Aunts and Uncles
by Ruth Williams Matchett, daughter of Ida Hawes Williams, 2004

The Hawes

Aunt Sweet (Houser)
Guess I know Aunt Sweet and Uncle Jerome better than any of my uncles and aunts. They came to Hampton before we did. He bought the 2-story hotel and was still running it when we came. That’s where Mom, Jessie, Frank, and I stayed our first night after our family moved to Hampton, Florida. Later he sold it and became the Gulf gas agent in Starke. After he died, their daughter Margie came to live with her. Margie and Ray Collie had recently divorced. Aunt Sweet was truly sweet, and I loved her. Sometimes Margie would visit her two daughters, and I would stay with her mother. After Aunt Sweet’s house burned down, they moved to Starke. When Aunt Sweet became old, Margie asked my mom to take her in. Mom refused and wouldn’t even go to her funeral. A “Hawesy” trait! At the time of Aunt Sweet’s funeral, Mom said, “I didn’t go see Sweet when she was alive and I’m not going to go see her now that she’s dead!” When they lived in Alabama, they had a nice 2-story home, probably the nicest home in the area. Jerome owned a store and sawmill and bought the first automobile in our area.

Before she married, my mother lived with Aunt Sweet. She found life nearly unbearable living with her. When Mom came home from a date, Aunt Sweet (the older sister) would insist on checking Mom’s underpants to make sure she had behaved. Later, Carmen told me that Aunt Mary Ellen was treated the same way when she lived with Aunt Sweet. That and perhaps other personal insults turned Mom against Aunt Sweet for life. Aunt Sweet also had a habit of mispronouncing Mom’s name as “Ider!” Mom believed she did it just to rile her.

Uncle John
I spent a week with Uncle John and Aunt Mollie on my second trip back to Sand Mountain (1933). I remember Uncle John as being a good-looking, large man. He was very kind to me and even gave me material for a dress from his store. Aunt Mollie was a sweet lady, though not on the beauty side. She was a rather messy housekeeper. She allowed the chickens the run of her back porch, so you dared not walk there because of the chicken “do.” Uncle John built the house he and Mollie lived in. It may have been fairly new when I visited them in 1933. It was a nice home, but for some reason it had no outside “john.” Of course no one had electricity or running water back then. You had to “squat” out behind the barn and hope no one was looking. It was bad enough in the summer, but must have been really uncomfortable in the winter!

I remember that when I arrived, Pearl, their daughter, who was still living with them, was working hard at trying to clean the house. She had been sweeping under the bed and had collected a really thick pile of dusty fuzz.

I remember one time Pearl and I went into Uncle John’s store. He had long sticks of candy, some mint-flavored, some filled with peanut butter. Rats had gotten into the candy and gnawed off the ends of some of the sticks. Uncle John gave some of the rat-gnawed candy sticks to Pearl and me. We cut the rat ends off and ate them!

Another example of the peculiar behavior of some Hawes: When Uncle John’s son, Roy, died, his niece Nell wouldn’t go to his funeral. Nell was the daughter of Roy’s brother Frank. I don’t know what the problem was between Nell and Roy.

Aunt Becky (Presley)
I remember Aunt Becky from my second visit to the mountain [1933] and in 1931 when she came to see us with Aunt Mary Ellen and Carmen. I spent one day with her and found her to be pretty and very friendly. I’m sorry to say her daughters were not very friendly, though pretty. I always heard that Uncle John was a “wheeler and dealer” who always came out on top. I never saw her son Paul.

Aunt Pat (Presley)
I also remember Aunt Pat from that trip. James Sampson brought me by Trenton, GA to see her. I thought she was pretty and seemed glad to see me. I remember several children, but didn’t see Uncle Bill. They said he was asleep.

Uncle Charlie
I never knew Uncle Charlie, but visited his daughter Sarah and another daughter, whom I think they called “Dump” [Millie]. Again, I found her very pretty (like all Mom’s sisters) and friendly. After I spent several weeks on the mountain, I visited Sarah a second time. She lived in Chattanooga. I feel sure her dad was already dead when I went back with Mom in 1924.

Aunt Mary Ellen (Ross)
In 1931, Aunt Mary Ellen and Carmen came by Sand Mountain and picked up Aunt Mollie, Roy, and Aunt Becky, and they all came to visit us in Hampton. Aunt Mary Ellen looked a lot like my mom. She was a large, tall woman. I became very close to Carmen and have kept in touch with her all these years. Her sister Eula and two sons visited us in Alabama. Then later she came back with another sister (seems it was May). About all I remember of that time was Mom fussing because they took the cream from the milk to put in their coffee. I visited Carmen in Texas and also saw her sisters Luella and Leola.
The time when Carmen came to visit us in Hampton, Marvin took her on a drive out to a nearby lake. He was showing off and drove his car onto the sandy beach and a little ways into the water. Of course, he got stuck. He had to walk a long ways to find a man with a tractor to come pull him out. Carmen must’ve liked the adventure because she later said that was the most fun she’d ever had!

Aunt Nettie (Steele/Martin)
I think Mom and I visited Aunt Nettie, but not too sure just how she looked. I remember her daughter Mamie. They lived at Liberty Hill, but I don’t remember visiting them when we lived in Alabama.

Aunt Zou (Christopher/Logan)
I barely remember Aunt Zou, though I know she and her daughter Lucille stayed with us a while in Alabama. After Zou left, Lucille, who was about my age, stayed on a while. This may have been after Zou’s first husband, Lon Christopher, had died. Most of what I know of her was hearing Mom talk about her. I know her mom died at her birth, and Mom helped take care of her. She later married Jack Logan, who was in the U.S. Army.

Uncle Monroe
I don’t know much about Uncle Monroe. I’m sure we visited him when I went up with Mom (in 1924 when I was 12 years old). But thinking about it, I’m sure I went to see him on my second trip to Alabama because I remember a lot of boys and good-looking girls. It must have been the Sunday that Pearl, Bennie Minton, “Shirt-Tail Pete,” and I took such a long walk south of Uncle John’s. I never really knew any of the children, but remember Mom talking about one named Elsie. She married Lawrence Stern, and they were “well off.” Then when my brother Frank stayed with Mom and Dad on their last years on Sand Mountain, he talked a lot about one of the boys, whom I think they called “Buck.” Frank considered Elsie and Lawrence as the only millionaires in the Hawes family!

One of Uncle Monroe’s boys (Anderson) got tuberculosis, and his family sent him to live with Mary Ellen Ross in Texas, thinking the dry Texas climate would help. Mary Ellen’s daughter Ruth also came down with TB; maybe she caught it from Anderson. Both eventually died from TB.

I remember visiting Tom Hawes, Uncle Monroe’s son. Their home had no screens. At meal times someone stood by the table shooing the flies away.

I remember once Tom Hawes daughter Esther Dee and I jumped out of their barn loft with umbrellas, thinking that they would act like parachutes. They didn’t!

Esther Dee’s mother, Lavesta Buckner Hawes, went insane and her brother committed suicide. Esther Dee once said it’s a wonder she’s sane. I saw Ruth Buckner, Lavesta’s sister, at one of the Hawes reunions on Sand Mountain. Ruth was said to be “not quite right” at that time.

Aunt Eliza Jane (Shaw)
I never saw Aunt Eliza Jane. Apparently she had already married and moved to Texas. Carmen knew her daughter, but I’ve forgotten where she lived.

Uncle Jesse
I remember seeing Uncle Jesse and remember him being a large, good-looking man. Don’t remember any of the family except Gordon, who visited us in Hampton. He was in the service and was probably stationed at nearby Camp Blanding. I remember Gordon was good looking, like all of Mom’s family. It was rumored that Uncle Jesse made moonshine, but that I can’t prove. When the two revenue agents were ambushed and killed near Fabius, Uncle Jesse was questioned and cleared.

Uncle Jesse seemed to be Mom’s favorite. She talked more about him than any of the others. He made her a banjo, partially out of pieces from a Model-T Ford. Later, Mom bought herself a banjo from Sears. I suppose Uncle Jesse had taught her to play the banjo.

The Williams

Aunt Flora (Wheeler)
I knew Aunt Flora and Uncle Arthur well. They lived nearest to us in Alabama and moved to Florida soon after we did. Aunt Flora never liked Florida, so they eventually moved back to Alabama. Aunt Flora was a short, sweet lady, a good cook and housekeeper. They had a nice home near a spring. I remember she kept her milk and butter in the spring to keep them cool. Esther Dee’s mother, Lavesta Buckner Hawes, went insane and started playing in the spring. That was the end of it being used as Aunt Flora’s ice box. Aunt Flora and Uncle Arthur raised seven children, Derrick being the youngest. He and his wife Florene visited us several times in Florida when Wayne and Barbara were young. I remember the time Wayne and I spent a night with Derrick and Florene when we were up on the mountain to attend a Hawes reunion [about 1982]. At supper that night, after grace was said, their young granddaughter said to Wayne, “You didn’t close your eyes.” Wayne answered, “You didn’t, either!”

Like my dad, Aunt Flora and Uncle Arthur stressed education, and at least one of their children (Carrine) went to college. Their daughter Elizabeth later became postmistress in the little town of Sparr, Florida.

Seems like all my uncles were carpenters; Uncle Arthur built his home, also.
Aunt Flora’s daughter, Carrine, married Ulysses Bowman; they were both schoolteachers. Vestal Wheeler’s wife was Margaret; she was a schoolteacher, also. They all may have taught school together, perhaps in Pisgah. Ulysses and Margaret had an affair, both couples divorced, and Ulysses and Margaret married each other.

Ulysses had a trucking company on Sand Mountain. He used his truck to move my parents back to Hampton from Sand Mountain. He also saw to it that my dad had a Masonic ceremony at his funeral in Hampton. He stopped and visited us in Hampton several times on trips hauling stuff to Florida.

Aunt Viney (Eaton)
The first time I remember seeing Aunt Viney was when we went to see them at Liberty Hill. I remember they had a cherry tree full of ripe fruit, and we immediately climbed it. Then when I stayed with her daughter Ethel in Chattanooga, she was living with them. All I remember was that she was tall, like I remember my grandmother Williams was. They raised seven children. Their son Bruce also lived in Chattanooga, and I visited him and his family. Later their sister Vera married one of Derrick’s cousins, and I met her there.
Their daughter Mollie married Mom’s brother Jesse.

Aunt Essie (Stoner)
Aunt Essie and Uncle Joe Stoner visited us in Alabama, but I don’t remember that visit. They visited us twice in Hampton. The last time they had their son William with them. I never knew their daughter Lelia.

Aunt Essie’s son, William, became a doctor and was the official doctor for the East Coast Railroad.

Aunt Mollie (Hawes)
My dad’s sister Mollie married my mom’s brother John. I’ve already discussed them above.