From Alabama to Texas and back again, No. 1 - Smith County, TX

Contributed by Rex Kirby [rex@tyler.net]
July 11, 2002

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Subject: From Alabama to Texas and back again

This is part of a letter I received today from Steve Elliott of Henry
County, Alabama.  I thought it would be of interest and enjoyment to 
folks here in Smith County and indeed in East Texas. The subject line 
is one Steve and I use frequently. Rex

"For you, my friend, feel free to use the things in my posts.  I 
appreciate your asking me.  And I would like the same courtesy in the 
future, for some of these posts on the internet will be in my books.  
Hot in Smith County?  Hot here "back home in Alabama."  

One of my great uncles moved to Texas with his wife's family, the 
Browns of Hilton, Early County, Georgia just across the Chattahoochee 
River from Columbia, Henry County (now Houston), the Brown family of 
the Bascom Community.  

Uncle Seabe and Aunt Emily "Emma" Brown Elliott are there buried. His 
name was Seabron Jackson "Uncle Seabe" Elliott. While still in Alabama, 
Aunt Emma kept a nickel in the bottom of a snuff box so she could 
leave Uncle Seabe if she needed to.  It cost a nickel to cross the 
ferry at Columbia! 

Uncle Seabe drank every day of his life and said that "whiskey 
preserves the body."  At his 95th birthday party, he was making 
comments to the crowd assembled.  He noted his age just five years 
shy of 100, "When I die, the good Baptist folk with swear I drank 
myself to death!"  

He did not drive and he needed to go to Kilgore, out of the dry 
county of Smith to buy his libation.  His nephews were going to pull 
a trick on him.  They went in and came out looking sad, shaking their 
heads.  They went to the side of the A-Model Sedan they were in and 
said, "Uncle Seabe, they want $20.00 a 1/2 pint!"  Without a pause or 
stutter, he said, "Buy it boys, it's just now bringing what it is 
worth!"  

Around the turn of the 19th and 20th Century, Uncle Seabe had a good 
cotton crop in the bottom beside Mud Creek. Uncle Seabe was 
celebrating as he picked cotton~~drunk as a nine-eyed goat in the 
cotton field, he was!  The State Fair was going on in Tyler and a 
gentleman in a hot air balloon had lost his way. The balloonist 
hollered down to Uncle Seabe in a deep and bombastic voice, "Hey 
Brother, where am I?"  Uncle Seabe never looked up from his pick 
sack and shouted back to the voice in the elements, "Smith County, 
Texas, LORD, Smith County, Texas."

Very Henry Countily Yours,
Steve Elliott
Henry County, AL

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Cemetery Records Smith County, Texas
Published by the East Texas Genealogical Society, 1986
P O Box 6967, Tyler, TX

Page182

Bascom (East) Cemetery

ELLIOTT, S. J. - 1860-1951 - "Uncle Sebe"
ELLIOTT, Emily - 8 Mar 1854 - 23 July 1933 - wife of S. J. Elliott