Individuals marked with a red dot are direct ancestors of Mary Jane Thomas
For privacy reasons, Date of Birth and Date of Marriage for persons believed to still be living are not shown.

Thomas, Mary Jane {I0001} (b. --Not Shown--)

Education: Date: DEC 1987
Place: B. A. English, Huntingdon College, Montgomery, AL

Occupation: Place: Retired in 1987 from the Civil Service. Held the position of Lt. Col. in the USAF Reserves where he was a Pilot and Safety Officer.

Occupation: Place: Worked in the Birmingham Post Office for 34 years as a city letter carrier.

Death: ABT. 1960 Birmingham, AL

Source: (Name)
Title: Letter by Sara Mellie Carroll Thomas written 1977.

Source: (Death Field)
Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2, Ed. 7, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: Jun 14, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.112.7.120779.12

Note: [Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2 L-Z, Ed. 7, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: Jun 14, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.112.7.120779.12]

Individual: Thomas, Sara
Social Security #: 416-64-7627
Issued in: Alabama

Birth date: Feb 24, 1893
Death date: Jun 1983


Residence code: Alabama

ZIP Code of last known residence: 35204
Primary location associated with this ZIP Code:

Birmingham, Alabama



Written by Sara Mellie Carroll Thomas in 1977:

Family of Minton Isaiah Harp and Nancy Adeline Campbell Harp

These are the parents of our mother, Martha Adeline Harp Carroll. They lived in Walker County, Georgia, northwest Georgia. They had four sons and four daughters. The sons were Albert Asbury Harp, Uncle Ab; James Harp, Uncle Jim; John Harp, Jackson, Uncle Jack. The daughters were Pliny Harp Roden, Elizabeth Harp Bagwell, Martha Adeline Harp Carroll, and Ollie Harp Johnson. Our mother was born in Walker County in Northwest Georgia on March 17, 1873. They moved to DeKalb County, Alabama when our mother was six years old. When she was 16 years old in 1889, she was staying with Aunt Abbie Harp while Uncle Ab was working in Birmingham. Aunt Abbie had two small children, Cora and Cornelious. They had visited some of the kin on a weekend in early fall and returned home early Monday and weather had just turned cold and our mother started to bring in wood and build a fire. Just then, George Carroll came by, introduced himself and carried in the wood and built a good fire, and fell in love.
He went home and told his parents that he had fallen in love with a red haired girl; something he had always said he would not do. Then they were married the next spring, April 24, 1890, at the home of her parents. She was 17 and he was 25 years old. Incidentally, she had always disliked the name George and had said she would not marry a man named George.
I can barely remember visiting at Grandpa and Grandmother Harp's. She had a big loom and a spinning wheel and it seemed like hundreds of broaches of thread ready to be woven and knitted, lined up in rows on the wall. She died soon after we moved to Marion County, Ala. Uncle John Harp lived near us while we lived near Shingle, Ala. And we knew and visited with Uncle Ab Harp's and Aunt Lizzie Bagwell's families.
If Uncle Jack Harp is still living, he is the only one of our mother's family left. He has been in a nursing home in Falkville, Ala. and is 94.


Family of Thomas Carroll and Matilda Brannon Carroll

Thomas and Matilda Carroll lived in northeast Georgia near the town of Toccoa, near the South Carolina line. Our grandfather, Thomas Carroll was born in 1824 in this area of northeast Georgia and married Matilda Brannon. I do not know how many brothers he had but one was the Rev. George Washington Carroll, a distinguished Baptist minister. Our father was named for him and he gave Papa a framed picture of himself which has been lost. He was a very good-looking man. One brother of our grandfather's was our father's Uncle Giles Carroll.
Our Grandmother Carroll was a saintly person and died in June, 1893 after I was born on February 24, 1893. My grandmother named me Sara for her own lovely daughter who died at age 17 while they lived in Georgia. My grandmother also gave the name Mellie to me and asked that I be called Mellie. (Sara was a scholar.) Our grandmother was in her 60's when she died.
Thomas and Matilda Carroll had four sons and five daughters. Sons were: Marion, George Washington (born in 1865), J. Caleb, called "Cale" and Thomas Carroll, Jr. I think Uncle Cale's first name was John. The daughters were Martha, Sarah, Mary, Cynthia, and Charity, called "Chatt" and married a Holbrooks. Martha, or Matt, married a Will Morris, our Aunt Abbie Harp's brother. They were parents of our first cousins, Henry Morris and Vana Morris Harris who lived at Chalkville, near Birmingham.
We never knew many of our father's family while we were growing up. Papa moved our grandfather and his second wife from Sand Mountain about 1901 to a little house he had built for our grandfather near our house. He lived here for about two years and after he became disabled, lived with us for about 18 months until his death, in September 1904. He would go and visit Aunt Chatt Holbbrooks and her family often.
On Sand Mountain, I remember we went to see Uncle Marion Carroll, called "Uncle Bud". He had just one daughter and she married a Bloodworth - her first name was Elizabeth. One of Elizabeth's daughters, a Mrs. Lawson, lives in Gadsden. Milburn knew her. He and Eula also knew Mrs. Graham Thornton and her sister who lives near Eula. They are daughters of our Uncle Thomas Carroll. Somewhere I had a clipping, an obituary, of one of the Bloodworth sisters who lived and died in Elyton village after I left there. At that time, there were several Bloodworth sons living in northeast Alabama. I remember one or two lived in Huntsville.
Of course, we knew the family of Aunt Chatt Holbrooks, his youngest sister who lived to be about 96 years old. Uncle Cale died in Miss. His wife was Cora Nix and they had no children. Henry Morris married Reba Harp who was our first cousin on our mother's side. Henry died several years after moving to Tampa, Florida. Reba still lives there and has one daughter, Sybil, who married a Smith, I think. Their oldest daughter, Ruth Bearden and her husband and his mother, their two children and her youngest brother were killed in a terrible wreck at a Bradenton, Florida railroad crossing. They had lived in Winston County, Alabama. Evan and I visited Reba and Henry on our way to Lake Wales to visit Gene and his family in February, 1955 and they carried us to see their family graves.



Family of George W. and Martha Harp Carroll

Our father and mother owned a farm near a town called Lathemville on Sand Mountain where they lived from 1890 till the fall of 1895 and us four oldest were born there: Reuben Caleb, July 13, 1891; Sara Mellie, February 24, 1893; Henley Henson and Fenley Benson, April 18, 1895. In the fall of that years, Papa rented out our farm and we moved to a section of Sand Mountain called the Big Woods near where Fife is now and lived there near a big spring called the Pendergrass Spring. It was near the Bearden Farm. We had a good well in the yard, but in dry summer the whole neighborhood did their washing at that spring and many hauled water from the spring. We lived there two years and Sherman was born there February 19, 1897.
In the summer or early fall, our father went by train to Bear Creek almost all the way across the state and met Mr. John Bull and rented land for the next year. Our mother had gotten about ready to move. Reuben and I helped pick cotton. We could only take what would go in a two-horse covered wagon. So we were "ready to ride" before cold weather. Our Uncle John Harp rode his horse and drove our cow along with a family travelling in an ox wagon. I guess we traveled on old military roads mostly, southwest to Cullman then northwest to Winston and Marion Counties.
I think we were on the way about two weeks as we had to stop early for Papa to cut wood and build a camp fire in time for our mother to cook supper for both families by the time the other family and Uncle John could catch up. Then after supper, she would milk our cow by lantern light. Fortunately, there were only three in the other family; a father, mother and a grown son. Incidentally, it was the Jones family and the son drove their cow along with Uncle John.
As well as I can remember, we had good weather. I think we only slept indoors one night. On a farm in the edge of Cullman a very lovely old couple just wouldn't let us camp. After supper he roasted peanuts for us which he had brought in from his big barn loft. I know the Good Lord blessed that old couple for their kindness to us strangers.
I hope I will never forget sleeping in the back of the wagon and looking out at the beautiful moon and stars. Papa, Mama and Sherman slept in a small tent each night. Ever since then I have longed to take a trip and sleep that way again, looking at the wonderful heavens. At 84, I guess I just as well stop longing, eh?
Oh, well, I must get back to our arrival in Marion County to a big old home owned by Mr. John Bull and living there near where Mountain Home Church is now, were three ladies, the Pickard sisters. We were to stay there till Mr. Bull could build another room on the place which is almost under the big I. C. trestle now.
We lived there two years. Papa made two crops and also dug a number of long ditches for Mr. Bull in the flat land along Brush Creek. E. Minton Carroll was born there November 11, 1898. During that year Papa had entered a claim on 160 acres of Government land in Franklin County, and after laying by his crops the next summer he built and moved on the place after gathering the crops that fall.
We lived there till the fall of 1904 and he bought the Carroll place as you know it now. Milburn and Freeman were born while we lived down in the Scott community; Milburn in 1900, September 7, I think and Freeman April 3, 1902. The post office down there was Shingle, Ala. and was at Mr. George Grissom's store and grist mill. The church and school were at Union Hill on the road toward Belgreen.
Papa and Mama knew this place and the spring as we had visited the Gilbreath family and had gone to revival at Shady Grove while we lived at the John Bull place. So we moved here in the fall of 1904 and Papa had the lumber hauled from the place at Shingle. He and our mother, during fall and winter, had cut the huge virgin pine trees and the Harper brothers had hauled them to the saw mill and brought and stacked the lumber to dry during that summer, expecting to build there in the fall of 1904. He hired those same men to haul the lumber to the Big Spring place here after he bought it from Mr. Tom Cash in October, 1904, just after Grandfather Carroll had died.
Brownie was born here June 24, 1905, Minnie October 21, 1907 and Icie July 27, 1909. George was born June 5, 1912 and I was married here at home on September 29, 1912. Reuben and Lavonia were married in December of that year.
Back to spring and summer of 1905; the air seasoned lumber, which was stacked under a long shed out front and every day when the ground was too wet to plow or for any reason [they] were not working in the fields; Papa and Reuben were dressing lumber by hand, weather boarding and flooring. Papa hauled the ceiling to the planer at Spruce Pine.
In the summer and fall of 1905, Papa built the two large rooms with stack chimney and two fire places, built by a Mr. Evans, also the two small rooms and porch in between on back side which was enclosed for a dining room later.
In 1906 papa had a "barn raising" one day. The neighbor men helped take down the old log house which was just in front of these two first rooms and carried the logs up by the big barn and set them up just like they had been to be used as a corn crib. Then Papa built the front room with hall and front and back porches. The white stone chimney at the front was built by Mr. Jim Jones, a brother of Mr. Will Jones. Mr. Jones said it was the most perfect job he had ever done. Every stone was hand chiseled to exact size, no pieced ones in it. Papa had run water in troughs to a point just near the back door of this new front room so he moved Mama's kitchen and her dining room into it so the water would be handy for her; but later put in pipes and ran it gravity into their bedroom and the little kitchen on the back. So then we had the big front room for a parlor, although we had to have a bed in there, so it was a guest room, too. Well, we were still bigger than the Walton family, but those were happy years.
Now I have to tell you young ones how we made our living. About 1901, Papa sold his land on Sand Mountain and bought 80 acres of good level land over on the Hackleburg road (it was called the Bailey place). From our place down in the Scott settlement I guess it was just about two miles from home, but seemed farther. We had a part of our crop there till Papa cleared some more land at home, then rented it.
The first year we lived on the Carroll place we had most of our crop on the place we moved from in the Scott settlement, but papa sold there and bought what we called the Dugger place down near the Big Bear Creek. By the way, our first land was not far from Big Bear Creek but farther down. Some years we had row crops on the Dugger place and some years it was sowed in oats or rented out. Well, in 1912 Papa sold the Bailey Place and bought the Dyer place, and then either tended it or rented it. Oh, I was forgetting one year we made a big crop down on the Bailey place. I guess it wass 1907. Now several crops of timber have been cut and sold from these hillsides where we older ones once worked to earn part of our livelihood.
We all wish for Glenn and family many happy years at the Carroll place and hope they will give us a "drink of cold water in the Master's name" when we come. May our Lord Bless and keep us all till we met Him.

Sara Mellie Carroll Thomas

Death: JUN 1983

Note: Hobbies & Talents: Cooking, sewing, gardening.

Source: (Death)
Title: Personal knowledge

Death: 12 JAN 2001 Vernon, Lamar County, Alabama at home

Burial: 14 JAN 2001 Wofford Cemetery, Vernon, Lamar County, AL

Death: 20 APR 1971 Lamar County, AL

Burial: 23 APR 1971 Wofford Cemetery, Vernon, Lamar County, AL

Education: Date: MAY 1986
Place: B. A. Chemistry, Huntingdon College

Education: Date: MAY 1999
Place: Bachelor's Degree, Communications, University of Alabama

Education: Place: B. S. Metalurgical Engineering, University of Alabama

Death: 24 DEC 1960 Lamar County Hospital, Vernon, AL

Burial: 25 DEC 1960 Sulligent Cemetery, Sulligent, AL

Death: 4 MAR 1965

Burial: Sulligent Cemetery

Burial: --Not Shown--

Source: (Death Field)
Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2, Ed. 7, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: Jun 8, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.112.7.73575.89

Note: [Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2 L-Z, Ed. 7, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: Jun 8, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.112.7.73575.89]

Individual: Reeves, Ruby
Social Security #: 419-48-1776
Issued in: Alabama

Birth date: Feb 14, 1897
Death date: Jan 19, 1996


ZIP Code of last known residence: 35216
Primary location associated with this ZIP Code:

Birmingham, Alabama



Note from Molly: I last saw Aunt Ruby at the Norton Family Reunion held in Birmingham, September 1995. Everyone had a great time and Aunt Ruby was there, as pretty and prim as ever. She had recently suffered a fall in which she broke her hip and bumped her head. She was still recovering but was very alert and her memory was still excellent. I asked her if she recognized a ring that I was wearing, a wedding band that had belonged her mother, Mary Jane "Molly" Hankins. She replied, "I should say so, I gave it to you didn't I?"

Aunt Ruby was a wonderful lady and everyone in the family loved to talk with her.

Death: 19 JAN 1996

Burial: Wofford Cemetery, Vernon, Lamar County, AL

Burial: --Not Shown--

Burial: --Not Shown--

Burial: --Not Shown--

Source: (Death Field)
Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2, Ed. 7, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: Jun 8, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.112.7.54612.56

Note: [Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2 L-Z, Ed. 7, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: Jun 8, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.112.7.54612.56]

Individual: Owings, Ruth
Social Security #: 425-10-7798
Issued in: Mississippi

Birth date: Jul 23, 1909
Death date: Aug 2, 1997


ZIP Code of last known residence: 39042
Primary location associated with this ZIP Code:

Brandon, Mississippi

Death: 2 AUG 1997

Source: (Burial)
Title: Pine Springs Cemetery Listings http://www.fayette.net/carruth/pinespringscem.htm

Burial: --Not Shown--

Source: (Birth)
Title: Pine Springs Cemetery Listings http://www.fayette.net/carruth/pinespringscem.htm

Source: (Individual)
Title: Vicki Turman Whaley

Event: Type: Fact1
Place: charter member of Masonic Lodge #532 in Sulligent, Lamar County, AL.

Event: Type: Pension granted (Class 3)
Date: 27 MAY 1914
Place: Applied for pension for his service in CSA. Lists belongings as: 110 acres of land in Lamar County with residence & out buildings, 1 horse or mule $100, 1 head cattle $25, watches/clocks/jewelry $5, household & kitchen furniture $100, 1 gin & boiler $500

Source: (Individual)
Title: 1870 Marion County Census. http://www.rootsweb.com

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Marion County, AL. Farmer, age 26, land worth $200, personal property worth $125. Born in GA.

Note: Charles Berry Norton inherited his land from his mother which was left to him to take care of her. He bought a farm joining his mother and had about a section of land. Charles Berry would often visit relatives in Fairburn, GA and Texas. He would go one year to Georgia and the next year to Texas.

**As told to Wynette Mixon in 1983

Death: 28 FEB 1915 Sulligent, Lamar County, AL

Burial: Pine Springs Cemetery