Paternal Ancestor: J.C. Woolf

J.C.Woolf

The photo above is our paternal ancestor J.C. Woolf who built his house and named it "Oak Grove Farm". (This is the farm where I was born, and where I lived with my parents and my older brother before going away to college in South Carolina .)

This picture is of the backyard of the house as seen from the back porch which he is facing. In the shadow to the left behind him was the shed where we stored wood for our very large "Home Comfort"cooking stove,  as well as a bin of corncobs (from the mule feed trough) that we used to start the fires in our three coal burning fireplaces in the winter time.

To his immediate left and behind the fence was the building where we put the white potatoes and the sweet potatoes harvested from our garden. Next to it was the smaller building known as the "outhouse" with the needed collection of newspapers and Sears catalogs. Whoever chose this location for the outhouse did not remember that the back of the outhouse faced northwest,  an unmistakable fact on windy winter days. Sufficient to say, it was NOT a place to linger.

J.C. Woolf  and his wife were childless. However, they adopted my grandfather, Jack Burns, after his mother, sister to the wife of J.C. Woolf, died soon after his childbirth.

This is from my brother's research:
"Jackson Burns, Buried Carmel Cem. Mother died when he was 18 days old. Was adopted Jan. 18th, 1883 and raised by his uncle and aunt, Joseph Carlton and Jane Ingram (Naugher) Woolf. Jane Woolf was a sister to his mother Margaret Ann Naugher. Was baptized at Carmel Church by the Rev. John C. Du Bose, May 27th, 1883. He farmed and on Nov. 7, 1908 he and his uncle Joseph Woolf went into the general merchandising business in Spring Garden, AL. This business, known as "Woolf and Burns" would continue until the death of his son, Robert Allison (Allie) Burns in 1962."

 The father (Wiley Burnes)  of my grandfather (Jack Burns)  married again and had other children and eventually moved to Rome Georgia. For reasons not clear, my grandfather, Jack Burns, no longer had the name of "Burnes" which was the spelling used by his father and his descendants.

J.C. Woolf bought a store in the nearby settlement of Spring Garden (formerly know as Ambersonville). My grandfather Jack Burns worked in this store and eventually the name was changed to Woolf and Burns Store. Eventually Jack Burns owned the store.

During my years on the farm, this store was owned by my uncle Allie Burns,  my father's brother, who inherited it from his father Jack Burns. Uncle Allie also owned a cotton gin which my father ran for him during ginning season. Uncle Allie had no children.

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Paternal Ancestor: Allisons

My paternal grandmother was Maude Allison, one of three daughters born to George and Nannie B Allison.

The photo above is of their home on the a hill on the edge of Piedmont Alabama.
They farmed cotton, and rented both farms and houses in Piedmont which they had bought during the Great Depression.
I recall that my grandmother also sold milk, butter and eggs to town residents. She alone milked several cows and tended to her many chickens and goats.


Here is a quote from HOMES TO REMEMBER VOLUME I, compiled by THE PIEDMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC, 1983:


"The Allison family was one of the early families to settle in Cross Plains. It is possible that they had been living in Patoma prior to the building of their large home on Allison Hill.
The family, extremely thrifty, accumulated large amounts of land that extended from Cross Plains/Piedmont to Vigo and as far as Spring Garden. The present Industrial Park of Vigo rests on land that was previously owned by the Allisons and used for farming. In addition to living from the land, Mr. Allison pur­chased much of the downtown area of Piedmont and either operated his own business or rented the buildings to other mer­chants to operate their stores. At one time the family owned all the property on the southern side of Ladiga Street from the SouthTrust Bank to the old city hall. Around the corner from the bank on Centre Avenue was the Allison Theatre, a popular movie house for many years. Also part of the area that now houses the Super D Store, the Style Shop, the Fair Store, Lois' Beauty Shop, all belonged to the family.
The Allison home stood on a hill overlooking the town of Piedmont and the community of Vigo. It lay in a path that led to the Ladiga community as well.
Originally painted white with green shutters, the house had two porches, one on the second floor and one on the bottom floor that extended across the southern front and gave a marvelous view of Duggar Mountain. Both porches were adorned with ginger-bread trim and the entrance over the main door utilized a transom window to assist with ventilation. The exterior win­dows were large. Porches could also be found on the east, north, and west side of the house. The same type of bannisters and col­umns were used on the side porches as on the front of the house. From the eastern porch a plankway had been built to connect the wash house that serviced the family. The northern porch was said to have been the favorite place for Mrs. Allison to do her churning. A short distance from this porch was the milk house. On the west side of the house could be found the well house. A white picket fence added to the beauty of the home place.
On entering the house from the southern porch facing Ladiga Road, a wide hallway separated two front bedrooms and opened into the parlor located almost in the middle of the house. Behind the parlor was a long, serviceable kitchen and dining room. The parlor opened to the western porch area and it also contained the stairway that led to three bedrooms on the second floor. Two bedrooms ran east and west while the third bedroom ran south and north and was located over the parlor."

The Valley Streams

Springs and the rain runoff from the surrounding  mountains and hills created several streams of varying sizes that cross this wide and fertile valley near our farm. Two streams began in Dugger mountain. The smaller one is Nance's Creek, and the larger is Terrapin Creek. And, from the eastern mountains meanders the small and shallow Hurricane Creek.

The Ladiga Branch, named after a local Indian chief, is formed by springs in the valley near the Vigo community, and flows west into the Terrapin Creek across from our farm's bottom land cow pasture. This  stream was noted for its very clear and very cold water. Friends and I shivered uncontrollably after swimming in  its "deep hole", so named because it was the only wide and deep place in Ladiga Branch where we could swim. 

I fished in each of these streams either from the bank or wading. Terrapin Creek was the only one that rewarded my numerous efforts for catching bass and bream , which added to our choice for an evening meal, though never enough to actually feed our family of four. My fishing was not a sport, though enjoyable, and even the smaller fish I proudly carried home  to mother.

To refer to one of these streams, was one of the ways a person described the location of a particular family, farm, hunting area, swimming hole, and most anything else tangible. Also, in giving directions, it was common to refer to a stream  such as saying: "What you do is just before you cross the Formby bridge, turn right on that dirt road, and go about a mile and then take that field road to the left and it will lead you right to 40 foot." ("40 foot" was a long stretch of slow moving very deep water in Terrapin Creek known as a good place to slowly boat float and fish, which I did with my dad and maternal uncle in  dad's homemade plywood flat boat.)
Here is another example of using the name and location of a stream:  a person might say: "Right after you cross Hurricane Creek right there at Spring Garden School, they live in that house off to your left on that hill. You'll see it."

The torrential winter rains caused major flooding of these valley  streams. The photo below  is of the Terrapin Creek at flood stage less than a mile from our farm. The stream bed at normal level would be at the width of the space underneath the center span of this railroad trestle. Notice the depth of the water at the telegraph pole near the center of this photo.

This second picture, below, is of the same flooding of Terrapin Creek. The location is on the bridge of highway US 278 a few miles east of  Piedmont, Alabama in the direction of Cedartown Georgia.

The annual winter flooding, which covered one third of our lower farmland  for several days, deposited rich soil from upstream fields. However, with this soil came the seeds of weeds that added to those we already had in our fields and which added to our hoeing and plowing to get rid them, which was never successful.