him from my earliest childhood and was 38 years old when he died. Some of the best years of my life were the years we lived up the hill about 200 yards from Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie. When I graduated from High School, I spent a night with Aunt Nannie and Uncle Minor before leaving home and finding my own spot in life. It had been almost 17 years since I had spent a night in that house. My younger brother Carl and I were born in that house in the east bedroom. I continued to visit them after I married, and when we had children, I carried then down to visit with Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie. He was an uncle by marriage, but I could never tell the difference. Uncle Minor was a talented, basically self-made man. He could do a lot of things well. He grew up when times were hard, and if the job got done, you had to do it yourself. He didn’t go to town for a new tool; he made it himself. During his long life he was a farmer, musician, logger, butcher, and did fairly well as a carpenter. Uncle Minor was full of pranks his entire life, and when he was young, he paid for it with many spankings. But it never stopped him from coming right back. Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie were very funny together. He called her Nank, and she called him Mint. He could pick at her, but I doubt it would have been very smart for anyone else to do so. Aunt Nannie’ mother was Mahalia Elizabeth Head. We have been told there was Indian blood in the Head line, and Aunt Nannie certainly made me believe that statement. When I was a boy, she had long black hair that was slowly turning to gray. She would plait it with a braid on either side of her head, and then tie up the ends with loose hair she had combed out of her head. She would wind the braids around her head and pin them in place. With the braids hanging down either side of her head before she put them up, she certainly looked like an Indian to me. She was also a very sweet lady. I have made a list of things I know and remember about Uncle Minor, and the best way to share them is just to write them down. Minor Ogden married my father’s older sister, Aunt Nannie, on October 17, 1906. They were married by J.W. Hunt, Justice of the Peace, as required, in the presence of at least 3 male witnesses. These witnesses were H.H. Rockett, W.K. Pryor, and Henry Williams. This marriage being duly filed and recorded in Book “11”, Page 355 of Union Parish Marriage Records. When Uncle Minor came to the Woody K. Smith home to get Aunt Nannie to go with him to get married, it upset Nannie’s little brother, my father, John Lee Smith. Aunt Nannie was 21 years old and had been at home with John Lee all his life and he did not want to lose her. John Lee sailed pine bark at Uncle Minor all the way down Smith Hill.. Uncle Minor stated that his mother spanked him until she gave completely out; then she loaned him out for the neighbors to spank. When Uncle Minor was 12 years old, he made a fiddle out of a cigar box on Wednesday, and played it at a barn dance on Saturday night. He could not read a note of music, but if you could whistle it, he could play it. I have sat on the front porch of our house and listened to him play beautiful music many nights. In his later years, his nephew, W.K. Smith purchased a very good fiddle and gave it to Uncle Minor, and he sure could play that fiddle. He continued to play almost all his life until his fingers got so stiff, and his shoulder hurt so bad, that he had to quit. But he loved to play, and would if there was any way he felt like it. One evening Uncle Minor and Gene Barron were playing and having a good time, Uncle Minor with his fiddle and Gene with his guitar. A stranger drove up, got out of his car, and wanted to know if they were practicing. Uncle Minor replied, “Gosh naw son, we are a-playing.” Uncle Minor was a small boy who had 4 sisters: Bettie who was 3 years older than he and Martha, Annie, and Rosa Lea who were younger. Minor’s older sister was full of pep and had a fiery disposition, and she usually got right back at him with all he could handle. But that did not deter him in the slightest. Betty was being courted by Jim Smith, the oldest son of Elder Woody K. Smith in about 1897. Jim was one year older than Betty, and this happened around 1896, When Jim came calling, he always walked, for he had no other mode of transportation. It was about 2 miles between their houses by road, and less straight through the woods. Betty was usually in the kitchen barefoot, doing the family’s ironing. In those days for a young lady courting age to be seen bare footed, was just about as bad as seeing a young lady half dressed today. It was just something a lady did not do. The kitchen had low wide windows without screens and the windows were pulled up because of the heat. So when Bettie saw Jim Smith approaching, she would put the iron in a safe place and merely step out the window and walk around to her room at the back of the house. She would secure her shoes and be ready to greet her suitor. Now little Minor was taking this all in, and within his impish mind a plan had developed. He had a small 2 wheeled cart which had been made from wood. The wheels were sliced off the end of a log, and secured to his little square, home made cart. Where Betty stepped out the window was exactly where the rain ran off the roof and ran around the corner of the house. Minor had seen Bettie make her escape several times out the low window, so he had the angles and distance all figured out. He set the cart in exactly the spot where she stepped down; it ran from under her, she sat down in it, and the cart with Bettie in it rolled around the corner of the house, which was a bit down hill, and almost knocked Jim down, ending with her bare legs sticking out at funny angles. Jim said, “Well, hello, Bettie.” She replied, “I am going to kill Minor.” Needless to say, Uncle Minor got another spanking. Minor and Bettie always had something going on. She was the one who came right back at him. She had been giving him a hard time, so he set a toothless steel trap in bed for her, under the covers. A younger sister, Martha slept with Bettie. She was quiet and shy, not at all like Bettie. Well, Martha went to bed before Bettie, and Uncle Minor caught the wrong sister. Needless to say, another spanking was in store for Uncle Minor. Sometime after 1900, farmers would farm, and cut and hue cross-ties in their spare time for much needed extra money. They would use their wagons to move the ties to the rail line at Laran, in Union Parish. The ties remained there until a full load was gathered and transportation was arranged by the railroad. Then a flat car would be pushed in on a siding, and the farmers would meet there usually after dark when their chores were finished, and they would manually load the ties on the rail car. It was pretty cool this particular night and Uncle Minor wore a coat to the tie pile, but after they got started loading, he warmed up and laid his coat over to the side. Sometime along the way, someone used the bathroom on his coat. When they finished for the night, Uncle Minor went to get his coat and found it sopping wet. Uncle Minor lined all the men up and told them that whoever did it knew it, and it was no mistake. And if the sorry so and so who wet on the coat would just step forward, he would put forth a pretty good effort to stomp him into the ground. Not a soul stepped forward. Uncle Minor was pretty much of a man when he was young. When Uncle Minor was a youngster he made his 12 foot bull whip. It was made from leather braided together. It was attached to a 3 foot long handle that Uncle Minor also made. When he farmed he never had a runt in his litter of pigs for very long. He would stand there with the whip and keep all the larger pigs off the trough until the runt had all he could eat. He did not remain a runt very long. One day we had our beef yearling staked out on a long rope so he could graze, so we would not have to run him down in the evening at milking time. Our neighbor had a large bull that was shoving our calf around, and he became tangled in his rope. The larger bull was working him over. Uncle Minor saw all this and got his whip, jumped into his car, and drove up to our house. He got out of his car and walked up behind the bull and soon persuaded him to leave our calf alone. In his younger years, Uncle Minor could take a fly off a cow or mule, and they would not flinch. I can remember him getting out in the evening when his shoulder was not hurting, and we could hear him pop that whip a long way. Aunt Nannie’s younger sister, Irene Risinger, had a daughter, Madge, who married E.H. Chandler. This story involves their son, Paul Chandler, who is Aunt Nannie and Uncle Minor’s great-nephew. Paul was 13 years old when this took place in 1972, and Uncle Minor was 90 years old. E.H. carried Paul to visit Uncle Minor. During the course of the visit, the subject of Uncle Minor’s whip came up, and Uncle Minor got it out. He showed Paul how he could handle it with the three foot home made hickory handle, making it whirl around his head and causing it to pop like the crack of a rifle shot. Paul was amazed, and naturally Uncle Minor handed it to him, and let him try to use it. As most people do who have not handled a 12 foot bull whip, Paul ended up with it tangled around his body, but he truly loved that whip. Uncle Minor told Paul, “Anser, if your daddy will get me some leather, I will make you a whip.” Now you must remember how old Uncle Minor was at this time. E.H. got the leather and Uncle Minor made Paul a bull whip. Thanking that Uncle Minor might have made a toy version of his whip, I asked about the size of the whip he made. E.H. informed me, “That Uncle Minor made Paul’s whip a replica of his own working bull whip, which had been made over 75 years before.” Paul was happy and once again we are reminded how much Uncle Minor loved children. Early one morning Uncle Minor was squirrel hunting with a .410 single barrel shotgun he had obtained a little earlier. As Uncle Minor came out of the woods, his brother-in-law, Tom Smith, was crossing the pasture down the hill from him. Uncle Tom yelled at Uncle Minor and asked if that was the little gun he had. Uncle Minor replied that it was. Tom told Uncle Minor to, “cut down on me with the little thing.” Uncle Minor elevated the gun a bit and aimed down the hill at Uncle Tom, and pulled the trigger. Pellets started falling all around Uncle Tom, and he shouted, “You blame fool, shots are falling all around me.” Uncle Minor replied, “You told me to shoot at you, and that is what I did.” Uncle Minor stated that, “I have never passed a pea patch without tipping my hat, as they had saved my life many a time.” Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie were walking up to her fathers, Woody K. Smith’s house to visit one Sunday afternoon. They walked by the Sam Rockett house and down into the bottom where the little branch flowed across the road. There was no bridge there at the time. Mr. Sam’s father was Hosea Rockett, and their land joined the Smith place. In fact Woody K. Smith had bought his farm from Mr. Hosea Rockett in 1896. Aunt Nannie had Rheumatic fever when she was a teenager, and it really damaged her vision. She could not see well the rest of her life. Up at the Smith place they could hear Uncle Minor laughing loudly coming up the hill. Woody K. wondered what Uncle Minor had been up to this time. Aunt Nannie was getting ready to jump the branch, with Uncle Minor telling her when to jump. When she jumped, she landed in the middle of the branch with her good shoes on. Uncle Minor told everyone at the Smith house that Aunt Nannie had jumped from Uncle Hosea’s fence corner. That would have been about 50 feet. Years ago, on Sunday, Aunt Nannie and Uncle Minor were invited home to dinner from church by Mr. Hugh Rhodes, the father of Bro. Reason Rhodes. Mr. Rhodes said, of course, they did not have much, but they were sure welcome to share with them. When they arrived and sat down at the table, it was long, wide, and groaning under the weight of the food on it. After they ate, Uncle Minor told Mr. Rhodes that he thought he was joking about not having much, for he and Nannie has that much on a week day. For a while during World War I, it sure looked as if Uncle Minor was going to be called up. He was called in to the draft board and filled out all the proper papers that were necessary at the time. When the papers got back, his name was spelled Joseph Minon Ogden. Aunt Nannie was very concerned that if he got called up he would have been called Minon for the rest of his life. Years ago Uncle Minor was plowing his field when he saw Dr. Dudley riding by. Dr. Dudley went far and wide doing his doctoring, so he kept two good saddle horses at all times. As he rode by Uncle Minor hollered at him, “Doc, O, Doc, wait up, Doc.” Dr Dudley stopped and Uncle Minor jogged over to him. Dr. Dudley waited patiently until Uncle Minor got up to him and caught his breath, asked, “What is it, Minor?” “Doc, Doc, have you seen my hammer? “Uncle Minor asked. (Farmers always carried a hammer in the field to tighten or loosen the heel bolt on the plow stock. This is what he attached the plow point to the plow stock with.) “No, Minor, I have not seen your hammer; where did you lose it?” Dr. Dudley asked. Uncle Minor pointed across the field, “Right over yonder, Doc.” “Oh, my God, Minor,” Dr. Dudley said as he urged his horse to go. When Uncle Minor was young he fell and had a knot on his head. It got infected and was running a bit. His mother asked Dr. Dudley if, “he thought it might be Minor’s brain leaking out the knot?” “Oh, no, Mrs. Ogden,” the good doctor said, “the knot is much too big to be his brain.” Long years ago there was an old black woman who lived on the Hugh Rockett place. The house she and her children lived in was east of where the Hugh Rockett house used to stand. One very dark night she was sitting on the front porch in the dark, just resting and passing the time. Uncle Minor went to the tack shed and got out a set of mule harness and slung it over his shoulders and back. He walked down the road jingling the harness and chains, just making a racket, and then he stopped. She could not see him. She said, “Who dat?” Uncle Minor said, “Who dat?” She repeated the question,”Who dat?” Uncle Minor repeated the answer, “Who dat?” She got excited and said, “Who dat who say who dat when I say who dat?” Uncle Minor could not stand it any longer and broke out laughing. Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie owned a farm right beside where the George Bennett pond is today, near Taylor Town. They lived in a log cabin there. I can still remember the cabin standing. Somehow or other, Uncle Minor and three of his brother-in-laws got involved in 1924 in a 4 way loan. All 4 had to pay on the date due or all 4 would lose their places. One of the 4 was unable to pay, so all four lost their places. Then Uncle Minor bought the 40 acre place where he and Aunt Nannie spent their last days together. I believe it was part of the old Bob Ogden farm there. Bob Ogden owned the Hugh Rockett house and place before Mr. Hugh Rockett bought it. During the early 1940s, Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie lived in Junction City, and left their home near Spearsville. I know this because in 1942 and 1944, my younger brother and I came into this world there. Uncle Minor worked for several years at a sawmill commissary in Junction City as their butcher. He knew everybody and one day some of the Rockett kids slipped in and put a pile of fake cat “poop” made from rubber on his butcher’s block where he cut the meat. He got very upset and got his meat cleaver and went looking for cats. In 1956 my older brother was in the Navy at Pearl Harbor. We did not have a phone, but Winford called Uncle Minor, and since it was a little over 100 yards to our house, he could yell and tell us we had a call. There was an advertisement on TV that said, “Sam Thomas Mercantile, 12 miles south of Ruston.” The phone rang, and Uncle Minor answered, “Sam Thomas Mercantile, 12 miles south of Ruston.” The lady said, “I am the long distance overseas operator trying to reach John Lee Smith, but I must have the wrong number.” Uncle Minor quickly replied, “No mam, you got the wrong old fool.” Every farm worth its salt had a grubbing hoe to do heavy digging and root removal. While we lived near Uncle Minor around 1957, we broke the handle out of our grubbing hoe. Uncle Minor had never bought a handle when he was farming, and showed me how to make one. We went down into the pasture to find the right size persimmon sprout (locally called simmon) and he cut it down. He cut it the proper length and worked the handle down good and smooth, and inserted it into the hoe. My older brother has that grubbing hoe now, with the same handle in it. I have been gone from home over 44 years, which makes the handle about 47 years old. And you think old folks couldn’t make good home made tools. Uncle Minor drove a black 1937 Ford for 17 years. Somewhere about the time I left home in 1960 or there about, he purchased a white 1950 Ford. He said that he did not intend to trade cars right off like he did with the 1937 model. About 1957, when he was driving the 1937 model, he drove up to our house; jumped out of the car and almost ran inside. Mother said,” Minor, what is your problem? He said, “Hun, there is a mouse in my car. Ansir, if he gets up my britches leg I’ll wreck the car” So he came in off the porch and she tied his britches legs down with twine before he would continue on to Junction City. Uncle Minor kept laying hens when we lived close to them, and Mother would buy eggs from him; he would seldom let her pay for them. Mother sent my grown brother, Vernon to Uncle Minor’s house to get some eggs; but not to take them if Uncle Minor would not let her pay for them. Uncle Minor told my brother, “I don’t care what the ole heifer said, you take the eggs anyway.” Uncle Minor said, “The Lord did not mean for men to fly; I believe that we were not to go below ‘tater’ digging or above ‘fodder pulling’.” He also said, “No man ever flew to the moon; they just landed in Arizona somewhere and took some pictures.” One day before 1960, Robert Smith, who was both Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie’s nephew, and my first cousin, borrowed a tractor and a bush hog from Armon Taylor to bush hog Uncle Minor’s calf pasture. Robert brought the tractor over one day and intended to come by after work the next day to do the pasture. Two of Armon Taylor’s dogs went everywhere the tractor went, so they stayed at Uncle Minor’s house overnight. The next morning Uncle Minor went out to look at the tractor, and the dogs ran him back into the house. “Hiiiiigh doggies,” he said, “ansir, I got out my whip. “I ain’t used to being run out of my own yard.” He took the whip to the dogs, and they almost invited him to climb upon the tractor. When I came in from school that evening the hair was still standing up on their backs. Aunt Nannie was putting supper on the table, and as she sat her plate down loaded with collard greens and corn bread; Uncle Minor slipped a caterpillar he had brought in from the garden, onto her greens. He said, “Nank, you have cooked a worm in with your greens.” Aunt Nannie replied,” Well, you know I can’t see, but I cleaned them as best I could.” Several women in the community said they would have knocked him in the head. Another time I was present when Aunt Nannie brought the tea glasses filled with ice to the dining table and sat them down. When she and Uncle Minor were seated, she poured the tea into the glasses. Uncle Minor was moving the glass around as far as he could without making her spill the tea. She said, “Mint, hold the glass still.” He replied, “Can’t Nank, I am moving it where you are pouring the tea.” Uncle Minor did not know much about fire crackers, but he borrowed a 2 inch red fire cracker from Glen Barron These fire crackers were loud and plenty powerful. Uncle Minor hid behind the well house when he heard Aunt Nannie coming out the back door of the kitchen to feed the dog the table scraps. When he heard the screen door squeak, he lit the fire cracker and waited until she came around the end of the well house. He said, “Nank, the old heifer, decided to go back into the house, so he kept waiting on her.” It went off in his hand, right in his ear. Those red ones were bad enough to make his hand swell. Uncle Minor had a single shot 12 gauge shot gun that had a kick to it. If you shot it, it would knock you down, stomp on you, and go behind a tree and laugh at you. It was mean. One night Uncle Minor was in bed on the right side, next to the window. It was a very bright moon lit night, and he was having trouble sleeping. He heard a noise and looked out the window, across the porch to the yard, where a large rabbit was thumping his large hind foot in the sand bed. He kept his yard skinned with a hoe; so there was only sand and the rabbit was having a good time. Uncle Minor opened the latch on the screen very carefully, stuck the gun out and shot the rabbit. Aunt Nannie just about had a fit, since she was asleep when this happened. She woke up just a hollering; and Uncle Minor told her, “Go back to sleep, Nank. I just shot a rabbit.” She ought to have knocked him in the head one more time. In the late 1950s, we were in church at New Hope Primitive Baptist Church, and Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie were a little bit late in arriving. He walked down the center isle to right into the Amen section and Aunt Nannie turned left to go to the Awomen section. Mr. Blanchard Thomas from Ringgold was sitting on the outside seat of the right front pew, where Uncle Minor was set to turn right; and he sorta slapped Mr. Thomas on his bald head, and sorta cupped his hand in doing so. It popped like a shot gun and Uncle Minor just laughed and walked on to the Amen corner. Way before he went into the nursing home Uncle Minor said that when he died, he did not want anyone to be sad. He wanted them to have dinner on the ground when they buried him, and he wanted it to be an all day affair. He was in the nursing home at Bernice later, and he told them to keep him out to make sure he was dead; keep him out until he started to stink. One of the nurses who knew him told he already stunk. Uncle Minor had a Walker hound named Watch, when we lived near them. He was good dog, and Uncle Minor really liked him. My father, John Lee Smith was standing in Uncle Minor’s yard talking to him. Ole Watch wandered up to Dad and wet all over the leg of his overalls. Dad got mad and went to the house to change clothes Uncle Minor said, “He had never seen anything like that in this life time.” Two days later I got off the school bus and walked down to Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie’s house. I found Uncle Minor barely able to walk and was down in his back something awful. I asked him what had happened and he told me. “Ole Watch had walked up to me and wet on my pants leg. So I kicked at him, and the yellow ole rascal dodged.” Uncle Minor told us that he had a cow so long legged that the new calf almost starved to death before learning to stand on its hind legs to suck. He had one other cow that was so hard to milk that he had to put oak boards under her feet to keep them from going into the ground in the cow pen. In 1959 I was helping Uncle Minor clear the corner of his pasture fence that was closest to our house. He did not like bushes, weeds, or long grass on his place. He was using his famous grubbing hoe, and I was picking up and piling brush. He found a citron, which looks like a half size round water melon I have seen farmers run over them with tractor tires, but they would just slip off to the side, they never were crushed. He told me to watch, he would show me what they used to do as boys to have fun. He took his hoe and quickly sliced the top off the citron, making a toy that looked like a frisby. He picked it up and sailed it out of sight. The effort caused him to turn deathly white, and I thought he was having a heart attack, but he said he was all right and we stayed in the pasture. I will never forget how white he looked. He lived 21 years after that. In 1956 Aunt Nannie and Uncle Minor celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. It was held at Guy and Lucille Barron’s home. Several people were standing in the dining room, and someone found where some water had been spilled. Uncle Minor said, “You’al look, I told you Nannie was scared.” Uncle Minor and Aunt Nannie were married 65 years and 11 months. They both joined New Hope Primitive Baptist Church September 27, 1914. They were baptized by her father, Elder Woody K. Smith. Uncle Minor served for several years as church clerk. Aunt Nannie was a faithful member for almost 58 years and Uncle Minor remained a faithful member for almost 66 years Aunt Nannie died November 1, 1972, in the Bernice Clinic, Union Parish, Louisiana at age 87 years, 5 months and 19 days. Her funeral service was held in New Primitive Baptist Church. She was buried in Spearsville Cemetery just down the slope from her father, Elder Woody K. Smith. Uncle Minor died January 12, 1980, in Bernice, Union Parish, Louisiana at age 97 years, 3 months and 10 days. His funeral service was held in New Hope Primitive Baptist Church. He was buried in Spearsville Cemetery next to Aunt Nannie. They were good people. Lyle M. Smith January 31, 2005 I graciously acknowledge the assistance of Tim Hudson with the Ogden line. #################################################################################