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1 Origins of the Kyles
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Heresay is that the Kyle Family is originally Jewish. This makes sense as many Kyles (like me) are hook nosed. They moved from Spain to Ireland and Scotland in the 1492 Jewish Diaspora from the Spanish Inquisition. In Biblical times they were known as Kylevirada. |
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2 History of the Kyle Family
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By Mary C. Kyle
The Kyle family belongs to the Campbell's "The Clan Campbell of Argyle". The surname originated from the name of a district called Kyle, which is located in Ayrshire, Scotland. Ayrshire is a south-western county and was the birth-place of Robert Bruce, Robert Burns and Boswell. None of its rivers is navigable and Burns' famous verse has given pre-eminence to the Afton, the Cessnock and the Lugar.
There has been little variation in the spelling of this surname throughout history, and tin fact the original spelling 'Kyle' still exists today. However, because of the very few people who could read or write when history was recorded, spellings of individual surnames were haphazard and accepted without question. In the case of Kyle only two variation, i.e., Kile and Kyll, exist in the records.
In the year 1424 we find a 'Walter of Kyle' entered in to the records as having been granted a document which would guarantee him safe conduct into England. These 'safe conduct' passes were only give to people of importance. They were necessary because of the continuous battles which raged between the English and the Scots. With one of these 'passes' a man's safety was respected by both sides, a situation which might seem usual when we consider the lack of trust in modern warfare.
In Edinburgh, one hundred years after it became the capital of Scotland (1537), a George Kyle was elected a Member of Parliament. In the same year in a place called Irvine, John and Thomas Kyle were also Members of Parliament. These two men spelled their surname 'Kile", but there is little doubt that they were of the same line. In Glasgow in the year 1606 a Robert Kyle appears on record as being Reputed heir of Andre Kyle.
During the war between William III of Orange and James II, three Kyle brothers commanded individual companies. In crossing the Boyne in 1690, two were killed and the survivor of the three, William, as well as his kinsmen received grants of land in Ireland for their military service. This was during the period which was known as the 'Plantation of Ulster'. In Ulster the family gained great prominence and the well known 'Kyle of Laurel Hill' were originally of direct Scottish descent.
On a farm of sixty acres, six miles across Tynonne, William Kyle reared his large family in this area of Northern Ireland. William known as Sir William the Belt, was born at Ayre, in Scotland 1698. He was knighted for gallantry by the King and assigned to this land in Tyrone County, Ireland. He built a castle and named it Kylemore. One of his daughters, Elizabeth, was mentioned in Marrying her first cousin, Captain Alexander McCausland. The Kyle's and McCausland's were neighbors and intermarried quite often. William died in 1793 and was buried four miles from Omah Drummakella, Ireland. The Kyle Coat of Arms was recorded to have been placed over the door of an old church in Dumfries.
"Three brothers names William, David and James (or John) came to this country at the same time, landing at Norfolk; either William or David came to the valley. The other one of the two settled in Buckingham county, now Appomattox, the third remained in Eastern Virginia - from whom the Orange county family are descended. The one in Buckingham was my (Mary Kyle's great - grandfather. His son David Kyle (for whom my brother David was named) was my grandfather, and was born soon after his father reached this country. The names William, David and James are to be found among the descendents of all three brothers. There is a hunting horn, which an uncle of mine told me years ago, was over two hundred years old, which my great-grandfather brought over with him. It belongs to a cousin of mine in Buckingham county."
Mary C. Kyle was the daughter of George Washington Kyle and his wife, Mildred Perkins. Mildred Perkins was the daughter of Col. William Perkins Jr., and Elizabeth Lee Fern, (born August 1750, married December 12, 1770). Elizabeth Lee Fearn was the daugher of Captain John Fearn and his wife, Leanna Lee (married December 31, 1744. Middlesex county, Virginia). Leanna Lee was the daugher of Thomas Lee, who was the son of Charles Lee, who was the son of Richard Lee, Sr., Immigrant 1641. Richard Lee was the first American ancester of General Robert E. Lee.
George Washington Kyle, was the son of David Kyle, and said David Kyle was the son of William, or David Kyle, Immigrant. 1641.
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Children of George Washington Kyle, and Mildred Perkins, his wife:
1 William Kyle, Buckingham county, Married,
2 David Washington Kyle, Bedford county, married
3 Mary Jane Jones, daughter of Thomas Saunders Jones, and Betsy Walker (daughter of Col. John Walker and Eliza Jones).
4 Robert
5 Eliza Susan, married Swoope
6 Samuel
7 Thomas
8 Richard
9 James Roland,
Infant died
10 Mary C. married Dr. R.M. Davis, no issue.
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Children of David Kyle and his wife, Mary Jane Jones who were married May 1st 1850:
1 Elizabeth Mildred Kyle, born August 11, 1851; died June 18, 1865 in her 14th year
2 Alice Walker Kyle, born March 2, 1853; died March 11, 1853.
3 Thomas Llewwellyn Kyle, born June 11, 1854, married 1st-Tilley Watkins 92nd)
4 Bessie Zollicoffer Jones - issue, one daughter (Caroline Llewellyn Kyle) born March 30, 1888.
5 James Roland Kyle, born July 12, 1856, married Alice James Annspaugh, October 23, 1889. Issue five children; Thomas Llewellyn, James Roland, Jr., (U.S.N.), Anne Graham, Gordon, John Holmes.
6 George Washington Kyle, died 1873, age 88 years, married Mildred Perkins of Buckingham county.
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Children:
1 William Perkins Kyle (died 1862) married Mary Swoope
2 David Washington Kyle, married 1st Mary Jane Jones (May 1, 1850)
3 Thomas Saunders Jones and Betsy Walker (daughter Col. John Walker and Eliza Jones, of Buckingham. Married 2nd (Feb. 2, 1864)
4 Sophie Semmes Forbes (one son, David Perkins, born March 22, 1865 - Sophie d. June 18, 1868; m. 3rd - Mattie A. Booth, of Amelia - Dec 14, 1887 - no issue.
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Eliza Susan Kyle, m. Dr. William M. Swoope - Children:
1 George Washington Swoope
2 William McDowell Swoope
3 Eliza Mildred Swoope
4 Edgar Montgomery Swoope
5 Nannie Perkins, Swoope
6 Thomas Kyle Swoope
7 LaFayette Fern Swoope
8 John Lewis Swoope
9 Clara Ashby Swoope
Robert Joseph Kyle - died - unmarried
Samuel Perkins Kyle , George Thomas Kyle, Richard Fern Kyle, All associated with David W. in RR work. James Roland Kyle While studying for the ministry. Mary Claybrook Kyle married Dr. R.M. Davis (infant son died). "How old is David? "Two years older than the "teakettle'". David and William brought home the teakettle on a stick between them, when Eliza Susan was a young baby. Mrs. J.R. Kyle - Lynchburg, Va. has the teakettle which has been kept as a relic of interest in the family.
Inscription on a shaft in the Old Methodist cemetery in Christiansburg, Va. - Jeremiah Kyle - son of William and Margaret, born in Tyrone county, Ireland October 1791 - died Dec. 5, 1867 in Christiansburg, in Tyrone county, Ireland October 1791 - died Dec. 5, 1867 in Christiansburg, Virginia. The old Kyle home is the second house from the Episcopal church in Christiansburg and the cemetery is across the street - on top of a steep hill.
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Jeremiah Kyle's brothers and sisters were James, Robert, and John - Mrs. McCauslin; Mrs, Gibbony of Wytheville and Mrs. Baldwin of East Radford.
First cousin of Jeremiah - immigrants from Tyrone Ireland
William, David and James (or John)
Williams children - William LL - Edd., Alex., James Madison Kyle S.,
Edith - Ella or Lula 0- Ada, Maude, Henry, George, David and Robert.
Livern (dead) Robert Kule's children - Levenia MacDonald 0- Rowland, (Tenn.)
Sally and Ellie (Tenn.)
James Madison Kyle Se. born August 18, 1826, died October 10, 1902 - age 76
James Madison Kyle Sr. settled first in Boutetourt county - on the James river - then moved to Carroll county. Ella or Lula settled ion Galax. George (doctor)
James Madison Kyle S. married Martha Frances Davis - born April 28, 1833, died February 24, 1913. To them were born ten children - seven boys and three girls:
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1 George P. Kyle - born April 19, 1856 - d January 24, 1932 - age 66
2 Cora A. Kyle - married Faddis - born August 31, 1857 - d Jan 31, 1934-77 age
3 Oritha Kyle - married Mr. Howard - born 1859 - died 1947
4 James M. Kyle - Uncle Jim) born November 18, 1862 - died May 8, 1947 age 85 no issue
5 Henry F. Kyle born died - no issue
6 * Samuel Davis Kyle, born January 15, 1866 - died July 6, 1939 age 73 - twin brother died soon after birth.
7 John A Kyle born 1870 - died 1948 - Age 78
8 Lenny R. Kyle born May 9, 1872 - died January 13, 1943 - age 71
9 Sally Kyle - married Lineberry - born -
10 Samuel Davis Kyle of Woodlawn and Mary Jane Howard of Carroll county were married at the home of Mr. and Mrs E.P. Carter, September 25, 1890 by Reb. Alexander Sutherland - Delia Carson was maid of honor. Mary Jane Howard Kyle - born January 3, 1869 died November 29, 1935 age 76. She had no sisters - one brother John L. Howard born 1855 died 1916 age 61.
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To Samuel Davis Kyle and Mary Jane Howard Kyle eight children were born.
1 Edwin Clarence kyle - born December 14, 1891 - occupation "Miller" d 6-14-54
2 Ada Blair Kyle (AB degree) - elementary teacher, born November 27 - 1893. Tivy Kyle, born April 25, 1895 died May 30, 1896 - died Feb. 22. 1910 - age 14 (thrown from a horse, grabbed for her hat that go caught in a tree.)
3 Robert Swanson Kyle born June 14, 1898 - Doctor in Galax, married Vera Hampton - four children: Mary Ann (had one daughter), Frances, Jean (had two sons)
4 Ethel Lewis Kyle - born October 31, 1899 - AB and MA degrees (Math.) H.H. teacher in Philadelphia, Pa. -
5 Infant son - born November 5, 190 k - died November 15, 1901
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James Madison Kyle, born January 22, 1907 died April 4, 1952 - Dentist in Blacksburg, Virginia. married Frieda Rosina Manhart of Richmond, Virginia - Married in Rockville, Md. Feb 18, 1933 - by J.B. Waters - she was born April 22, 1910
7 Edwin Clarence Kyle - Married Flora Alice Alderman - two children
8 Grace Elizabeth, married Worth C. Cox - Have three children - Reta Elizabeth, CE Cox, and
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James had:
1 First child - son - stillbirth - March 15, 1938
2 Richard Madison Kyle born July 1, 1939
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Alice Laraine Kyle born December 21, 1941
4 Lawrence James Kyle born September 3, 1944 |
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3 Great Grant
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Between 1750-1760 three brothers named William, David and James (John) Kyle came to Virginia from Tyrone, Ireland landing in Norfolk. William, along with two additional cousins/brothers named Joseph and Robert Kyle, came to the Great Valley via Albermerle County at the same time. David and James settled in Buckingham County, now Appomattox, and Orange County respectively.
They entered this richly forested, dotted with fields of tall grass as the Indians renounced their claims to their hunting grounds (Treaty of Lancaster 1744). These Indians belonged to the Tuscaroras of Carolina, Nottoways and the Meherrins of the Iroquois "Five Nations. Their natural Indian rivals were the Occaneechees, the Saponeys and the Toteras of the Sioux Nation.
Pioneer settlers like the Kyle's who originally settled in the Great Valley of Virginia were farmers who tilled the land, unbroken except by clumps of trees, wooded mountains and abundant wild game. They also sought out home-stead tracks down the "The Great Road" (also known as the Indian Road, Borden's Path and Market Road), which stretched from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to the Augusta Court House. In 1701 and 1745 the Virginia council had granted large tracts of land on condition "that there should be on the land in two years one able-bodied, well-armed man ready for defense for every five hundred acres, that these settlers should live in a village of 200 acres in the form of a parallelogram and laid off near the center of the tract; and that a fort should be built in the center of the town."
Colonel James Patton was recognized by the Virginia Council as a man of stature who was the likeliest and best able to procure large bodies of people to settle south of Austusta Court House to the Carolina border. "The Great Grant" of 100,000 acres was surveyed between 1742-1745. The hunting trail or the Indian Road became known as the Wilderness Road. It was this road that the Kyle brothers moved on to the Botetourt Court House near the town of Fincastle, Virginia. |
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4 Fincastle
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The town of Fincastle, twenty miles northeast of the city of Roanoke, has spread little, but not far. Its streets re paced, but they are the same wide and shady streets laid out under the County Surveyor William Preston in 1770. Walking along them one can easily find the town spring in its picturesque hollow, the courthouse common, the churchyard with this beautiful vista over wooded hills to the north.
The town of Fincastle was founded and named in 1772, when the act establishing it was passed by the Virginia General Assembly. The honored George Lord Fincastle, son of Lord Dunmore, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, whose family property in Perthshire, Scotland, included the site of a old fort named Fincastle. The settlement in Virginia, known as Botetourt Courthouse, was two years old at the time and growing fast.
Settlers like the Kyle's had been coming to this area of southwestern Virginia for some three or four decades. The land grant of 92,100 acres, including 8,100 acres on Catawba Creek, which was made to Benjamin Borden in 1739, was the first of several large grants in the area from which smaller units were almost immediately made available to settlers. First-generation Scotch or Scotch-Irish immigrants dominated in the beginning; they numbered half of the company of fifty-two Rangers for the Catawba and Roanoke valleys in 1755. But soon German families, and some German -Swiss, began to come in numbers, many moving down from the northern counties of Virginia or, like the Scotch-Irish, down from Pennsylvania. Settlers also came form eastern Virginia and Maryland, many of these of English birth or parentage, wand there was a sprinkling of French, Irish, Dutch, and Welch.
The pioneer society was of course an agricultural one. Of the crops set out, hemp was the most important because of the demand for it by British shipping, and judging from the Fincastle court records of 1770-1771, everyone was growing hemp. Next largest crops were wheat and corn, and early there were many mills. Settlers came with varied skills: among the 1755 Rangers, for example, there were three weavers, three tailors and one button maker, two coopers, two millwritghte and three carpenters, two distillers, and one surgeon. The establishment of the town and courthouse naturally attracted merchants and lawyers and encouraged the setting up of various trades.
Most of the preliminary planning for Fincastle was done in the spring of 1770. The new county of Botetourt and been formed after the division of Augusta in November, 1769. Of its thirteen justices, appointed in December by his Majesty's commission of the Peace at Williamsburg, eight were Scotch-Irish, one was French, and the others were English or perhaps Welsh. The justices held their first monthly meeting from February 13 to 15, 1770. There were already a good many houses at Miller's Mill, center of the new county, and Israel Christian donated 45 acres of land to serve as nucleus for a town. Two and a half acres of this were set aside for a courthouse site and then acres for prison bounds. The rest was laid out in half-acre lots to be sold, and there was no lack of purchasers.
Much had to be done that spring of 1770. Plans for the courthouse and jail were decided upon at the April meeting. The court ordered that an agreement be made with the workmen "to build a log cabin twenty four feet long and twenty feet wide for a Court House, with a clapboard roof with two small sheds, on eat each end of jury rooms." The designation "log cabin" is notable, for this is the earliest known use of the term. It apparently was a Scotch-Irish invention, to make clear that the justices wanted a sturdier structure than the Irish "cabin" with which many of them were familiar. Building of the courthouse was delayed for three years. But a jail and stocks had to be built at once, to carry out the instructions of His Majesty. |
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5 Homestead
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By 1775 the Kyle brothers--Joseph, William, and Robert had settled north of Fincastle and acquired much land form the company along the Catawba Creek a branch of the James River. since Joseph and William were members of Captain Smith's Company, the following was extracted from the James River Community records, 1770-1783:
Name |
Horses |
Cattle |
Slaves |
| 1 Joseph Kyle |
11 |
24 |
5 |
| 2 William Kyle (Both sold horses to Captain Rowland's Company) |
13 |
34 |
7 |
Date |
Grantor |
Grantee |
Land |
1760 |
Joshua and Patience Hadey |
Robert Kyle |
70 lbs - 345 acres on Catawba, Borden Grant |
1775 |
Robert Kyle |
William Kyle |
122 acres, both sides of Catawba |
1792 |
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William Kyle |
100 acres adjacent to F. Patton |
William Kyle deeded his son, James, land along the James River near Springwood, eat of Fincastle. |
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6 Letters
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In the late nineteenth century, Martha Davis Kyle of Hillsville, wrote the following letter to her brother:
..are not on a public road, the right to use the private passway now being used by me, and which extends from the Grayson and Carroll turnpike through my lands to my said Son, Henry F. Kyle's dwelling house, and in case an of the shares should be so allotted as to render it very inconvenient or impossible to the public road by said passway, then such ones are to have a right of way over any adjacent shares or shares the most convenient and feasible to the public road. The tow shares that I have devised to my daughters-in-law, Blanch Kyle and Mary J. Kyle, is only devised them during their natural lives or in case they should out live their husbands, then only so long as they remain their widows. And upon the death of either of both of the or their second marriage, them as devised to the children of the said George P. Kyle and Samuel D. Kyle.
In case the said Blanche Kyle or Mary J. Kyle or either of them should during the lifetime of their said husbands desire to sell shares so devised them, if their husbands will approve such and sill join in the conveyance therefore, then and in that case, I hereby devise the said Blanche Kyle and Mary J. Kyle said two shares in fee simple, and give them the right to sell and convey said two shares.
Third: I hereby devise to my beloved wife, Martha F. Kyle the right to occupy, use and control my said dwelling house so long as she lives, and she may desire. And I further provide that my said daughter, Cora A., and my son, Lenney R., shall properly maintain, care of and support my said wife during her natural life, and to that and I hereby create a charge upon the two shared herein devised them for the proper maintenance and support of my said wife, and for the purpose of better maintaining the supporting my said wife and to properly provide her with all necessary medicine and medical attendance, aI hereby provide that each of my other children, including my two daughter-in-law, Namely Orithe H. Howard, Jas, M. Kyle, Henry F. Kyle, John A, Kyle, Sallie H. Lineberry, Blanch Kyle, and Mary J. Kyle, shall each annually pay to my wife the sum of $5.00 as long as she lives or demands it.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this the 18th.day of June 1900.
J.M. Kyle (seal)
Signed, sealed and acknowledged in presence of,
J. T. Carter
J. W. Carter
Whereas I, J. M. Kyle, made my last will in writing bearing date June the 18th., 1900, now, I do hereby make this codicil thereto to be taken as part thereof.
FIRST: In reference to my Son, John A., I hereby devise that he shall have his share allotted to him so as to embrace the dwelling house where he now laves and which he built and at the outhouses an other improvements thereto belonging, which he has or may hereafter erect.
SECOND: In reference to the part heretofore willed to Blanche Kyle, wife of George P. Kyle, I hereby devise in Addition to what is heretofore willed to her that she is also to have the house and lot she now lives in, the storehouse lot and all goods and spurtenances thereunto belonging, and the one acre lot South of the storehouse, called the Otia Lot. Said Blanche Kyle is to pay all debts for which J. M. Kyle is responsible for in the name of their firm, J. M. Kyle, son, and also some notes given J. M. Kyle, son, S.D. Kyle or his wife and one to Cora A. Kyle signed by Blanche and George P. Kyle.
Dear Henry,
I suppose you have conclude that I have forgotten to answer your extended letter. I heard from Papa they were all well. Mr. Bishop from Botetourt was here Sunday. He told me of my relations there in Fincastle. Our preacher married Mr. Bishop's cousin and am always happy when the preacher comes to see me. I wish you had of been here at our great revival two months ago. We had a glorious time. One hundred and ten joined the church. I was one and I thank God that I was for I never knew what genuine religion was until then. I felt like I could shout and praise God always and never get weary and glory be to his blessed name. I hope to live and die happy and get all the way to heaven and meet my much loved mother. Henry it is my daily prayer that you and Papa may be converted. George is a great talker. I wish you could se him. Cora looks very much like Sallie. She is small like Sallie. Give my love to sister Helen and brother James. I have not named my 5 month old babe and she weighs but ten pounds (names of girl scribbled on the letter). Mr. Kyle (George P.) has not come from the store yet. He stays there every night until then o'clock (V&H store in Woodlawn). I stayed at Aunt Harriet's and she has been very kind to me. I love her as a mother. Ann Arter has stayed with me a great deal since I have been here. Cousin Senator McDonald is here now.
Your sincere and devoted sister
Martha
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My Lineage
| 19 Walter (of) Kyle? 1394?-? |
| 18 ? 1407?- ? |
| 17 ? 1440?- ? |
| 16 ? 1473?- ? |
| 15 George Kyle? 1506?-? |
| 14 ? 1543?-? |
| 13 ? 1576?-? |
| 12 Adre Kyle? 1609?-? |
| 11 Robert Kyle? 1642?-? |
10 William Kyle 1675?- ? |
| 9 William Kyle 1698-? |
| 8 William Kyle 1730s-90s? Immigrant |
| 7 William Kyle ?-1821 & Sarah |
| 6 James Kyle ?-1874 & Harriet Mcdonald |
| 5 James Madison Kyle 1826-1902 & Martha Frances Davis |
| 4 Samuel Davis Kyle ?-1866 & Mary Jane Howard |
| 3 James M. Kyle 1907-1952 & Frieda Manhart 1910-2002 |
| 2 Laraine Kyle 1941- & Winston Pounds 1928-1997 |
| 1 Kyle Pounds 1973- |
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William Kyle ( ?-1821)
The son of William was recorded to have received land in 1775 along the Catowba Creek, 122 acres. He served in the American Revolution in 1783 in Captain Smith's Company. During this time William married Sarah and they reared six children. In 1792 he bought 400 more acres in the Timber Ridges adjacent to his brother, Joseph. On February 1821, he died and recorded his last will and testament as follows in Will Book C, pages 307-308:
Will of William Kyle
I, William Kyle, of Botetourt County State of Virginia, do make this my last Will and Testament:
I will and direct that all my just debts and expenses be paid out on my estate and my desire that my Executor do not have my estate appraised.
I leave unto my wife, Sarah Kyle, a negro man named Will and his wife Rachel and children Rhoda and Brad, also three Hundred dollars in cash..., also all my house hold and kitchen furniture..., my farming utensils..., also the plantation, also the slaves, Rachel, Lewis, Tim, Lily and Mildly. At her death to be equally divided between her sons Barclay ad James. I give unto my daughter, Jane Womack, a negro boy named Jim...
I give unto my son-in-law John Dickenson his home which I hold in my possession...
I give unto my son-in-law, charles Beale, Two Hundred dollars...
I give unto my son, Barclay, the plantation and two other tracts (of land) (at the death of his mother)..., One Hundred dollars, and millstones...
I give unto my daughter, Sally Rowland, One Hundred dollars.
I give unto my son, James, a tract of land in Timber Ridge and adjoining tracts..., and one set of blacksmith tools
It is my will and desire that my sons Barclay and James to manage the plantation for their mother and to collect all debts and pay the legacies and equally divide them...
I give unto my two grandson James and Rachel Pitzer the following slaves-- David, Jamina, Phil Ambrose, ____?, ? upon arrival at age 21 years...
And lastly I constitute and appoint my wife Sarah Kyle, Executrix and James Barclay Kyle Executors to my last Will and Testament...
I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 26th day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty.
William Kyle (seal)
Robert Kyle 1800-1860
Robert Kyle (1800-1860), an Irishman and son of Joseph and Jane Kyle. In 1820 Kyle bought from Jacob Lanius two lots in the center of Fincastle, at the crossing of main and Church Streets and just west of the property of William and David Kyle with their wooden dwellings, counting house, and store house. The "mansion house" was originally built in 1778 as a dry goods store and dwelling in the area of the New Botetourt Court House. In 1788 it was sold by Isaac and Henrietta Dawson to Jacob Lanius. The Herald of December 5, 1800, noted that this store had "an assortment of goods" which included "casimeres, swansdowns, Irish and German linens." After buying the house, Robert continued to sell the fine Irish linens. His wife, Polly Harvey, daughter of Colonel Robert Harvey, builder of first blast furnaces west of the Blue Ridge, helped him in the store. Their home included many New Creek Revival and Pennsylvania Dutch styles including "stars, tulips, leaves and vines, petaled flowers, pomegranate, pine cone, ionic scrolls and leaf-and -dart moldings."
James Kyle, the son of William Kyle married Harriet Mcdonald (1845-49 and reared eight children. During his life he was noted as a teacher, tobacco farmer and landowner. In 1812 he inherited Springwood Farm from his father along the James River (South Fork) and developed a productive farm. At harvest time he shipped his produce down the James Canal to Lynchburg. A good portion of his profit came from the sale of tobacco. In 1850 his children moved away from home. William, Edwin, George and James M. relocated in Carroll County near Woodlawn. Robert and David left with the McDonald family for Tennessee near Chamauga at Drewery's Bluff. The descendants of these latter two brothers sold their land to the Tennessee Valley Authority (T.V.A.) in the 1930's and further relocated in the central part of that state and in Virginia near Fancy Gap. James died in 1874 and left the following will. (Book B, Pages 417-418).
Due to great influx of immigrants, James Kyle and the other settlers had to survey their lands, patented according to strict regulation (Decree of 1748). Surveyors for the Frontier counties were required to reside within their respective county's Certain steps had to be take otherwise the claimant would behave to forfeit his holdings. Besides marketing and surveying the land, the owner had to show needed improvements by clearing the land, grazing animals, draining the swamps, planting trees and building mad-made structures.
Jame' Sons move to Wood-New River
As James Kyle's sons moved away from the home place near Fincastle Town, they, like many other settlers, relied upon the former Indian trails and rives to transport their belongings and themselves. One such river was the Woods River. It lay on the southern edge of the "Great Grant" along with the Indian (Holston) and Clinch Rivers. Most people knew it as Woods' River in honor of Colonel Abraham; Wood who was commissioned by the Governor of Virginia to explore this region in 1654. Examples of this include "Wood's River Land Entry Book". By the time the Kyle's entered this region, farmers and settlers began to call it either Wood's or New River. Joshua Fry's "Report of the Back Settlements" used the term New River. An official report at that time said, "Louisa, New River and the Greenbrier are branches of the Canhawa River, which in future times will be of service for the inland navigation of New Virginia as they interlock with the Monaungahala, Potomak, James, Roanoke and Cuttawa Rivers." Thus, the name for this old river (second oldest in the world) changed to New River to Correlate with the image of the New Virginia.
Mr. James Kyle's farm at the Springwood stands the old locks of the James River-Kanawha CAnal. these old edifices of master engineering have withstood the rest of the time and how stand in mute testimony to the builders of a bygone era.
Mr. Kyle was a pioneer and a man of vision in seeing the potential use of such a waterway, as it meandered along the James River towards Lynchburg He transported his goods and tobacco to the market place via the canal boat and made enough profit to live comfortably in the back county of Virginia.
The James River Company was established in 1785 to improve river navigation, mainly by cutting sluices through the Rapids so that flat bottomed boats propelled by poles could navigate the canal. Springwood in fact was the end of the canal system and was the drop-off point for passage to Fincastle.
By 1830 public pressure was intense in pressuring the canal company to go all the way to the Ohio River since the Erie and C & O Canals had been so successful. The company's charter called for the construction of a railroad across the Allegheny Mountains. The stare lent money to the company - a controversial step. Railroads were under construction and public opinion was divided as to which route and mode of travel would prove superior.
At that time, the canal was far quicker than the stagecoach. Packet boats went from Lynchburg to Richmond in a day and a half; freighters took to to three days; stagecoaches from three to four days; and trains, even though untried, were believed to be faster than canal barges.
From 1840 to 1860, the James River canal made money from its Lynchburg-Richmond leg, but not enough to pay off its debts.
Work of the Second Grand Division between Lynchburg and Buchanan began in 1839 but halted in 1842, when the state chipped in operating funds and demanded that construction stop. Additional funds were received in 1847, and the segment to Buchanan was completed in 1851. Work continued toward Eagle Rock, with Covington the ultimate goal.
In 1853, the state appropriated money to start building a railroad through the area served by the canal. Canal proponents, demanding that the rails not be placed in the route of the canal, saw their project reach Eagle Rock in 1855. Most of the locks and dams were completed in the 15 miles between Buchanan and Eagle Rock, but towpaths were never built.
The state halted construction in 1856. The last lock, which was never even finished, lies near Gala-not at Eagle Rock, as is widely believed.
By then, a tunnel had been drilled and blasted thorough the mountains at Horseshoe Bend. The tunnel, 192 feet long, is used by Chessie System trains; tracks at each end cross the James River on pilings designed for aqueducts that would have borne canal boats.
The marshall Tunnel, named for Chief Justice John Marshall, would have stretched 1,900 feet though the Botetourt County ground, had it been finished. Half completed, it is on private property, an awesome effort that came to naught.
Although the canal never fulfilled its promise, it had a heyday when it produced consistent profits. At its peak, some 200 freighters plied its waters and produced annual revenues of nearly $300,000. contrary to popular belief, Hobbs said, the canal was not used by many travelers. No more than six packet boats were in service, and the revenues form them never surpassed $10,000 in any year.
The canal from Buchanan and Lynchburg to Richmond played a valuable role in the Civil War, when its boats carried more freight than all five of the railroads into Richmond combined.
By 1879 the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad - later the C&O - was chartered and this finally proved the death blow to the canal construction. In 1884, the railroad financed the building of the bridge across the James River at Springwood to improve access for freight shippers.
At the turn of the century, Springwood was a bustling town with at least five stores, three mills, tomato canneries and an "ordinary" where cattlemen stayed overnight before resuming their drive to Baltimore. Today the locks are in disrepair but to stand on one is to wonder what it was like in those days when the country was young and man's only limitation seemed to be his imagination.
I James Kyle of the County of Botetourt of the State of Virginia being of sound mind do make sand publish this my last will and testament hereby revoking and making void all former wills by me at any time.
1st - I direct that my Executors ...pay and discharge all my just debt and funeral expenses.
2nd... I give to my wife alone third part of all my personal estate and salves and it is my desire that she have endowment of said plantation during her natural life.
3rd I desire that all the residue of my estate, real and personal shall be equally divided between my sons William, Edwin, Robert, George, James Madison, Alexander and DAvid and my daughter Sarah McDowell.
4th I authorize my Executrix and Executors to make sale of any part of my estate and ... money from such sales to vest in the purchase of other property, real or personal, or to distribute the same in money amongst those entitled to my estate...
5th It is my will and desire that my Executrix and Executors shall have power over the whole of my estate and to manage it as they may think for support for all and to educate my children.
6th It is my desire that my estate shall not be appraised by that my Executrix and Executors shall take inventory and return the same to court...
7th And lastly, I do here by appoint my wife Harriet, executrix and my sons William, Edwin and Robert executors of this my last Will and Testament and set my hand and seal this 8th day of march 1847.
James Kyle (seal)
Witnesses--
Ferdindand Waltz
Peter Hammon
Robert M. Hudson
Whereas I James Kyle have by my last Will and Testament this day have given to my daughter Sarah McDowell a potion of my estate and being desirous of altering my said Will to my said daughter, Sarah, and give that portion which had been given to her by my said sons William, Edwin and Robert, and apply the profits...to benefit said daughter and not be liable for the debts of her said husband. And in the case Sarah should survive her said husband, I then give the said property to her and her heirs. But is she should die during the lifetime of her said husband and having son issue, the said property shall then be equally divided amongst my other children... I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 8th day of March 1847.
James Kyle (seal)
In 1850 Judge William Kyle settled in Carroll county along with his brother, James. He researched the deeds for his brother, James, to resolve the title rights to his property at what is now Cay Hills country Club.
1. Colonel James Wood original grant - Sept. 8, 1746 which was surveyed from Augusta County - Aug. 16, 1956
2. Mary Wood was willed land by husband, James - Feb. 5, 1760
3. Mary Wood deeded land to son, Dr. John Wood and wife, Susannah - Oct. 8, 1791
4. Dr. John Wood's sons, John F. and James S. Wood deeded land to James Kyle - April 16, 1833
5. James Kyle willed 1,000 acres to his sons in Woodland - March 8, 1847 (Researched by William Kyle and William A. Cook)
April 12, 1847
The following statements of what the witness said that I have been able to examine. I received a notice from Clements and Anderson that they would make a survey. Mr. Ogle (will) show the surveyor the trees he understood was the corner. I understand that there is a patent at Mr. Prefers at Prefers Ferry at New River or Wood's River. (Woods River mentioned by Col. Preston in January 4, 1773.) I have sent the deeds and the statements of the witnesses and you have not written to me about the suit for Woods Vs Cox...
I am yours,
James Kyle
A memorandum of what the witnesses say with the name and the age of each witness:
Joshua Hanks, Sr. of Chestnut Creek he came to the country in 1782. He was 22 years old and is now 87. He heard it called Woods land shortly after he came to the county... When he was commissioner and sheriff, about 45 years, it was known to be Woods land... and it was entered in the name of John and Robert Wood.
Meredith Shockly near Hills-Ville age 75. He was about 22 or 23 years old when he understood it was Woods land...
James Ogle on the Wards-Gap Road 77 years old. He stated that his father told him that the (survey) company stayed at his house when they came out to survey for the Woods about 1752. In the year 1786 he think his father showed him a large white oak as a corner of the Woods land... and (eventually) some or all of the corners were cut down or destroyed.
John Dalton on the Words Gap Road near James Ogle age 75 years (Heard) It called Woods Lands and that some of the Corners were dug up and burnt down.
William Even s 75 years old heard it called Woods land ever since he was 30 years old. He heard that the corners were cut down and the corner dug up and in the Creek (Crooked Creek) and the Coxes done it.
Amos Worrell, Wolf Glade Creek, stated that Annual Edwards...who married one of the Coxes daughters...had bought land and his corners like the Woods were destroyed.
Randall Felts who carried the chain when the land was surveyed by Newel. The laine which Newel ran to a tree in edge of the glade and then to the corner near the old Meeting House, (north side of Wolf Glade Creek). This is the same tree that Crawford Felts,, Samuel Williams stated was cut down and was the tree James Ogle saw standing.
Amos Ballard near Grayson Court House stated that is was called Woods land about 45 years ago. He always heard it said that the corners were destroyed and that Coxes done it. Peter Shires told him that Wood sent him out here to improve land and gave him all he made. He think he heard it (originally) called the Indian Fields.
Shortly thereafter, on 31 August 1874, James Kyle's wife, Harriet Kyle, published her last will.
Will of Harriet Kyle 1874
In the name of God, amen: I Harriet Kyle of Botetourt County, Virginia, being of sound and disparaging mind and body, do make this to be my last will and testament, as follows, that is to say.
First: It is my will that my funeral expenses and my just debts that I may owe at my decease, shall be paid out of my estate by my executor here0in0afer named.
Second: I devise and bequeath to my son William Kyle, in addition to what I have already given him, the one sixth part of my tract of land selected on Catawba Creek in Botetourt County, Virginia, the same purchases by me some years since, from my son David Kyle, who got it in exchange for land in Carroll County, Virginia, and the one sixth part of all my personal property.
Third: I devise and bequeath to my son personal property.
Third: I devise and bequeath to my son Madison Kyle, one sixth part of my said tract of land on Catawba Creek and the one sixth part of all my personal property, in addition to what I have already given him.
Fourth: I devise and bequeath to my daughter Sarah McDowell, to her own sole and separate use and benefit forever free and discharged from the contract and debts, present and prospective, of her husband Francis J. McDowell the one sixth part of my said tract of land on Catawba Creek and the one sixth part of all my personal property. Charging against the same, never the less, the amount of two certain bonds which I hold on the said Francis J. McDowell. The ones dated June the 22, 185_ and the other January 1, 1862, aggregating, of principal the sum of three hundred and forth on dollars and sixty seven cents - $341.67 - it being my will that said two bonds, principal and interest, shall be paid out of this devise and bequest, to this be so that my said daughter shall have and receive the one sixth part there of along with the other personally hereby bequested to her.
Fifth: I devise and bequeath to my daughter-in-law, Emma Kyle, wife of my son Edwin Kyle, for the joint lives of herself and her said husband and after his death so long as she shall and remain his widow, the one sixth part of my said tract of land on Catawba Creek and that certain one sixth part of the home tract of land on James River on which I now reside, the same willed to me by my husband James Kyle deceased, which was purchased by me from my said son Edwin Kyle and the one sixth part of all my personal property, this devise and bequest of property real an;d personal as aforesaid, being expressly for the sale and separate use of the said Emma Kyle forever free and discharged from the debts to him the said Edwin Kyle of managing the same during the joint lives of himself and his said wife as the trustee or agent of his said wife, he paying over the rents and profits to her for her sole and seaport use and benefit ads aforesaid. And at the marriage, if she shall marry again, or death of the said Emma Kyle the said property real and personal hereby devised and bequeathed to her, as aforesaid, shall descend and pass to George A. Kyle son of the said Emma and Edwin Kyle as his absolute property.
Sixth: I devise and bequeath to my daughter-and-law Levinian Kyle, wife of my son Robert Kyle for her own life to her own sole and separate use and benefit forever free and discharged from the contract and the debts present and prospective, of her said husband Robert Kyle, and the sixth part of my said tract of land on Catawba Creek, and the one sixth part of all my personal property, charging against the same never the less, in favor of my son William Kyle the sum of three hundred and seventh five dollars, with interest there on January 1, 1860 it being the amount of a certain debt of the said Robert Kyle paid by the said William Kyle to Wm. E. Walkup, which sum, principal and interest shall first be paid to the said William Kyle, for his absolute property, out of the devise and bequest to the said Livinia Kyle, leaving the balance to go to her for her live as aforesaid, and at the death of the said Levinia Kyle to the property, real and personal, hereby devised and bequeathed to her for life as follows: Being the one sixth of the tract of land of Catawba Creek and the one sixth of my personal property, less the sum to be paid there out to William Kyle as aforesaid, shall descend and pass to her children by the said Robert Kyle.
Seventh: I devise and bequeath to my daughter0and-law Ellen Kyle, wife of my son David Kyle, for her own sole and separate sue, free and forever discharged from the contract and debts, present and prospective, of her said husband Avid Kyle, the one sixth part of my said tract of land on Catawba Creek, and that certain one sixth part of the home tract of land on James River ,on which I now reside, the same willed to me by my husband James Kyle deceased, which was purchase by me from my said son David Kyle, and the one sixth part of all my personal property, charging against the same, nevertheless, the amount of a certain bond for one hundred and seventy five dollars $175.00, which I hold on the said David Kyle with interest thereon from January 23, 1860-- in being my will that said bond principal and interest, shall be paid it of devise and bequest, but this so as that my said daughter-and-law shall have and receive bequeathed to her and at her death of the said Ellen Kyle, the said property, real and personal hereby devised and bequeathed to her for her life, as afore said shall descend and pass to her children by the said David Kyle.
Eight: It is my wish that my daughter Sarah McDowell and my daughters-in-law Levinia Kyle and Ellen Kyle shall be allowed each to choose her own trustee to receive and manage the property hereby devised and bequeathed to them respectively, and I do hereby request the then acting judge of the circuit court of Botetourt County to appoint them trustee or trustees as be selected by the said parties respectively, provided he or they be in the opinn of said judge, prudent judicious, business men, and the said trustee or trustees, so appointed shall be required to settle his or their accounts annually.
Ninth: If if shall be found advisable and necessary for purposes of division as herein before require, to make sale of my said tract of land on Catawba Creek then my executor hereinafter named is fully authorized to sell the same on such terms as may seem best to him, an aster sale and full payment of the purchase money to convey the same to the purchaser or purchasers.
Tenth: I do hereby constitute and appoint my son, William Kyle sole executor of this my last will and testament, and direct that my said executor shall not be required to give any security for the performance of his duties. In testimony whereof, and hereby revoking all other and former wills by me heretofore made, I Harriet Kyle have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this the 31st day of August 1874.
Harriet Kyle (seal)
Witnesses:
James L. Burks
R. L. Burks
Jno. T. Burks
William Kyle (1817-1895), the son of James Kyle and Harriet McDonald, was a prominent man here in Carroll county in the days of the Civil War. He was not a native of Carroll but came here in 1850 from Springwood in Botetourt County. By profession he was an attorney and a prosperous one at that, as can be seen from his estate of $13,000, a huge sum in that day. He was in politics as well and during the first two yeas of the war sat in the General Assembly at Richmond as the Carroll County delegate. Many people depended upon him to get their claims from their deceased in war corrected through the Confederate War Department. In the Spring of 1864, he was mustered into Company F, 4th Virginia Reserves and stayed until the end of the war. Upon returning home, he continued his law practice and eventually became a judge during the 1870's. He was married to Cassandra Davis and reared seven children. He died in 1895 and was buried at Woodlawn's Cemetery.
James Madison Kyle (1826-1902)
James Madison Kyle (1826-1902), the son of James Kyle was born at Springwood Farm in Botetourt County Virginia. He came to Carroll County a short time after his brother, William in 1850. He acquired a sizeable estate in Woodlawn and had a house built which still stands at Gay Hills country Club. He was mustered into Company F, 29th Virginia on February 15, 1863 in Carroll County by Lt. McGee. His regiment at that time was in Pickett's division, stationed east of Richmond. He was with the company for the last two years of the war and in fact was one of the few men left with the regiment and surrendered at Appomattox at the end of the war. Prior to the war in 1855 he had married Martha Frances Davis, the daughter of Sarah Frances Kyle and Henry P. Davis. James and Martha reared 10 children and were members of the Woodlawn Methodist Church. He died in 1902 and was buried at Woodlawn. In Will Book 4, page 492, his last testament was published. In the name of God, Amen.
Will of James Madison Kyle
I J. M. Kyle, being of sound mind and disposing memory, do make and publish this my last will and testament.
FIRST: It is my will and desire that all my dept's, if any, be first paid out of my personal property.
SECOND: It is my will and desire that all of my real estate and personal property be equally divided among my nine children, namely: Blanch Kyle, wife of George P. Kyle, Cora A. Kyle, Oritha H. Howard, Jas. M. Kyle, Mary J. Kyle, wife of Sam. D Kyle, Henry F. Kyle, John A. Kyle, Lenny R. Kyle and Sallie H. Lineberry, having reference to quantity and quality of the real estate as hereinafter provided for.
It is my will and desire that my Daughter, Cora A. and my son, Lenny R. shall have their two shares of the real estate allotted them jointly and in such manner as to embrace my dwelling house where I now live and all the out houses and improvements there to belonging, except as herein after provided. I further desire that my son, Henry F. , shall have his share allotted him as to embrace the dwelling house where he now lives and which he bought, and all hereafter effect. I desire further that the shares of each of my said children in my real estate, shall be so allotted them as to put each share in as good shape as possible, and if possible, or each share to have an equal amount of running water and timber. In short I desire each share to be allotted to the best advantage possible, having each share, as before stated, equal in quantity an quality. It is further my desire that each and all of my said children shall have tan outlet to the public road in case all of the shares allotted them do not joins such a road, and to that end, I devise to teach of then whose shares...
I hereby devise that in case that Blanche Kyle does not pay the full amount of the debts above mentioned that she is to have credit for such a part as she does pay.
The property herein devised to my daughter-in-law, Blanche Kyle, shall descend and may be conveyed in the same manner as the part devised to her in the body of my will, bearing data as aforesaid, and shall, be regulated in every way in regard to convenience and decent as described in the aforesaid will. I further devise that Cora A. shall have her share south of L. R., Oritha, H. next north of L. R., Sallie H. next north of Oritha H., J. M. next North, Sallie H., Mary J., wife of S.D. next North of J. M., Blanche, wife of G. P. next North of Mary J., wife of S.D., H. F. next North of Blanche wife of G. P.; as described in my will, John A. on the south side of pike taking his present dwelling as described heretofore.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto affixed my hand this 15th day of September, 1902.
J. M. Kyle, Sr.
Signed, published, and declared by J. M. Kyle as end for a codicil to the last will in the presence of us, who in his presence as at his request, and in the presence o for another, have hereunto signed our names as witnesses.
J. W. Carter
J. T. Carter
Virginia: In Caroll country Court Oct. 20, 1902.
The foregoing writing purporting to be the last will and testament of J. M. Kyle, Sr., with a codicil thereto attached, was this day produced in Court, and the said will and codicil proved by the oath of G. W. Carter and J. T. Carter, the subscribing witnesses thereto, and ordered to be recorded.
And thereupon on motion of W. K. Early, who made oath and together with H. F. Kyle, S.D. Kyle and J. L. Howard, his sureties, entered into and acknowledged a bond in the penalty of one thousand Dollars, payable to the Commonwealth of Virginia and conditioned according to law, certificate is granted him for obtaining letters of administration with said will and codicil anned upon the estate of the said J. M. Kyle, Sr., deceased in due form.
Teste: W. H. Sutherland, Clerk
Samuel Davis Kyle (1866), the son of James Madison Kyle and Martha Frances Davis was born on 15 January 1866 in Carroll county at the Kyle home now in Gay Hills. As a young man he acquired the farm now owned by Elmer Russell. The total acreage of this estate was 350 acres. He married Mary Jane Howard in 1890 and they reared eight children. As a farmer he managed a productive farm during his lifetime. In his later years he became an alcoholic. He died 8 July 1939 at the age of 73. He left the following will: Book 10, page 498-499 and 505.
Will of Samuel Davis Kyle 1930
I, Samuel D. Kyle, of Woodlawn, Virginia, being of sound and disposing mind, do hereby make, publish and declare this to be my last will and testament.; hereby revoking all wills by me at any time heretofore made.
FIRST: I desire that all of my jest debts and funeral expenses be pain as soon as practicable after my death by my Executor hereinafter named.
SECOND: I bequeath unto my son, Edwin C. Kyle, the sum of $1.00.
THIRD: I bequeath unto my daughter, Ada E. Kyle, the sum of $1.00.
FOURTH: I bequeath unto my son, Robert S. Kyle, the sum of $1.00.
FIFTH: I bequeath unto my daughter, Ethel L. Kyle, the sum of $1.00.
SIXTH: After the payment of my debts, funeral expenses and the above special legacies, I devise and bequeath all the estate and residue of my estate, real and personal, of every kind and nature, and wheresoever situated, to my son, James M. Kyle.
SEVENTH: I hereby nominate and appoint my son, James M. Kyle, as Executor of this my last will and testament, and hereby request the court in which this will I probated not to require any security of him on this bond as such Executor. Given under my hand and seal this 1st day of February 1930.
S.D. Kyle (Seal)
Witnesses: George E. Edwards, Roscoe Mary, W. F. Davis
14 day July 1939 Inventory and Appraisement of Estate of Samuel D. Kyle, deceased
| 1 Household Property |
54.25 |
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| 2 Grain Wheat and corn |
29.75 |
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| 3 Farming Equipment |
374.00 |
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4 Livestock
| 5 Two Horses & Harness |
300 |
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| 17 Cash First National of Galax |
1,060.94 |
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Inventory and Appraisement of Estate of Samuel D. Kyle, deceased:
80 Shares of Capital Stock, Shenan. Life 800
2 Policies National TBA Benefit Co. 800
1 Mutual Life Insurance 407
$5,670.19
Appraisers: W. L. Whittington
S. G. Robinson
L. J. Robinson
Samuel D. Kyle - Estate total $5,670.19, farm equipment and livestock with 80 shares of Capital Stock in Shenandoah Life, 2 Policies National TBA Company and 1 Policy Mutual Life Insurance of N. Y.
Virginia: Clerks Office, Circuit Court of the County of Carroll Estate of S.D. Kyle, deceased
I, the undersigned who this day qualified before the clerk of court of Carroll as administrator of the estate of S.D. Kyle, deceased, late of the county of Carroll, Virginia on my oath do say that I have made diligent inquiry and that I believe the following to be true and correct lists together with the ages and addresses of the heirs of my decedent S.D. Kyle of of those who would have been his heirs had he died interstate. I do further declare on oath that my name is E. C. Kyle and my post office address is Woodlawn, Virginia.
| 1 Edwin C. Kyle, 47, son - Woodlawn |
| 2 Ada e. Kyle, 45, daughter - Woodlawn |
| 3 Robert S. Kyle, 39, son, Big Stone Gap |
| 4 Ethel L. Kyle, 35, daughter Woodlawn |
| 5 James M. Kyle, 32, son Blackburg |
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Given under my hand this day 12 day of July 1939.
E. C. Kyle - Administrator
Last Will & Testament of Mary Jane Howard Kyle
On February 15, 1936, Mary Jane Howard Kyle's will was published in Will book 10, page 25-26 and 63.
I give and bequeath to Ada E. Kyle the Piano if it has not already been disposed of by my husband.
To Ethel L. Kyle I give the desk which belonged to grandpa Blair. If Ada doesn't get the piano I wish her to have $200 to make her equal with Ethel.
To Ada, Ethel and Madison I give each a feather bead, the ones upstairs over the family room, my other furniture and personal property is to be equally divided between all five of my children, Edwin, Ada, Swanson, Ethel, and Madison Kyle also my land to be equally divided or so be sold and money equally divided.
I appoint Edwin and Swanson Kyle as my executors of my will.
Mary Jane Kyle (Seal)
Dec. 28, 1930
Witnesses: T. C. Howard Oritha Howard
| 1 Edwin Kyle, 44, son - Woodlawn |
| 2 S.D. Kyle, 70 Husband - Woodlawn |
| 3 Ada Kyle, 42, daughter - Woodlawn |
| 4 Swanson Kyle, 37, son - Big stone Gap |
| 5 Ethel Kyle, 35, daughter - Woodlawn |
| 6 Madison Kyle, 29, son - Pulaski |
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S.D. Kyle - Heirs July 12, 1939
| 1 Edwin C, Kyle, 47, son - Woodlawn |
| 2 Ada E. Kyle, 45, daughter - Woodlawn |
| 3 Robert S. Kyle, 39, son - Big Stone Gap |
| 4 Ethel L. Kyle, 35, daughter - Woodlawn |
| 5 James M. Kyle, 32, son - Blacksburg |
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Edwin Clarence Kyle (1891-1954)
Edwin Clarence Kyle (1891-1954), was the son of Samuel and Mary Jane. During World War I he served with distinction and was honorably discharged. Upon returning to the farm he helped his parents and managed to operate a mill across from his home on state road 620. Due to his war experiences he remained in poor health for the rest of his life. In 1927 he married Flora Alice Alderman before Jacob Bishop at David Jennings Home. Those who witnessed their marriage were David Jennings, F. L. Lineberry, Joseph Jennings, E. M. and M. E. Alderman and Ollie Jennings. Edwin, Jr., was born with a hole in his heart and was a frail man all his life. He wa noted for his clocksmith craftsmanship. Grace Elizabeth married Worth Cox (see Cox Family). His family remembered Edwin as being a frugal and righteous man. He died on 18 June 1954. His will read: (Will Book 14, page 25 and 48)
My last will and testament. Flora A. Kyle is to have my property, both, personal and real, so long as she is my widow and at marriage or death, it is to go to Flora A. Kyle's and E. C. Kyle's heirs equally. Namely Mrs. GRace E. Kyle Cox and E. C. Kyle, Jr.
Flora A. Kyle is to be Administrator without bond.
August 22, 1950 Witness my hand and seal E. C. Kyle
Arlie Smythers and Elmer B. Farmer attested to will.
List of Heirs:
Flora A. Kyle, 55, widow - Woodlawn
Grace E. Kyle Cox, 25, daughter - Hillsville
E. C. Kyle, Jor., 24, son - Woodlawn
Given under my hand, this 4th day of August 1954.
Flora A. Kyle
Administrator
E. C. Kyle Inventory and Appraisement
Line Shaft ands Pulies 100
Belting 100
Tools 40
Elevators and Bends 600
Ladders 15
Installed 400
Building and Land 1,200
Forks 10
Steal Post 32
Lawn Mower 2
Wire Stretchers 20
Other Tools 12
2 Cows 200
1 Bull 150
U.S. Government Life Insurance 1,086
1 Mill and Lots 4,000
1 Motor 7.5 hp 65
1 Switch Morton 10
1 Crusher 30
1 Corn Sheller 15
1 Pair of Seales 15
1 Crusher 15
1 Corn mill 60
1 Wheat Scales 50
1 Flour Mill 500
2 Scouring Machines 200
1 Dust Collector 25
1 Paker 50
1 Bag Truck 8
19,810
Appraisers: H. H. Honey cut, L J. Robinson J. P. Hill
| 1 Bradshaw, herbert. History Prince Edward Co. Virginia Richmond: The Dietze Press, Inc., 1955 |
| 2 Burton, Charles T. Bottetourt Co. Virginia Early Settlers. Troutville, Va.: Bureton Pub., 1979. |
| 3 Early, Ruth, H. : Campbell Chronicles and Family Sketches 1782-1926. Baltimore: Regional Bup. Co., 1978 |
| 4 Hembold, F. Wilbur. Tracing Your Roots. Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor House, Inc., 1977 |
| 5 Kewgley, F. B. Kegley's Virginia FRontier. Roanoke, Va.,: S.W. Virginia Historical Society, 1938 |
| 6 Kennedy, Joe,. Time Stands Still Near Old Canal. Roanoke: Roanoke Times, April 9, 1978 |
| 7 Nuckolls, B. F. Pioneer Settlers of Grayson County. Bristol, Tenn.: The King Printing Co., 1914 |
| 8 Summers, Lewis P. Annals of SouthWest Virginia 1769-1800. Abingdon, Va.: Lewis Summers Pub., 1929 |
| 9 ...... Virginia Census 1790-1900-. Baltimore Genealogical Pub. Co. , 1970 |
| 10 Wright, Louis B. The Democratic Experience. Chicago: Scott., Foresman and Co., 1963 |
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| 1 Aldeman, John, Sr |
| 2 Cox, Grace Kyle |
| 3 Kyle, Frieda |
| 4 Kyle, Mrs. L. A. |
| 5 Kyle, Robert (FAncy GAp) |
| 6 Kyle, Tommy and Margaret |
| 7 Kyle, William (old records) |
| 8 Todd, Cora Kyle |
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My Lineage
10 Bryan McDonald (McDonnell) and Mary Combs |
| 9 Bryan McDonald, Sr. 1686-1757 & Catherine Robinson |
| 8 Bryan McDonald, Jr. 1732-77 & Susan Ogle 1728-77 |
| 7 Edward Mcdonald & Mary Rowland |
| 6 James Kyle -1874 & Harriet Mcdonald |
| 5 James Madison Kyle 1826-1902 & Martha Frances Davis |
| 4 Samuel Davis Kyle ?-1866 & Mary Jane Howard |
| 3 James M. Kyle 1907-1952 & Frieda Manhart 1910-2002 |
| 2 Laraine Kyle & Winston Pounds 1928-1997 |
| 1 Kyle Pounds |
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1 Bryan McDonald, Sr. (1686-1757)
Bryan McDonald, Sr. (1686-1757), of Buffalo Creek of Roanoke was the son of Bryan McDonald (McDonnell) and Mary Combs. The family originally came from Ireland and immigrated to American in 1648. In 1745 Bryan, Sr., removed to Roanoke form New Castle County, Delaware. His wife Catherine Robinson, daughter of James Robinson and sister of Capt. George Robinson (new River Company sponsor of new settlements in Virginia), reared nine children. They called the Blue Ridge "a string of pearls with round-domed hills which follow one another in perfect sequence. Numbering more than twenty, this unusual geological phenomena is of mysterious origin." Of those family members who died early in the settlement at the head of Bullablo or tinker Creek, were married in the McDonald or Glebe graveyard. The homeplace was probably over the divide on Catawba. Nearby was the Wilderness Road as it meandered past Tinker Mountain.
2 Bryan McDonald, Jr. (1732-1777)
Bryan McDonald, Jr. (1732-1777), the son of Bryan, Sr., was born in New Castle County, Delaware and traveled with his father and mother to Botetourt County. He more than any other member of the family took his father's place in the community. Even though Indians still lived in the Area, he built a house on limestone rock. Inside the house there were secret openings, one leading from the fireplace in the living room to the basement. A huge rock barn was built nearby. Bryan, Jr., married Susan Ogle in 1752 and reared nine children. By his will Bryan, Jr., left to his wife the use of the dwelling house and office and one-third of the improvements on the land, except the tanyard and a negro woman, also one-third of the personal estate. Son, James, was to have part of the land with the house and tanyard adjoining John Armstrong; William to have the part next to James Allison's; Thomas to have the land on North Fork of Roanoke, James and William were to pay Edward 50L at the age of 21, George the same, and each a horse. His daughter, Mary, was to have a negro girl, a Lasat Springs mare colt which came of the English more, two cows, a feather bed and furniture. Ada her mother's death, Susanna was to have the negro woman, Joyce, "if she have any children to go to." the younger daughter, Jane "when marriageable" was to become a breeding mare. The remainder of the estate was to be divided equally. The appraisement of the personal property amounted to L766. The executors named were the three oldest sons, James, Thomas, and William.
James died shortly thereafter in August and wanted his brother, Edward, to have the part of the plantation they laiveed on provided he did charge William with the 50L, William the mare, Bonny, the colt. Sisters, Mary, Susanna, Jean and Edward to have the cows. The profits of the tanyard were to be divided amongst the three boys. (Bot. Will Book 1, pages 60 and 96). |
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My Lineage
1 James Davis 1710-1767 & Agnes
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| 2 Henry Davis 1750- |
| 3 Henry P. Davis & Sarah Frances Kyle |
| 4 Martha Frances Davis & James Madison Kyle |
| 5 Samuel Davis Kyle & Mary Jane Howard |
| 6 James M. Kyle & Frieda Manhart |
| 7 Laraine Kyle & Winston Pounds |
| 8 Kyle Pounds |
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1 James Davis (1710?-1767)
James Davis appears to have ben one of the Scotch Irish immigrants who moved from Pennsylvania into the Valley of Virginia. He is liste4d among the first settlers in Beverly Manor, the region that centered in Stanton. The first deeds to land in that region were recorded in Orange County court in 1738, and among them was one for 570 acres to James Davis. In 1740 he came to America along with Mary, who was probably his wife, but may have been his daughter, and three sons, Henry, William, and Samuel. Other children were born on this side of the ocean. If this Mary was his wife she died and he married Again, because deeds that he made in later years were signed by him to Agnes, his wife. He had a son named John, to whom he sold land on Buffalo Creek in Rockbridge County in 1761. I do not know when he moved from his home in Rockbridge territory to the Catawba country, but in 1746 he bought from Benjamin Borden 626 acres i that region. F. B. Kegley in his "Virginia Frontier" says" "the Catawba Valley and the bottom land along the James behind Purgatory Mountain attracted many explorers, visitors, and settlers. There is no record of land taken up in that region before Benjamin Bornded made his selections on Catawba. The land he got has been described as 'all good,' and it would seem that he aimed to get all that was good. The first settlements were made by John McFarrion, James Montgomery, James Davis and Bryan McDonald on land purchased from him."
A neighbor of James Davis on the Catawba was a young man named Stephen Hoslton. Some time prior to 1748 this young man crossed over the divide between waters of New River and of the house and built a cabin on a hillside on the woods, thirty feet from a head spring of the middle fork of a stream called India River. He cleared land, and planted and harvested a crop of corn, thereby securing what was called a corn right title to a considerable acreage, which he sold to James Davis. Then with some companions he returned to his cabin beside the spring near his corn field and set out down the spring branch to find out where it went. When the stream became large enough to float boats the young adventurers made canoes and explored it down what is now the Tennessee, into the Ohio and whence they returned to their Catawba homes. On March 19, 1748, according to L. P. Summers, John Buchanan,on an exploring expedition headed by Col. James Patton and Dr. Tomas Walker, surveyed that corn right title tract for James Avis and found that it contained 1,300 acres. They called it Davis's Fancy, and give its location as on the "head branch of Indian River. " In his journal of his trip to Kentucky in 1750 Dr. Walker called that steam Holstson's River, and it was been Holstron's River ever since.
Just when James Davis moved there to live is not definitely known, but it was probably not long after the survey was made. In his journal Dr. Walker says that his party camped one night at a large spring nine miles below Davis' Fancy, but he does not say anything to indicate that Davis was actually living on it then. Between 1750 and 1755 the Holston Country acquired settlers on all three of the upper river forks and it is quite likes that Davis was one of them, which would place him among the earliest settlers on Holston waters. Indians ran him and all other settlers out during the French and Indian War.
Sometime after the close of that war he was living on the head of Holston land and gathering his children to live with him there. Three sons mentioned in the declaration of importation joined him. Henry, the first named and therefore probably the oldest, made his home in Bedford County. Deeds recorded in Botetourt County Court in 1771 show that James Davis and Agnes his wife transferred to Henry Davis of Bedford county two tracts on the head of Holston "parts of 1,300 acres called Davis' Fancy." That 1,300 acres extended over the ridge into Black Lick Valley, where the water goes to New River. A deed in the same court shows that in 1770 James Davis and Agnes his wife transferred to William Davis 350 acres on the waters of New River, "a part of 1,300 acres called "Davis' Fancy." Another deed in the same court shows that in 1771 Samuel Davis and his wife Hannah,transferred 350 acres of "Davis' Fancy" to Robert Davis. This Robert, a captain of rangers in the Revolution, was probably the son of Samuel and a grandson of James Davis. Both William Davis and Robert Davis were men of outstanding local prominence in civil and military affairs.
2 Henry P. Davis
Henry P. Davis, The son of Henry Davis was born in Prospect, Virginia and later married Sarah Frances Kyle. During his lifetime he farmed in this area and traveled to and from Fincastle, occasionally, in visiting the family. In the 1840 election, he helped elect Harrison of the Whig Party.
Will of Henry P. Davis
"I Henry P. Davis of the County of Pr . Edward, State of Virginia being now in perfect good health, do make and ordain this to be my las twill and testament disannulling all others heretofore made my me.
Sect. 1. I direct that my Executors shall within twelve months after my disease at such time as they deem best seal all my crops and stock, and with the proceeds, and all moneys in hand or may be due me , pay all my just debts and funeral expenses.
Sec, 2. I give my three grandchildren to with, Oty Ol Elliot, Sarah Al Elliot, Sarah A,. Davis the children of my two decd. children , to wit, Ann E. Elliot and Wm. O. Davis on dollar and no more as they are otherwise well provided for. Sec. 3. I give to my four living daughters, to wit, Panthea A. Wood, Cassandra Kyle Hillen, Ma. J. Thompson and Martha F. Kyle each equal share in all the balance of my Estate - both personal and Real and all other property or moneys that I may hereafter fall heir to. To them and their children forever.
Sec. 4. I appoint my four sons in Law my Executors to wit Sam. D. Wood, Wm. Kyle, Jas. R. Thompson and Jas. M. Kyle and do direct , that they shall not be required to give security on their qualification, in testimony whereof I do affix my and and real this Fourth July Eighteen hundred and Sixty two.
(Signed) Henry P. Davis (Seal)
Rob. Davis
D. W. Gills Witness
P. W. Gills |
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3 Articles about Winston & Abe Pounds
1 Abe Pounds
1 Pounds - Windham Wedding
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On Friday evening of last week, one of our most promising young businessmen, W.A. Pounds, Jr., threw aside his work to follow the magic strain of the harp of cupid to Shelbyville, Texas, where a certain young lady was waiting.
Sunday afternoon at five o'clock, Rev. W.A. Pounds, (the groom's father) pronounced Isabelle, the pretty daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.P. Windham and Mr. W.A. Pounds, Jr., man and wife.
The church was beautifully decorated for the occasion, and the bride could not have dreamed of a lovelier church wedding with the little smiling, black-eyed ring bearer looking so angelic. The Methodist Church was crowded with loving friends from the Shelbyville, Center, and other neighboring towns. The bridal party proceeded to the home of the bride immediately after the ceremony where an elegant dinner awaited them. The dinner party over, midst showers of rice and good wishes, the happy couple left for Center where they boarded the train for Tyler., stopping over with his brother S.A. Pounds, for a few hours at Lufkin, arriving home Monday night.
The bride is the youngest daughter of Mr. R.P. Windham, a wealthy planter known throughout the eastern portion of the State; while the groom is a son of Rev W.A. Pounds, Pastor of the E. Tyler Methodist Church, is a brilliant young man connected with the Guaranty State Bank. This happy couple will be at home to their many friends after January 1st, at 125 S. Broadway. |
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2 From the Texas Bankers Record, May, 1959
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William Abraham Pounds is the way it is written on the "birth" page of the old family Bible. The locale of this naming is the little city of Center, Texas, capital of Shelby County. His father, a prominent circuit-riding minister of the Methodist Church, was responsible for the Biblical name of top significance Abraham. And the son, Abe, has carried on the denominational tradition of the Wesley brothers by following the Methodist doctrines. For thirty seven years now Abe Pounds has served as treasurer of the Texas Conference of Methodist Churches.
The beginning of Abe Pounds' banking career stretches backward many years from his present post as president of the Tyler Bank and Trust Company of Tyler. In fact, the beginning year was 1913, when all secretaries and almost all stenographers in the business world were young men. Abe's very first work in banking was with R.L. Brown and Company, a private Bank, located in the little hamlet of Lavon, Collin County. He began as a stenographer to the head of that firm. One year later (1914) he removed to Tyler where he has made his residence ever since.
Abe Pounds' first work in a Smith County bank was with the old Guaranty State Bank of Tyler. He began as secretary-stenographer to the late T.B. Butler, president of the old Guaranty Bank. Abe's rise was rapid. By 1917 he was cashier of this institution. Three years later this Bank merged with the Citizens National Bank, Tyler (now Citizens First National), and the young man continued with the Citizens Bank for nine years. Then, in 1929 Abe Pounds was chosen cashier of the Tyler State Bank and Trust Company (for sometime now the Tyler Bank and Trust Company). This Bank was organized in 1924, and Abe was associated with such stalwarts in the Tyler banking field as Charley Brogan and Dee Stringer. In the mid-1930's he was advanced to the post of vice-president, directing the Bank's management. In January, 1941, Abe was named president of the institution, the position he currently holds.
The hero of this sketch has a string of worthwhile accomplishments to his credit - regular Who's Who feats. But far and away his topmost achievement was the day he persuaded the charming and artistic Isabelle Windham to become Mrs. W.A. Pounds. She is a member of a prominent pioneer East Texas family - that of Rufus Parks Windham of Center. Isabelle Pounds, gracious and lovable, removed to Tyler as a young bride. Here she has aggressively identified herself with the religious, cultural, and civic life of the community. Her favorite organization is the Tyler Garden Club. Her regard for beauty and her creative capability are reflected in her lovely home and spectacular garden. The Pounds home has long been acclaimed one of Tyler's outstanding beauty spots. Isabelle has kept stride with her husband in his many local activities. Attractive and vivacious, she has helped Abe in advancing his usefulness and influence. To the couple came two sons: Jack Pounds and W.A. Pounds, Jr. During the important work of instructing air pilots in World War II Jack was killed in a plane crash. Pounds Airport, Tyler, is this fine young man's namesake and memorial. W.A. Pounds Jr. is treasurer and director of the East Texas Savings & Loan Association. Tyler civic activity from president of the East Texas Chamber of Commerce on down. In recent years he has had a prominent role in the industrialization of the Tyler area. He has headed up every organization having to do with betterment and progress for Tyler, Smith County, even East Texas. Once he was cited as "Man of the Year," in the Tyler territory; another time he received a reward of honor as "Tyler's Outstanding Citizen." He served a six-year term as a member of the Texas Finance Commission, which directs the State Banking Department. Abe Pounds has never shirked civic responsibility. A natural and willing "wheel-horse," he has taken on any and all jobs that his progressive community can find to pile upon him.
As busy as Abe Pounds is, he finds time for play. He has his Greenbriar Lake House and environs for everyday fun most of the year round: fly-fishing for bream, boating, entertaining friends with chicken barbecues, even lolling in the shade of the giant lake trees - this place just five minutes from downtown Tyler. And about once a year he travels with his outing-buddies as far away as Alaska for fishing and hunting. He and comrades generally come back loaded with geese, ducks, bear, and King Salmon. The trips are outings after the story-book manner, and Abe Pounds thoroughly enjoys them.
The Texas Bankers Association has gained by the work of this 65-year-old Tylerite. He has been chairman of the Dallas District, T.B.A.; a member of the Administrative Council for three years; and T.B.A. Treasurer in 1946-47. And now, as a climax to these terms of service and places of responsibility, Abe Pounds heads up the Texas Bankers Association for the year 1959-60 as president. He was so named during the closing hours of the San Antonio Convention, recently adjourned. This act alone puts banker approval on Abe Pounds as no other event can. It is the highest honor in the power of Texas bankers to confer. And, as always in his extra-outside-bank responsibilities, President Pounds will direct an administration of the Association's affairs with his unwavering and conservative leadership. |
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3 Editorial about Abe Pounds 1961
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Abe's 54 Years
Most of the features of Tyler which are pointed out with pride have been achieved in the past 54 years, and directly or indirectly the business and civic career of W. A. "Abe" Pounds has contributed to most of them.
Today marks his retirement from most of the active duties as chief executive officer and Board Chairman of Tyler Bank & Trust Company, which he served as president for 20 years starting in 1941.
In a life that began on FRiday the 13th (of March) in 1894, the half century of it spent in Tyler has been about as varied as the way the beginning compares to the present. Abe Pounds started banking as secretary to Tom Butler, banker and founder of this publishing company, and the first office equipment included a typewriter and a broom. The young man from center was familiar with the operation of both, he recalls.
There have been remarkable changes and experiences unlimited between that beginning and, for example, Mr. POunds' participation in the past year as one of the organizers of Fleetway Airlines, Tyler-based and Texas' newest regular carrier.
In general, the "partial-retirement" announcement of Mr. Pounds' reduced banking activity provided a good chance for summary of his total activity record under such descriptions as banking and finance; civic leadership and organizational work and affairs of the Methodist Church.
On the occasion of his being honored a few years ago by church members from over Texas, he was perhaps best described by one speaker as "the best friend a Methodist preacher in Texas ever has had". To most who heard it, this sentence spoke volumes. Rev. William Archer Pounds was pastor in 1912 at church now known as St. Paul's Methodist Church in Tyler, and his son Abe became treasurer of the Texas Methodist Conference in 1923.
In the field of community and civic affairs, Abe Pounds has been a tireless worker in nearly every worthwhile group from the local to the state-wide level, and has been elected president of most of them. He was recognized as Tyler's Outstanding citizen in 1940. To his wife, Isabelle, however, goes credit for the creation of they family flower garden, one of Tyler's most beautify and a "must" to be seen each year during the Azalea Trail.
Inside his own banking organization and other businesses where he is influential, Abe Pounds has had one impressive record that doesn't show in the written pages, but is written in the ultimate achievement., The same has been true of his policies towards customers and others he served. It has been the application of the principle of giving support, opportunity and responsibility to young men at the time when they needed it most, and when they probably found the doors closed elsewhere.
The chapter on his fourth career - fishing - hasn't made much progress toward being written, probably because of the difficulty in separating fact from fiction, and we salute the fisherman himself with a sincere editorial wish of much more of everything. |
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4 Abe Pounds Obituary 1974
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Abe Pounds -- His Dedication, Service Will be Remembered
East Texas lost a great man Tuesday; a dedicated church member who gave most of his life to community service, one whose kind are remembered but never replaced.
W.A. (Abe) Pounds died shortly after noon Tuesday in a Tyler hospital at the age of 80. His death was felt deeply in Tyler where he had served so well and so long. He will be greatly missed by the many, many Tylerites who had come to know him throughout his life of service.
Abe Pounds was an able leader on many fronts and had held various positions of key responsibility. He was very dedicated to his church, Marvin United Methodist Church, and was honored in February, 1972, with a special dinner. The year 1972 was the 50 year mark of his service as treasurer of the Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Church. This long tenure and record of service has never been equaled anywhere throughout the entire Methodist Church and Methodists throughout the state came to honor him.
Mr. Pounds also had a long and industrious banking career which dated back to 1914 when the late Judge T.B. Butler employed him as secretary. When he began his employment with Mr. Butler, a banker and the founder of this publishing company, the first office equipment included a typewriter and a broom. The young man from Center once recalled that he was familiar with the operation of both.
Mr. Pounds joined Tyler Bank and Trusts Co. in 1929 as a cashier and steadily worked his way up in the bank.
He was later promoted to vice president and then president of the bank in 1941. He retired as chairman of the board as as Tyler Bank and Trust Company's chief executive officer in 1968, ending a 55-year career in banking.
Inside his own banking organization and other businesses where he was influential, Abe Pounds had one impressive record that doesn't show in the written pages, but is written in the ultimate achievement. A starred characteristic of his banking record was the ever-ready willingness to help the person who needed it the most, and who had small resources to pledge.
In the field of community and civic affairs, he was a tireless worker in nearly every worthwhile group from the local to the statewide level. He had served as president of most of them. He was recognized as Tyler's Most Outstanding Citizen in 1940 and in 1956 he was honored for having done more for Texas churches than any other man in the state. The same year, 1956, he was named man of the year for June by the East Texas Chamber of Commerce, an organization he had once served as president.
His sacrifices were many and involved much more than just his time and effort to his community. Pounds Field Airport was named after World War II in honor of his, Lieutenant Jack Pounds, a flight instructor who died in an air crash early in the war.
It would be easy to mention additional achievements in the life of Abe Pounds as they are almost infinite. He had rubbed shoulders with so many people and had helped make things better whenever and however he could. His tangible achievements remain, alongside his intangible legacy of unwavering frie3dnship, loyalty and courage. |
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5 Gordon G. Maclean's Letter to Isabelle about Abe
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Dear Mrs. Pounds,
I want to tell you just a few of the things that Abe meant to me.
Abe was kind to me. He was never too busy to talk to be and to give his advice. He was patient with me. He was good to me. I don't mean just in a business way. I mean in personal way. He was such a good man. I always felt that the was the nearest thing to a father to me, since my own father passed away twenty years ago.
Abe didn't have a mean streak in him. He was wise, gentle, loving, and he made friends of so many, many people. I'm sure that everyone who knew him, be it every so casually, felt that their lives were enriched by having been in Abe's circle of sunlight. He brought happiness to people. He could calm your fears and dispel your worries. I just never knew anyone like him. I thank God for the privilege of having known Abe. I must have told hundreds of people about Abe, people that never even say him - I have talked about him for hours to total strangers.
I know that my life has been better and happier because of my friendship with Abe. He showed me, in his unpretentious way, what a great man should be. He has left monuments of this earth in the hearts of men that are far more genuine and lasting than granite and marble or millions of dollars.
I know that you must have received hundreds of tributes to Abe. I hope you will accept one more from me, which is not put very well, but believe me, comes from my heart.
God bless you.
Sincerely, Gordon G. Maclean |
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6 Texas Methodist Blog
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2012
This Week in Texas Methodist History, January 15
Texas Conference Meets in Special Session, W. A. Pounds Honored for Fifty Years as Conference Treasurer, January 17, 1972
There are some years in which Methodist annual conferences have so much business that they cannot wait a whole year to meet. In such years it is possible to have a special session of the "annual" conference. One such special session of the Texas Conference was held at Marvin UMC in Tyler, Texas, on January 17, 1972. Bishop Kenneth Copeland presided over the special session which had been called to take stock of a change in accounting. 1971 was the first full year in which the Texas Conference fiscal year coincided with the calendar year.
Emmitt Barrow, Chair of the Commission on World Service and Finance, presented a series of recommendations concerning fiscal matters. Those recommendations were adopted with little debate.
The brief (10:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. including lunch break) annual conference session also passed resolutions presented by the Conference Trustees concerning abandoned church properties. It granted superannuation and sabbatical leaves as requested and heard from distinguished guests. Those guests included two visiting bishops, three college presidents, and other denominational leaders.
The first visiting bishop was the conference preacher, Paul V. Galloway of Arkansas who preached on the 23rd Psalm. Bishop Galloway retired the following summer but was called back to the Texas Conference after the death of Bishop Copeland.
Bishop Ralph Alton of the Wisconsin Episcopal Area also attended. He was in Tyler because the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) was meeting in Tyler. He addressed the conference about the relief work of the church.
Three college presidents also addressed the conference. Cecil Peeples, of Lon Morris College, introduced a student musical group. Robert Hayes, Sr., of Wiley and Durwood Fleming of Southwestern, both addressed the conference about centennial observances that would be occurring in 1973. Bill Copeland (brother of Bishop Copeland) reported as director of the Methodist Home in Waco, and Wallace, "Wally" Chappell spoke in his capacity as Executive Director of the Texas Commission on Campus Ministry.
A truly remarkable lay man was recognized at this special session was no visitor. That honor went to a member of the host church, W. A. "Abe" Pounds, who was recognized for his fifty years of service as Texas Conference Treasurer (1922-1972).
It is difficult to imagine a greater record of volunteer service than that of W. A. Pounds. One measure of his uniqueness is that on January 17, 1972, there were only two preachers (Joe Wells and Bruce O. Power) at Marvin who had been conference members in 1922.
Pounds had been born into a parsonage family in Center in 1894. He became a banker, first in Lavon (Collin Co.), but in 1914 he moved to Tyler to a position at the Guaranty State Bank. He advanced from the ranks of stenographer and cashier and eventually to the presidency of the Tyler Bank and Trust Company.
He married Isabelle Windham of Shelbyville, and they had two sons. Jack Pounds was killed while training military pilots in the early days of World War II. The municipal airport at Tyler, Pounds Field, is named in his honor. W. A. Pounds, Jr. also became a banker.
Abe Pounds was involved in too many civic, professional, and religious volunteer activities to mention. Of special interest to followers of Methodist history was his practice of loaning money to preachers for moving expenses. He said many times that he never lost a cent when he loaned money to Methodist preachers.
In February 1972 Pounds was formally honored for his fifty years as Texas Conference Treasurer. At that tribute dinner on speaker said, "Abe Pounds was the best friend a Methodist preacher ever had."
He died in Tyler in July 1974 at the age of 80. |
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1 Winston Pounds in Prague when the Russians invaded 1968
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Tylerite Saw Big Change with Russians in Prague
"Everything was so peaceful there in Prague, Czechoslovakia, before the Russians came," related W. Abe Pounds Jr., a Tyler man who was there on Aug. 20 when the capital city came under siege. "Actually, the Czechs just didn't believe it would happen."
"Suddenly, the city changed. It became a hotbed of gunfire, disruption and emotional tears shed by citizens of the beautiful city."
POunds arrived in Prague on a Sunday night and went immediately to a room he had reserved with Czech friends across the Labe River. He was on a two months tour of the country in connection with studies for a Doctorate Degree in languages. He had already been to Russia and other Communist areas and planned to do some work in Prague.
Then, suddenly late Tuesday, Prague took on the image of a city in mourning, Pounds said. The Czechs reacted more with sadness and despair than with hatred or war-like attitudes. In addition to lowering their flags to half mast, they taped the mouths of their famous statues and placed small flags over the eyes of stone images. He noted the eyes of most residents were wet as they cried constantly.
Meanwhile, Czech's military had been imprisoned, police guns stripped away, stores closed and a scene of almost total industrial inactivity permeated the city. Public transportation came to a halt as Russian tanks either blocked traffic or their heavy tracks damages streets and rail lines beyond use. News media, including radio, television and newspapers, went to the underground and managed to keep the public fairly, but not completely, informed.
Food supplies became short, Pounds said, as stores only opened for a short while each day, selling only to regular Czech customers. Cafes and hotels closed down. Czech residents hid away foods fearful the Russians might take them away.
The Tyler man lived on tea and pears for two days, slipped to him by friends who wanted to share but must save enough for their families.
"Throughout the city were signs painted by Czech people which showed a Swastika inside a red star," he said. "Persons who remembered said the 1939 invasion by the Nazis were more calm than this one."
He noted that on Wednesday, which citizens termed "funeral day," the women wore black only and the men placed a strip of black cloth over their hearts. "You are here on our funeral day," they would tell the American with tears in their eyes.
Pounds said he never actually saw a Russian soldier touched, or attacked in any manner, though they were apparently heckled as groups of people would surround the soldier asking "Why?"
He said most of the questioning resistance and heckling was done by students and hippies - of which he thought were plentiful. At least two Russian tanks were set afire as students would grab blazing flags, speed to the tank, rupture their auxiliary gasoline tanks and set ablaze.
Meanwhile, though most taxicabs and private autos were used as ambulances, a few would speed through a section of the city, drop newspapers and speed away. Pounds saw a group of students in a convertible throwing out papers and leaflets so the public could read.
"Then the Russians got busy and started their own propaganda newspapers," he related.
The Prague press, however, was able to publish the full story of Stalinism to the Czechs, many too young to have known about the atrocities of Stalin days and who had never read it before.
With Russian solders in the city and its perimeter surrounded, outbound transportation closed down. There were no airlines or trains of which a person could leave at will, Pounds said.
He summed up the whole of the trouble in the two Communist countries as that Russia was troubled about the Czechs new freedoms. Because Czechoslovakia borders territories of West Germany and Prague is less than 50 miles away, the Tyler traveler is convinced the Russian rulers were afraid of western influence.
This was particularly true during the past seven months and Russia became convinced this buffer city and its liberalization simply must return to what they term "normalcy."
So they sent in the troops and tanks and virtually paralyzed Prague's entire concept of freedom.
Pounds doesn't know what led to the riddling of the city's great museum by Soviet tanks. They simply blasted away for no apparent reason. The Czechs didn't know, either.
After being informed on Thursday that refugee trains would be available, Pounds said the very act of getting out of the city became a monumental task.
First, he walked two or three miles to what he had been told was the proper railroad station. Finding only confusion and the American Embassy still more confused, Pounds said, with the help of Prague citizens he finally made the train to Munich, Germany. The train carried 345 Americans.
In Munich, he was able to contact his parents in Tyler. The Embassy there, he noted, was well organized, very helpful and thorough.
From there, W. Abe Pounds had no trouble in getting on to Texas. |
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2 Winston Pounds as Texas Rose Festival President in 1964
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FIRST BACHELOR TO HOLD JOB
W. Abe Pounds Jr. Festival President
W. Abe Pounds Jr., personable 36-year-old bachelor, is this year's Texas Rose Festival Association president.
An exceedingly active citizen, he has to his credit a long string of civic services but still finds time to participate in sports, study languages, Enjoy good music and practice being an amateur chef.
He is quite and friendly with a ready smile and highly expressive countenance, stockily built, with black hair, green eyes and olive complexion.
Pounds regards the 1964 Texas Rose Festival as exceptionally good, and says his own job as president has been easy due to the hard work of the Executive Committee. Each committee member diligently nurtured his or her phase of the Festival, he said.
Now in his eight year of work with the Rose Festival, Pounds is the only bachelor ever to be president o the Festival Association or of the Order of the Rose; he has been president of both.
He has worked his way up year after year with the Festival, so that by now the has performed a multitude of jobs for it.
Pounds feels that the people who do the most work for the Rose Festival get the greatest value from the annual event. There are well over 1,000 volunteer workers, and this project gives them the opportunity to get acquainted, thus widening their circles of friendship, he explained. Other values of the FEstival Pounds noted, are the national publicity which it gives Tyler and the genuine civic pride it generates in Tyler people for their town.
In prior years, Pounds has been treasurer, vice president, and president of the Order of the Rose. This in the organization which at each Rose Festival presents the Rose Queen, her Court and visiting representatives at the FRiday night invitational Queen's Ball and sponsors the free Saturday night Fiesta Night program in Rose Stadium and the Queen's Ball open to the public on Saturday night.
Before 1964, Pounds has held the following top offices in the Texas Rose Festival Association: vice president of rose activities, vice president of distinguished guests, vide president of the Coronation, and executive vice president. He is the current president.
Pounds early this year received the W.C. Windsor Award as Tyler's outstanding young civic worker for 1963. Presentation was made at Tyler Chamber of Commerce's annual banquet.
Born and reared in Tyler, Pounds in the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Pounds Sr. His father was president of the Rose Festival Association in 1936. W. Abe Jr. graduated at the University of Texas in 1950 with a bachelor of arts degree in economics. He has attended schools in New York City, Mexico City, and Paris France.
The 1964 Festival Association president has numerous hobbies. Just now he is studying French and German, slowly working toward a degree in languages.
He likes to ski, which he has done at Aspen, Colo., each winter for the last 10 years. He also has skied at Sun VAlley, Squaw Valley, Santa Fe and Bromley (Vermont). He learned skiing little by little over the years, training with instructors.
Snorkel fish-spearing is another of Pounds' avid hobbies. Wearing a mask and a snorkel (a device for breathing) he swims under water to spear the fish. He has enjoyed this pastime in California in the summers. Last summer he did snorkel fishing though the Greek islands and up the Yugoslavian coast.
Pounds keeps himself in shape during the winter by weight lifting.
A love of all music when it is played properly, Pounds enjoys every type from the Beatles though the heaviest operas.
Pounds is a past vice president and director of the East Texas Symphony Association, past director and budget committee member of the United Community Fund, past director of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, past chairman of the Smith County March of Dimes, treasurer and director of the East Texas Hospital Foundation, past treasurer and director of the Tyler Civic Theater.
He is a partner in the Broadway Insurance Agency. Sevre3tary-treasurer and director of the Tyler Civic Theater.
He is a partner in the Broadway Insurance Agency. Secretary-treasurer of the Del-Tex. Oil Company of Tyler, a director of Tyler Bank and Trust company and director in EAst Texas Savings and Loan Association. |
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4 Winston Pounds' Writing
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I believe in the danger and illusion of belief. I don't believe in mountains just sitting there unconscious, unchanging, unknowing like people's beliefs.
I believe is a statement of false form, momentary freezing of unfreezable everything.
"We don't know of one single thing in the universe that doesn't change. " I believingly told my young son. "Yes we do Daddy,", he replied looking through my new found Buddhist beliefs. "Space", he tells me.
I believe that everything in the universe is subject to change, and everything is right on track.
I believe in multitudes of deities, conscious trees, higher intelligence in birds, personalities or rocks, and that hair is weird.
Belief that being hit by a moving car can hurt, that a spiritual rush can expand into fundamentalism in an electromagnetic instant without great caution. I believe in the theory of quantum physics because it destroys the foundations of Judeo-Christian-Muslim dogma and the beliefs of Buddhism after it has degenerated into beliefs.
I believe that life cannot be realized into fullness without raising, personally raising children, and there go all the gurus, priest, educational theorists, Peter Pans, and Cinderella's tyranny.
I believe in walk-your-story, one day at a time, simple does it. I believe that people are religious monotheistic or killers because they are afraid, afraid of Hell; I believe that people are spiritual when they have already been in Hell.
I believe what a recovering addict tells me. I never believe in recovering psychiatrists, psychologists, Ph D's therapist, and counselors who remain practicing drunks behind propagating their beliefs for profit and the fun of control.
I believe that the universe is friendly and that God shoots dice with it, but not marbles. I believe that death will be a glorious burst of ecstatic energy, and I hope I believe this as aI am dying. I believe that we know zilch about the web of life and the interconnectedness of all matter, and that mankind is a result of divine energy and is no more of special importance (and a probably not as much) to the evolutionary process than the falling leaves of Autumn. |
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2 Letters Home From Europe
1 Aboard S.S. Marine Flasher
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Friday Night, June 17, 1949
Dear Mother and Dad:
Having a wonderful time right now. The ship is rolling so all the dishes in the dining room just fell out. We all went in and laughed so much the kitchen crew was amazed. They said, "Why the --- don't you all get sick", but they thought it was funny too. The ship is a reconverted navy ship. It is a student ship and carries 540 passengers, almost all students of some sort - Opera singers, Folk singers, and Art students. Each morning we take French and Art lessons. We are also given orientations in the mornings. In the afternoons, German and Italian. We have dances at night and Art lectures. The trip is going to be far more adventurous than I ever dreamed. The Princeton and Tabor racing crews are on the boat - just packed with college kids. The first three days out were very smooth and clear. Got a good sun tan. It has gotten so rough I must quit.
Tuesday, June 20th
We arrive in Plymouth tomorrow afternoon so I will have to finish this letter today. We are going to take only the bicycle back, but I can really get everything in it. We are going to follow the trip as planned in England, then go to Le Havre and cycle from there to St. Michael. My German and French are picking up fast. I left my bag with Patsy in New York and she will take care of it. I think I shall keep my plane reservations back at least until August. Mr. Dengler said there would be plenty of time. We are staying in Student Hostels in England, Scotland, Denmark, and Germany, and bicycle about all told 1200 miles. Our our has a wonderful group There is a Deke from University of Washington on the trip with me - swell boy. Can't wait to get to England. I'll write soon after I get there. |
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8 AM June 23rd.
Dear Mother and Dad:
All of a sudden it's hit me with a bang - I am really in England - Europe. I had neve let myself truly believe that I would get here. I just knew something would happen. It wasn't until 2 AM last night after we finished customs and were in a taxi on the way to the Hotel that I let out that breath I had held for three months. We arrived in Plymouth a day early and thus had no reservations. Customs was very easy but it took a while to get everything arranged. They got us rooms at three different hotels and we started off. Here is my nocturnal impression of Plymouth: - small looking and infinitesimal to me, streets with high walls covered with ivy, black voids where war had wiped out England's homes and lives, winding up and down all the way. I kept thinking I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, but somehow I was in it too. When we reached the countryside the hotel burst upon us through a mass of foliage. No one could speak for about 30 minutes. It is a small sort of place, but so native. I went straight to bed (naturally Mother), and my adventure stops for the night.
I was awakened just then by a strange kind of Good Morning and tea was put by my bed. I rushed to the window and there it was right below me - England. I felt like crying but my eyes were much too busy, so I wasn't dreaming in bed at home, and the funny maid wasn't Kittrell draped by my bed to play a joke. Cherio.
10 O'clock
We are in an old English country home turned into a sort of Inn. - the Peran - Griswalde. It's in the middle of an old golf course. The big bags with our better clothes were sent to London last night so we won't have them again until the middle of the summer.
Friday - June 24th
We left the Peran-Griswald Hotel, after one night and moved into the Grande hotel in Plymouth. This morning we took the train to Exeter, looked around, ate, and then took a bus and a walk out to the Hostel. That's where I am now. We spent our time in Plymouth getting arranged. Last night we went to the street dance and Tub. Today we spent in Exeter seeing the Cathedral and the home of William the Conqueror.
Sunday - June 26th
Friday night we spent in a Hostel outside of Exeter. It was a nice place, an old country home. I set the table and peeled potatoes the next morning. Yesterday we took the train to Founton and got our bikes there. We went 20 miles to Street and stayed at the Hostel there, an old Chalet. Today we only have 20 miles to go. Went through Glastonbury and Wells. tonight we are at Crancomb. The Hostel has a thatched roof. The first five miles by bicycle were awful but after that it was very easy The bikes are wonderful. I put a mileage meter on mine so I can prove to everyone how far I went. Should have gotten a hair cut at home. I got one in Plymouth and he did such a bad job I had to go to another shop. I finally ended up with the shortest burr you have ever seen. Bought a beret so you should see me. An English woman asked me if I spoke English. Today we saw the ruins at Glastonbury Abbey - very impressive. I climbed to the top of a nearby mountain to see the ruins in an old church. We went swimming in Wells and again in a stream on the way. Tomorrow we stay at Bath Easton. I hope I get some mail there.
Monday - July 24th
We cycled 30- miles from Croscomb to Bath today. Tomorrow will be our hardest day with 60 miles to South Hampton. The Roman baths are here and we had a wonderful swim in the pool. Bath is the most beautiful town we have seen so far. The Hostel is very large and overlooks a whole valley. Tomorrow night we will stay near South Hampton and take the boat to Le Havre, France, the next night. Got two letters from Mother and one from Dad. Had forgotten what mail looked like.
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I finally got those letters mailed. I am at Bournemouth on the southern coast, swimming this afternoon. The beach is beautiful. We had a terrific day yesterday - 60 miles, but everyone did it all right. It was the longest day we will have. We went to the Stonehenge in the morning. If yo look in Minute Wonders of the World you will find it. That afternoon we went to Salisbury to the church. I found the tomb of Thomas Lord Wyndham, Barron Wyndham of Firglays in Ireland. I copied down all that was on the tomb. We stayed at Crianborn at the Hostel last night, biked 15 miles here today and will go to South Hampton this after noon and take the boat to France tonight. The English people have been wonderful to us. Will have to mail this letter before going to France. Was very happy about the letter from Georgetown University.
All my love,
Abe |
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Dear Mother and Dad:
La Belle, France! - It's wonderful - the food, the hotel, the people. The night I wrote my last letter we took the boat from South Hampton to Le Havre. We arrived about 9 o'clock, went through customs, got on our bicycles and rode 25 miles to a place on the coast called Trouville. The most wonderful beach you have ever seen. It was our first French hotel, and the pastries! - we could hardly bear to leave it, but had to go on to Lesyeux that night. There wasn't much to see there but the next day we took the train and later biked to mount St. Michael. it's one of the places I showed you in the Halliburton book; a strangely beautiful little out of the English Channel about five miles off shore. When we looked across the flat tidelands, half hidden in the mist, we could hardly believe that the sight in the mist, we could hardly believe that the sight we saw was not a mirage. The land connecting the island with the shore is a stone causeway made in recent years. You couldn't believe that anything really exists like that - a real fairyland. We spent all the next day going over it. Late that afternoon we biked to Dinan, a walled city built in the 10th century. That night about 10 o'clock six of us went down the side of the walls to the docks to a native night club. It was just like everything had been planned for us. A very old place with a fire place and an accordion. Everyone sang and danced. The next day we were to bike to a farm house over the cliffs above Binic but I got a bad case of stomach trouble half way and had to stop. The rest went on and I stayed at the hotel there. I was better the next day but I didn't have enough money in francs to pay my hotel bill. All the banks were closed so I couldn't cash any checks, so I stayed there and saw a movie. This morning I took a train to Lannion where I am now. the assistant Tour Leader met me there and we just ate lunch. He said the ride today was very hard so the rest will not be in for a long time. Nobody spoke English in the town I was in for two days. Boy, did I pick up the French. I can make myself understood very easily now. This hotel is about 20 miles from the sea. The river runs right by my room, has an iron balcony over the river with french blinds and old velvet curtains. Tonight we will take a bus to a casino on the ocean, dance and eat dinner, then back here. It mist be awfully hot at home. I'm counting on you going off to some place cool in August.
Thursday, July 14th
Yesterday we biked to Marlix, a nice old town, stopped at some beaches on the way that were wonderful. Today we biked to Brest and took the ferry to Margot. It's like a mixture of main and Acapulco; - a long scenic beach with high cliffs and the hotel sits way back. A very small fishing village. I got your wire on the boat. Got a letter from Mother and one from Dad here. All my love,
Abe.
Dear Mother and Dad:
This is the first chance I've had to write since we left Margot. We went across the Bay in a boat for two hours to an old fishing village. It was the real thing, even with the smell. From there we biked to the Quimper, over a large hill and down into the city. The next morning we took the train to Angers. Had a very nice hotel there and met one of the other tours. Angers is at the beginning of the Chateau country. It's at the foot of the Boive Valley where all the French Kings built their homes. The Chateau at Angers is the oldest. Richard the Lionhearted lived there, and they have the oldest tapestries in France, dates back to the 9th century. The next day we biked to Chinon by sway of Gamur. The Chateau at Gamur was built in the 15th century. It also has the Chateau where Joan of Arc lived. It was very hot that day so I took the bus to Chinon. It was very pleasant there. The next day we biked a short way to Ayey-sur-Rendeau to the most beautiful Chateau in France. It's in a large park with a mote and completely furnished. We biked on the tours that night. Had a grand hotel there but it was very hot. Took the train to e next morning to Chatead8dun. We were to bike to Chartres from there but it was much too hot and I took a bus. The Cathedral at Chartres is one of the most famous and beautiful in the world with the most perfectly stained glass windows in France. It is a fully developed Gothic style. The lights from the strained glass reflected through the building in a million colors. (Four days later). The next day we took the early morning into Paris. Took a bus straight to the hotel and got three letters from Mother, one from Dad, Ann and Betty. After lunch we took a sight-seeing bus to Notre Dame, the Louvre Gorve- cocer, the big avenues, tomb of Napoleon, Eifel Tower, Latin Quarters, Etc. That night we went to the follies George It was very gay and colorful. Afterwards, we went to the Arc de Triumph district, to the sidewalk cafe. The next day, the 14th of July, was Bastille day, the French 4th of July, was Bastille day, the French 4th of July, was Bastille dray, the French 4th of July. they had large parades throughout the city I got some wonderful pictures. All the stores were closed os we just played around all day. Ate lunch at Maxiams, the best restaurant in Paris and went up on the top of Eifel Tower. In the early evening we went down to the Seive to see the fireworks. It was a beautiful night with jet black skies. The fireworks filled the sky with fountains of colored flames and explosions, the most beautiful thing I've seen in Europe. It was really an experience. later that night four of us went down to the Saint Germain des Tres district to the "caves". They are the night clubs where all the artist ----- hang out. Yesterday the tour went to Versailles but I was tired and stayed in bed. In the afternoon I went to the famous Louvre, saw the Venus de Milom, the Mona Lisa, etc. Spent the day by myself and hardly spoke a word of English. Used the subway system all the time I was in Paris. |
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Monday, July 18th
The first part of this letter was written on the train from Paris to Amsterdam. I'll just continue it now. My last night in Paris I went to the Opera House to the Ballet. The Opera House itself is fabulous, all done in Velvet and gold. The ballets were "Specter of the Race", "Punch and the Policeman",k "Romeo and Juliet", and an exhibition piece "Raenj" was the best thing I've ever seen. the stage was done in black velvet and blue silk. After that we went up to Pikg Alley for a while. Saturday morning we took the train to Amsterdam, went through Antwerp, Brussels, Hague, and Rotterdam. Got in at midnight so we went straight to bed. yesterday we took a boat all through the canals and out to Marken Island. It's an unspoiled old Dutch place. Last night we ate out and then went to Rembrandt Square. It's the social place of the town, the gayest place I've been. The people are almost your foot servants they are so nice "The bars were much nicer than anything in Paris. We all like Amsterdam better than any place we've been. It was so clean and the prices very cheap. This morning we are on the train to Denmark. We will go through part of Germany and stop at the Danish border, get our bikes again tomorrow. I've done 500 miles so far. I've lost my sun glasses the jacket i bought in New Yor4k so I bought a nice woo., shirt in Paris for this Northern country. the food has gotten better all along, bad in England, fair in France, and wonderful in Holland. The food in Denmark is supposed to be the best in the world. We eat constantly. My weight is staying about the same. |
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Tuesday, July 19th
The train ride yesterday was very exciting. We stopped at both borders for customs. Everyone in Germany has on a uniform. We saw the cities of Bremen, Hamburg, and Kiel. They haven't even moved the rubble yet, just moles of ruin in the center of the cities. The railroad stations have not rebuilt the terminals either. The immigration people were very formal. It was in the British Zone. The train passed over the Kiel Canal, one of the largest in the world. Right after the Danish border we took a bus to Tostel on the coast. The Hostel is very modern and sits on a high point overlooking the south bas of the Blastic Sea. They are very nice here. I think I shall like Denmark very much, however it is quite cold here and I'm going to have to buy some more clothes. We will bike across Denmark to Copenhagen in four days. it's raining today, the first bad day we've had. I'm still in the Hostel now. Boats are too hard to get home. I have two changes and will know when I get to London. If I fly I will get to New York the 15th os September. Have to send these letters along one at a time because it's so hard to get stamps of the country you rare in and find the post offices,. The boys in Denmark get very excited when I tell them I'm from Texas. They've seen all the cowboy movies up here and they think I'm really something. It's raining too hard to bike so I think we will take the bus today. We go to the bottom part of the peninsula and take a boat to the next large island and spend the night at Soabarg. Hope I get this mailed today. Miss you,
Abe |
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6 Denmark
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Sunday, 6 July 31
Dear Mother and Dad:
The day I mailed the last letter we were in Soro, Denmark. It was a bad rainy day and I got all wet after biking about half way. Decided to take the train to Copenhagen instead of going to Roskilder that night. Several of the boys had already gone in and I met them in town. We couldn't' get a hotel room, but found a place in a pension downtown. It was very nice. That night we went to the best restaurants in town, Winexs, and went to bet after that. The next day I rode around on my bike. The city is full of canal, rivers and parks. Most of the buildings are topped with high, bronze towers. This, I believe, is the most beautiful town yet. That afternoon we took a steam bath and bot a rub-down with real soap. This was the first bath I have had since I left Paris. Weighed 150 lbs. afterwards. That night we went to the big amusement park, the Tivoli. We went in an old beer hall there and sang Danish songs with everybody. Our Asst. Tour Leader is a Danish girl and we get around every place with her. The next day was Saturday. We went sightseeing on our bikes and that might went back to the Tivoli. The next morning we biked up the coast to Helsingar through the most beautiful piece of country I have ever sene. About six miles w stopped at a beach and stayed most of the day. Clear, clear water and cotton white sand. They have more French bathing suits up here than we saw in France. the rest of the ride we followed the coast all the way. This is a summer playground of Denmark. Very beautiful, modern homes, blue, blue sea white beaches and sail boats all the way. They had a lot of nude bathing beaches on the way but it was late, we had to get to the hostel. This hostel was an old villa overlooking the sea. The town is the place of Hamlet's castle. the next morning we took the boat a cross the channel to Sweden, only about a half hour ride. We biked up the coast of Sweden to the summer resort of Mialle. It was on the tip of a jagged peninsula in the Baltic Sea. I got there early and spent the day on the beach. The next day the weather was awful again. Two of the boys and I took the train to Stockholm. It was a good chance to get our clothes cleaned and get some rest. The Tour stayed on the Nialle another day. We got a hotel and ate t the best restaurant, Riches, and then went to bed. The next day we looked around and met the other Tour at the hostel. That night we ate at Freeden which is 400 year old and the best food I've gotten in Europe. The next day we took a boat tour through the city. It's built 13 islands. I went to bed that night to catch up on my rest. we left the bikes in Nialle and won't see them again for about three weeks. Pick them up in Stratford, England. The next day we left Stockholm by bus and went to. I've eaten mountains of food in Sweden. Take pastries by the piles. I'm sure I have gained a lot of weight. We've biked almost a thousand miles now. We'll not be able to get into the forest zone of Germany so we will take a boat down the Rhine River for three days and stay at Heidelberg, then cut back across to Franc end back through the mountains into Switzerland. On my birthday we will be in Finse, Norway. It's a resort high in the mountains. We stay there two nights and the sixth will be a free day. It's by a glacier and we may be able to ski. It's been cold and rainy every since we've been in Sweden but I think it's clearing off today. Enclosed is a map of the Canal and the route we took by bus.
Monday, August 1
The weather has been cloudy but no rain yesterday and today. yesterday we went along the edge of the Baltic Sea, took a lot of pictures of the island. We just went through some large canal locks at Molala marked by an X on the map. This boat trip is really wonderful it's a large pleasure ship. The meals are four course monsters.
Love,
Abe |
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7 Norway
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August 9th
Dear Folks:
We got off the boat the day after my last letter in a place called Trollbaten. Rained like mad that day and the next, but the day after we got there we took the train to Oslo. Spent that night and the next there. Had a nice hotel. I bought a carved wooden box and a pair of seal skin slippers for Ann. The next day we took the train up through central Norway and got off at Finse. It's just a ski resort up in the mountains. The best hotel so far, right at the foot of the largest glacier in southern Norway, snow and big waterfalls all around. The next day, which was the 6th, was the most perfect on the trip. That morning I took a guide and we went all over the glacier. Got some great pictures. We got back in time for late lunch, slept that afternoon , and that night at dinner they had a birthday party for me. Quite an occasion becoming 21 you know. I got four of the largest, most beautiful cakes you've ever seen, two packages of cigarettes, razor blades, and a baggage tog for presents. Am enclosing the poem that was with then:
Skol to Abe on his 21st birthday
Abe is a Texas so very fine,
We all think him - shall we say - divine?
He takes hotel and hostel with equal finesse,
About anything else, you can guess the ress"t".
One thing so very finer, he's no longer a 49'er, minor,
About one thing don't mention at all
That he ends every sentence with a sexy "You all".
Now with crying and yelling and no more to do
We'll say happy birthday, and then we'll be through.
Winston Abe larde Pounds, Jr. (on back)
The next day was quite a long one. We got up at 3:30 and took two trains down into one of the Bisards. The rest of the days were spent in boats and busses. The mountains rise up to 5,000 feet on both sides right out of the sea, all snow covered and full of waterfalls that drop all the way. Finished up the seventh roll of film which is all I have with me now. The rest are in London. If I can't get any film in Edinburg I won't have any in Scotland or middle England. have not been able to get a boat back yet. London will be my last change. My hair has already grown out. Please send me a list of the girls who are to be in the festival. We got into Bergen the night of the 7th. The hostel was high o the top of a nearby mountain.
August 11th
The next day we went through an old part of the town and I took a Swedish bath and soap rubdown. I weighted just what I did in Copenhagen, 68 kilograms or 150 lbs. The next day we took the Venus to Newcastle. It was a wonderful boat, much nicer than the Flasher, with great food. We had a lot of fun and wished we could have stayed longer on it. The next day we got off the boat at Newcastle on Tyle and took the after-noon train to Edinburgh. We got there about 6 o'clock and went out to the hostel. Today we went to the large castles, churches, and shops. I found something for Mother in one of the antique shops. Tomorrow we are going by bus throughout the country and the next day to Stratford on Avon, and the bicycles. I will write from Stratford.
All my love,
Abe |
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8 UK
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August 20th
Dear Mother and Dad:
The day after I wrote in Edinburgh we took an all day trip by buss through the highlands of Scotland, Loch Lomand, and the mountains. It was a cold foggy day and the clouds were all over the hills. No trees, just a few barren castles. I ran out of film in Norway so I don't have any for Scotland and London, But I had nine rolls left in my bag so I will have plenty now. The next day we took the train from Scotland to Stratford on Avon through Central England. We went through Manchester and Birmingham, the big industrial towns. That night in Stratford we went to the Shakespeare theater, saw Midsummer Night's Dream. We stayed in an old Manor House and had quite a room. The bed had a large silk canopy. The play was really a top production with revolving stages and Mendilson's music. The next day I took the bus to one of the large castles near there, Kenilworth.
August 24th
That night we stayed at that grand hotel again. The next morning we bikes to Oxford, spent the day sightseeing and that night one of the boys and I went to one of the plays. We had a hard time getting back to the Hostel because we had no lights. A cop stopped us but let us go on. The next day I took a train into London, spent the day getting my clothes cleaned and bag unpacked. You'll never know how grand it was to see fresh, new clothes. That night I went to see John ____ in the Lady's Not For Burning. It was really an experience. The next day I finally got passage on a ship, the SS marine Shark. It's the same ship the rest of the groups are coming home on. We sail the 18th from South Hampton and get into New York the 27th or 28th. I would like to fly home the 29th. The night I went to Guldquds Plays, Peggy Ferris came in and sat down beside me. She was on of last year's Debs from Dallas. After the play we went back to her hotel and met Cherry Perkins, another Dallas girl, and Nancy Mcnickolson? who will be the representative from Oklahoma to the Rose Festival this year. The next day Peggy, Cherry, a boy in the group, and I went out to a cafe in the Gobo district. The next day I went sight-seeing with the troupe and at the court of St. James I ran into Katie Zander, a KKG, from Austin, and a friend of Harry's from Swanee. That night I went to see Windy Heller in "Ann Veronica". Gene Tierney and her husband were there. After the show I met Katie and Harry's friend and we had long talks about home. The next morning we went to Madam Tousace's, the wax works. That night I went to the Sablsers Wells ballet at the Royal Opera House and saw "Swan lake". I have the records at home. It even surpassed the ballet in Paris. They are coming to New York in the fall. The next morning we took the train to Dover where the white cliffs are, and the boat across the channel to Ostend, Belgium, then the train to Brussels, Aochen, and Koln. It was a long hard trip and we didn't get in till 4 AM. Koln was completely demolished by the war and our hotel was a reconverted bomb shelter. Only the church is standing. It's one of the greatest of the Gothic works. From Koln we took the train to Cobleny and then a boat to Wiesbaden. This boat trip was the most scenic we have had. All down the part of the Rhine covered with castles, ruin after ruin of futile homes on the hilltops. It was a lovely warm summer day. The German people on the boat drank, danced, and were very gay. We got into Wiesbaden about midnight. The next morning I went shopping and found some wonderful prints very cheap. That afternoon we took the train to the University of Heidelberg. It's the most beautiful spot I've seen all summer. A high castle dominates the whole town which is very old and colorful. The first night we went to an old German Beer Hall called the Perochsen. Yesterday we continued to Strassburg by train and bike. This is the town where the present European unification programs are going on. It has one of the worlds's famous Gothic cathedrals and clocks. We went up in one of the towers this morning and watched the clock. If you will look these things up in the Britannica you can see pictures of them. Today we biked on to Gchlellstadt where I am for the night. It's an old unspoiled German-French town. Tomorrow we go to Mulhausen and then to Switzerland. I will get $150.00 refund on my switch from plane to boat but not until I get to new York. Change the dates on the Rome address to the 6th and 7th and mark out the Nice address. For any letters after Paris send to the SS Marine Shark, Passenger on Board, South Hampton, England. I hope you can get to New Mexico for a week before I get home. Send me the clippings in the paper about the Festival. |
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9 Germany
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August 25th
This morning we took a bus to Chateau of Haut-koenigsbourg. Tonight we will be in Mulhausen. The food from here on should be grand and my weight ought to pick up.
Love,
Abe |
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10 Italy
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September 16, 1949
Dear Mother and Dad:
The day I mailed my last letter in Florence we saw all the art in the city. I did some shopping also and found something nice for Dad. From Florence to London we had some fast and hard travelling. The next day we took our bus to Rome and stopped at Assisi, the home of St. Francis. We went through the Monastery and church there, and I bought two Medallions. We got to Rome late that night. The next day was all sight-seeing. All the Roman ruins and early churches. That night I went to an outdoor concert in the Forum. A modern Italian composer conducted one of his works. The next morning we spent in the Vatican. the Pope in spending the summer out of the city but I got another boy in our group who made a trip to see him to take the Medallions I bought in Assisi and have them blessed. That afternoon we took our bus to Naples. I stayed in that night. The next day we took the bus to Sorrento and then the boat to Capri. On the way we saw Vesuvius, the ruins of Pompeii, and the Bay of Naples. At Capri we took row boats out and into the Blue Grotto. The entrance to the Grotto is only four feet high. To get through it we had to lie flat on the bottom of the boat and pull in our oars. The sunlight penetrating the ocean outside flowed into the cave by way of a submerged opening, then up through the water inside to shine on the floor and walls. You have seen sunlight shining through colored windows in churches and casting beams of the same shade on the floor. The Blue Grotto is colored in much the same way. We were bewitched by the blue, burning walls and water. The whole Grotto gleams and dances. Nothing we have e seen in our tour has been so divinely beautiful as the water, walls and lights of this wonderful cave. Capri itself is very tropical and strange. All of the Southern European artists stay there. The next morning we took an early boat for Naples, got our bus and drove to Pisa Paninga and through Rome again That was a long ride also and we got in late the next morning. We saw the leaning tower and church. that day we drove along the Italian Riviera from Viareggo through Rapello and Genora and then up to Turino. I got some wonderful pictures. Have only one roll left. We took the train out of Torino early the next morning and had an all day ride to Paris, getting in late. The next day I spent shopping and sleeping. The boy I knew from Dallas wasn't there but the French girl I met in Austin last Spring was. We went out that night to the Lido Nightclub. It was really plush and had a very wild show. Afterwards, we went over to the left bank to the Vieux Columbier club. The next day I slept and took in the Museum of Modern Art. That night we took the train, boat, and train again to London. It was an all night trip and we had so sit-up. Got to London about 10 AM. I had a busy morning getting things ready to leave. Saw Flora Robeson in "Black Chiffon" in the afternoon. Last night I went to "The Third Man", a good English movie. Slept this morning and saw a movie this afternoon. Tonight I'm going to see Edith Evans in Paplino Loreola". The plays here are wonderful and I am seeing all I can.
Love,
Abe
There is another letter like this one in the mail. |
 
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Betty-Ann Powelly wanted a new fur coat for the Texas Rose Festival. Her black chauffeur, Bruno, drove the black Cadillac towards Dallas and Neiman-Marcus's fur department. The automobile's inhabitants passed through the Autumn countryside of gray-brown oak trunks, emerging from their summerfoam of green. The Saturday traffic, to and from Tyler, blew the dirt blown pine needles and oak leaves back and forth across the highway.
Bruno had great stud style in his black uniform. His broad face smiled into the western sky. He knew what showed him off cot his best and pictured himself being admired by the nervous women of Dallas. He had received those looks all his life and understood what fantasies were behind them. His skin matched the glow of a dark ranch mink, but his features were white, and he was proportioned and moved like a wrestler. The obvious lust of the white world aroused him. His physical presence gave him a certain power over them, but he never thought of it as a danger to himself, even when Mrs. Powelly's young son came up to his room above the garage. As he drove, Bruno's mind wandered between legs and fur pelts; one hand caressed the steering wheel and one the bulge below.
Betty - Anne's voice pawed around the car, clawing the images in her mind of fur coats, full length minks, dark minks. her bony cat body hunched forward. She loved to hunch, to pull her shoulders over to point the blades up like horns and stretch her neck out. Her words scratched through her tight mouth.
"I want to be back in time for dinner so Dr. Powelly gets to eat precisely at six o'clock. This is important to me Bruno! Do yo hear? Don't let me get carried away with at furs at Neiman's, and Bruno make sure there is enough food in the house for the wee-end. Remind me to give you money for the groceries."
Betty-Anne felt so good. She was glad the two older children, charles and June-Ann, had decided to stay at home. The car would have been too crowded with them along, and they would have unbalanced the entrance into Neiman's fur department; Betty-Ann followed by Maid and Child, followed by Chauffeur, each dressed appropriately. She knew how to stage a scene. Betty-Ann could not think of the new maid's name, but no matter, no need; she looked proper enough in her white uniform, even with her jaw slanting to the right side. Besides, Nanette had not attacked her yet.
Three-year old Nanette sat silently in her dark blue pinafore with her own special visions. She was the Powelly's third adopted child and had found her own quiet and observant role. Her experience was that the world went well if she keep her responses to a minimum. She was mindful, but often distracted by dreams of revenge. Adults assumed that nothing at all registered in her, that she was pure of heart and empty of mind. Adults were wrong' she was murky and haunted.
Joyce never expected to be given choices in life as a black maid. Her husband had not given her any. If she got fired from easy. The absence of two yellows to stop shaking and two reds for the trip would not be noticed.
Enclosed in this black cylinder with a strange white lady and a vacant-eyed child, and Bruno, who gave her the sweats, Joyce felt compressed and expanded at the same time. Her mind and body mixed the black leather seats, her tight white uniform, Bruno's shiny coal-dust hair, and the flashes of sun off the hood of the car all into a smoky blur. Jopyce's arms and legs tightened up to the point of paralysis. She was afraid to move and pressed her thighs together until the sweat sank into her skirt. The only thing that moved on her surface was face sweat mixed with tears. Her thoughts and her body swung with the sway of the car, an she had to pull herself in to control the sensation of bursting apart.
The pills had been a bad mistake for Joyce. She knew from experience that she had no margin for error with alcohol or dope, and she needed a downer now fast. Just one beer, God, just one! What could she do? Faint? Scream? Vomit?. She must focus on not getting fired! Another beating would kill her. She gasped for air. Her lungs were full, but she was still suffocating.
Mrs. Powelly rested in the back right seat not moving, not even her eyes changing. Joyce could hear only a soft purring from her throat. The woman sat completely immobile for half an hour at a time. Joyce had never seen anyone do this; a cat maybe, but a grown woman, never. What mixture of pills and alcohol had she taken? Joyce was going to learn a lot from her. AT least the child required no attention. Thank God, she wasn't a whiner or a clinger. She didn't seem to need anyone at all.
The four of them passed through small, featureless farm town, as baron as the October corn fields. The trees had long since been cut away, replaced by scrub brush. Only a few hillsides or giant oaks remained from the dense forests of three generations ago.
When they arrived in Dallas the females stayed with the car until Bruno parked it. The quartet paraded to the store together, through the marble entrance, to the elevator, and up to the fourth floor. Fro a moment the open elevator doors framed them in a "town and country" cover.
Betty- Ann had phoned ahead to the store to insure a proper reception for herself. The sales women needed time to research her charge account to decide how much of their attention she was worth. Although she did not personally know the sales ladies, her friend, Ruby Dillard, had spoken favorably of them, and Ruby was very demanding. She set the standard for social forms from top to bottom in Tyler and she would have been pleased with Betty-Ann's tableau. The sales ladies and Betty-Ann gracefully stepped to the waltz of maybe-buying -a -fur-at-Neimans's.
"Now Mrs. Powelly, Ruby Dillard's husband wants go give her this coat fore her birthday," the saleslady held up a full length dark ranch mink, "but if Dr. Powelly wants to buy it for you, I'll get approval from Mr. Marcus, and we'll just have to find another similar one for Mr. Dillard. A woman like you can wear this coat beautifully with a ball-gown or with an elegant suit, like you have on today".
"Yes, yes I know, but I want to see some lighter shades, and I don't think this belted back is right for me. Let me try on that darling blond cape with the cuffed sleeves."
Bruno stood, a statue, with his cap a fig-leaf over his crotch. Joyce sat in a trance, which looked respectful for the occasion. Nanette quietly absorbed the scene, which included another little girl, also dressed in a dark blue ponafore. Nanette did not like sharing this scene with competition. She slowly moved to the back end of the salesroom, so the interloper would disappear from her world.
"Betty-Ann! Betty-Ann! You darling girl! What have you gone and bought?!. A chalk white face, framed with dyed black hair, bobbed and weaved toward Betty-Ann, dilated eyes focused in front of her nose as bright red lips twisted out a nasal drawl. Ruby had started her drinking day early. The excitement of the birth of their first grandchild and tighter breakfast bloody Mary's had stimulated her to find some grand action for the event.
"Honey, look here at what I've gone and got!" She pushed a miniature white mink stole into Betty=Ann's face. "Look at this, Honey! Have you ever! It's pure, genuine white mink! A real monogrammed satin lining! ANd it's made", she paused here for just the right words, "hand by hand, did by did!"
Betty-Ann was trapped,. How she had to buy something to show Ruby. Betty - really hated her for being obviously drunk right there in Neiman's an din the early afternoon. She wondered if Ruby was an uneasy echo of herself? Betty-Ann felt her life was full of echoes. Other people broke into faint version of herself as she tried to observed them. She tried to see them clearly, but people vibrated. Multiple images piled on top of one another. If she tried too hard, the reverberation spread. Why couldn't people keep themselves still? She wanted to see herself reflected clearly somewhere. Was the world only an enlarged version of Herself?
Betty-Ann preferred to stay inside of herself. If her medication or alcohol started to pull her out, she focused on staying in. She had to get out of there before she came out of herself and that ridiculous mink diaper down Ruby's throat. That would be a bad mistake. Ruby could be a vicious opponent.
"Well, Ruby, I just can not decide if I really want another heavy mink! I've promised DR. Powelly I would search the jewelry department for a new diamond watch. I've told him I've got enough jewelry, but he just won't stop!. Ruby, this little stole is just the most precious thing I have ever seen in my who9le life. That granddaughter is the luckiest child in the whole world to have you. She is born to be a Rose Queen! Just give her hugs and kisses for me! Bye, DArling!"
Ruby beamed and ran her hands over the baby stole. Maybe she should buy two of them. While she pondered this, Betty-Ann promptly sent Joyce to pick up nanette, who had gone to sleep on a velvet seat. They left quickly bin Betty-Ann's hurried style. She needed to get out of this place fast.
Joyce had to hustle to get herself and the sleeping child into the car as Bruno started the engine. He was used to Betty-Ann's style of departure and they were out of downtown traffic and into the countryside in twenty minutes. The three females slept during the trip home, while Bruno opened the Cadillac up and enjoyed the power of being this own master on the road.
It was dinner time when the car pulled up the curving driveway to the red brick home. The cook, Joetta, had dinner on the table within fifteen minutes of their arrival. She knew that Dr. Powelly needed to eat before fifteen minutes of their arrival. She knew that Dr. Powelly needed to eat before he lost all interest in food before his blood alcohol level went beyond his capacity to guest out of his chair in the library into his char in the dinging room. Betty-Ann had just enough time to get started with her Martinis.
All the family assembled at the dining table. Dr. Powelly was propped up at one end with ten-year old June-Ann and twelve-year old Charles sat on his right side. Betty-Ann presided at the opposite end with Nanette in a high-chair on her right side, and Joyce nearby to assist her.
AFter a mumbled blessing by Dr. Powelly, June-Ann and Charles didn't not look at their food. They looked across the table to Nanette, to their right to Betty-Ann and back again at each other, and then across the table again. Under their breaths they conferred and agreed on a significant fact. June-Ann, who was considered by the neighborhood to be the only sane one in the family, made an effort to get her mothers full attention. She knew this would not be easy, but this time a special effort was needed. When she caught her mother's eye, she said, "Mother, Charles and I need to tell you something."
Betty-Ann looked down into her Martini glass and pictured herself ion a palomino shaded full-length mink entering the auditorium on Coronation Night. It would be obvious to everyone that she was the Queen mother.
"Mother, mother", her daughter tried again, "Charles and I have something interesting to tell you." Betty-Ann put down the glass and focused her eyes on her daughter.
"Mother, this", June0Ann said as she motioned across the table to the child in the high-chair, "this is not Nanette!"
This statement passed through the veils of tranquilizers and alcohol into Betty-Ann's consciousness. She pulled her shoulders up, stretched her neck and asked "What, dear?"
Nanette watched from behind the rack of full length minks. She was pleased that Joyce had taken the other child away. Nanette was now sure she had responded correctly because the situation had taken care of itself. If you stay quiet and out of the way then adults didn't demand things of you, and Nanette didn't need them; she was free of grown-ups. The would arranged itself according to her magic powers. Concentrate on what you wish, observe carefully, and be confident: this was the magic.
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The preparations for the Texas Rose Festival had become more consuming each year. Through the years Betty-Ann had acquired enough quality experience to be secure in what was expected and what was considered good taste. Still the greater the knowledge, the more precise the decision noblesse oblige. The acceptable range of choice for the necessary festival clothing required originality without excess.
After the committee assignments, the properly seated Coronation thickets, and a front row table for the Queen's Ball had been procured, Betty-Ann had to face the most critical social decision of the year-the purchase of the gown for the coronation
Ball.
Shopping at Neiman-Marcus greatly lessened the strain, as their ball gown buyer supplied a finite choice e. Any gown would be acceptable if it had a Neiman's label. Fro this reason the majority of serious ball gown purchasers depended on Neiman's judgment to keep them out of trouble. There were so many gowns bought for this one event that Neiman's transported the dresses to Tyler in special windowless vans, locked and guarded, delivered to the purchaser's homes only days before the Ball. The dresses were concealed in opaque bags to protected the impact of each new owners entrance at the Ball. Neiman's had the responsibility to prevent any duplicates appearing, and its customer Service Department was unsurpassed in efficiency, discretion and reliability.
Betty-Ann was definitely in the serious ball gown category. She possessed knowledge and confidence, originality and a sense of her limitation. This year Betty-Ann had made an intense effort to focus her full attention and awareness on the ball gown purchase, and made sure she was dead sober when the decision was made. Betty-Ann was exceptionally pleased with her choice this year-pale pink satin, cut on the bias, a buttoned jacket with puffed sleeves, and a full skirt.
Betty-Ann's find was a professional's wife's choice, not that of nouveau office mentality. Neiman's was a bit too tame for most of the year's new arrivals in the big time oil rich patch. The Rose Festival offered an opportunity for these new social probationers to show that they also had as much sense and style as money. None of the old league would ever let them move up without a trial of fire. Those who tried to shortcut their climb to acceptance did not realize that tongues of fire would burn them no matter what they wore, especially if they tried too hard.
A week before the BAll, Betty-Ann's wardrobe and responsibilities were completed, and she could at least relax control and drive back inside herself. The ongoing campaign for Jane-Ann's selection as a future Rose Queen was in good shape , and now Betty-Ann could calmly away the arrival of the ball dress van from Dallas.
The conversation at Ruby Dillard's supper party Wednesday evening had been exclusively Rose Festival gossip. The ladies shared hints about their new wardrobes (especially their ball gowns), estimates of how much money the queen's family was spending, announcement of the importance of their coronation ball table location, and disclosures of the duchess' parents personal problems. They could wash anyone out of the social hierarchy with a downpour of belittlement.
This talk reminded Betty-Ann how vulnerable anyone of them were and set off an obsessive loop in her mind ab out her evening dress. Was it going to be envied or was it going to b e ridiculed? Was it too extreme? Was it too plain? Several of her friends' dresses sounded like better choices than hers. She had even considered the magenta dress that Ruby had purchases. Should she have bought that one? Her calm anticipation had been replaced by apprehension.
Images of her pink dress being mocked and disdained turned like to kaleidoscope in her mind, spawning a wave of foreboding. What was going to go wrong? It was easy to excuse herself from the party and leave, as she looked obviously ill. Betty-Ann tried to hold her panic in check; her dress would have arrived and been hung up in her closest when she returned home.
By the time Betty-Ann arrived home, stiff with foreboding, the tension in her neck and arms had pulled her in like a turtle into its shell. As she got out of her car, she pushed her head and arms away from her body, then hunched her shoulders over and squeezed her eyes together, trying to locate some pleasure in her body.
There was no ball dress when Betty-Ann looked in her closet. No one knew anything about it, not the housekeeper, not the maid, not the chauffeur. There had been a lot of confusion and traffic in front of the house during the day as Louise Miller, the next door neighbor, had been buried that afternoon,. She had unexpectedly died from a heart attack early the morning before. Betty-Ann had sent June-Ann, her ten-year old daughter, over with her respects and a squash souffle that mourning. She had never know Mrs. Miller well. She was a cheerful lady, but Betty-Ann never mixed much. P:people required concentration and that tired her out. She limited her aquantences to people she thought she needed in some way.
Betty-Ann hated to worry; it was common,. She denied to herself that the taut muscles and dread was worry, but this was a time for up front worry. Neiman's did not make mistakes!
Betty-Ann went to her bedroom to sit still and think. First, she must not take another drink until her images slowed down. Second, she Did buy the dress a month ago at Neiman's, didn't she? She ran the scene through her mind, slowly. Had it happened? Was she sure? June0Ann had been with her, hadn't she ? Her daughter could confirm the purchase, and June-Ann was there in the house now.
"Honey, remember the day we went to Neiman's and bought my coronation ball gown-that pale pink evening dress with the puffed sleeves and the full skirt?"
"Yes,mother."
Thank God! "And Neiman's was going to send it here in the van, just like always?"
"Yes mother."
"Then why isn't the dress here? Will you tell me that. Please! Will you call Neiman's, dear, and friend out what has happened to my dress, right now? I am too upset to talk to anyone. Why can't things go right!"
"Yes, mother."
What a relief!. Now that she knew that her mind was alright, and she had not messed up, Betty-Ann could loosen up and have a drink. June-Ann would handle things now. She could relax and fantasize suing Neiman's. No, not that!@ Better and safer, Mr. Marcus would send over a spectacular dress as a gift with one of his sons, who would beg her forgiveness.
Then Betty-Ann remembered that her dress was still missing. Her apprehension and tension returned. This was a time to pray.
"Dear Lord, I feel must ask about my dress. I am not upset with anyone. I am a very forgiving person." Prayer and a drink went well together, she felt so comfortable talking to God this way. She fixed another martini and decided to be very confidential.
"I've put a lot time and effort into finding the right dress, and it's been a strain on me. I'm going to relax and put my faith in you, enjoy myself this evening and forget about whatever has happened to the dress. I love being religious. Do you like pink satin?"
There, she couldn't think of any more to say that sounded right for the occasion. She had done all she could spiritually. The Lord and June-Ann would take care of everything. Betty-Ann felt so glowing and mystical that she began to hum a hymn.
A short time later June-Ann knocked on her door, "Mother, I found out what has happened to you dress!@"
Betty-Ann's prayer had been answered, sand so soon She was very impressed with herself!
"The driver's report at Neiman's says that he left the dress this morning at the Miller's house next door, because there was no answer at our door. He has a signed receipt for it, so it's alright. Everything is just fine. Do you want me to go over to get the dress?"
"Yes, dear, you are precious. Then bring it up there so we can discuss it. I want to hear the things you like about it again."
Betty-Ann expanded with pleasure, picturi9ng pink all around her. She heard the festival voices, "You look stunning! Well you've done it again! I could just kill you, I wanted that dress! you never looked better in your life! Best dressed woman in Tyler!..." CHoirs of praise and envy sang out in her visions.
When alcohol burned deep premonitions out of her, it was the best of times. Vodka lifted her up like a vibrating wind, ablaze and burning. Her would of unease went up in flames, and she floated off in billows of smoke.
"Mother! Oh, mother! Please wake up! I must talk to you now." June- Ann soon understood it was too late to talk to her mother this day. The Vodka bottle had turned over in the bed, the heavy fumes enveloping her mother, becoming an extension of her body. June-Ann gently molded towels under her mother's torso to soak up some of the liquor; then she sat down and laughed.
Betty-Ann woke up well before dawn with the soft endings of her nerves dissolved. Her unresponsive body ached with fatigue. In contrast, her mind exploded awake like a struck gong, while that body begged for silence. The tension between mind and body left her suspended in a black void that radiated from her chest. It was still a few hours till dawn and no way to distracts herself until the day started. Her mind was too agitated to read. She was to extinguish some part of herself.
The effort in finding another bottle downstairs was some distraction. It helped her to reach the bathroom and gulp down a glass of Vodka cut with water. She patiently waited for the mixture to retch back up into the sink. The second glass of diluted alcohol stayed down long enough to soak into her blood stream, reach her brain cells and spread throughout her body like a long kids's. Betty-Ann understood that this was a dangerous spiral, but first things first.
Safe now in a sedative phase before the agitation started again, she could plan to slow the down cycle during the day. Some sleeping pills tonight would give her rest, and put her back on course tomorrow.
She had fallen into the trap of quick bliss again. Working out of this trap was increasingly hellish, but everything had its price. Now she could sleep again until the start of the day.
June-Ann brought in her mothers' breakfast about seven a.m.. Betty-Ann lit a cigarette and smiled at her daughter.
"Well, I must've been so tired last night that I fell asleep before you came back from the Miller's. Thank you for not walking me u, darling. I must've needed the rest."
June-Ann did not look at the shaking hand and the jerky cigarette smoke. She pulled a chaise lounge to face the bed and looked at the floor.
"Darling, did you hang my dress sup in my closet and is it the right one/ Do yo like it?"
"Mother, about the dress. Now listen to me quietly. I ned to explain something to you."
Betty-Ann was alarmed. Had June-Ann decided she didn't like the dress? Had Neiman's messed the dress up?
"Mother, I went over last night and saw Mrs Muller's son and his wife. They were very nice. I apologized for bothering them and explained that your dress had been misdelivered. Mother, the truth of it is that the dress arrived yesterday morning and the family thought it was Mrs. Miller's dress. They were so touched that it would arrive like that, just before the funeral, that she had been buried in it."
"What! What are you saying June-Ann?!
"Mother, they buried Mrs Miller in your ball dress yesterday afternoon. They are so sorry, but they thought Louise had bought the dress for herself. They were very nice about it."
Betty-Ann felt a cold chill slither in her spine. She saw herself dead, laid out in the pink satin in a pink casket. She felt the ice cold dress around her body; the truth of it burned. She shrunk into her bed, heart pounding, picturing a pink death. Now she had to make a decision was she going to think about this dress or not? No, she would not! She3 rushed to the bath room and threw-up her coffee.
"June-Ann leave me alone, I'm going to sleep today."
June-Ann though her mother was accepting the news well. She was not yelling. But leave her alone in her room for the day? That mean another disaster. She needed to phone some adults.
The adults found the story of Louise Miller resting in Rose Hill Cemetery in Betty-Ann's ball gown so hilarious, that Betty-Ann found herself the center of the festival gossip that day.
Her maid gave her a B-12 vitamin shot at noon, and she felt sober enough to go to Ruby's house for lunch. Now everyone would be looking for her at the ball to inspect her replacement gown and to retell the story to their guests. She would get as much attention as the Rose Queen herself. This next gown purchase would be even more critical that the last one.
She heard that Louise Miller looked beautiful in the oink dress. Betty-Ann preferred a livelier color. |
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Betty-Ann Powelly had been completely sober, no alcohol or pills, for thirty-three days, managing her campaign of abstinence like the leader of an insurgent force.
As she peered out of her castoff cocoon, the objects in her life emerged as if from a dream. They took on color, shape, smell, and a solidity that had been only sensed up until the last thirty-three days. June-Ann, her ten-year old daughter, and Joetta, the cook, had run the house without her interference. Betty-Ann prided herself non not intruding in household decisions. She respected their knowledge and recognized her incomprehension of cooking and cleaning, keeping her attention on clothes.
The last month June-Ann had helped her mother locate the dinner plates and the cooking pots. Betty-Ann had never wondered where they were before. Now she noticed the colors of the kitchen and how the gas oven smelled. She discovered how to unlock and open the dinning room windows. All this was more taxing than she had expected-like being put in charge of a speeding train, which is what her life seemed like newly sober.
Betty-Ann knew that her liver was expiring before the doctor showed her the test results. From the corner of her eye she had watched Harland, her doctor husband, disintegrate from his edges to his center and back out again. She was clear that this time she must stay sober or die before her husband did.,and the children might not survive Harland's decomposition without her.
Each completed sober day was a surprising accomplishment to her, and thirty-three large, black x's on her ca lender hung as a personal anchor. Her main strategy was to watch fro possible traps, potholes in her path, so she kept a slow speed and steered around even slightly demanding situations. Since any activity sober was an intense experience. she tried to keep it simple.
She did not go out of the house, except to the grocery store with June-Ann or Joetta for lessons on food shopping. How to buy food seemed immensely complicated to her. How had a child and a black cook ever figured this out?
This morning a tricky situation arose. Dr. Powelly had forthrightly demand that she accompany him to his cousins's funeral in Dallas. She could not remember Dr. Powelly having ever spoken to her so directly.
"You're coming with me tomorrow, Betty-Ann. We're leaving at eight in the morning, and you're driving the car. The church service is at eleven. We will go directly there and then to the cemetery. Then we'll come straight home. I'm not going by my cousin's house. I don't feel the need."
She looked at him, wondering what this man knew of her? What had her last thirty-three days meant to him? Drive a car to a funeral? Strangers" Get dressed up and not drink? She searched through her mind for a map to the Dallas highway. She could not find a posture that seemed to fit, as her exterior and interior scenes often blended together and were fatiguing to try to differentiate. She was afraid to tell Harland that she couldn't even find the grocery by herself.
"I'll go with you, Harland, but you know I've no sense of direction. I'm much too nervous to drive a car. I can't do it! You know I'll do anything for you. I can not drive a car, dear! @We must find a driver to replace Bruno at once! You should never drive and neither should I."
Betty-Ann missed Bruno. If she had not screamed out in shock when she saw him looking through the heating vent above her bathtub, she would still have a driver. She was not clearheaded enough at the time to explain that scream to Harland, and keep Bruno out of it. He never would have bothered her, and he was such an addition to her life. She could have put a cover over the vent, and that would have been the end of it. Bad timing for both of them.
Betty-Ann missed Joyce also. She had been a wonderful maid, most of the time, and they had understood each other well. Joyce and gotten so drunk so often serving Sunday lunch that Betty-Ann had to fire her0 taking care of Harland and Joyce both drunk was beyo0nd her. While she was still drinking her household had seemed to be steadfast, now that she was sober it had become capricious.
Betty-Ann did drive to Dallas. Dr. Powelly's driver's license had been suspended for the second time, and she could not argue with that. Doctor knew the way to the downtown church in Dallas and coached her non-stop from their driveway into the church parking lot. Every moment of the drive had been vivid to her, but these moments slid together until no reliable memory was left of the trip. Dr. Powelly was to be a pall-bearer for his cousins' casket, and Betty-Ann didn't remember if he had forewarned her that she would be left alone when the service began. Abandoned and defenseless, she sat with the family. Sliding off her gloves into her purse, she felt overdressed and miserable in her black Neiman's suite and veiled hat. Doctor's poor relative ignored her, the one thing she could not stand.
Betty-Ann needed June-Ann here. Why hadn't she kept her out of school to accompany her? Harland should not have left her by herself, but should have insisted that she bring June-Ann and hired a driver for the trip. Harland was trying to sabotage her; she was sure of it. Betety0Ann tried to relate to the Baptist service, watching for some familiar Episcopal ritual to orient her, but the service was as plain as the church as the mourners surrounding her.
Following the ceremony, the casket was wheeled out the back of the sanctuary, and Harland disappeared following it. When she got to the front of the church a funeral attendant spoke to her. Thank God, someone was going to take charge of her now and get her to the cemetery, she though.
"Mrs. Powelly pull your car up here behind the pall-bearer's limousine, and you can follow them to the burial grounds."
"Bur who's going to come with me? Who's going to show me the way? I can't go by myself! I have to have a driver "
"Just follow this limousine in font of you, Mrs. Powelly, Dr. Powelly said he wishes to leave directly for Tyler after the burial. The cemetery is on the edge of downtown, just ten minutes from here. We're all ready to leave right now. We're just waiting for you bring your car up here."
Betty-Ann's mouth was too dry to respond. Abandoned again, she was in an automobile alone for the first time that she could remember. She concentrated on the black automobile in front as it pulled away with Dr's head in the middle of the back window as a target. She activated her courage by pretending that June-Ann and Joetta were there in the car with her.
She began a comforting conversation with Harland's head in the car in front, June-Ann beside her, and Joetta in the back seat. "Wonderful," the voices chattered, "Wonderful, you're so independent Betty-Ann beside her, and Joetta in the back seat, "Wonderful," the voices chattered, "Wonderful, you're so independent Betty-Ann and are doing so well. Aren't they lucky they've you to depend on!@ You should be very pleased with yourself!" And she was. The voices continued to congratulate her, to cheer her on, and to remind her to stop at the red light in front of her. Dr. Powelly's car did not stop at the light as his head flowed away in the traffic down the street.
"You dumb bastard!" Betty0Ann thought, "I know enough to stop at red lights. That driver isn't paying any attention to what he is doing . I'm a better driver than he is", and she smiled at her competence, sure that Doctor's car would be waiting for her at the next light or the next turn. A few blocks further on she followed the traffic as it veered off to the right, u a two lane ramp. A line o cars had slowed in front of her as they passed through a toll booth.
"Twenty-five cents lady, hurry up, please, you're slowing up traffic. You should've had your change ready."
"Here, take this dollar, and yo may keep the change. Where does this road go?"
"We don't take tips, lady. Here's your change. Where does this road go? It still goes to Ft. Worth, lady!. Please move on, quickly! Look, these cars are waiting on you."
Betty-Ann looked in their mirror at a line of auto lights lined up behind her. How odd, she thought, the lights must mean she should speed up. She speed off down the just opened Dallas-Ft. Worth Turnpike, a straight, flat, exit arrow before her. June-Ann and Joetta's vices stopped complementing her. They mumbled, "Something's wrong, Betty-Ann! This is not right!" They complained that the line of headlights were still closely following her, that the burial was not in Fort. Worth.
:This is not right, admit it, Betty-Ann!:
"No, no, no@! Go away. I won't think about it."
"Betty0Ann, you have lead the funeral procession onto the Ft. Worth turnpike.:
"All right, dam it, I'll go back!"
She found no exit until she reached Ft. Worth, then she pulled off the turnpike, around to the entrance, and up to the toll booth headed back to Dallas. This time she had the quarter ready.
"Stop, Betty-Ann, stop!", the voices urged her, "Pull over and talk to them!:
"Shut up! I'm going to lose them. I can't face those people. I'll die of shame! If I don't get away It'll just die!"
Betty-Ann decide dot race the damn cars; she could win! The automobile lights stayed right behind her like hounds from hell.. She pictured the burial service with Harland and the family waiting, waiting for the rest of the mourners. She had stolen the funeral procession, and it was sticking to her like a like of misdeeds.
She drove back into downtown Dallas and performed figure eights around the streets until the last of the limousine lights behind her disappeared. she was freed from the talking automobile's cargo of guilts, that had struck to her like body odor. Betty-Ann pulled the car over on a side steel, parked, and carried from relief. They were back there, cruising downtown, not too far away, looking for her right and left at the intersections, sure that she was missing them, searching for a home, orphaned memories.
Where could she go now not to meet up with them again? She could not think of one place where she had eve ben that the past would not meet her at the door with smiles and chains. She was thirty three days out of that past, out of spirals of enthrallment, out of a dreamy limbo.
Her breath awoke her as her chest expanded. Popping lose all over, her body eased off its powerlessness. Could breathing deeply loosened the past? Her heartbeat slowed down, and she looked around. Yes, she was there, quaking sober, and as long as she stayed there, wherever she was, he could stay liberated. |
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I did not realize the city would be so untouched by the wars and political reversals of it's history. I was awestruck that it had survived the destruction of World War II. Just as awestruck as I had been by the acres of vacant space in the middle of Warsaw, which I had just left a few days before. I was experiencing in the same week one city still unbelievably preserved and one city still unbelievably devastated ,only two summers before the end of the nineteen-Sixties.
I had never been in a city which felt so otherworldly. The stone walls and towers were covered with ornamental sculpture and statues - coats of arms, Lions, St. Michael, Apostles, grimm reapers and lute0palyers, Moses, Knights of the Cross, St. Francis, Madonnas, St. Wenceslas, birds, Turks, Queens, the Holey Trinity, copulas and lanterns, nymphs and satyrs, Holy Roman Emperors, horses, gargoyles, crucifixions, symbols of alchemy, martyrs, angles, dogs, clocks, gods and goddesses, nimbuses, dragons, ostriches - all stained dark-grey to black with the dirt of centuries. I saw all this though the dusty haze of the day summer air.
The noise of the city was solid mid-twentieth century auto engines, truck horns and radio music fading in and out.
Gargoyles above me as asphalt below me, the citizens passing by looking only slightly different than those at home. My European clothes blended smoothly with the flow of the crowd - my outside picture so similar, the inside pictures so incomparable, yet all so interdependent.
In contrast to this city Warsaw had insisted of new, square, faceless, low rise buildings surrounded by large ares of vacant grass covered land. The renovated boulevards rand form section to section in the center of the city through mostly empty land. My mind wanted to fill up these gaps with buildings and city stuff, but I couldn't picture what had been there before.
I barely remembered any of the city's and town of my childhood. I didn't believe anyone really remembere3d their childhood, but made up stories from what adults had told them. I had never felt it strange that I could remember only a scant amount of my youth. There were years of blankness in my memory with a landmark here and there, sometimes grouped together in periods of time, and sometimes standing isolated with barren space surrounding them.
I could remember when 1070 had seemed like science fiction future, but here I was near to that time alive and functioning rather well. seemingly untouched by life according to some of my friends, who were unaware of what lay under the untouchableness.
I had spent a wonderful day in the company of Major Jiru, who was leaving in a few days to begin his post as his country's cultural attache in Paris. He had flown out of London with the Royal Air Force during the war, and for that service had been imprisoned for twelve years by his country's post-war communist government, and politically rehabilitated only a few months previously. In spite of this past he was so full of peace and goodwill and enthusiasm for his life that he seemed in a state free of resentment or bitterness.
Vaclav Jiru was the physical model of the native son, healthy and athletic appearing with light blue eyes and sandy hair. Always a light smile as he spoke English, lightly accented with germanic sibilants and British vowels. He filled the pace around himself with relaxed easy movements that showed me a capacity for congruence with life. I felt I fitted into my own space when I was around him.
that afternoon we met with a friend of Vaclav's, an army General. They were both so optimistic that the new political freedoms would continue and expand and were certain that the Russian Army would not move against them. I couldn't understand this certainty, even though the General had just returned from Moscow and should certainly know.
The entire city and , I suppose, the entire country was swept away with the intoxication of choices The freedom to think out loud appeared to have put the city ont a trance. The races on the greyest, in the shops, absolutely everywhere were euphoric. The eyes of everyone I spoke with ere giddy with listening to ideas and opinions spoken out in the open.
Small groups formed on the street when two people stopped to speak, listening with such care and respect and even affection. I think it was quality of the listening that touched affection. I think it was quality of the listening that touched me so, that keep me moving to groups all over town still talked that evening. I would say something in each group just to feel a part of the communion, and they were always polite no matter how inappropriate my statements were.
I had met a student named Jaro during a city tour the day of my arrival in Prague. He was the assistant to the official government guide. Jaro was as American looking as he could name himself, in this early twenties with a pale and pimply face. He spoke a fluent american slang with jerky movements of his head and upper body.
the guide in charge was a stern, black haired woman, who gave only the text book government issue tour. Jiru repeatedly inserted sarcastic, joking remarks about he Russians into her dead pan delivery. Whenever Jaro bounded a joke off on of her factual statements, her body would stiffen and I would feel a subsonic growl.
Jaro became increasingly insulting towards anything the russian during the tour. As the tour leader's body stiffened to the point of shattering, Jaro's movements became more acrobatic. He would sway with little dance steps, bob and roll his head, and chortle and chuckle, as he grew into his performance. He was inebriated with new found freedom, but along with his laughter I felt some sobs and tears.
The tension had unnerved me, and I was exhausted the end of the tour. Jaro had picked me as an ally and buddy early in the day. Usually anyone associated with a tourist office assumed I was with intelligence. The political officers were always buddying up to me, especially in Moscow and Keive, and were soon saying "I want to see you alone, you know what I want to stalk to you about don't you?", or something very similar, and I did know. I knew also that I had to be careful not to compromise myself, but I was not always successful. The russian border guards had paid so much Special attention to me the lasts time I passed their border back into Poland, that I knew I was on at least one list.
But Jar seemed so genuinely naive that I let him some with me to eat and hangout in the squares and parks. We stayed in touch by phone or visit often for the rest of my stay.
I had obtained a room through the government tourist office with a family named Bogdavona, near the Carles river about a mile form the American embassy and about two miles form the main railroad terminal. Their apartment was on the fourth floor of a small, prewar, plain building. the windows of my room faced out onto the main street below, and my room opened though frosted french doors to the hallway of the family's apartment.
I noticed nothing untypical about the family or the situation and paid little attention to it. So I wen to bed after that evening not noticing or caring that it was August 20th, 1968. |
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5 Day Two
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I was awoken by the telephone ringing in the hallway early in the morning. The sky through my window looked like dawn. I could hear Mrs. Bogdanova becoming more excited as she spoke for what seemed to me a long time. She mentioned an American and I assumed that she was speaking about me. My thought to myself was "Ah, a long distance call from home wishing me a belated birthday.", but as I waited for her to knock on my door I fell back to sleep.
Then at 6:00 she started knocking on the french door and calling me. I was very sleepy from having been up so late wondering around the city the night before. I could not understand either her Czech or her German. She bought her dictionary up under my face and keep stabbing at it, reparting several German words that my brain just did not connect with. Finally I got the word "Uberfal", i.e. sudden attack. I thought she meant that the borders had been attacked. Her poor knowledge of German with my poor knowledge Czech only brought forth confusion, so I phoned the American Embassy.
The official American Embassy's attitude though this whole traumatic even for the Czech people was a cool indifference, not only to the native populace but to the American citizens inside Czechoslovakia also. The Embassy claimed to know nothing of of the ordinary and advised me just to stay at home.
So I phoned Jaro. Jaro bust forth information thorough gasps of breath. Russian tanks and troops completely occupied the city and the country, the Czech army was looked up in its barracks and the country's political leadership was imprisoned. He wanted to come right over so could take him to the American Embassy. I knew that would be pointless for him to go there, but also pointless for me to tell him that.
Jaro was panicked and grief stricken when he arrived. I followed him, half running, out into the street towards the American Embassy and we headed directly into a line of Russian tanks and armored cars. I was stunned by the small of the billowing grew exhaust fumes of the tanks. One tank and then another would abruptly disappear behind a puff of gray smoke, which would then tumble across the paving stones to the buildings on both sides of the street. The dirty smoke seemed to rumble as it rolled and bounced up the carved and graffitied facades to disperse in the hazy warm air of the August sky.
Dark green helmeted shoulders were couched behind the mounted machine guns on the armored cars, and the cannons of the tanks were pointed currently down the street toward Jaro and myself. My breath rose up in my chest and stayed there.
The steams of tanks, armored car and buses of soldiers moved on toward Prague Castle square where the Government was held, taking no notice of me.
One side of this street happened to be Czech army barracks. Impressive stone buildings no different from their neighbors open either side of the street. The young solders hang on the bars and peered out at the passing parade of Russians filling their city. |
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6 Newspaper Obituary Clips
1 Obituary for James Kyle
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BLACKSBURG ROYAL ARCH CHAPTER
April 7, 1952
Most Excellent High Priest and Companions of Blacksburg Royal ARch Chapter No. 65:
WHEREAS: It has pleased the Supreme Architect of the Universe to call from this life to the met our faithful friend and companion, J.M. Kyle and
WHEREAS: In the death of Companion Kyle, masonry has lost a faithful and loyal member, his wife a kind and loving husband, his children a devoted father and a wise and patient counselor, and the community a trustworthy and exemplary citizen. His sterling character was admired by all who knew him. His high minded sense of duty to his work and to the public, his kindness to all, and his understanding nature reflected his truly Christian character.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That we bow in humble submission to the will of him who doeth all things well. Saying, "Thy Will, not ours be done."
AND BE IT FORTHER RESOLVED: That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the minutes of this chapter and a copy sent to the family for our deceased Companion. |
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2 Retired lawyer dies at 85
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Frank J. Manhart, a retired lawyer who specialized in civil cases for more than 50 years, died today in a local hospital after a long illness.
Mr. Manhart, 85, lived at 4403 Forest Hill Ave.
A native of Hampden County, Mass, Mr. Manhart moved to Richmond when he was 11 years old. He graduated from the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond.
After graduation, he went into private practice. "He never took criminal cases though," said his sister, Mrs. Katherine M. Hake of Richmond.
Mr. Manhart retired in the mid-1960s.
On the side, Mr. Manhart wrote several poems and books, including "The Historical Sketch of East Realm," "Palin Folk," "Down My Way' and "Our Land," He was listed in Who's Who of International Authors and Writers.
Mr. Manhart was a former member of the Virginia Bar Association.
Survivors, besides Mrs, Have, include another sister, Mrs. Frieda M. Kyle of Blacksburg; and two brothers George D. Manhart of Chester and John C. Manhart of Richmond.
A graveside service will be held Monday at 1 p.m. at Oakwood Cemetery. |
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Family 
