Son, Addie Crum, my great grandfather
Family roots have become so important to me over the past few years. I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to my “first greats”. These are my great grandparents. Some of them I was blessed to meet on this side of Heaven and some I sure hope to get to meet on the other side.
John T. Branham (Pap) was married to Nancy Dixon (his first wife) and they were blessed to have 3 children. Nancy died and Pap married my great grandmother, Martha Alice Mollett. Pap and my Mam had 9 children and possibly even a set of twins not counted in the 9. Pap walked with a crutch when he got older. He was cutting cap boards (I sure hope that’s the right word for them cause that’s how I heard it when the story was told anyway) for the mines on a sawmill and a belt broke. Flew back and hit him right in the hip. My Uncle Benny was about hip high to him about then and standing right beside of him. If it had hit Uncle Benny, it surely would have killed him right there on the spot. Mam and Pap were good people. Kept a cellar full of food and when folks were in need of anything, I’m told they just went down to Mam’s. She’d always give them double what they asked for. You ask for a cup of sugar, she’d give you two cups. Edith Mollett, a neighbor on the holler, told me once Pap had the best watermelon patch ever too and if the kids were out playing and got hungry, Mam would give them a biscuit and tell them to go get some green onions out of the garden. It sure wasn’t a happy meal or even a lunchable but I bet it was the best thing ever to eat on a hot summer day when the playing was hard on a body!
My great grandmother, Viola Crum, married Zeb Mollett. Zeb was not my great grandfather. Viola had one child before she married him and that was my grandmother. How I wish I had known Grandma Viola. From what I heard, she died sitting in a chair one night not long after she had moved to be closer to my mamaw. She had cooked supper the night before for one of her grand daughters. Fried potatoes, I can almost smell them cookin’ now. She lived across the road from Nim Sturgill there at Hurricane or as we call it “Haricun”. Nim noticed the light on and it was awful early. He was worried and walked over to see about her. That’s when he found her. She died in 1951.
Ballard Butcher married Lura Deboard and they are my maternal great grandparents. I don’t know much about Paw Butcher, he died in 1942. If anybody in the Boons Camp or Whitehouse area of Johnson County had a baby, you can just about bet either Maw Butcher or Kate Ward delivered it. Maw Butcher smoked a corn cob pipe and kept a bucket of rocks on the porch to keep the dogs away. Not that I think she’d ever try to hurt one too bad!
My last set of great grandparents I want to introduce you to were the ones I knew best. Addie Crum married Effie Penix and lived and raised their children at the head of Buttermilk at Boons Camp in Johnson County. We all called them Paw and Maw. Oh my eyes fill with tears now when I think of them. Paw taught us how to rub our heads and pat our bellies at the same time..or was that the other way around. He could twiddle his thumbs better than anybody I ever knew. He played Big Black Bear with us and I just loved him. He loved my Maw Crum better than anything I reckon. I heard a story about when he died. I think he knew something just wasn’t right and he didn’t want Maw to know or to see him die, so he walked up into the garden. He kept the prettiest garden ever was. My Uncle Freddie found him in the garden. I guess he’d had a heart attack. From what I understand, they got him back to the house and he died sitting in his rocking chair. I was 6 years old.
My Maw Crum lived until 1983, the year I graduated high school. She died that same summer. Maw was a hoot for sure! I grew up in the United Baptist Church and was a member there until after I married. United Baptist’s practice footwashing and I’ll never ever forget washing her feet. She was the prettiest thing ever when she shouted! Big words kinda threw Maw off a little bit though. Like, the county doctors name was Dr. Belhasen, she couldn’t think of that, so she just called him Dr. Eisenhower. Once after she started getting sick, she ran off from the fine daughters and grand daughters lookin’ after her and they couldn’t find her. She was hiding out behind the barn watchin’ them look for her. I know she was just a giggling!! She also made them paint her whole house before she passed. She said she just couldn’t die in a dirty house!! I loved her so much!
These folks are a part of me, forever in my heart. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about them and sometimes when I’m going through life struggles, I wonder what Maw or Paw or Mamaw or Papaw or Grandma would do. And it helps me to press on just a little harder and little longer.
I just wanted to take the time to introduce you to some of my family! They were all pretty good folks if I do say so myself!
May God Bless you and keep you is my prayer!
Water from the Well 