As before, she is addressing her memoir to her daughter, Mary Alice Salyers Hays. Her references to "Dad" mean Mary Alice's father, William Levi Salyers. "Papa" is Sarah's own father, Robert James Howe.
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Miss Kate and Miss Jinny[?] Eblen lived in the little double house next to the church, and they owned it and rented out the other side. When we came there, the brother of Miss Kate and his family lived there — he had two sons, Frank and Homer (and Homer was in my room at school), but not long after that several other families in succession lived in it — the Staples family, I believe, were next (you remember our Mary Hill married Lyter Staples — “Tuff” we called him? He worked for Dad and thus met Mary.
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| Carroll County Courthouse circa 1890. Photo from Carroll County by Phyllis Codling McLaughlin (Arcadia Publishing, 2012); courtesy Darrell Maines. |
On the other side of High Street between 4th and 5th, as I said, was a row of good brick houses. On the corner stood the McCann house; old Mr. Allen McCann, his wife and his sister (or sister-in-law) and a niece lived there. Mr. Baker’s fine new house came next; he had two children (had lost one boy), Rose and Pryor (who was about Dad’s age).
Next to this was the house where Mr. Will Winslow and his wife Kate, who was a Fayette County lady, lived; however, they left Carrollton about ’92, and Dr. Hiner and his family lived there for several years, not wanting to go to the rather dilapidated and far-out parsonage (tho they were there for a short while) on 7th Street. After they left, the Orr family came down from Ghent and settled there, living there for many years, either they or Mrs. Lee’s family (Mrs. Ora’s daughter).
Next lived the Glaubers – Mr. John and his mother and his two brothers, Fred and Henry, and his sister Bertha. (It was from them in ’93 that I got my longed-for first dig, Solon.)
I think the Sanders family was already living in the “Holmes” house. Next, Mrs. O’Donnell (for she had remarried) and the three daughters, Betty, Sallie and Lou (who was there about ’93). No, of course not! They didn’t move there till after the death of Dr. Meade; he was living there then. (I must find out where the Sanders family did live; Charlie K. will know.) Dr. Prentice Meade (for whom all the Prentices in the county, black and white, were named) was a very fine doctor, but when we came there he was at the end of his life — in fact, I believe he died about 1891, and a relative, Dr. Lyter Conn, took his practice but was never a really trusted doctor to the “best people,” tho many Lyters were named for him, including, I think, Lyter Donaldson! (He was someway kin to them, too, I believe. I must find out this connection.) Anyway, I don’t believe the Sanders family moved there till at least ’93 or ’94, but Dr. Homes married Bettie Sanders, and they were all living there when Philip was born in the summer of 1896.
On the corner of 5th & High lived, of course, the Donaldson family. I don’t know whether he was called “Judge” then or not. (His wife was Sue Giltner, aunt of Mr. Mike Giltner and Aunt Sue Salyers) and there were three boys and a girl, Velma. Lyter was born the year we came there.)
I am going to stop this installment of the history at the corner, before we cross to the Winslow house — because there will be so much to say about that! However, I am going to go back a square and tell of a few families who lived on 4th Street below the Baptist Church on both sides. Nearest to the Kellar house lived Mrs. Losey and her mother — Mr. Losey with Mrs. Losey, and Mrs. Winter and her little girl Malina, with Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Losey’s mother — it was a double house. Mr. Losey was the chief salesman of the men’s side of the store [Howe Brothers] and was bookkeeper as well in his “spare time.” Mrs. Losey was a fashionable dressmaker and had a little building for her shop erected at the side of the “old store.” They were all from Mississippi and had accents you could cut with a knife! It seems to me the Moormans[?] lived down there on that side (Miss Mary’s people) for a long time, and at the corner was a big livery stable. I know I should remember someone else down there, and probably will later.
On the other side, from the church on, there was built a small house used as the Baptist parsonage; below that lived the Welch family (one of the girls married John Clahue[?] and one [married] Henry, his brother); and in an identical house next to it lived Mike Grasmick and his wife. She was a fair-haired, retiring sort of person. . . .
Also in one of the little houses lived Mr. & Mrs. Siersdorfer and her daughter Mary. ... They were very intelligent. They looked like Dutch people. The father was a cousin of the “show people” whose shop was on Main at Court. Somewhere along there lived the Lees, of which George, the father, was editor of the News, and Somers, the oldest boy, was Dad’s friend.
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| Louis M. and Margaret (Kurre) Siersdorfer. They married 7 June 1910, so that doesn't fit with Sarah's memory of the Siersdorfer family living "in one of the little houses" in the 1890s. In the 1900 U.S. Census, a Louis Siersdorfer is living with his mother and his brother John in a house between the Frammes and the Grobmyers and not far from the Donaldsons. Another household of Mrs. G. Siersdorfer and daughter Mary were neighbors of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Grasmick, the family Sarah mentioned. A genealogical mystery for another day. Photo contributed by Del Brophy and published in Carroll County by Phyllis Codling McLaughlin (Arcadia Publishing, 2012); used with permission. |
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So abruptly end the pages of Sarah's neighborhood recollections. If you found your ancestors in one of the seven posts in this series, I'm glad. If your family was in Carrollton but is not accounted for in this series, please remember that Sarah was writing her memories of 50 years before. She no doubt forgot some of her neighbors of the 1890s and their precise locations.
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