Ella McNair's Treasures

 These are in the possession of my cousin, Pamela Jackson Torbet.

Hull pottery

Limoges China

Ella McNair's Iron

 In possession of Pamela Jackson Torbet

Ella Vermell (King) McNair

 The following was written in 1990 and sent to me by Ella's daughter, Ova. Ova was my grandmother's sister. I remember the first time I talked to her on the phone, I cried because her voice sounded like Mimi (Ava Ella McNair Jones).

 RECOLLECTIONS FROM A DAUGHTER

                   by Ova Orene (McNair) Kerr

  
     Mama first saw Papa when he came to their house to apply
for a teacher's job.  Mama's father, W. L. King, was on the
school board.  Mama and Aunt Rilla were together in the
field, each saying, "He's mine."  They threw cotton balls at
him.
 
     Mama and Rilla eventually went to school under Papa.
Mama said that when she could she would slip out for school
with her Sunday dress on.
 
     Papa could have made a Red Skelton type of comic.  He
would put on skits at B.Y.P.W. socials and have everyone
convulsed with laughter, me included.  He did "Mary Had a
Little Lamb" laughing and then crying, I remember.
 
     Papa was a good preacher.  I've never had a pastor that
comes up to him.  He was well-read and studied a lot.  The
librarian at Vernon said he read more than anyone, and I read
most of the books he checked out.
 
     I attended Lockett School from the 5th grade to the 10th
grade.  We walked nearly 2 miles to and from school.  The car
was îÑïÑôÑ used to take us.  Early in the 1930's during January,
there was a family of seven that Papa was taking care of.
Ice covered the ground for nearly the whole month, but every
morning, Papa would take a kettle of hot water, start the
Model A and take fresh butter, milk, oranges, etc., to this
large family.  They lived miles in the country.
 
     He never aspired to be more than a country preacher.
That's what he wanted to be.  He took care of his flock.
 
     One member was having trouble with alcohol.  Papa
learned that the problem stemmed from this man's visits to
town on Saturday nights.  Papa went to town with him for six
weeks.  The man told him, "I think I'm okay."  But Papa
insisted on several more weeks.  The man overcame his
problem.
 
     In his later years, Papa ran into a man in Vernon who
introduced Papa to his friend as the man who saved his life.
The man had been very ill and was dying from an infected
tooth.  The Dr. had told this man that he should call his
minister.  When Papa arrived, he asked for lots of chewing
tobacco and used this with hot water and spent the night
placing hot packs on the man.  The man recovered.
 
     I never saw Papa or Mama sick until they were on their
death beds.  Papa was 90.  Mama was 81.
 
     I still use some of the remedies they used.
 
     Mama was an "angel" as my sister Lillian said to me
before her death.  Mama was the oldest child in a family of
10 girls and 4 boys.  she helped raise at least 10 of them.
No one could claim a better family than hers.
 
     Mama was very strong - physically, emotionally and
spiritually.  I cannot remember a single quarrel between Mama
and Papa.  With us, she was the kindest and most genteel
person one could imagine.  She never exhibited anger towards
me.  She loved everyone and never gossiped or maligned
anyone.
 
     While at Lockett where Papa was Pastor 10 years, she
served as a midwife with the doctor for many church members.
This was true of other pastorates as well.
 
     Mama canned and put up jelly and preserves.  She quilted
and sewed.  She shared with neighbors and us.  I've known her
to take many lovely trays of meals to the sick or shut-ins.
 
     Proverbs 31:10-31 was read at her funeral and described
her perfectly.  I still miss her.

Ella Vermell (King) McNair

In 1991, I put together my first booklet for the McNair family. I was a fledgling genealogist and I had the help of my mother and my grandmother's sister, Ova McNair Kerr. This post is what Mother (Carolita Quillin) wrote for that booklet.

RECOLLECTIONS FROM A GRANDDAUGHTER
 
          by Carolita Jones Quillin - September 1990
 
 
I REMEMBER MAMA.  Her name was Ella.  I called her Mama.....
 
     Ella Vermell King McNair was born November 6, 1883 in
Dalton, Georgia, Murray County.  She was the first of 14
children born to William Lazarus and Emily Melissa Hulsey
King.  When Ella was 7 years old in the year 1890, the family
moved from Georgia to Texas in covered wagons.  There were 6
children at that time.  They settled in Erath County at Bluff
Dale.  One sister was born there.  The family then moved to
Moody, Texas, in McLennan County (Waco area).  There, 4 more
sisters and 1 brother was born.
 
     One of Ella's school teachers was Frank McNair.  She
married him on June 6, 1903, in Bethel Baptist Chapel,
Bethany, Texas, McLennan County.  After their marriage,
Ella's parents moved to Tye, Texas, in Taylor County in 1903.
Ella's first child, Ava, was born 21 April 1904, in Eddy,
Texas, McLennan County.  When Ava was 19 days old, Ella and
Frank moved to Abilene, Texas, Taylor County, in 1904.
 
     After their move to Abilene sometime between 1905-06, a
son, Bernie, was born.  Frank took Bernie fishing with him
and they sat on the damp ground.  Bernie took acute Brights
Disease and lived only 5 days.  He is buried in Jones County,
somewhere near Leuders and Avoca.  There is a place there
called Bunkers Hill (Fort Phantom Hill?) where at one time a
battle was fought.  Ella and Frank were crushed by his death
and Frank never wanted anyone to mention him.  Ella had saved
one of his little suits and a pair of his button-up high top
shoes.  When Frank found out she had them stored along with
the love letters he had written her, he was very unhappy.
When Ella was stricken with  a stroke and was in the
convalescent home, Frank burned the clothes and all the
letters and tore up the trunk they were stored in.  They said
Bernie looked like Ella.  He had dark skin and eyes.
     A brother of Ella's, Perry King who was an ordained
Baptist minister, baptized Frank.  Ella had another brother,
Boyd King, who was in full time ministry.  Boyd was a singer,
and he would lead the singing and Perry would preach in
revivals.  Frank said he received a call to be a preacher in
1902, but he didn't surrender to the ministry until 1909.
Another daughter, Ova, was born in 1913.  Lillian, the fourth
child, was born in 1914.  Ella went with Frank a lot as he
traveled throughout surrounding counties as an Associational
Missionary. They traveled by horse and buggy.
 
     Ella was a slender, gaunt person.  Her skin was olive,
and her hair and eyes were dark.  Her eyes were piercing.
She always claimed that her people were Black Dutch from
Wales.  She wore her hair combed back from her face and in a
bun held in place by big, brown hair pins at the nape of her
neck.  I never remember her wearing but one style of shoe,
black ones that laced in front with a clunky heel, and she
always wore them with heavy, cotton stockings.  She was a
dutiful and devoted wife and mother.
 
     Ella was a very reserved person, and there was never
very much nonsense about her.  The family was loving, but not
at all demonstrative with their affection.  She had a sense
of humor and I can still hear her "guffaw" and say, "oh,
pshaw" when she was amused.
 
     Ella and Frank raised very large gardens, and they spent
their time during the growing season tending it.  They canned
and preserved almost everything they ate.  They had a cellar
with many shelves filled with jars of beautiful fruits and
vegetables of every kind.  She was a good cook and made the
best biscuits I ever ate.
 
     We went to visit them, but not very often.  We would
always have to spend the night.  I always loved going to
their house.  They had a piano and I thought all their stuff
and their house was really neat and different from what I was
used to.  They came to visit us, too, every once in awhile.
 
     She was healthy and never went to the doctor much.  They
would use old home remedies and methods in treating aches,
hurts, and pains.  I remember they would drink sassafras tea.
Ella was a coffee lover and drank lots of it.  She dipped
snuff but was clean and discreet about it.  There were always
spit cans sitting around.  Frank dipped snuff too, and they
kept us in drinking glasses that they bought their snuff in.
 
     In 1953 Ella and Frank celebrated their Golden Wedding
Anniversary at their home in Lockett.  Thirty members of the
family gathered for lunch and throughout the afternoon
approximately 150 guest attended the celebration.  When Ella
died, they had been married 61 years.
 
     Ella suffered a stroke, and she was in the Vernon Clinic
Hospital in Vernon, Texas, for a short time.  Then she was
moved to a nursing home on Texas Street in Vernon.  Her
condition deteriorated progressively, and she didn't know
anyone.  The doctors wanted to amputate a leg, but Frank
wouldn't consent to it.  Ava and Lillian stayed with her
around the clock for the last month of her life.  After 6-8
months, she died on October 15, 1963.  Ella was buried in
Wilbarger Memorial Park in Vernon, Texas, Wilbarger County.
 

Be Mindful

 

mindful vs mind full image - Bing images

Sensical Approach to Cultural War

“This country was born in turmoil and conflict.”

 https://th.bing.com/th?id=OSK.HEROIdQaj2R3UW0s9xUpXFRGNzKcl5d0-nQ1XWS8p81Uk3w&w=280&h=165&c=15&rs=2&o=6&dpr=1.3&pid=SANGAM

I’ve done a lot of soul searching since the pandemic when the world seemed to be turned upside down. In May 2021, my own neighborhood was invaded by The Black Lives Matter organization which was resisting police order. My neighbor was part of the police organization. It was disturbing and thought provoking. I spent time wondering what I have missed and how maybe my own perspective is distorted. Then I found an article written from an interview with Annette Gordon-Reed. Annette is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer. This article was about her book The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.  I think she covers it quite nicely.

As a child Annette loved to read, more specifically biographies. She read about George Washington Carver, George Washinton, Thomas Jefferson, Dolley Madison, etc. Jefferson was the most interesting to her because he loved to read, and he wrote the Declaration of Independence…but he was a slave owner. Sally Hemings’ children were fathered by Jefferson. Annette says that though they were enslaved people, bound by the institution of slavery, they were also mothers, fathers, sisters, aunts, friends, etc. They had different personalities, different ways of going through the world. Their opportunities were severely circumscribed because of slavery but she wants to view them as individual human beings.

She understands why people would not want to name something after Jefferson, but “we have to grapple with him, because he embodies the contradictions of this country, the good things and the bad things.” Members of the founding generation of our nation must be a part of the conversation. The statues and things named for them present an opportunity to talk about the way this country was born. Annette believes that we can’t take out those parts of history because they are less favorable; they make us who we are today.

Annette is optimistic about the young people today because they have grown up thinking there is a problem, and it’s a problem we must deal with. She believes that some don’t want to talk about history, and she thinks young people are resisting that. She plans to write more books about the Black progress that has been made.

In 1964, Annette Gordon-Reed was a child growing up in Conroe, Texas. She was part of the generation, just as I was, that lived during the integration of schools. It was intense because it was a big deal for a Black child to go to a white school. We lived during a time where we had separate waiting rooms at the doctor’s office and Blacks were seated in the balcony at theaters. We were part of breaking those barriers.

Today, we name things for ALL people who have made a difference in communities, state, and nation. There are no barriers. The walls have crumbled, and we must be aware how much we have grown as a nation. A new school in Conroe was recently named Annette Gordon-Reed Elementary School. Let’s celebrate our successes and stop moaning about the history which led us to this place today. 

Roots Lyrics by Zac Brown Band

Music, Lyrics, and Poetry always get it right!
These are the first few stanzas of the song 

Roots, by Zac Brown Band

My first best friend was a 6 string
Took him with me everywhere I go
When I was 18, bought a Dodge van
Found a drummer and made the road my home
 
Ooh, I wouldn't change a thing
It made the man I am today
 
My roots always keep me grounded
Roots, remind me where I'm from
Even when I'm a thousand miles away from my roots
I'm home
 
Every Friday, you could find me
At Dixie Tavern, playing with my band
We'd start the show with a round of whiskey
And play our hearts out and wished it'd never end
 
Ooh, I wouldn't change a thing
It made the man I am today
 
My roots always keep me grounded
Roots, remind me where I'm from
Even when I'm a thousand miles away from my roots
I'm home