AN OPEN LETTER TO MY CHILDREN

This manuscript was prepared by Melvin Byron Ricks about 1933-35. His purpose was to provide some insight about the family of his grandfather, Charles Wesley Ricks. He wrote a series of letters to older members of his family asking them to provide information about them during the nineteenth century. He planned, and may have written, a second chapter which was to cover the twentieth century.
 Readers should note that this manuscript was never intended as a documented genealogy of this family. It is based solely on the recollections of those who contributed and may include some Bible records.
 There is some remarkably detailed information - not surprising to those who knew that Willis Washington Ricks had an amazing memory for details, a trait which his son Melvin also possessed. This family constantly told and re-told old family stories, some of which are found in this manuscript. Melvin Ricks was the author of many volumes of history dealing with Alaska and Russia, but none as priceless to his family as this manuscript-MRB

THE RICKS FAMILY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

 Some notes and recollections by Willis Washington Ricks,
 Seaborn Bush, Carrie Cassandra Ricks Dingler and
 Melvin B. Ricks with notes by Martha Ricks Bond

This manuscript was originally prepared by Melvin Byron Ricks, son of Willis Washington Ricks. W. W. Ricks wrote this in 1931-1932 as "An Open Letter to My Children". He used the first person in this narrative. Those not familiar with the family structure will need to refer to the accompanying chart to identify some of the people mentioned [this chart might be available from mrb, but not included here].

In some cases, I have discovered errors, additional information and the like. These notes are numbered with superscripts and will be found at the end of the manuscript (mrb). Otherwise, this is copied exactly as received from my uncle, Melvin Ricks.
 - By Willis Washington Ricks

     My great-grandfather's name was Larry Redman Ricks¹, according to John A. Ricks, who is a first cousin of my father and who now lives at Stockbridge, a few miles south of Atlanta, Georgia.
     Larry Redman Ricks was born somewhere in North Carolina and when a young man came to North Georgia and married an Irish girl at Dahlonega²; her name was Maze³. Larry had four sons, Gideon, Larry, Redman and Andrew.
     Andrew Maze Ricks was my grandfather. I believe he and his brothers were all born and raised in or near Henry Co. Georgia. Larry continued to live near Snapping shoals, or in that vicinity and I think he has a son who still lives near there. John A. Ricks was also a son of Larry. They were all farmers, millers, stock raisers, etc. Gideon lived near Dadeville in Tallapoosa County, Alabama and had children living in that section until just a few years ago, possibly they are still there. I believe Redman died before he was grown, but I am not sure of this.
     Andrew, my grandfather, lived most of his life in the vicinity of Palmetto and Newnan, Georgia, but did live for a few years in Chambers County , Alabama. He was a farmer and a miller and was also engaged in the wagon train business and in contracting for the mail for several years.
     He married Tempie Cook who also had some Irish blood. They had the following children: William, Gideon, Daniel, Martha, John H., Mary , Ellen, Charles Wesley and Jesse. William was killed in battle in the Civil War. Gideon and Daniel died in childhood. Martha was burned to death as a girl.
     Jesse Ricks⁴, my father's youngest brother, was killed in Newnan, Georgia by a drunkard named Bill Kemp. Jesse was a mere boy at the time. It was the second or third year of the war and, while on his way to the army, he stopped in Newnan to see about having a gun fixed. Kemp, drunk, came into the gun shop and began to have quite a bit to say about the boy's going into the army. Jesse did not have much to say in return. However, as he stepped toward the door to leave, Kemp shot him down. Then he walked out, got on his horse, and rode away. Father was in Newnan at the time, but was under orders to leave within a few hours. He was, therefore, obliged to turn the body over to strangers and leave. I have seen him cry over this more than anything else I have heard him talk about; he invariably shed tears when he mentioned it. He did not learn what ever became of Kemp.
     John A. Ricks⁵, my father's brother also, was living in 1922 in or near Headrick, Oklahoma in Greer County; age about 84. His wife's first name was Sarah, but I don't remember her maiden name. They reared ten or twelve children, who are now scattered all over Texas, Oklahoma and Mexico. I think that most of them, like their father, are farmers. Uncle John himself was well-to-do. He once lived in Cherokee County, Alabama and the government named a post office in that county for him. I understand they did the same think for him in Oklahoma. I saw the name in one of Dun's reports and upon looking it up on the map, found it to be near Headrick.
     Mary Ricks married Jack Grantham. They lived in or near Douglas County and most of their children still live in that county. Grantham died 25 years ago and I think Mary has been dead for about 20 years6.
     Aunt Ellen married Bob Willis⁷. They also lived in or near Douglas County. She died in 1918. When I saw Uncle Bob in 1919, he had four children living. One married a Mr. Smith and was living about two miles from Douglasville. I went out to see them and was treated wonderfully well. They are just poor farmers. I think the other three children were living between Austell and Atlanta.
     Charles Wesley was my father. He first married Mary Jane Cook⁵, a third or fourth cousin. He was about 17 years old at the time and leaving for the army. Mary Jane was many years his senior. During the first two years, father often came home on furloughs, but during the final two years he served in Virginia⁸, which was too far away for him to come home at all. There were two children born of this union, James B. and Mary Jane⁹.
     From what Uncle Bob Willis and John Ricks say, it seems that after Father went to Virginia, his wife became interested in another man, just to what extent, or in what way, they will not say. But at any rate, Father and his first wife separated because of this difficulty. Father went to work for a time on his Uncle Gideon's farm, then left and went down to Taylor county, stopping for a while at several places on his way. Uncle Gideon wrote him later that his wife and the children had gone to some of her people in South Carolina and had taken sick and died. But this was not true, though she did move to some of her relatives about 20 miles away.
     Father soon afterwards went to work for Willis Whatley, the wealthiest man in Taylor County¹¹. Here he met Mrs. Frances Minerva Garrett, the widowed daughter of John Whatley, Willis's brother.
     Mrs. Garrett, nee Whatley, and her husband, George Garrett, had two children, Mollie and George Jr. The latter lived to be only a week old. Mollie lived to be two years of age and died of what not would be called "flu", just a few weeks after her father had died of the same disease.
     Charles and Mrs. Garrett were married Dec. 25, 1871. A year and a half late, on June 12, 1873, I was born at a place about eight miles southwest of Butler, the county seat of Taylor County. at that time there was a post office called Whitewater, Georgia, and I was born in sight of that post office.
     I cannot remember our moving from Taylor county. I am told that I was about eighteen months old at that time. Father and Mother started off in a wagon train in partnership with a family named Sutton. Some furnished one thing, some another. After they had been on the road for several days, they found themselves in Tuskeegee, Alabama, the place since made famous by Booker T. Washington's school. Father was very sick with rheumatism, so the party was obliged to halt for a few weeks. Finally, Father sold his share in the wagon train and prepared to stay at Tuskeegeee. He obtained a house from a Confederate Captain named Stevenson and because of their recent war experience, the two became the best of friends. Capt. Stevenson was there to stay, but Father expected to go on to Texas as soon as he got able. However, by the time Father had recovered physically, he was not financially able to move.
     Here there comes to mind a little incident often related by my mother and which is closely associated with our first few weeks in Tuskeegee. There was no gate to the yard of the little house where we were staying at Tuskeegee. Mother had to bring her water from Capt. Stevenson's well. She also went to his place often for fruits, vegetables, etc. and when she would leave me unattended I would try to follow her. She disliked to take me inside Stevenson's yard because of a dog and she could not leave me outside on account of hogs and cows. So, she called into play a big cotton basket which she found around the placed and would stand me up in the basket, handing me a stick and telling me to beat the cows or hog if they came that way. She said I would stand there and beat with all my might until she could get back. This was during the first two or three months while Father was so very sick.
     After he began to get better, she found it easier to get away from the house, as Father took great delight in entertaining me. Those old cotton baskets were designed to hold from on to two hundred pounds of seed cotton and ranged from two to three feet in height.
     The above incident, also the fact that Alice was born shortly after we moved to Stewart's Mill, at which time I was a little over three years old, form the basis from which I estimate my age at the time we left Taylor County.
     A year after Father's arrival at Tuskeegee, when he was just able to get about on crutches, he met a man named Baxley who had a large contract for making railroad ties and placing them along the road. Baxley was having a lot of trouble in crossing a stream called Eufaubia - whether this is a creek or river, I have never learned. Baxley told my father that if he would devise some means for him to cross this stream, he would pay him what he considered to be a good price for each load moved across the stream.
     Father borrowed a hundred dollars from Capt. Stevenson, built a ferry with it, and within a short time was able to return the money to Capt. Stevenson. By the time Baxley was ready to move on, father had made enough to continue on to Texas in accordance with his plans. But, about that time there came reports of much trouble in Texas with Mexicans and Indians, as well as with bandits. Father did not take this news very seriously, but Mother could not agree to go on.
     So they decided to stay in Alabama for while and about that time met a man named Neace Steward who owned a grist mill and lived in Elmore Co., just north of Tallahassee. Steward's mill was in a bad fix. He claimed he had a good title to it but needed money to fix it up. He further stated that he had been there for twenty years or more. Father loaned his money to Steward, to be secured by the mill and land, so as to get a year's work building and repairing a mill race.
     About the time this job was finished, Steward's daughter came up and exhibited a will showing that her father's deed was not good. Father felt sure it was a trick between them to rob him of his money. They offered Father $50. and 25 bushels of meal to get out. Father accepted this and moved to a place seven miles north of Tallahassee, on the old Central Institute Road, and rented a farm from a certain Mr. Terrill.. That year he made good, but as Mr. Terrill had a son who wanted to come to live with him, they were obliged to move.
     I was four years old when we moved to Mr. Terrill's place and am able to remember things almost in toto from that time forward. Alice was born just after we moved to Steward's Mill, on August 16, 1876. I can remember a few things there, but mostly they are rather vague. I jumped off a bedding scaffold about eighteen inches and broke my leg when we moved to Mr. Terrill's. It was necessary to carry me around for a long time. My little dog, Cash, got killed and Mr. Garnett, a good neighbor, was sorry for me. He gave me a puppy which I named Sam after Mr. Garnett's oldest son, a boy about my own age. It is my impression now that Sam was simply a nickname for the boy, as he was called "B" in later years. My dog Sam lived to be very old and we children all cried when at last he died.
     From Mr. Terrill's place we moved twelve miles westward to a community called Good Hope, which is not far from Wetumpka, the county seat of Elmore County. To obtain a rental of this place, owned by a Mr. Gilmore, it was necessary to hire Mr. Gilmore's son, Bill. This was the only drawback to the place, which was really a large farm. I do not remember hearing my father say how many acres there were in it, but I do know that we worked six or seven mules. Father made a large crop in spite of the fact that a flood ruined a lot of his corn. He had some money left after expenses were paid. My sister Carrie was born at this place on June 15, 1878. A physician named Lett was our doctor in this community.
     As Father did not want to be bothered any longer with Bill Gillmore, he moved about two miles south and bought a tan yard, arranging to pay half at once and the other half the following year. But while we were moving, Father was again stricken with rheumatism. He was in bed about eight months this time. Mr. Elliss, from whom he had bought the tan ward, was running the business during this time. He said he could not give my father any money, but he let him have meal, meat, syrup and other farm products; also a cow.
     At the end of the eight months, Elliss claimed that all of Father's money had been used up. Father was then just beginning to get around on crutches. He saw something would have to be done, so he walked about two miles on crutches to see a man who he heard was going back to the Terrill neighborhood. This man kindly agreed to take Father with him so he might have an opportunity to hunt for a farm he could rent in that neighborhood. There was none for rent, but a Mr. Haney, a very old man, told Father he would sell him a forty-acre farm and wait for the money. This farm had neither house nor fences on it, but Father bought it anyway.
     Mr. Terrill and Mr. Garnett loaned him their teams and wagons, so he came back home in two days and moved without delay to the new place. Mr. Garnett loaned him a barn in which to put part of our things and we settled in a little makeshift house. This land, by the way, adjoined both Mr. Terrill's and Mr. Garnett's. Mr. Terrill loaned us twenty bushels of corn and some meat. Mr. Garnett loaned us some other products and Father borrowed still other things from a widow, Mrs. Hornsby.
     Father went to work at once to build a house and a barn. He would fasten his crutch to him with a strap while he cut a tree and did many other things which it is hard to believe could be done by a man who could not stand on his feet10. But he finished a log house and a barn and made rails to fence about twenty acres. He made shingles for himself and enough others to bring in money enough to buy a horse, some hogs and another cow. This he accomplished in about six months and was ready when Spring came to begin farming. However, he was still on crutches and could not plow, so he continued to make shingles and boards (split from yellow pine) for other people while they plowed for him. He succeeded in making a crop in this manner, and it was truly a good crop, too.
     Charlie was born at this place on July 11, 1880. That Christmas we had a big dinner with Mr. Haney, Mr. Garnett, Mr. Moon, Mr. Terrill, Mrs. Hornsby, and a few others present. Father paid them all he owed them. Mr. Moon was a Justice of the Peace and was there to sign the deed. This was undoubtedly one of the happiest days of my father's life. He was beginning to walk around the house without crutches.
     I was seven years old and began school that summer, but after only one week in school I became ill with fever. The entire school term was only three months long. My first teacher was a Mrs. Laura Moore, a very fine little woman. She came to see me several times, which I felt was a great thing, as she was a stranger to the family.
     The next year, Father was elected to a place on the School Committee which was a job he did not want. But after conferring with other members of the Committee, he agreed to serve. The county contributed 25¢ a month for each child which was prorated in case the child did not attend a full month. The patrons paid the remainder of the expense and it was the Committee's duty to see all patrons and ask them to sign up for whatever amount they could be persuaded to pay. Then the committee had to find a teacher who would teach for the amount it was proposed to collect. It was the Committee's further duty to collect the money pledged by the patrons and to pay the teacher. They themselves had to pay whatever amount they failed to collect. Thus, the Committeeman's job involved much work with no pay and but few thanks.
     The old schoolhouse was in bad condition, so the Committee set about building a new one. They secured a new location. It was in this new building that I made my second start in school Mr. Jim Pilot, my teacher, found a big warm place in my heart, though people were inclined to think he was not a good teacher. This term I had to lose nearly one month of the tree on account of my mother's sickness. The enforced vacation from school hurt me very much.
     I should have explained that I missed my second school year completely because number of the patrons, or people who should have been patrons, would not support the old school because the building was owned by a private individual whom they did not like. He would not fix it up and they refused to do so because it belonged to him. It did not take a very strong argument to close a schoolhouse in those days.
     Hardly did we get the new schoolhouse going when the county began making new districts. This resulted in the new school's being thrown almost on the line between districts. When the Committee went to see the county officials about it, they were told that if they would go northwest and build another schoolhouse, they would increase their appropriations for the teacher. I do not know how much the increase was, but I do know that it made a big difference in the attitude of the people toward the school. They went to work with a will and built a frame building much larger than the split log affairs which had preceded them.
     However, we spent one more year in the new log schoolhouse, with Mr. Virgil Mullins as teacher. This man also became a very good friend of mine.
     The following year we moved to the new frame building which was near Providence Academy. This place was about three and a half miles south of the place on the map called Eclectic, Alabama. The school soon began offering instruction in higher grades of "books" as we described different classes in those days. This made it necessary to send out and obtain a man with higher education. The new man was Mr. Charles C. Slaton. He had so many students a few weeks after school started that he could not take care of them all. At first he called on some of the older students to help our. Later he got his brother, Mr. Ed Slaton, to come to his assistance and even then they were obliged to call on some of the older students at times. One of their most valuable assistants was Miss Lou Ella Powell, a very sweet young woman and the daughter of the neighborhood doctor.
     Once again I enjoyed the friendship of my teachers. The Slaton brothers are around eighty years of age if they are still living, but I believe if I should meet them today we would be the best of friends. Miss Powell would be close to seventy at this date.
     For three years we lived at the place bought from Mr. Haney. Both Charlie and John were born at this place; Charlie in 1880 and John in 1882. Father next bought 120 acres situated near the Academy and also quite close to the farm of a young Mr. Haney who lived on the opposite side of the elder Haney's place. Father built a house on the new farm and we moved there. Our old farm was sold to a Mr. John Kent. John's father bought out Mr. Garnett. Mr. Joe Kent bought out Ed Ward, another of our neighbors and Mr. Ike Kent built a house on the Garnett place. So the old community was quickly changed into the Kent neighborhood. All of them seemed to be good people.
     Father had to clear land in addition to his building task at the new place1. Nevertheless, we got along quite well. In the meanwhile, he had bought and sold two or three other places which he did not buy with any idea of living on them. He had made as much money with scant capital as I have ever seen a farmer make in three years. But his health went bad during our second year on the new place and he was able to accomplish but very little that year. At this place my brother Daniel Jesse was born on October 15, 1884.
     Father was no better when Spring came again and about that time Mother received a letter from Taylor County, Georgia stating that her uncle, Dr. John D. Mitchell had died. He had enjoyed the reputation of being the wealthiest man in Taylor County. He was an old bachelor and had been elected several times to the State Legislature and State Senate. Though he ran for Congress, I do not believe he was elected. At any rate, he died before Congress could convene again, for he was getting very old.
     It turned out that he had carelessly allowed his business affairs to get into a terrible condition. He had signed three notes that required more than eighty thousand dollars to settle. One of them was more than nine years old and the others five or six years old, yet the courts allowed them to be collected out of the estate. Many of these debts were allowed for which no one could see, think or discover any reason for their existence. His only heirs were my mother and her brothers and sisters and he had always tried to get them, or some of them, to live with him. But hey uniformly refused because they felt that the others would assume that they went to their uncles's house with a view of getting his property turned over tho them. So the matter became a rather sore spot to Dr. Mitchell because he inferred that they simply did not care to live with him. So it was the belief of many people that he purposely allowed his estate to get into a sorry condition because he did not care to leave it to them.
     In the letter advising of Dr. Mitchell's death, it was suggested that the heirs would like to have my father become administrator of the estate. He therefore went over to see them and they made him and Uncle Daniel Whatley co-administrators of the estate. At this time, Father was not able to do anything resembling a day's work, so he and Mother decided it was best to lock up the house, rent the land and stock and proceed to Taylor County, equipped only with our wearing apparel and some bedding. They only expected to sty until the estate was closed out.
     It took about two months to get our farm in shape and some things packed, but at last we found ourselves on our way. We left the mule, a fine young fellow with the renter, and took with us a big mare named Ruth. She was a beauty¹². We hitched her to the spring wagon with an old time cover over it and all got in and started off. A journey of about 115 miles lay before us and this required the better part of five days to negotiate. I could take a good car and make the trip to Los Angeles in that time now.
     When we left home we expected to return in about seven or eight months, as Father figured it would require about that much time to settle the estate. When we got to Taylor County we spent about two months visiting my mother's people. I heard them say there were about 26 families of brothers, sisters, aunts, and cousins besides my grandfather, whom she had not seen in about eleven years.
     While Father was back in Elmore County preparing to travel back to take charge of the estate, a man named T. J. Marshall, who held one of the largest notes against the estate, had filed an application for an injunction against the appointment of Father and Uncle Daniel to act as administrators and had got the court to appoint him temporary administrator. He also proceeded to take possession of the estate.
     When Father got there, he at once filed a cross bill to dispossess Marshall. Uncle Daniel seemed willing to let things take their own course, at least he was not willing to go in for a fight. But Father, acting on behalf of the heirs, carried the matter through the Court. The result was that Uncle and Father were made co-administrators with Marshall. It was agreed that Uncle Daniel should go to live in the home place near Reynolds and that Father was to take charge of the outside property, which consisted of many tracts of land and several sawmills. All these had been closed down for about a year at that time. A lot of the equipment had been stolen and there was no money to operate them. So, about all there was to do was to serve as watchman, or rather as a kind of head watchman, for he simply went from one mill to another and places some old employee in charge as watchman.
     But Marshall was to act as Treasurer under a two hundred thousand dollar bond. It turned out after many lawsuits, continuances, and sales that Marshall and the creditors got it all. In the meantime, my father had found it necessary to supplement the money he brought from Elmore County Alabama with some kind of employment, so he bought some teams - at first a team of mules, then a team of oxen, then more oxen. He took contracts for cross ties to be placed on the railroad and for furnishing wood, as all the railway locomotives were wood burners at that time and for a log time afterwards.
     In the face of the fact that Father's health was getting worse all the time, he was still able to make money. A few months after we reached Taylor County, his health got into such a state that Mother was afraid for him to go anywhere unless someone went with him. He was having smothering spells that really called for help at times. These spells would last anywhere from half an hour to half a day. Often he would go for a week without having an attack, then again he would have two in one day. Therefore, it was impossible to predict when he would have one, since they came on without regard to schedule or regularity.
     I started school a few times, but this meant only a few days a week at best, as I had to go with Father wherever he went. This situation continued as long as we remained in Taylor County.
     On 3 September 1887, our first sorrow came upon us¹³. Little Daniel died on that day, being only three years of age. He was one of those bright, energetic little fellows who always make their presence felt, and seemingly, he loved his oldest brother better than any other member of the family. He lies in buried in the old Whatley burying grounds near Reynolds, Georgia.
     Father sent back to Alabama and had all his property there sold, but this brought us only a little money. The last year he was in Taylor County, he likewise took in but little money from his earnings. Therefore, Mother decided we had better go to Columbus, Georgia and see if some of us could get work there. Thus it was that the latter part of August of the year 1888 found us packing and moving to Columbus, or rather to the opposite bank of the river in Girard, Alabama.
     I got a job in Mill No. 3 of the Eagle and Phoenix Manufacturing Company where I worked in the spinning room under John Kennett¹⁴. But this proved a very tough place for me. So about the second week in January, 1889, I went to work for the Chattahooche Knitting Company which was also located in Girard. The Eagle and Phoenix Mills now have a weaving mill in the same building.
     Father died on May 30th, 1889 and was buried in the Girard Cemetery. I was working under Supt. Wm. R. Roberts. George W. Knowles, and Englishman, succeeded him about the first of December, 1889 and Mr. Roberts went back to Macon, GA.
     Mr. Knowles was a hard man and I did not like him. It happened that Mother sent me over to Columbus for something on a Saturday evening and just as I entered the end of the river bridge, I met Mr. Roberts. I didn't think he saw me at first, so I spoke to him. He seemed glad to see me. I asked him if he was coming back to work. He answered, "No, if you want to work for me, you will have to go to Macon." I told him I really would like to work for him and he agreed to take me to Macon if my mother would consent. So he went back with me to my home, a few blocks away, to see Mother. I had no idea of going unless she would go too, and it struck me that she would like to go, as her father had just moved to Macon.
     When we reached the house, I called Mother. As Mr. Roberts stopped just inside the gate, she came out to the door. Mr. Roberts stated briefly the object of his coming and Mother agreed at once that if there were a way for all of us to go she would be glad to move to Macon. Mr. Roberts agreed that if we would go the next week, we could have our furniture placed in a car with his own and he would get some kind of group ticket which would make it cost us nothing to move. We complied with his terms and arrived in Macon in time to get straightened out and spent Christmas with Grandpa. This was the Christmas of 1889. I got in three days work that year.
     During the years 1890 and 1891, I worked for the Macon Knitting Mills. In 1891 I began to study at night, at first simply with a boy friend, James M. Chiles, who had better educational advantages than I had. Then I studied under and old gentleman named Jenkins. Also, during the years 189294, I took one lesson five nights a week at the Clifton Business School. While my efforts were somewhat misdirected, I did learn a lot of things that were worthwhile.
     Mr. Roberts was more like a father to me than any one had been since my own father died. However, he quit the Macon mill in 1891. After that, things got into such an unsatisfactory condition about the mill that I quit my job and went to work for the Parker Railway News company for whom I worked till February 1895; then I went back to work for Mr. Thorpe.
     While I was working for the News Company, I think it was about the second Saturday in August of 1894, I had come in from Montgomery at 2:50 and had been out home, at 819 Ash Street, just long enough to eat and partly change my clothes, when I heard several ladies talking in the front room. A few minutes later I walked into the kitchen and presently Mother came in, and then my sister, Carrie. They asked me to hurry up and come into the front room but did not make any further explanation.
     A few minutes later, I went out to the front room and there was introduced by my sister Carrie to Miss Leila Bush. She and her sister, Mrs. Whatley, had started to town. Miss Leila was wearing a pair of new shoes and had decided that the walking was too much for her. So Mrs. Whatley, who was the wife of my cousin Will, decided to drop her at our house and go on to town alone.
     After remaining with us for a short visit, Miss Leila made known her intention to return home. She was living with Mrs. Whatley, her sister, at the time and I made the trip with her.
     On account of the nature of my work, I did not see her very regularly after that, but circumstances changed in February of 1895 and from that time forward I saw her from two to four times a week. We were married on June 27, 1895 by Rev. Jacob L. White at the residence of Mrs. Whatley, 319 Columbus St. We later lived in this same house ourselves and were living there at the time we moved from Macon to Birmingham.
     I believe this brings the story of my wanderings down to where you have hear it so much that it would not be news to you. I will add that your mother and I were baptized into the First Baptist Church by Dr. White in April before we were married in June. One did not join the church because the other did. I had already made up my mind that I was going to be baptized as soon as I could decide where that should be. We talked the matter over together several times and you mother told me that she had felt for a long time that it was her duty to join the church and could not tell why she had put the matter off. So we decided that, as were to be married soon, we would join the First Baptist Church and then when we got settled we could move our membership if we wished to do so.
     My father was a Methodist back in his old home community, but when he got out into the world he learned that many Methodist churches accepted sprinkling as baptism, he became dissatisfied with that church and joined the Baptists. This was in Elmore County, Alabama. All of his people, as far as I have ever heard, were Methodists.
     My father was a good singer, possessing an extra good voice that carried farther than that of any person I have ever know since I have been old enough to notice such things.
     My grandfather Whatley was first a Primitive Baptist, but joined the Missionary Baptists after he had reached the age of about 65 years. My mother and all her sisters, also Uncle Bill Whatley, were Missionary Baptists, but Uncle Daniel never joined any church as far as I know.

 This ends the narrative written by Willis Washington Ricks,dated March, 1932.

SUPPLEMENT BY MELVIN BYRON RICKS

Note: The first person, "I" in this section refers to Melvin Ricks, son of Willis W. Ricks.

 To the above information supplied by my father may be added the following supplementary report received from Mrs. Carrie Cassinder Ricks Dingler, my father's youngest sister, under date of June 14, 1932. since this report is largely statistical, it has been thought to recast it in outline form for the sake of having each detail stand out in its proper relation to the whole:

JOHN   | married Rebecca Mitchell d 1857
       |
WHATLEY | father of: 1. William Whatley, born 1844 father of:
    William
            |                             Rebecca
  |  Alma
  |  Lee
  |    2. Frances Minerva Whatley-Garrett-Ricks
  |
  |    3. Mandy Whatley m Dave Childers
  |
  |    4. Jeanner Whatley m Joseph Lock
  |
  |    5. Masey Whatley m Drew Childers
  |
  |    6. Martha Whatley m Green Rigsby
  |    (separated after a few years)
  |    mother of Eula b 10 April, 1855
  |       m ? Seagroves
  |
  |    7. Daniel Whatley b 1857
  |    Living in 1932 at Lakewood Park, a
  |    suburb of Atlanta, Georgia
            |    His mother died when he was 2 weeks
  |    old.

     Aunt Carrie writes, "Aunt Martha was living in Macon in 1932 with her only living child, Mrs. Eula Seagroves. I went to Macon on April 10, 1932 and was surprised to learn that it was Aunt Martha's 77th birthday. My cousin, Eula, went home with me to Newnan and spent a pleasant week talking over old times. We two "girls" had been chums in childhood but had not had much time to talk together for thirty years."

FRANCES | BORN October 28, 1846, daughter of John Whatley and
MINERVA  |                                       Rebecca Mitchell
WHATLEY |  MARRIED: 1. Howard Garrett, in 1866
  |
  |  Mother of Mary Elizabeth Garrett, who died at  one year of age and within four months of her father's death.
  |
  | MARRIED: 2. Charles Wesley Ricks, Dec. 25, 1871
  |
  | MOTHER OF:
  |
  | 1. Willis Washington Ricks b June 12, 1873
  |
  | 2. Alice Burana Ricks-Bush b Aug. 16, 1876
  |
  | 3. Carrie Cassinder Ricks-Dingler b June 15, 1878
  |
  | 4. John William Ricks b July 11 1882
  |       d Nov. 3. 1932. 9:00 p.m.
  |
  | 5. Danniel Jesse Ricks b Oct. 16, 1884
  |        d Sep. 8, 1886
  |
 

     Referring briefly to her own childhood, Aunt Carrie wrote somewhat as follows:

     "I started school in 1885 and three weeks later my mother heard that her father was near death back in Georgia. So our family returned to Georgia (from Alabama) in a one-horse wagon, where my own father became ill. Thus it happened - that we did not go back to Alabama and I did not go back to school. Our family moved to Columbus, Georgia in 1888, to Macon, Georgia in 1889, and to Birmingham in 1900. I came to Banning, Georgia in 1905 and married in 1906.
     I met my half-brother, Jim Ricks in 1912 and thought a great deal of him and his family. Jim died in august of 1928, but his family still lives in East Point, Georgia. My half-sister, Mrs. Mary Peppers, is now living in Newnan with her daughter."

NOTE: At the date of the above letter, Aunt Carrie was living on Rt. 5, Newnan, Georgia with her children and grandchildren. They were operating a store which was founded by her husband, Gaines Dingler who died in July of 1931.

     The above paragraphs constitute the bulk of my knowledge concerning the history of my father's family prior to the beginning of my own memory. Other details, less trustworthy, will be introduced incidentally as I record the impressions which have remained with me since childhood, during which both my father and my mother referred constantly to their early associations. It has always been a pet ambition of mine to visit the scenes of those incidents of their youth which I have heard described by them many times during my boyhood.

     I shall now turn my attention to a more detailed study of those facts which I have at hand concerning my mother's family prior to the date of my birth. For this information, I am indebted largely to a report I received in the summer of 1932 from my mother's oldest brother, Mr. Seaborn A. Bush of Albany, Georgia.

NARRATIVE OF SEABORN BUSH

     The name "Bush" is German. I do not know how or when it came to America. A Lieutenant Bush was killed on the Chesapeake in the War of 1812. I have been told that the name was originally spelled Busch. However, my own father and grandfather always spelled their name n the English manner. They made their home in Baker Co, GA. My grandfather was a Methodist minister and also a farmer.
     My maternal grandmother was a member of the DeLoach family from South Carolina. Though this family was French, It is my impression that the DeLoaches did not come to America with the French Huguenot settlers. My grandmother married a Mr. Tuten, which name is also of French origin. Consequently, my mother's maiden name was Sarah Tuten. I believe they came from South Carolina in the old Edgefield area, but I can't be certain.
     She married first John Henry Taylor by whom she had four children: Emma, Johnnie, Lemuel and Sallie. Lemuel and Sallie died young. Emma was born about 1862; she married a Mr. Dawson and was still living in Birmingham the last I heard from her. Johnnie was born about 1868. She was a posthumous child and was given the name Johnnie because her mother had promised her dying husband that she would name her unborn child John, regardless of its sex.
     My mother's parents settled in Appling County Georgia and there my mother was born in 1845. She married her second husband, William J. Bush, who was my father at Griswoldville, Georgia. I am not sure of the date.
     I have many cousins and one uncle who still lives in Appling County. My uncle, J. C. Tuten was for many years proprietor of the Tuten House at Hazelhurst. NOTE inserted by Melvin B. Ricks: "My grandmother Bush died in Birmingham AL in 1920. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, (Lot 83, Sec. I, Block D) on Feb. 21st of that year."
     My father fought for four years in the Civil War as a private in Company "B", 13th Georgia Volunteers. He was wounded twice at Gettysburg and again at Seven Pines. He was taken toward the end of the War to a hospital in Macon and served with the Home Guard and with such other recruits as could be gathered from the hospital in the pursuit and capture of the Federal General Stoneman just below Macon. This ended his active military service.1
     After leaving the Confederate Army, he was employed as a foreman by Willingham and Dunn, sash-door-and-blind manufacturers. He saved enough money to go into business for himself at Forsythe GA where he engaged in the farmers (sic) supply business and was also a wholesale and retail liquor dealer until the prohibition laws put him out of business about the year 1890.
     When we moved from Forsythe out into the country, where my father engaged in farming until his death on April 21, 1895. Our home at this time was called the Talmadge Place. It was located about five miles north of Forsythe, near Collier's Station on the Central of Georgia's Railway. Our most convenient post office was at Johnsonville. This was simply a country post office, as we had no rural mail delivery in those days. The neighbors whom your heard your mother speak of so often were the Thurmonds, Scales, Rudisills and Phinazees.
     Your mother's name was really Ella Lee. She changed it to Leila herself. Everyone called her Lee up till she was grown. I have always called her so.
     You ask regarding her education and mine. Lee attend Monroe Female College and I was educated at Hilliard Institute and at Mercer University.
     The fact that Johnnie became acquainted with and married a member of the Whatley family is directly responsible for later intermarriages between the two families.
     You asked about the Austin children, Alex and Lila. They were cared for by my mother simply as an act of kindness and were never members of our family, at least until my brother, W. B. married Lila in 1894. After Tobe (as we called him) and Lila separated, Lila went to work for Caheen Brothers in Birmingham and was still there the last news I had of her. Alex is an engineer on the A. G. S. Railroad running between Birmingham and Chattanooga. The two children came into our home about 1866. I do not remember their ages, although Lila was quite small. NOTE by Melvin Ricks: No less than three weddings resulted from Johnnie's acquaintance with Will Whatley:
   1. Johnnie married Will Whatley, my father's cousin
   2. Johnnie's half-sister, Ella Lee Bush, married my father
   3. Johnnie's half-brother, Seaborn (writer of the above) married my father's sister, Alice Burana Ricks

NARRATIVE OF MELVIN BYRON RICKS RESUMES:

     Much information of a more general nature was given me by my mother in the form of anecdotes. She never tired of relating her experiences as the young daughter of a well-to-do farmer in Monroe County. She obviously had many friends among the "old settled families", including, as suggested by my uncle above, the Rudisills, the Thurmonds, the Rudisills and the Phinazees. These family names were household words in our home when I was child and u until I was some fifteen years old, I could call them all by their first names and relate many of the experiences of the children of those families. Time, however, has erased practically all of this data from my memory.
     Among the phrases used over and over by my mother were "before Papa died" and "that was before we moved from Forsythe, and "after we moved out to Collier's Station". These were evidently the turning points in my mothers early life. Being her father's youngest child and his only daughter, she was naturally treated with marked indulgence by him and felt his loss keenly.
     My maternal grandmother was of a different type. Though she would be regarded as old fashioned in this age, Sarah Tuten Taylor Bush led a very well planned and systematic existence and was a great stabilizing influence in her family. He duties as a farmer's wife were often of a seasonal nature and she performed each task at its appointed time. Even the general spring house cleaning was accompanied by a traditional cleansing of the interior of her children's anatomy. A certain number of drops of turpentine were given then nightly for a given number of nights and then a generous dose of Epsom salts on the final night completed the procedure.
     Winter underwear was doffed on the first day of May and that day too marked the beginning of the barefoot season for the children. These last two ideas carried over into my own family, along with the time-honored institution of the Saturday night bath. Saturday morning was the appointed time to do the baking for Sunday, and Monday was washday just as much as it was Monday.
     As noted by Uncle Seaborn, my mother's name was originally Ella Lee. The origin of her name is explained by my father as follows:
     Sarah Tuten was my grandfather's second wife. His first wife was Ella Lee. He was satisfied with her as a wife except in one important particular, namely she was a spendthrift. He told her they could never hope to have anything so they agreed to separate. She later married a carpenter named Ed Wing and the two Wings, after a time, became quite wealthy!
     After his divorce from Ella Lee, my grandfather marked time for several years and finally married my grandmother. This couple also became rich, but lost most of their wealth in fighting the local option law of Monroe County where they lived, and trying to stay in the whiskey business after it had been voted out of the county. Of course, Mr. Bush was the sole manager of the business, so it is hardly fair to include my saintly grandmother in the plural "they" I have just used. I know from my own contacts with her that she was no friend of the liquor traffic. Mr. Bush at one time owned one of the largest general merchandise businesses in that part of the state and also had a big farm and other property.
     So the two couples were about equal in material wealth and the fact that Mr. Bush had turned Ella Lee adrift because of her inability to save proved a bit of irony. As a matter of fact, the two were still friends after each had acquired a second spouse. It is not recorded that the Wings ever visited Mr. Bush, but whenever the latter expected to make a trip to Macon where the Wings lived, he would communicate with them in advance and they would prepare an extra good dinner to celebrate the occasion. It is not difficult to understand, therefore, how it happened that my grandmother's first daughter came to bear the name of Ella Lee.
     My mother was always known to her brothers as "Lee." These brothers, Seaborn, William, and Thomas were known familiarly as Seab, Tobe and Tom. Though they were all fond of "Lee", my mother assured me that Tom was her favorite, largely because they were more nearly of the same age. It was Seab, however, whose authority was most respected and it was he who lent dignity to the family by reason of the fact that he was the only one of the children to attend college. He was the oldest and apparently got his education before his father lost he bulk of his estate.
     When my mother was still a small child, there came into her home two children of about her own age who had been practically abandoned by a worthless father. I have heard her describe many times the matted condition of Lila Austin's hair and the ragged trousers worn by her brother Alex who was a year or two her senior. Mrs. Bush, my grandmother, assumed the care of these two waifs and raised them practically on the same basis as she did her won children.
     Alex seems to have been a rather quiet child, but matters were very different in the case of Lila. Proud, independent, and capable, Lila must have suffered greatly by reason of the fact that she was almost a foundling. Her chief undesirable characteristic was ingratitude. She seemed never to appreciate the gracious care of her foster mother, but rather felt irked by the knowledge that she was under obligation for her upbringing.
     About 1894, Lila Austin entered into an ill-advised marriage with William B. Bush, the second of my mother's brothers (called "Tobe"). This union was not a success, due reportedly to Lila's ungovernable temper and haughty spirit. After each quarrel with her, Tobe would go out and drown his unhappiness in alcohol and thus the two became more and more hopelessly estranged. Lila left her two babies, may Elizabeth and Claud, with her foster mother and went out into the world to earn her own living. She proved a competent businesswoman and eventually became a purchasing agent for Caheen's, a large dry goods house in Birmingham, Alabama.
     Whereas Lila's financial situation had greatly improved, that of the Bush family had deteriorated. Mr. Bush, my grandfather, lost much of this property through unwise lawsuits and finally, broken in health and fortune, passed away at the age of sixty-one. His death occurred on April 21, 1895, a little more than a year before Lila's second child, Claud, was born.
     Eventually Lila removed her two children from Mrs. Bush's care and placed them in an orphanage at Evergreen, Alabama. Tobe wandered away and spent several years roaming through the wheat country of the Dakotas and Manitoba. He once wrote me from British Colombia that he was about to sail for Glasgow, Scotland. Whether he actually succeeded in making this trip, I do not know. At the time of his death from pneumonia in Los Angeles, California about Feb. 2, 1917, he had some $900. on deposit in a bank at Modest, California. He was buried in a very pretty spot in Hollywood Cemetery on Feb. 5, 1917. His grave is numbered 61, in Section 10-W, not far from the corner of Van Nebs Avenue and Santa Menace Blvd. The remainder of his bank deposit, after paying his funeral expenses, was sent to his mother in Birmingham.
     Uncle Toe was a large man of square build and jet black hair. I last remember seeing him about 1901 at the time he visited us on Avenue B in Birmingham. He came unexpectedly and smiling as always. "Hello, Lee! Where are the two hefty youngest?", referring to my brother Paul and me. Soon after the formal greetings were over, he noted my need of a haircut and promptly sat me in my high chair and scissored my golden locks like a professional. I was five years old at the time and clearly remember the incident.
     My uncle Tom likewise wandered away and seldom wrote to his family at all, in contrast to his brother Tobe. My grandmother Bush told me as I remember it, that she heard indirectly that Tom had been killed accidentally in a railroad mishap on the MK&T Railroad at St. Louis about 1910. He was supposed to be working as a brakeman. Tom was the only child in the family who never married.
     My uncle Seaborne, or Seab, is presumed to be still living near Albany, Georgia. Though he has earned his living principally in carpentry and agriculture, he had the advantage of a relatively good education and always evinced a love for literature, particularly history and fiction. His example in this respect proved a great inspiration to me as a small boy. Had it not been for his unfortunate addiction to strong drink, I feel that his keen mind and unusual scholastic training would have advanced him to a position in the world decidedly above the average man.
     My mother's half-sisters, Johnnie and Emma (Sis John and Sis Emma) were so much older than she that they easily gave the impression of belonging to a former generation. Indeed, Emma and her mother seemed very much like sisters to us children -- just two old ladies spending their declining years together in close companionship. Emma was frail and never will and this doubtless added years to her appearance that negated the difference in age between her and her mother.
     "Sis Emma" at a time prior to my own recollection, had married a Mr. Dawson and was prematurely widowed. She suffered greatly from asthma and the delusion that she was on the verge of being imposed upon at all times. I remember her as a small, dried- up complaining creature (she always pronounced this word as "critter") who went resignedly on her way to the grave with no appearance of getting any older than she was at the time of my first memory. She was always finding fault with something or somebody and poignantly felt that the present generation of children was beyond redemption. She used to amuse the assembled guests at table by eating enough meat for a person twice her size and then observing with an air of martyrdom that she believed she "could worry down another piece of that steak over there".
     "Sis John", on the other hand, was larger than average build and much more capable of making her own way in the world. In fact, Aunt Johnnie was a skilled dressmaker and gave my mother very valuable instruction along this line under a sort of apprentice arrangement. As a child, I often marveled at the perfection of the button holes that were worked by these two sisters.
     Johnnie married William, or "Will" Whatley, my father's cousin, probably about 1894. They had only one baby, Clarence Wesley who died in infancy. This was within the period of my own memory - about 1906. Johnnie herself died of cancer in Birmingham about 1913. She was the only left-handed person in our whole family, as far as I have ever been informed. She used to say that her teacher whipped her fingers with a ruler and forced her to learn to write with her right hand. In all other respects she found it more convenient to use her left. He left-handed shears were both a curiosity and a nuisance to us children and were of no assistance to us in cutting out paper dolls.
     I have digressed from my mother's childhood so as to complete the story of her family at this point without having to refer back to the various individuals separately at a later time. The Bush family proved to be a fast disappearing generation and my memory of most of its members is so filmy that it seems fitting that I deal with them in these remarks devoted primarily to the nineteenth century. On the other hand, I became well acquainted with all my paternal aunts and uncles at a period well within the twentieth century and will doubtless have occasion to refer to them at frequent intervals during the subsequent course of this narrative.
     The exact year of my mother's girth has never been conclusively established. Remarkably enough, she was born on the anniversary of my father's birth, June 12 and supposedly in the year 1879. However, the year had previously been entered in the family Bible as 1877, and then changed to 1879 by some hand believing the later date to be correct. There has been some argument among members of the family regarding which date is correct. Thus, there is some reason to believe that my mother was older than she considered herself to be, although it hardly seems possible that an intelligent girl would lose track of her age to the extent of two whole years. People who knew her in the early '90s are unanimous in affirming that she grew very rapidly during those years and I have heard my father remark that he felt sure she was older than 16 at the time he married her.
 Among the anecdotes that we enjoyed having our mother tell over and over again were those in which the two pseudo-sisters took part. It appeared that Lila had much the stronger will of the two and was also considerably faster in the performance of physical tasks. But Leila often made up in strategy what she lacked in physical prowess. In hoeing long rows of cotton, the two girls would start at the ends of parallel rows together and then race down the field somewhat faster than was compatible with efficient farming methods. Of course, Lila would reach the end of her row first. She would swing her hoe across her shoulder and march triumphantly back to the starting point. Not to be outdone, Leila would forthwith present a fairly satisfactory imitation of Mt. Pelee in eruption and on at least one occasion threatened to incapacitate her rival with the hoe handle.
     "Don't you dare leave that row half done like that", she would challenge.
     "Well now, bit sister", Leila would reply soothingly, "you are faster than I am. It is only right for you to help me finish my row."
     Another favorite anecdote my mother told was about the "ole swimmin' hole" on the Forsyth estate which lay at the foot of a steep hill covered with pines. Watermelons grew to a great size in that place and the children often used them to support themselves in the water. Bathing suits were unknown, and in the absence of neighboring highways would have been considered unnecessary anyway. Once when Lila and Leila were about ten years old, the two girls were down in the swimming hole, having a grand "horse-back ride" on huge melons afloat in the water. Suddenly they pricked up their ears upon seeing a large round pebble roll down the hillside and splash into the water. Looking up, they spied the bare foot of a boy protruding from behind a large pine. Finding himself discovered, the malefactor (a literal Peeping Tom in this instance) burst into uncontrollable laughter. The two young ladies sand into the water up to their ears and indignantly demanded that their audience disappear instantly.
     "We know it is you Tom, by the way you laugh," they assured him.
     That night the two girls had a last laugh when Mrs. Bush administered a dose of her famous "peach tree oil" to a barefoot boy who no doubt blamed the whole thing on his hard luck in dislodging the pebble.
     An unfortunate and well-nigh tragic incident that my mother often related occurred in this same neighborhood. Late one afternoon she and Lila were racing through the fields against a strong wind. Waist-high weeks and underbrush stood all around them. Leila ran into a high cocklebur bush with seeds dry and ready to be blown by the wind in any direction. Laughing with mouth wide open, Leila sucked one of the dry cockleburs down her throat. Her father took her immediately to the doctor who had extremely great difficulty in removing the cocklebur. The poor girl's throat was so lacerated by instruments and cocklebur that she remained practically speechless for several days after the operation. The cocklebur had lodged in her larynx and she always felt that this unfortunate occurrence had a permanent effect on the quality of her voice.
     Nevertheless, she sang beautifully, as it always seemed to me, when busy with her housework in later years. Like the Germans from whom she was descended, she worked merrily when in good health and good spirits. My earliest memory of her when she was only about 21 years of age brings a picture of a sprightly young housewife cooking, sweeping, sewing and singing all the while she worked.
     Most of her favorites were the simple ballads or folksongs that were so popular among the people of the day. I recall the airs to many of them and will list some of them here.

She Was Bred in Old Kentucky
Far Across the Fields of Cotton I Could Hear the Darkies Singing
Writing Letters, Is You Muvver? (The mother places a stamp on
her little girl's forehead, who is killed on the street as she goes down to mail herself in a letter box).
Ben Bolt
Nellie Gray
Oh, Wife, I've Found a Model Church
In the Baggage Coach Ahead
Wild Rode the Indian Maid, Bright Alfarata
Juanita
In the Gloaming
Old Black Joe
After the Ball is Over
She was more to be pitied than censured,
More to be loved than despised.
Hallelujah, sang the choir above her head,
Hardly knew you, hardly knew you, were the words she thought they said.

     I was particularly impressed with "The Model Church", in which the scene at the church is described when the old man arrives. At the signal to begin singing, the song itself changes to "Old Coronation", switching immediately to the new tune.
     It is difficult for the adult to understand the profound effect these old songs have upon the mind of a child. My imagination conjured up vivid pictures of the scenes described. I could see the old man enroute to church, leaning heavily on his cane, and in my child's mind sought to explain the reason for each situation described in the song. How did the sexton know the old man was poor? Was it customary for the poor people to allow the rich to have the front seats? Why didn't the old lady accompany her husband to church? These and a dozen other question filled my little head as I sat stacking blocks on the bedroom floor while my young mother, with a lilt to her voice, sang continuously as she busied herself with preparations for the evening. She always beat her beefsteak with a hammer, but even this incongruous accompaniment had little effect on her singing.
     It was with a feeling of keen regret that I heard my mother tell of her thwarted ambition to become an artist or to write poetry. Unquestionably, in my estimation, the world has been deprived of talent that very likely would have changed the trends of modern art or literature!
     But no lack of opportunity or special training could stop my mother from indulging her passion for good books. She was especially fond of Byron and I remember in a vague way her comments on "The Prisoner of Chillon" and "Childe Harold". She must have been reading Byron just prior to my birth; at least the fact that she named me in honor of her favorite poet would indicate that she had a volume of his poems on tap at the time.
     Her literary interest was not limited to poetry however. Like her older brother Seab, she was a constant reader of fiction. He companionship in this respect, after I got old enough to read, is one of my most cherished memories. It always seems so stimulating to have another person to read a story along with one. The opportunity to compare notes and opinions and to predict the outcome inevitably lends added zest to the reading. It is most inconvenient, however, when both readers happen to become interested in the same book at the same moment!
     Of course I was happy to share my boy's magazines with such a boon companion and at that time I simply took my mother's interest in boy's stories as a matter of course. Now, upon looking back, I greatly appreciate her unusual interest and fellowship in this particular. However, I am now crossing the line into the twentieth century and will turn my attention back to earlier years.
     My father and mother were married, as noted earlier, on June 26, 1895 and began housekeeping in a "brand new house" on Plant Street in South Macon, which they rented from a Mr. Gene Toole. In less than a year, they moved into the house where I was born. This was at 444 Gordon Street, the second house from Telfair in the direction of First Street. My father tells me that the corner house was owned and occupied my one John Watson, an engineer on the Central of Georgia Railroad. This man's father-in-law was thought to have been employed in the yards of the Georgia Southern and Florida Railroad.
     While still a small baby, we moved to 103 Rose Street, corner Columbus. At this house I became so very sick my parents feared they could lose me any minute. Our next abode was on Hazel Street between Second and Third. Here we lived with my grandmother Ricks and my father began work as a street car conductor.
     Economic conditions were very poor about over the country in those years. This situation was referred to as a "panic" and was no doubt quite similar the "Great Depression" that began in the year 1929. But there was no federal work relief in those days and my poor father had to struggle very hard to provide the necessities of life for his young family. Therefore, the opportunity to work for the street car company must have afforded him a great sense of comfort and security in the face of the unemployment that existed.
     On July 3, 1898, while we were living at 505 Main Street, East Macon, by brother Paul was born. He was a somewhat delicate child and almost every year during the hot summer months he  suffered from a species of dysentery. I was not quite two years old at the time of his birth. From 505 Main, we moved to 901 on the same street and it was here that Paul also became so dangerously ill that his life was despaired of for a time.
     According to a record dictated to me by my mother in 1913, we next moved to 319 Columbus Street, Macon, the house where my parents were married. This address marks the end of our first residence in Macon as my father obtained employment in Birmingham, Alabama and we followed him shortly thereafter to that city. I was still quite small and do not remember the journey, but I do remember hearing my mother say on our return trip to Macon that we had gone to Birmingham on the Southern Railway via Atlanta.
     Our first permanent residence in Birmingham was on Avenue I, the house with a Mrs. Eaves. I dimly remember playing with her small child in the back yard. It was here that my mother became ill with typhoid fever and was unable to move herself in bed for 41 days. My father refers to this misfortune as the greatest setback of her life, indicating probably that subsequent periods of ill health were more or less definitely traceable to this siege of typhoid.
     I have heard my mother speak of this illness many times. She used to relate her visit to the home of a friend, or possibly a cousin, who was ill with typhoid. She unthinkingly picked up a banana from a mantelpiece in the sick room and always felt that eating this banana caused her to contract the same disease.
     After passing the crisis, she naturally was very weak and required long weeks of convalescence before she could eat normally. Her diet was so well regulated and reduced in content that she frequently became very hungry indeed. On one occasion while her caretakers were temporarily absent from the house, she staggered weakly into the kitchen and helped herself to the contents of a pot on the stove. She afterwards told me what the pot contained, but I have forgotten this. She ever afterwards affirmed that nothing had ever tasted so good before. She always laughed in telling of her intrepidity on this occasion.
     The above indiscretion caused her to suffer a relapse and both household and doctor were amazed to learn what she had done. However, it turned out that her relapse was only temporary and she did not suffer greatly because of it.
     Evidently the house here was not large enough to serve two families comfortably and so my parents embraced an early opportunity to move into a house next door which we occupied alone. It is to this new house that my first definite memories can be traced. --- And it is felt that this should provide sufficient material for a new chapter.
     I corresponded with Uncle Melvin for many years before his death in 1959. He assured me he had other chapters but wanted "to get them put in a more polished form". I wrote to his daughter, executor of his estate, but she denied finding any such papers.
     The style of these narratives and Uncle Melvin's letters to me imply that he wrote to his father, Uncle Seab and Aunt Carrie, and perhaps others, asking a series of questions about the family. I received this mss as a typescript from Uncle Melvin. It appears to be a carbon copy, written on onionskin paper. I have no idea where the original is.
     Ella Lee "Leila" Bush Ricks died of a brain tumor in Rochester, MN at the Mayo Clinic on Dec.  [?] . My father, Paul C. Ricks, had gone with her and accompanied his mother's coffin back to Nashville, where they lived at the time. Every Christmas of his life, Daddy went to Mt. Olivet cemetery to place a wreath on his mother's grave.

NOTES AND COMMENTS FOR RICKS MSS

Notes by Martha Ricks Bond

1. Larry Redman Ricks - error, this man was named Larry. His brother was named Redman as shown in their father's will. Both Larry and Redman went to GA where they married within the same month in Randolph-Jasper Co.

2. Larry married Ellender Maze, 1807, Randolph, Jasper Co., GA. Various spellings found: Maze; Mayse; Mays; Maise. I have not researched this family.

4. Civil War: Jesse Ricks: This family legend appears to be in error. Perhaps Charles Wesley or Willis W. confused the names for Jesse Ricks served with his brothers in "Campbell Rangers", Co. "C" - 35th Regiment of GA Volunteer Infantry, Army of Northern VA, from Campbell Co., TN. Jesse enlisted 23 Jan, 1864; he and his brother William were wounded at Spotsylvania 12 May 1864 (Wm died 20 May 1864) and answered roll call for the last time on 28 Feb. 1865. No further record of Jesse, CSA or otherwise has been found. Whether he died or was captured, or like so many at that time, took the oath of allegiance and never went back to GA - that is not known.
No CSA record is found for any other Jesse Ricks of GA. See also "Ricks in the Civil War" , mrb.

5. John A. Ricks also had CSA record.

6. If WWR wrote this in 1931/32, their deaths would be about 1907 for Jack Grantham; about 1912 for Mary.

7. See more about Uncle Bob Willis later.

8. I have not researched this family. Mary Jane was evidently some relation to the Temperance (Tempie) Cook who married Andrew Maze Ricks
     This is a peculiar statement. Charles Wesley RICKS served in the same regiment as his brothers (see Jesse above), but the regimental record indicates that only 2 men were ever detached from the VA group for service back in GA. Neither of these was Charles W. RICKS. He was present during the siege of Petersburg. It is likely that his rheumatism was a result of the long weeks in the trenches during that period. He received a disability discharge in August of 1864.
     Another version of this story is told by my father, who said he had it from "an uncle" is that when Charles W. arrived home he discovered he was the "father" of another child, evidently not his.
This caused the breakup of the family, for he was none too pleased about that event. After he returned to the army, Mary Jane went to live with her relatives somewhere in Georgia. She sent back word that she and the children had died of cholera. He still believed Mary Jane had died along with both children when he married his second wife. Whether or not they had another marriage performed legally is not known. Mary Jane's children used the RICKS name.
9.  See CSA notes above. I have not been able to determine whether he, alone among the others in this regiment, spent much of the war in Georgia. It appears this outfit was in Virginia throughout the war.  - see note above. I have not found a pension claim.

10. Another story about this was told to my father, Paul Ricks Sr. who related it to me. On one occasion, a tree fell on Charles Wesley Ricks while he was cutting it down. The little dog, perhaps Sam [?] came to the house in a most agitated condition. He succeeded in getting Fannie's attention and led her to the scene of the accident. She found her husband pinned down by the tree, took the ax and chopped it enough to free him. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured, and the little dog became a family hero.

11. Evidently the Whatleys and Mitchells were well off - both have been mentioned as "the wealthiest in Taylor County". I have a good deal of data about the Whatley (Wheatley) family genealogy.

12. Willis W. Ricks is said to have named his youngest daughter, Ruth Minerva Ricks after this mule. It may or may not be true, but it makes a good story which my father, Paul C. Ricks, loved to tell.

13. Aunt Carrie reports this date as September 8, 1887. Difficulty in reading the handwriting may account for this.

14. Willis had then just turned 15 years old. This ended his formal education although he continued to study and became quite well-read. I was, in fact, surprised to learn that he had not gone to school more than he evidently did. Education was a most important thing to Willis. He instilled this into his children.

Copyright 1993, Martha Ricks Bond. All rights reserved.

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