Yesterday I saw Edgar. Most of you know he is nearing 100 years old and has been a lifelong friend of our family. He is also connected to us through the Thurman connection (Dorothy Thurman Eddins). Long ago, he told me a story about the funerals of Henry Wiley and Emma Hudson White that bears retelling.
Emma died on January 11, 1918 and as a boy, Edgar remembers the driving snowstorm that was occurring when the horse-drawn hearse attempted to climb the hill between what is now Highway 9 and Pine Grove. He told me how his Dad and some other men used the spokes in the wheels of the hearse to turn the wheels and help the horses pull the hearse up the hill to the church and the cemetery.
Henry died on December 21, 1935. Edgar was a young man by then and he thought it was strange that the clouds began to gather on the day of the funeral. By the time the hearse, motorized by 1935, headed to Pine Grove, several inches of new snow were on the ground. This time, it was Edgar and some other young men who left their cars and pushed the hearse up the hill to the church.
My father remembered that the pallbearers carried the casket on foot from the church to the cemetery, and in the time that it took them to walk across the road, 2 or 3 inches of snow accumulated on the top of the casket.
Note: With Emma dying in 1918, I am curious if any of you have seen her death certificate? Was there a link to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic?
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I have heard Edgar tell the stories about the funerals of Emma Eddins White and Henry Wiley White many times as well. Like Aunt Ella White, Edgar is a great story-teller. How are Edgar and Katherine? I haven't seen either one of them for a while. It is hard to believe that he is nearing 100 years of age. He is definitely another one, along with Big Boy White, who could shed some light on the buildings and community. I have an old photo that I think could possibly be Edgar holding up a string of fish. I don't know why I think it may be Edgar, just something about the way he wears his hat and the way he stands. I would post it here, but I do not know how.
ReplyDeleteI spoke with my mother this morning and she told me that either Bonnie or Violet Greene, Minnie and Esly's daughters, is going to be attending the Chesterfield Baptist Church this coming Mother's Day Sunday. If you do not already have plans, you might want to try and catch her to ask some questions. After preachin they are going to eat lunch at either The Country Kitchen or Bill's Barbecue depending on the crowds.
I didn't read this until Mother's Day afternoon. I hare I missed Minnie's daughter.
ReplyDeleteYou can post a blog by signing in and clicking the "new post" tab. You can post photos there also.
Another way is to sign in and click "add gadget" there is a gadget for one photo and also one for posting a slideshow of photos.
I have granted you full administrative privileges - that gives you access to all of the bells and whistles.
Glad you are on board - pass this web address to all the family that you can.
For a long time I thought that Emma Eddins White died as a result of the 1918 flu, but recently --meaning several months ago -- I read her obituary and it said she had died from cancer. I had never seen the obituary, and tonight can't for the life of me remember where I saw it. Did Bud Hammond share it with me??? I thought I remembered putting the copy in a box with other family material; however, I've looked for it most all evening, but have yet to find it. I'll keep looking.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible that great grandmother White had no death certificate. I don't think SC required death certificates until 1915 or so, and sometimes people died at home and were buried quickly. Doctors were scarce and the body had to be disposed of, especially in hot weather. (The weather part certainly was not true for Emma Eddins White!) The older obituaries often stated the cause of death. My great great grandfather Ezekiel T. King's obituary mentioned "the dreaded spectre of cancer" that hung over him during his last months. (E. T. King, my grandmother White's maternal grandfather was also the grandfather of Helen Perry, Johnny Long, and so on.)
I have never seen a Death Certificate for Emma Hudson Eddins White and I cannot really remember having looked for one. That would be interesting to see. What I do remember about the early Death Certificates that I have seen is that they were not filled out completely. I just looked on the SCDHEC website using LizardTech DjVu and found that there is a Death Certificate for an Emma White of Chesterfield with the date of death given as 1/13/19 and the certificate number is 787 in volume 2. Could this be our Emma White? I will order this certificate, but it could take several weeks to receive it.
ReplyDeleteI found this obituary in Aunt Ella's scrapbook:
Mrs. H. W. White died suddenly Friday morning at 2 o'clock. Paralysis is thought to have been the cause of her death. The funeral services were conducted by the Rev. J. K. Hair at Pine Grove Church on Saturday. Besides her husband, Mr. H. W. White, she is survived by the following children: Messrs. W. H. White, of Maxton, N.C.; T. E. White, Fred White, John White, and Jack White, Mrs. J. Andy Teal, Mrs. Absolum Hammond, Miss Ella White, the following brothers, Mr. Albert Eddins, Mr. T. R.Eddins; sister, Miss Sallie Eddins, Mrs. Tom Teal, Mrs. Allison Parker, Mrs. Lina Swinnie, Mrs. Lon Smith, Mrs. E. E. Davis. A wide circle of friends were grieving to learn of the sudden death of Mrs. White. The bereaved have the sympathy of the entire community.
This obituary is very interesting. It appears that Emma Eddins White's death was sudden and unexpected, something I did not know and I don't think had ever heard. It's sad that we no longer have anyone to ask... I did a Google search of "paralysis as a cause of death," and found that the general thinking is that this was an old term for a stroke. And this would make sense in terms of her death being sudden.
ReplyDelete