My Recollections of Mama & Papa (part 2)

 

The Garden Plow like Papa would use for his massive garden.

My Daddy- Truman Quillen Sr.   Mama-Ella Vermell King   Papa-Charles Franklin McNair

 In 1990, I returned home (Vernon) so that Daddy could drive me around the county to revisit all of the old homesteads. On our visit to Lockett, the Baptist Church was still standing strong, but the little green brick house was abandoned and mostly in a dilapidated state.  It was actually open and we were able to peak in. There was an old wooden chair that I picked up and brought home, but there is no certainty that it belonged to Mama and Papa. It is identical to another chair that I have that I am certain belonged to Papa.  Daddy explained to me that somewhere in the time frame of 1923, he and Papa built two homes, one on the farmland east of town (that mother and daddy moved into) and the other was the little green house in Lockett where Mama and Papa lived. This makes sense because Papa listed his profession in 1910 as a carpenter. Daddy explained how they even made the bricks (and sun dried them) that were used on the exterior walls. Papa did the framing.

 Stories that I heard about them that I remember most:

 When my grandmother (Ava) gave birth to her first child, Jo, it was a difficult labor. Jo was stuck in the birth canal. It was a home birth, and when Jo finally made her way into the world, all hope was given up that she would live through the night. Ella stayed up all night extracting mucus/debris from Jo’s airways. Jo survived, though she was deformed from being in the birth canal too long. I was blessed to grow up knowing Jo as I learned how to see her as a person, rather than seeing her as a deformed person.

 Papa was always dedicated to preaching the gospel. He was a ‘hell, fire and brimstone’ preacher. I was able to secure some of his thoughts in letters that he wrote to his son and grandson. I have pictures of him baptizing people in the river.

 Mama and Papa were the ones that took in Mother’s (Carolita Jones Quillin) family,  (J.C. Jones and Ava and FIVE children) when their home was destroyed by fire. They had nothing but the shirts on their backs, and Mama and Papa took them and bought clothes and shoes.  They provided shelter for the Jones family until J.C. could secure another dwelling.

 Possession from Mama and Papa that I have – bible, Hull vase, iron skillet

Puritanism

Wording taken from my textbook

The American Tradition in Literature Vol. 1  4^th ed.  By Bradley, Beatty, Long, Perkins, 1974.

The earliest English Puritans were devout members of the Church of England wishing to simplify the creeds and rituals of the bishops, but still no official break was intended.  But in 1633, Archbishop Laud became the tyrant determined to root out “Calvinist” dissenters, both Presbyterians and Puritans.  The Puritans carried the tenets of John Calvin (1509-1564) most closely, but were unwilling to submit to the abusive and cruel laws.  The ideas of Martin Luther (1483-1546) the earlier reformer, later became a permanent influence on American democracy.  However, Luther’s authority was shattered wherever his words were received.  The Calvin doctrine believed, like the Catholics, that the church should be independent.  The state should be its servant.  So in early New England the leading clergymen, powerful and well-trained were for a time the dominating authority, but by 1700 their civil powers were crumbling under new secular influence.  Calvin and the Puritans put emphasis on man’s original sin, with Adam’s fall from grace, and nothing could mitigate the original sinfulness of his nature.  This gave the Puritan stereotype the dour, prudish standards for which they are known.  Yet the Puritans in general were lovers of life, their clergy were well educated scholars, they did not forbid gaily colored clothes (they were just not available), they developed pleasing architecture and good arts and crafts, they like the drink even if they despised the drunkard, and they made religious thought a rigorous intellectual discipline.  They were the colonists to insist on common schools, they had the first college (Harvard 1636), the first printing press (Cambridge 1638), and they were responsible for the abundant literature created in the colonies before 1740.   In their influence on American life, there is more to bless them for than to condemn.  They DID have extreme zealots among them, over-interpreting their dogmas and despising this mortal life in contrast to the next.  The same zealots, during an outbreak of hysterical superstition, persecuted the “witches.”