Lamar County MsArchives History - Letters .....Carruth, W. H. L, Letter To Hometown Alabama Newspapr October 22, 1936
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Candace (Teal) Gravelle tealtree@comcast.net February 6, 2007, 12:59 am


"The Cleburne News"
Heflin, Cleburne Co., Alabama

NEWSPAPER Issue of Thursday, NOVEMBER 5, 1936

LETTER TO EDITOR OF THE NEWS (from W.H.L. Carruth in Sumrall, Mississippi) 

To Editor of the Cleburne News,

Last year in an article in your paper, which was written about the late Fred H. 
Osborn, the statement was made that his father was the first buried in the 
Heflin Cemetery with Masonic honors. This statement is not correct, and I 
thought the time, for sake of historical accuracy, I would write and correct 
it, but postponed it from time to time. Today being the anniversary of my 
father's death, I am again reminded of the statement and I am sending you this 
article which I trust may be interesting to at least some of your readers. As 
said above, I do this so that history may be kept correct. Please let the 
writer of the article referred to above be assumed that neither my brothers no 
myself felt any resentment at the statement, but I just want to keep the record 
correct. I find that with most people when you ask them about someone they 
have known in the past, it is much easier to get them to remember the person if 
you call them by their "given name" rather by their initials, so in this 
article in most names which I mention I will follow this plan.

My father, the late A. P. Carruth, better known to many of his day as "Splash" 
died Oct. 22, 1882 and was buried Tuesday, Oct. 24, 1882. He was the first 
person to be buried in the Heflin Cemetery and was buried with Masonic honors. 
Hence he was the first person to be buried in the Heflin Cemetery with Masonic 
honors. The funeral services were in charge of Heaton Lodge of Arbacoochee. 
The best of my memory the following Masons participated; there may have been 
others who I have forgotton. I was only about nine years old then: Andrews 
Wright, known as Anders Wright acted as Worshipful Master; Rev. Trimble, a 
Methodist minister acted as Chaplain. I do not recall the others who acted in 
an official capacity. In addition to the above named Masons, the following were 
in the procession: Mark Pinson, Howard Bell, Judge W.R. Hunnicutt, Joe 
Taylor, Crawford McDaniel, Fayette Snow, Jack Bedwell, Bob McCaughren, Bill 
McMahan, David Creamer and Elijah Black, all of Cleburne county. Also John 
Davis, Lawrence Davis, Henry Davis, Joe Murphy and Wes Wright of what was then 
known as Davisville in Choccolocco Valley. Certainly I cannot remember the 
names of all who were present but I do recall some of them and give their names 
here: Jesse Ellis, Lige Henry, John Thrower, Frank Stovall, James Glasgow, 
Jack Reed, Bob Norred, Julius O'Harrow, Doctor Bell of Bell Mills, Alex 
Riddle, Frank Riddle, John Ross and Wesley Hunnnicutt. 

I presume that all of the above named persons are dead, and to most of the 
younger generation in and around Heflin, these names may be altogether 
strange. I am not sure, but it is possible that Uncle Jeff Henry of your city 
and Walter Bell of Atlanta and Oscar Bell of Texas, the late John Dodson and 
John Walker of near Bell Mills were also present.

Of the younger men who can recall this instance, I cannot recall at this time 
any except the following: Elza Strickland of Texas and Tom Black and Judge 
Glasgow of Heflin. 

Just as a matter of comparison between now and fifty-four years ago, I call 
attention to the following facts:

When my father died, my mother had to send for a man named Tom Williamson who 
lived near Chulafinnee some six or seven miles from us to make a coffin. When 
we went to the cemetery, those who attended traveled in wagons, buggies and 
horseback. It was six miles to our home in Heflin and it required almost the 
entire day to make the trip and conduct the services. Now, a homemade coffin 
is very, very rare. People who attend funerals now usually do so in autos and 
the corpse is hauled in a hearse and the time required, except for long 
distances, is only a few hours. It may be of interest to some of your readers 
to know that if my father had not died at the time he did, the first general 
mercantile firm in Heflin would have been Hunnicutt and Carruth, the partership 
being W.R. Hunnicutt and A. Carruth. I trust that I may be pardoned for 
recalling another incident in connection with my father.

In think that it was in 1870 that the Democrats of Cleburne county decided to 
select a list of men for the various county officers which were to be elected 
that year, without a convention or a primary, but by with only one object in 
view, that of winning with good men. This was done by personal solicitation of 
Democrats from all parts of the county after they had held conferences. My 
father was persuaded to run for Sheriff. He was elected. At that time, 
Edwardsville was a rather rough place. After the election and after a great 
deal of worry and earnest thinking, my father decided that he would not serve. 
My older brothers Gus and Tom were children then and he told my mother that 
Edwardsville was not a suitable place in which to try to bring up boys. So he 
decided to forego the office rather than risk the chance of losing the boys. Of 
course my mother heartily agreed with him.

As the law was then, if a county office became vacant, the Governor filled it 
by appointment, so in order that the Decmocats could retain the office of 
Sheriff, my father was sworn in and served for a few days. He then resigned and 
William A. Alexander, who I think lived near Oak Level, was appointed to fill 
out the unexpired term.

I just wonder if there are any of the older citizens in and around Edwardsville 
who remember Sidney and Tully Carruth, who lived just north of Edwardsville.

Mr. Editor, thanking you for the kindness of space for this article and with 
every good wish for my friends in dear old Cleburne, I am respectfully,

W.H.L. Carruth, 
Sumrall, Mississippi, 
October 22, 1936.


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