FanStory.com - Lead-In to an Humble Beginningby BethShelby

The strands of DNA, which would come together to create the person who would be me, was fated to occur in the state of Mississippi. All of those people, I would later learn were my ancestors, had been in the state for several generations before I entered the scene. Most of them had lived in the east central part of the state in a little town called Newton. Even before that, they had been in the U.S. long enough for most all of their European traits to have disappeared into the rich southern soil.

Why my ancestors chose Mississippi was likely due to the fact they’d heard something about free government acreage to the homesteaders, and being a land owner meant everything. Unfortunately, that free land had once belonged to the Native American tribes which the government had started systematically taking by wars and treaty agreements. In 1833, most of the Indians were being removed and assigned to designated reservations. There is much of history that seems unfair. Still, my people took advantage of what was offered. I only hope they had no active part in pushing out the rightful owners of the land.

I am sorry to say that living in this part of the world where slavery was a way of life, left most people in the state prejudiced, whether they owned slaves or not. It is a curse which has to be unlearned over time, and many are still in the process.

Because the KKK became active shortly after the Civil War ended, the races didn’t trust each other. Most of the whites were convinced crimes were more likely to be committed by the black population. This was likely the case, because by making the schools inferior and the wages low, poverty was created. Crimes are more frequent in areas where the population survives in poverty and lack of education.

Although I seldom heard it discussed, the KKK was still a poorly kept secret among certain groups of people. Thankfully, it was not something anyone in my immediate family participated in. Most of the members of my family had been landowners and farmers before I came along, but only a few were slave owners. They seemed to have enough children in their families to take care of the work requirements.

My mother's father was a widowed farmer with six boys and five girls. He married my grandmother who was also a young widow with two children. Her husband who was in community law enforcement had been murdered by a suspected thief. Lucille was the youngest of the two children born to that union. Mom’s blended family consisted of 15 children. Of all those children, only two of the boys chose to be farmers and two of the girls married farmers.

On my dad's side, his father, Ebenezer Weir, was a ‘jack of all trades’ as someone was called who had their hands into many different ways of producing income. He came from a family who operated grist mills and did farming on the side. My grandfather was not only a miller, a farmer, a brickmaker, a syrup maker, a blacksmith, a bee keeper, the owner of a country store, a lumberman, a carpenter, a part-time dentist and barber, but he had also, patented and distilled an acid from the soil which people in the community considered a cure-all. In spite of all this, he seldom had over a dollar and some nickels and dimes to his name. He was self-sufficient and money just wasn’t that important.

My paternal grandparents lost their first child, a little girl, at birth. After Glover was born, his mother was advised that having more children could cost her life. Since Glover grew up as an only child and was never around small children, he was convinced he didn’t want children of his own. Lucille, on the other hand, was used to a big family and although she was the baby of her family, she was always around children of her older siblings, and she had dreams of growing up to be a mother as well.

Although Glover was a good student, he wasn’t happy with the fact that his parents didn’t see to it he had nice clothes to wear. When his years in a one room country school ended in eighth grade, and the students were sent to school in town, he decided continuing to wear overalls to school would be embarrassing. He needed to find a job so he could earn money with which to afford appropriate clothing. He dropped out of school and managed to find work at one of the local stores, cleaning up and stocking shelves. He soon had a better wardrobe and an old A-model car to drive. It was 1925, and he was well respected in the general store where he worked.

Glover’s uncle had married Lucille’s older sister, so although they were weren't related, they were destined to meet through mutual family ties. Although, they were acquainted as children, Glover was five years older than Lucille, and they didn’t become interested in each other, until Lucille was 16 and Glover was 21.

By that time, Lucille was in high school and had hopes of finishing her senior year and going on to college. She had an older brother who had been in the Navy. After his stint with the military, he had gotten a job as a policeman in Detroit. He was sending money to his little sister to buy clothes for school. He wanted her to move to Michigan, attend the University and be the first one in the family to get a college degree.

However, the best laid plans often change. Two years later, Lucille’s brother had married a Canadian girl. Since he now had a wife to support and the possibility of starting a family, she felt bad about continuing to take his money.

Glover had established himself in retail sales. The store owner had thoughts of opening a business in Knoxville, Tennessee and having Glover manage it. Glover was anxious for the opportunity, but he dreaded the thought of leaving his girlfriend behind. Lucille was now seventeen and about to begin her senior year. When he told her about the possibility of a move and asked her if she would marry him, she agreed to marry him and move to Knoxville if the job came through. Her stipulation was, until they knew if they would be moving, the marriage would be kept secret. If for some reason the job didn’t materialize, she would continue living with her parents and graduate from high school. The school didn’t encourage married students to attend.

Glover agreed and they were married by a Justice of the Peace in August of 1932. Within a week, the secret was out. They hadn’t realized, the local paper would carry a list of those who had applied for a marriage license. The Great Depression which had started in 1928 with the stock market crashing and the banks failing, at first, had not had a great impact on the little town of Newton. Now it was starting to be felt all over the country. It was showing signs of deepening, rather than abating. Glover was fortunate to have work at all. His boss decided it wasn’t a good time to open a new business in a larger city.

Lucille was disappointed they wouldn’t be moving to Knoxville. She had always wanted to live near the mountains. She had seen the Appalachian Mountains once when she was 13. Her brother had taken her all the way to Michigan and back. For a little country girl, it had been the adventure of a lifetime. Now, she tried to refocus on the idea she might never again have an opportunity to escape living in a small town. Also, the idea of graduation was out. She had made an adult decision. The time had come to focus on being a wife.

Neither Lucille's nor Glover’s families had ever gone into debt. They had both been raised with the idea that if you don’t have enough money to buy what you need, you would have to let it go until you do. Now with the banks unstable, it certainly wasn’t a time to be borrowing money.

Glover’s dad had moved the family closer into town several years before to make it more convenient for Glover to get to work. The old unpainted wooden house which they’d purchased had four rooms that could be used as bedrooms. Only one of them was heated by a fireplace. His mother’s unmarried brother and sister lived with the family. Glover’s parents were happy with having Lucille in the family. They suggested the two of them stay with them as long as they needed to. It wasn’t an ideal arrangement, and the couple determined that they would do everything in their power to get their own place as soon as possible.

Glover looked into the possibility of buying some acreage that joined the 15 acres his father owned. The man who owned it agreed to sell him 15 more acres on credit for $400.00. He would carry the loan without interest. The agreement called for them to pay $100 a year for the following four years. To go into debt went against everything they believed, but this was a neighbor who he felt he could trust. He had a little money saved, but he would need that for building materials. Land wouldn’t be of much use without a house. Would he be able to build a house and still manage to save a hundred dollars a year from his small salary? He’d have to try. He had a wife to support.

Glover’s dad, Ebb was handy with a hammer, having built many barns, a mill and other out buildings as well as assisting other people as they built their own houses. Many in the community respected him and felt obligated to give their time to help with the construction. Glover and Lucille sketched out a simple plan for a two-bedroom house. Although they knew they would have to make do with an outdoor toilet, they included a small space where an indoorone could be added later.

Ebb made a dowsing rod with a balanced tree branch and went over the land looking for an underground stream. A well would need to be near the house. It had to be dug first, so where water could be located would determine the spot where the house would be built. Lucille had hoped the house could be on the small hill nearer to Glover’s dad’s place. However, the dowsing rod showed an underground stream fairly near the surface further over in a lower spot. This would leave the hill between the two houses. The well diggers didn’t have to go too deep to find the water.

Some of the lumber for the studs and rafters were gleaned from older houses that had been torn down. Getting lumber this way was much cheaper and sometimes free for dismantling. The simple house went up quickly. Since the construction was done in the spring, the couple left it unsealed, hoping to be able to make it more airtight before winter.

Laying a brick chimney took the longest, but Ebb, in spite of being crippled with arthritis, headed up the project and had his hands in every phase of the work. He made the concrete foundation stones and would have made the brick, but they were able to find enough brick from an older house which had been toppled by a storm. After purchasing the recently milled and roofing material, all of the money Glover had saved back had been used.

With a roof over their heads and some donated furnishings, the newlyweds moved in. Lucille started a garden immediately. Their plan was to later seal the rooms and to add porches as they could afford them. So far, the house in its unfinished state was at least paid for. Now to come up with the mortgage money by August.

The couple was, at last, in their own home with more privacy. Living in an unfinished house was a bit like camping out, but being young and full of energy they were content to work hard and plan for the future.

Lucille had gotten up enough courage to mention the possibility of starting a family. She was shocked and disappointed to learn that Glover didn’t really want children. Seeing how this upset his wife, he reasoned with her they might think about it further down the road, but until the land was paid off, and they had a finished house, it wasn’t a good time to consider having children.

One of Glover’s friends, who worked at the local pharmacy, had given them a huge box of rubbers as a gag gift. Glover had every intention of seeing to it there would be no children in the near future. He was very grateful for something his friend had tried to pretend was only a joke.

Winter found them still without the funds needed to make the place more livable. They wore heavy clothes and hovered around the fireplace, shivering as snowflakes drifted through the cracks left in the walls by the shrinking recently milled green lumber which had been used to board up their house. The first mortgage payment was paid on time, leaving three more to go.

With so many people dying that winter from flu and pneumonia, Lucille had to admit, now wasn’t a good time to start a family. However, her dream was still alive. There was plenty of time to have a child. After all, she was only 18. She would have been disappointed if she had known that time was still nearly five years in the future when she would give birth to her only child, a little girl she would call Beth.

Glover Weir - My father (An only child)

Ebenezer or Ebb Weir - his father

Lucille Lay Weir - His wife and my mother (She comes from a blended family of 15)

People seem to think there are a lot of characters, but only these three are important to the story and are mentioned by name. I'll will be their only child and will be arrive by chapter three.