HENRY JACKSON FELL Born: 2-9-1881, Arab, Cullman Cty, AL D: 4-8-1981, Iuka, Tishomingo Cty, MS

Grandpa Fell at his 100th BD party!

My grandfather, Henry J. Fell, was born in Cullman Cty, Alabama on February 9, 1881, the son of Marcus and Martha Fell. He was still living with his parents on the 1900 census, in Franklin Cty, Alabama. He and my grandmother, Annie Rebecca Jane Kidd, were married in Lawrence Cty, Alabama on December 7, 1900.My father, their oldest son Elgen, was born in Lawrence Cty in 1903. I could not find them anywhere on the census records in 1910. I knew my father had attended school in Hatton, Alabama in 1912, but I searched and searched and could not find them anywhere in Alabama or Mississippi. Finally I just put his name in to search the entire country and there they were, in Montgomery Cty, Arkansas. I would never have thought to look for them there since I had never heard anyone talk about any moves they had made. I often wondered why they had moved there and then moved back. My Dad had died in 1973, and my grandfather in 1981, both long before I had started my genealogy search.
My grandfather had spent his last years living with my aunt and uncle.  I asked my cousin if he had ever heard the story and he remembered Grandpa talking about the trip. Some of their relatives had moved to Arkansas and sent back glowing reports of how wonderful it was. They decided, along with my grandmother's parents and siblings, that they would move.  They rented three boxcars in Sheffield, Alabama and left for the trip to Ft. Smith, Arkansas. They loaded all their belongings and livestock and left to go west.  When they got to Memphis, Tennessee they had a three day layover before they could cross the Mississippi River. They had to unload all their livestock to feed them and then reload for their trip.  When they arrived in Ft. Smith they had to travel by wagon fifty miles southwest to Montgomery Cty where they were going to settle.  Grandpa said the land was so bad that they spent the first year picking up rocks from the land just to build a fence. Apparently it was not what they thought or maybe they were just homesick but sometime between the date of the census in April 1910 and when my aunt was born in Alabama in December 1910, they made the long trip back to Alabama.
My grandfather never drove a car and always either sharecropped or logged.  They moved to Tishomingo County, Mississippi in 1922 settling on the Hubbard Homeplace in the Pleasant Hill Community.   That is where my Dad met and married my Mother. 
My grandfather and grandmother were members of the Church of Christ. My grandfather was a charter member of the Hopewell Church of Christ in Colbert County, Alabama where my grandmother's parents were buried.  When my grandmother died in 1956 she wanted to be taken back there for burial.  This is the information I found in a piece about the Hopewell Church and Community***************************information from Hopewell Community and Church information---Henry Fell is the oldest person buried in the Hopewell Cemetery. He died April, 1981 at 100 years of age. He was one of the first settlers in the community and lived here for a number of years.He and his family moved away but when his wife, Janie Fell, died in 1956 she was buried in the Hopewell Cemetery. Mr. Fell requested to be buried beside her.
My grandfather lived 100 years and 2 months. When he was born the only transportation was trains and wagons. He lived to see cars, planes and even space ships.  He was never convinced that man actually walked on the moon. He would argue with everyone that it was filmed by TV and movie people in a desert. We could never convince him otherwise.
He must have had such an interesting life.  I only wish that I had cared enough at the time to listen and to ask questions. It is amazing to think how just the least little thing in his life or my parent's life could have influenced my life and my descendants life.
RIP   Grandpa Fell

Who was your first friend?

My best friend when I was little was Sara Myrtle Jaynes. When I first moved to Iuka at age five she lived a little over a block away on Old 25 (Wilmuth St.) next to the old wooden overhead bridge which crossed the RR tracks. She lived with her mother in a two story house and her mother rented two apartments in the house and they lived in one side downstairs. Her mother was a single Mom and her aunt and uncle lived in Corinth. They were childless and doted on Sara Myrtle. We were friends before we started to school. I was at her house or she was at mine most of the time. Her aunt would take us to movies, and to her house in Corinth. We were complete opposites. She had long black, curly hair, dark skin and dark eyes. I had long,blond curly, hair, fair skin and blue eyes. We attended church together and spent hours and days together, but as all kids did we would argue and then just a few minutes later, the argument would be over and we would be best friends again. Their house was right next to the railroad and my brother-in-law was an engineer on the train and we would sit on the side of the embankment beside their house and he would blow the train whistle at us when the train when by. There were not so many trains then and we could take a short cut down the tracks to walk to town to the movie, library, and dime store. We would take pennies and lay them on the track and the train would flatten them out.
The spring that we were in the sixth grade my family moved to the country and I started to school at Snowdown and the only time I would see her was at Sunday School. I missed her so much, but we both made other friends. When I started back to school in the ninth grade she was dating a boy from Corinth and they married later that year. It was not unusual for girls to marry at a young age. When she was 18 she gave birth to her second child and died before she was released from the hospital. My mother, another friend, and I attended her funeral in Corinth and I can close my eyes today fifty years later and see her. She was so beautiful and looked so peaceful. Just like she was asleep. This was my first experience with a death of someone who was my age.
She loved cats. She and her family were living where they were not supposed to have pets and she told me, "If you will just bring one by and drop it off I will feed it and they will never know it is my pet!" And about two weeks before she died I did and she was thrilled. I don't know what caused her death but I never forgot her and never will!
A few years after she died the house that she and her mother had lived in when she was little caught on fire and when the owners build it back they never replaced the second story. I don't know who owns it but it had always been a rental house until a few years ago and had remained empty. My daughter lives across the street from it now and I noticed this weekend that it is being torn down. Just seeing it there always brought back the memories of the good and bad times of our young lives. I am going to miss seeing the house and thinking of her each time I pass. I often wonder how our lives would have been if she had lived.
I do know that my life is richer for having had Sara as my friend and I will never forget her!