This is an article from Volume 1 of Ellisville,Mississippi, A Testament To Our Ancestors- Progress-Item- 196 Ethel Freeman DeVall was my grandmother and I loved coming to Ellisville to spend time with her. A Backward Glance Mrs Ethel Freeman DeVall Many stories have been told about the old days in Ellisville-colorful entertaining stories of how we used to live; what Ellisville was like in its earlier years. Such a story has been told by Mrs. Ethel Freeman DeVall and it begins when she and her family came here from Talladega County, Ala. in October of 1898. The W A (Billy) Freemans and the W S Burnsides came to Ellisville at the same time. Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Burnside were brother and sister. It was during the yellow fever epidemic and the conductor told us that we could not get off the train here, said Mrs. DeVall, but Papa and Uncle Winfield told him that our tickets had been sold to us to come to Ellisville, and that if the train stopped at Ellisville we were getting off. Then they stood in the doorway of the coach so that it could not be closed and when the train pulled into the station, we got off. The Freeman children were Jim, who now lives in Laurel; Will, who was killed at the sawmill in 1906; Ed, who passed away in 1954; Clifford, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina; Mamie and Ethel who make their home here; and Thelma and Claude, born after the family moved to the city. Mr. Freeman was a sawmill man and worked at Lowery’s Mill and the Anchor Mill. Mrs. DeVall said that he worked from 6 AM until 6 PM and that top pay was three dollars a day. Foremen, she said, made a little more. But things were cheap; you could buy best quality dress material for $.10 a yard, she added. The mill operated six days a week, and the family had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to start fires, get breakfast and have their father at work by the appointed hour. They lived in the yellow house back of the Baptist Church, later moving to what was known as the Glenn House. The children attended school in the new brick building on the site of the present elementary school, and Ethel graduated from high school there in 1911, the year that her mother passed away. Although the family was Baptist, she said that she and her sister Mamie attended Sunday school at the Methodist Church because the Baggett girls lived nearby and carried us. We were shy, and liked to have the older girls along. But since 1908, Mrs. DeVall has been a member of the Baptist Church and remembers Ms. Bertie Arnold as her first Sunday school teacher. Then came Mrs. Ella Clark, and Mrs. D K Collins. Her first schoolteacher here was Miss Lela Hill who taught second grade. Miss Sallie Haynie taught her in third; she could not recall the fourth grade teachers name, but said that Miss Willie Hill was her fifth grade teacher, resigning to marry E L Bishop. The janitor locked the school gates at9:00 AM and they were not unlocked until 2:45 PM. The fence around the grounds was so constructed as to be almost impossible to climb. Late students did not get in, and no one was allowed to go home at noon. They had a 15 minute recess and a 30 minute noon hour. Rainy weather presented its problems, since there was no pavement or gravel roads and the mud got mighty deep at times. When the branch got up, the children had to sometimes wait for it to run down before they could get across. By walking down the railroad they were able to avoid the high water part of the time. There was no playground equipment, but they did play basketball and other ball games. Schoolbooks were bought from Mr. E J Ward Sr. We would be half-starved when we got home from school, but the old safe always had plenty of food for us and for our friends who often went home with us – Lowery Collins, Elmer Glynn, Lillie Brooks, and others. I can see the long table with benches on one side right now as we sat there eating. We had to go to bed by nine oclock, but sometimes we could stay up a little later to study for there was lots of homework to do she relates, adding they were taught to work too. The children had to help with breakfast, wash dishes and clean the house up before we went to school, and in the summer time we did all of the cooking. Every spring and fall there were new outfits for all of us, and Mama did the choosing. For school we wore white aprons over our dark dresses be-ruffled and lace and embroidery trim and white bonnets. Shopping was done in Ellisville at Johnson–Hand and the JP Myer store, continues the teller of the story. A Comfort range with its reservoir for hot water graced the kitchen. Millwood was used in the stove and fireplace. There were no lights or running water, no fans or screens. The Freemans reserved one nice bedroom for a parlor and if there was a party, the bed would be taken down to make more room. Mrs. Ethel remembers that they got an icebox about 1903; and we bought flour by the half barrel for we had biscuits three times a day. Every Saturday night, she said, her father went to town for groceries. There were bananas by the bunch, other fruit, and candy which we had access to all the time. My father was a good provider. We always had plenty to eat and to wear, but little or no spending money. We didnt need it. She said that Sunday was ice cream day at their house and they had a big freezer and made the boiled custard variety. We had a good dinner and enjoyed the day together for that was the only day we could take our time, since it was the one day Papa did not have to go to the mill. Sometimes, in the afternoon, a gang of us would get together and go across the creek to get sweet gum and to look for crab apples. One of the highlights of those days was an occasional train ride to Laurel, where they visited friends near Shady Grove and sometimes attended singing school. She remembers when the streetcar came to Ellisville about 1912 or 1913. At the time, the line came no farther than the grammar school and the fare was only $.15. The first trip was made on a Sunday afternoon and Mrs. DeVall was among the crowd who witnessed its arrival in Ellisville.Asked what the young people did for entertainment, she said they had a wonderful time at neighborhood candy-pullings (the boys furnished the ingredients and the girls making the candy), picnics and fish-fries; rook games were popular, but dancing was prohibited at the Freeman home. She said that a street carnival would sometimes come to town and set up the merry-go-round where the two main streets of the business district now join and that Mr. D K Collins would buy a big roll of tickets and give them to all of the children. A stage show would also come through, using the large hall above the present Curtis Wood store. It was there that she and sister Mamie saw their first movie show too, The Great Bank Robbery. Of the town, the narrator remembers the old boardwalks along the street in front of the present Jack Myers store, the Lyric, and the Ellisville Motor Company. Mr. Charlie Hardee and a Mr. Lewis had a meat market, the Post Office was about where the Western Auto is now, later moving to the present stand of Jack Myers; Mrs. Gertie Watson and Warren Walters were two of the employees. Doctors were H S Tucker, S 0 Smith, S S Turner and a Dr. Alford. There were no hospitals here or in Laurel, the nearest one was in Hattiesburg, operated by the G & S I R R , now the Methodist hospital. Castor oil was the remedy for what ails you, said Mrs. DeVall, who remembers a slight outbreak of smallpox which struck some of her brothers, but in a mild form. The Burdettes, Todds, Hardys, Pettises, Shelbys, Fridges and Andersons are names of some of the early families; also the Welborns and Walters. “Mrs Bob Welborn and Mrs. W V Walters used to get us together some Saturday morning and we would go to the cemetery and work all day. Pay? No, we just did it to help,” she said. “Our family life was happy and we were contented. Mama did all our sewing, took care of us and was the first to be called when a neighbor got sick.” Pleasant memories of Christmas punctuated the story being related by Mrs. DeVall. A big community Christmas tree was often set up in the building over the Western Auto–Woods store and there would-be gifts for everyone. At home, the children hung up their stockings and Santa filled them with apples, oranges, nuts, candies, and cluster raisins. A doll for the girls with perhaps a few smaller gifts, and suitable things for the boys satisfied the children of that day. Much was left to their imagination in the way of play, and there were no dull or restless moments. On April 11, 1912, Mrs. Ethel Freeman married L C DeVall, Sr of this city. He passed away March 20, 1954 just a few weeks before their 42nd wedding anniversary. The only child of the couple, L C DeVall, Jr is a coach and teacher at Lake Charles, Louisiana. He and his wife have three children. Mrs. DeVall occupies the family home, having with her part of the time her sister, Mrs. Thelma Hunt. She does office work in town every day. Much more could be added to her story of the long ago for the part told by her by no means covers her recollection of old and happy times. The Progress-Item July 27, 1961
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 03:40:55 +0000
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