Time to go Fishing! Carabelle and Destin

Nephew Justin Smith and his Mom Monica's catch last week. Carabelle I think.....

This is the FFA group from Ashford, Al. Memorial Day weekend returning to Destin Harbor on the Anastasia with Captain Tony Davis. Wow you guys were busy! Good job Captain Tony!



Tiny Shells



Love this Idea! Vacation Memory Jars. Good big kid project.

English Family Photos 2

Hello English Family,
I am trying to identify some of these photos. If you see someone you know or think you recognize let me know. Just click the comment button and leave a comment or find me on facebook.
Thanks,
Kaye Everett

Unidentified Young Men

unidentified Man 

English Baby Girl?

Anderson English?

Unidentified English Baby

Unidentified

Luvern Sims Holland left back Betty Jean Sims front, daughters of Allie B. English. Man right back unidentified and little girl front right unidentified. Wondering if this could be Fran and Joe Watford Sr. daughter and husband of Alma Viola English Watford?

Anderson English WWII

Anderson English

Anderson and Gladys Hardy English

Unidentified girls may be twins....about 12- 14 years old and guessing picture is from late 20's early 30's.

Unidentified Young Woman

Quilts of Gee's Bend, Alabama

This is a painting I like by Artist Wolf Kahn, called Blue Puddle.   http://www.amy-nyc.com/gallery/ He is represented by Ameringer Gallery in New York.


  The next two photos are from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rothstein 

1930's Photogropher of The Great Depression in the South

This is an interesting new website that my youngest daughter Lee Ann told me about,
http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/

And the local history of Gee's Bend, Alabama, a rural area southwest of Selma, Alabama  http://www.prairiebluff.com/blackbelt/geesbend.html

History of Gee's Bend Plantation
 http://www2.arkansas.net/~mgee/articles.html
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woman_on_the_Gees_Bend_Plantation.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pettway_Plantation_Gees_Bend_Alabama.jpg

 

Sedgefields Plantation Union Springs, Al.

I had the pleasure of stopping by Sedgefields Plantation in Union Springs, Al. yesterday. I snapped some pictures I will share with you. I understand from Lee Ann that this construction project is a historical restoration development on the Plantation grounds. My understanding is there is alot of quilting, cooking and hunting going on here! I will get the details and get back to you soon. I hope to be able to go back and take more. Looks wonderful so far. I love the setting and the architecture especially the shaker and copper roof.
The forest along Hwy. 29 in Bullock County is incredible. Very large old forest trees and old plantation and country homes line the highway. I would love to have an entire day to spend photographing from Union Springs to Tuskegee. It's one of those magical places in Alabama, that is rich with history and southern culture. More later...

I love this gate!



Hay field in Bullock County, Al.



Hay Field, love the landscapes!

Beautiful Hawaii

Church on the road to Hilo.

Kona Harbor

Kona Harbor lizard on a rail in the coffee shop garden. He has gorgeous colors. They were everywhere we went in the harbor.

I always dreamed of going to Hawaii and then one day it was possible! Wade and I went to the big island on our honeymoon and stayed for a week with some dear friends who lived there. We saw everything on the island. The volcano and the rainforest on the way to the volcano, Hilo and the Hula Contest Finals, and the East side of the Island was maybe my favorite. I found the little Donkey there.




This Maddonna was in "The Painted Church" garden where portions of  the movie Blue Hawaii with Elvis was filmed.  

 

The Painted Church

Fruit in the Garden of the Church

They had firecracker plants everywhere there. This was the retaining wall of the church.

Pineapple in Ferns at The Painted Church

Parker Ranch Waimea County, Hawaii when the fog burned off we had a beautiful day on horseback. :)

The snowtop mountains where Gloria and I rode horses on the Parker Ranch were beautiful too. I was close to heaven on that ranch. The ride up there was a dreamland of gorgeous views. I wish I had made more pictures on the ride up. It is an exceptionally beautiful drive. I was too busy being lost in the beauty of it all to take pictures.

For my birthday last month Wade gave me Sarah Vowell's book, Unfamiliar Fishes. It's about the U.S. becoming a superpower with the takeover of Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico and invading Cuba, and the Philippines.

I remembered this photo I took of the statue "Free Hawaii."  When I first saw it I was a little startled to look up and find it there next to the tree. Wade was too. I left there wanting to know more of the history of Hawaii.
I am about to start reading Sarah's book now.  I just have to be able to sit still and I haven't been to that spot in the road lately.  :) Later....

English Family Bethel Baptist Church

These are pictures I took in Bethel Cemetery, in August 2010, of the English family gravesites.

The day I visited the cemetery August 2010 it was raining very hard. I waited for a while and it stopped.

This is the way I found Allie's grave in 2004. The headstone reads E. James 1841. The name etched on the tombstone let us know this as her grave.

I am guessing this may be Martha English and Jesse English.

This may be for George English Brother of Jesse

This one with an "N"  puzzles me. I am not sure who this would be.





My Mom and Uncle, Mickey Holland, replaced Grandma Allie's broken tombstone in 2009.

The English Family plots are in the grassy area with the broken small stones.
I contacted the man in charge of the cemetery to ask if records of the burials exist. He told me that the early records were destroyed when the church burned in the late 50's.

I am also posting a statement sent to me from Joe Watford grandson of Jesse English. Son of Alma Viola English Watford and Joe Watford. The following was emailed to me from Joe in August 2010.

JESSIE E. ENGLISH  1879-1926

   JESSIE MARRIED LULA ANDERSON FROM AROUND PANAMA CITY FL. THEY HAD EIGHT CHILDREN. LEANNER AND LAURA WERE TWINS AND LIVED ONLY FOUR MONTHS, THEN IN ORDER WERE; ALLIE B.,  EFFIE MAE, RUBY D.,  ALMA V.,  ANDERSON E.  AND ROSA LEE.

   LULA DIED 2 NOV. 1919 IN THE HOSPITAL IN GRACEVILLE FL. OF COMPLICATIONS OF CHILD BIRTH. AFTER HER DEATH JESSIE REMARRIED BUT I AM UNABLE TO LOCATE THE RECORDS AND DO NOT KNOW TO WHOM.

   IT WAS TOLD TO ME BY A VERY RELIABLE PERSON THAT SHE WAS FOUND TO BE MISTREATING HIS CHILDREN AND HE PACKED HER BELONGINGS AND SENT HER BACK TO HER FAMILY. I CAN FIND NO RECORDS OF A DIVORCE BUT I DON’T BELIEVE THERE WAS ONE.

   NEXT JESSIE BEGAN SEEING ANOTHER LADY NAMED ANNIE SIMS BLACKMON, ANNIE WAS HENRY SIMS’S AUNT, HENRY WAS MARRIED TO ALLIE B. JESSIES OLDEST DAUGHTER.

   JESSIE DIED 13 AUG. 1926 FROM INJURIES RECEIVED WHEN HE WAS STRUCKBY AN AUTOMOBILE AFTER BEING DROPPED OFF FROM WORK ON OLD HWY.203 BETWEEN REHOBETH AND DOTHAN AL.   THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE, GENE WHIDDON, WAS SAID TO BE INTOXICATED BUT BECAUSE OF HIS NAME AND STATUS IN THE COMMUNITY HE WAS NOT CITED FOR THE ACCIDENT. I RESEARCHED MICROFILM AT LOVE LIBRARY OF OLD NEWSPAPER STORIES OF THAT PERIOD AND COULD FIND NOTHING.

   SHORTLY AFTER JESSIE’S DEATH ANNIE GAVE BIRTH TO A SON WHO SHE NAMED JESSIE BLACKMON. I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO ESTABLISH THIS AS FACT BUT THE SOURCE MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY AFFIRMED THIS. JESSIE BLACKMON WAS BORN IN 1926.

  

WRITTEN BY; JOE F. WATFORD HE WAS MY GRANDFATHER.





These are the graves of the twins that Joe is mentioning born to Jesse and Lula. These two headstones are close to Allie B.'s grave.

Allie's grave stone replaced in 2010.