I, Fred McCaleb son of above, finally got to see myself in the 1920 census of Fayette County, Ala. after patiently waiting from when the census was opened in 1990 until July of 1992 for a copy of the microfilm to filter down into the Fayette County Library. The census is closed and secret for 70 years for info that may be obtained on individuals, but is open to Big Brother and his brother Big Business who may obtain what information they wish for their decisions and operations. But for the individual it is a closed deal for 70 years, and they figure the ones above 70 are too old and weak to fight and have no rights anyway. What rights they have can be taken away by children by seeing a lawyer and signing a paper saying they are incompetent to take care of their own affairs. Then the nursing home and awaiting for death.

 A copy of the page of the census we were on is attached to this writing. The H McCaleb house was No 145 in Coles Beat. We were between house 144 which was that of Ecter Killingsworth and his wife Ethel Hallmark and and house 146 which was that of Joe Kelley and his sons Bill and Jess Kelley. But the house closest to us was No 147 that of Jennie Hollingsworth Kelly. She was a sister of my grandma Rejina Catherine Hollingsworth McCaleb, was the head of the household, and had already been married twice and lost both husbands and never had any children. I never knew what happened to the husbands. Daddy's uncle James (Jim) Hollingsworth and his wife Mandy Kelly and family lived in house 148. More on these families later.

 In the H McCaleb house were found H a white male age 26 head of family and married and could read and write. There was Eza (Hallmark) the wife married white female age 27 and she could read and write. There was Fred the son single white male 3+ years old and he couldn't read and write. (the census taker supposedly came in June before I was 4 on Sept 7, 1920). Then there was little brother Hubert, son, white male, 1+ years old and he couldn't read and write. The McCaleb house was just a shack with 2 main rooms for living room and beds. There was a chimney at one end of one of the rooms where we kept warm by the fireplace in the winter. There was a little side room at the back for a kitchen. The house was well above ground , so Hubert and I could play under the floor with the chickens. An old Woodard man over there said he came to our house one time when we were young when it was hot and Hubert and I were sweating, had chicken feathers on our face and black chicken bowel movements between our barefoot toes. We were having a big time. We had no radio, no phonograph (they called them funneygraphs back then), no tv, no electric stove and no intertainment except what we created our selves. Daddy bought Hubert and I one little red wagon and we and friends tore it up in about 3 weeks. He never bought another one saying only that we would tear it up and we were on our own to build our own playthings from then on. He did let us use what tools he had which were handsaw, crosscut saw, ax, hammer, drawing knife and brace and bits. I tried to learn the things my parents knew. One of the first endeavors was his wood chopping ax. With it I nearly chopped my left little finger off. The finger nail on it is still about same size (small) as in youth, so that part of me never grew up and got old and is a reminder of where I lived in my first 8 years of life. My dad kept the chopping ax sharp, but didn't bother or know how to sharpen the handsaw and crosscut saw. I later learned how to do that myself. We had a handcranked grindstone to sharpen the axes and bought files to sharpen the cotton hoes. When I was about 4 and being in the cotton field with my momma hoeing, a bug got way deep into one of my ears. That nearly gave me a fit. Momma poured water or oil or something down ear and finally got bug in notion of giving up. Another bad experience was going after the cows late one summer evening. That was one of my jobs when the cows wouldn't come when my mother called "sook cow, sook cow".  This particular evening I stepped on a blacksnake. The snake took off at high spped in one direction and I took off high speed barefooted toward the house. I had learned from direct contact before ever taking a biology class that snakes are cold blooded animals--at least they feel cool to the feet. This experience taught me to try to keep up with where I put my feet. We went barefooted all of each summer and a common accident was to stomp the toe against something hard and get it hurt. There I learned that one can't always go thru life with his head turned toward the sky. When Hubert and I were a little older our mother would send us to Snow Tucker's store to get some little thing. We had to go over a bluff down a path across Boxes' Creek and on thru a path across a field for a mile or more. On one trip we met a rattlesnake. She could never get us to go to the store anymore. On this same creek there was a hole of water big enough to swim in. I recollect daddy trying to teach momma to swim. He turned her loose on her own and nearly let her drown one time. She never went swimming or had any more interest in that during her lifetime. He saw that Hubert and I knew how to swim in a fashion. I never learned the fancy strokes, but was always able to stay on top of the water. The road to our house was just a field road  about 1/3 mile long winding across Boxes' Creek (no bridge) to the gravel road that went by Skimming Ridge School House. When we were away from home in the wagon and some times a sudden rain would come up and raise the waters to  too high a level to ford the stream with mules and wagon. One time later when Clancy was a little girl daddy forded the stream when water was too high. The mules were losing firm footing and having to swim and water was up in the bed of the wagon. We barely made it across. Little Clancy said she had nightmares for a long time after that. I suppose I, being a little boy, was not especially scared, just excitement to me. Now it would probably scare me to death. Down Boxes' Creek about the lower end of our land was a fishtrap that daddy and his Uncle Jim Hollingsworth had built. This trap would catch fish the easy way. Hubert and I sometimes got sent to pick up the fish from this trap. One time we found a snake in it. So no more of that duty. The snakes apparently pretty well had us shook up, though we didn't seem to be much afraid of a lot of other dangers that lurked all around. One time there was a black convict escaped into the section and everyone was scared. Daddy told momma and I the mules needed turning out or putting up one. He talked us into performing the chore. The barn was a ways from the house. While we were gone he got in the grass patch and started making a noise  and nearly scared us to death. We ran back to the house and when daddy was not there momma was ready to get a stick of stovewood and hit him over the head with it. She cooked on an old cast iron cook stove and burned pine stovewood. The kitchen was mighty hot in the summer, but ok in the winter. The stovewood was split into double length and had to be cut. Cutting stovewood became one of my jobs when I was able to handle the ax without cutting off fingers. I guess this covers something about the H McCaleb house and some of the activities that went on in the 1920 era when the census taker came along. I was wondering before I saw the census if the census taker found us back in the place where we were, but he did. The census is of poor quality compared with previous censuses. The photocopy is just the way it looked on the microfilm--poor quality. The quality was probably due to sloppy workmanship of the crew that did the microfilming. The durability of paper has steadily declined since the mid 1800's. Before that paper was made from rags. And not much of it was made, but what was made was of good quality and also handwriting was better back then. Penmanship was a required subject in schools back then.

 I next go to the Jennie Hollingsworth Killingsworth Kelley house 147. She was our nearest neighbor, daddy's aunt, and within hollering distance. She was a widow, the head of the household, white female 48 years old. She had no children and had already gone through with 2 husbands by 1920. I never knew whether the husbands died drunk, naturally, left the country because they couldn't take her or what. I did find that she and first husband were thrown out of Killingsworth Baptist Church for drunkeness. Maybe she could hold her own at drinking more than the husbands and still live. She was grandma Rejina C. Hollingsworth McCaleb's sister. All the Hollingsworth girls drank alcohol (moonshine liquor) except grandma, her sister Martha Woodard, and perhaps her sister Nancy  who was married to "Mad" McCollum", a famous lawyer of Jasper, Al. Nancy died on the dope morphine. The Hollingsworths believed in consuming lots of tobacco and alcohol. This is still a problem of much of society. The most vivid recollection of Jennie was when she got a rat up her dress and screamed for help. Momma and I went to help her and between her and momma they got the rat out. I don't think I was of much help--just a young onlooker that didn't know much of what goes on. I believe Jennie married another old Tidwell or Tucker man before her death and she is buried at Tidwell's Chapel, a small Church of Christ 2 or 3 miles from where my grandma McCaleb lived. She did sell her place to Annie Cannon and Adelaide Sanders the same time ours was sold in 1924.

 I believe the next closest house to ours was that of Ecter and Ethel Hallmark Killingsworth house. It was about 1/4-1/2 mile up hill over a path and logging road from our house. Here is where my Killingsworth older first cousins lived. Momma's sister Ethel was 30 (3 yrs older than Momma) and already had 5 children that made 1920 census. There was Ola 8+ years old. She is now in a nursing home in Anniston, Al. She was the guardian mother hen that took care of us children on our trek every school day morning to Skimming Ridge one teacher school. We walked a path throough fields, over a one bannister footlog that scaled Boxes Creek and up a wooded bluff trail that crossed a country gravel road to the house of learning and punishment. One morning our guide Ola fell off the footlog after becoming dizzy from looking at the flowing water below. Luckily she hit on the solid rocks at the edge of the water and didn't get drowned. One of us ran to the school for help. She had a badly bruised spot above one eye that stayed black for a while. My dad and Ecter had been too lazy or didn't find time to put another bannister on the footlog. I forgot if they put one on after the accident or not. The next daughter and cousin was Eunice Killingsworth. She was 7+ and only a year younger than Ola. She looked like the killingsworths. She is now about 80 and has her own home in Memphis. She sleeps at her younger sister Florence Copeland's house, also of memphis. She never married, worked in cotton mills and restaurants until 2 or 3 years ago. She is having health problems. The next daughter was Mildred, aged 5+ years. She was the lively one back then pulling tricks on her cousins. One time she was at Grandma Hallmarks' house when I was there. She said "Look up" and I looked up. She said "Look down" and I looked down. Then she said "You're the biggest fool in town." She might have been about right for those that do everything someone tells them to do or dares them to do. I soon learned that I was an individual that didn't have to do as others do. Mildred is retired in Florida now with her husband. I have seen her once 2 years ago since she was a little girl. She had no children. The Killingsworth cousin closest my age was Vivian aged 3+ in the 1920 census. She looked like the Hallmarks and some said she and I would have passed for brother and sister. Her husband died many years ago and also her only son Hoke Middleton died about 15 years ago. She has lived in Aliceville, Al. most of her life and has a house there. She has recently been of infirm health and staying part time with her only daughter who lives in Arab, Al. There was another cousin Willard Killingsworth b. 1919. The first four are the ones I recollect the best as they were companions and lookers out for me on the hazardous way to school. The Ecter Killingsworth family moved to Aliceville, Al. about 1924 or sooner and we moved to a shack on my grandpa McCaleb's place and stayed there a year and then daddy's uncle George talked dad into buying part of a place between Neddleton and Shannon, Ms. Ecter and Ethel had 5 or 6 more children at a farm in outskirts of Aliceville. Ecter died in a car wreck, supposedly drunk, when the younger Killingsworth kids still had to be raised, so Ethel was left on her own. The oldest 4 girls helped out by getting jobs in the cotton mill down there and helping their mother raise the younger ones. Ola ran away to get married one time while we were in Miss. and came to our house. My dad advised her not to to no avail. She married, had one son and divorced, then married again. I suppose Ola was not much help to Ethel. Later I got to know one of the younger children--Florence Copeland. The Killingsworth boys, Willard and Lee made careers of the Marine Corps and also learned to consume their share alcoholic beaverages. Alcohol reaches out its dark hand and touches nearly every family in some cruel way.

 The next family past Jennie Hollingsworth Kelley was Joe Kelley in house 146. He was Jennie's father in law. He was 64 years old white male, born in Ga., head of family and could read and write. His wife, I believe her name was Mary, was already dead. He had 2 batchelor sons Bill 25, and Jesse 22. They were of no direct kin to us, but still we went by their house on the way to dad's uncle Jim Hollingsworth who ran a blacksmith shop and repaired and made mule wagons. Jim was married to Joe's daughter Mandy Kelley. Daddy got his plow points sharpened at Jim's shop. Joe Kelly had a cedar water bucket that set on a table on the porch. Anybody that was up with the Joneses had one of those cedar buckets to improve the taste of the water. Best I recollect metal dippers were the style for water buckets back then. Every body drank from the same dipper, not being afraid of germs as they are today. On the same table set a washpan. Everybody washed their hands and faces in the washpan before eating a meal. The rest of the body might be dirty, but hands and face needed clean to eat. The H McCaleb family didn't have a cedar bucket, so a cedar bucket was fascinating to son Fred. He wondered how he could make one, but never mastered that skill. We had to wash our feet in the washpan before going to bed at night, but still lots of dirt on rest of body which we washed off about once a week in the same or bigger pan. One source of Joe's water was a spring down a steep hill from his house. Joe kept a gourd dipper at this spring so that anyone that passed by could help himself to a good drink of cold spring water. The gourd dipper, made from gourds, hadn't completely gone out of style at that time. Gourds fascinated me. One could escape buying a dipper by growing gourd vines. Just for curiosity I grew a gourd vine this year and raised 5 gourds of the birdhouse type. Long handled gourds are needed for dippers. One other thing about Joe's place fascinated me. One of his fields close to our house was supposed to have a pot of gold buried on it. They buried their gold during Civil War to keep from getting it taken by Confederate or Union Army. My daddy showed me when I was young where the pot of gold was supposed to be buried, but doubt if I could go back now. One might take a good metal detector and find it. Many families back then had tales of gold being buried around their homes. The ones that knew where it was buried had died, and ones remaining didn't know where the spot was.

 House 148, about 3/4 mile from where we lived, was daddy's uncle Jim and aunt Mandy Kelley Hollingsworth house. Jim was 43, family head and could read and write. Wife Mandy Kelley was 39, wife, and could read and write. Eight children were still living with them. They were living in the John R. Hollingsworth old house and John R. was still living and living in the Jim household. He was 85 years old, could read and write, and was born in Al. I recollect him as an old man with a grey beard and walking stick at my grandma McCaleb's house about 1924. He pointed his stick at me and said I better behave or he would use it on me. Jim's children were Luther 17, Flonnie 15, Tom 13, Alfred 11, and Andy 11 (twins), Eva 7, Dottie 5, Bessie 3. Even though they were first cousins of my daddy H, Dot and Bess were playmates of mine. I think Alf and Andy may have been the ones that helped Hubert and I tear up the little Red Wagon daddy once bought us. I recollect eating mulberrys from the mulberry trees near their house. Mandy let Bessie nurse from her breasts until she was 5 years old. She figured that was a form of birth control and didn't want any more children after she had already had 9 or 10 kids. She didn't have any more. One or two of her sons had already married before 1920. I believe one was Dock that went to Ark., but not sure whether Dock was son of John R. or his son Jim Hollingsworth. Jim was good at doing blacksmithing or anything mechanical. He could even fabricate a moonshine whiskey still from copper tubing. His trouble was that he went in for too much of the product from his still. It was reported that he was so drunk when his father John R. died about 1924 that Jim nearly fell into the grave. Jim and John R. were buried in the Wade Cemetery about 2 miles back thru the woods from Jim's house. Apparently John R. must have been more temperate in his drinking as he lived to be about 89 years old; or perhaps the drinking preserved him. He also knew how to fabricate stills and make moonshine whiskey. At one time he had a license from the government to make liquor. At other times he did it illegally, and his wife "Bess" McCaleb always guided revenue agents in the wrong directions away from his operations. I recollect going through a path in the woods to the Wade Cemetery, with the younger Hollingsworth girls. The way we went was straight cross country and about 2 miles from their house. I have been to that cemetery 3 or 4 times in recent years. It is now nearly grown up. Markers of the past are fast fading away. A dirt road ran that way and Old Brand Primitive Baptist Church was there. Now the forest and some cuts where the old road lay. The saddle horses, buggies, surries, wagons and mules have given way to paved roads and high speed automobiles. One more thing about Bess McCaleb, John R. Hollingsworth's wife. She didn't make the 1920 census. She died during 1917, but had time to make her grandson, Fred McCaleb who was born 1916, a quilt before she died. The older women back then wanted to be remembered for something, so making a quilt for their descendants was a way to do that. I still have the quilt she made me, though I was too young to recollect her. She made the quilt from dyed tobacco sacks. So it is a memorial to the amount of poisoning the Hollingsworths, also my dad, received from puffing on cigarettes. My grandma McCaleb got 3 of the $5 gold pieces Bess had at near death and gave them out to her oldest 3 grandchildren. I got one of them. It was made in 1837, the year of birth of John R. Hollingsworth, and I still have that. It looks like it was made yesterday. So I, Fred McCaleb have been lucky enough to live from the horse and buggy age to the Jet airplane age and have learned to use the modern computer which acts very much like the old mule I used to plow.  Its great to be alive to see all this in 1992.