Sarah Ann Kuykendall and John Sherwood McBride

I have 7 John Sherwood McBride's in my tree. One is a direct great grandfather-- the father of William McGinty McBride Sr.

The subject of this sketch is another "John Sherwood McBride." Born in 1824, this John Sherwood was a 1st cousin of great great grandfather, Rev. William McBride. Their fathers were the two oldest sons of Sarah Brock and James McBride of Tennessee. By the late 1850's John Sherwood's family had already laid roots in north Texas when our family was moving into Louisiana.

John Sherwood McBride, married a Kuykendall in 1850, Hunt County Texas. His bride's name was Sarah Ann Kuykendall. She was born in Marion, Alabama in 1836 to Abel Kuykendall and Elizabeth Menasco Kuykendall. Some references call him Abraham Abel Kuykendall. His trail is somewhat cold but many indicate his father was John Kuykendall a grandson of our 7th great grandfather Leur Jacobson Van Kuykendall.

I'm looking for descendants of Sarah Ann Kuykendall and John McBride whose DNA may match me on both sides or at least Mom's side to help prove that Kuykendall lineage. It's almost a given, however. The story you read about the name "Kuykendall" is that it originated with one man (Leur) after he migrated to the colonies. The name does not exist in the old world except as a place name. So, it is generally accepted that all Kuykendall's descend from that small group in New Amsterdam/ New York that created the surname (Van Kuykendall or "from Kuykendall") to appease the British tax authorities. Dutch immigrants had no surnames. So surely, Sarah Ann's Kuykendall's are the same as ours-- it's just a question of how far back.

It is likely, John and Sarah Ann knew each other as children in Itawamba County, Mississippi or maybe even earlier in Alabama. Their families both spent the 1830's in Itawamba, but they did not marry until the Kuykendall and McBride families finally settled in Hunt County Texas.

When the war rolled around, John and Sarah Ann were well rooted in Hunt County with several children. John was 38 years old. He enlisted in the Texas Cavalry as 1st Sergeant of Company B in Terrell's Reg't. The unit was assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department and fought in various locations in Louisiana. He saw action at Mansfield and participated in the operations against the Federal Red River Campaign. The unit was active at Lecompte and Yellow Bayou. Unfortunately, John died, likely at Mansfield, and was hastily buried near there.

Sarah Ann was devastated and not content to let John's body remain next to some battlefield in Louisiana-- so far from home. Here is her story as told by a great-granddaughter...

"She loved to tell her account of her trip to Louisiana by ox-wagon, to exhume the body of her husband, then 11 months buried, and to return it to her own cemetery in North Texas. Preparations for such a trip over dangerous no-man's land between Texas and Louisiana required careful planning. Her five children she entrusted to her mother, but not until she had spun and woven for them a five year supply of clothes, in case she did not return. Taking her husband's two younger brothers, Joe and Daniel McBride, she accomplished her mission in almost flawless manner, travelling only 21 days in going and returning.She chose warm autumn weather for her trip. Upon return she called her neighbors by sounding a hunter's horn, made ready for the funeral, and buried John in the Kuykendall Cemetery near Greenville, TX. She lived within 25 miles of his grave for the rest of her life. At age 86, she was buried beside him on 30 Jan 1922. During the final 23 years of her life, she lived in the home of John and Lela Sheppard in Quinlan, TX and helped to rear their five children."

Estelle Sheppard Lytal, great granddaughter

Sarah Ann's trek was not for the faint of heart.  To say the area was rife with danger is an understatement.  There were bandits and outlaws and natural threats as well from rattlesnakes to river crossings.  Only a year after her trek, one of her uncles and two of his little granddaughters were cruelly slaughtered by Indians. It was rough going in northeast Texas in those days.

Sarah Ann traveled by ox wagon there and back.



Sarah Ann Kuykendall McBride (seated) died in 1922



John's grave marker in the Kuykendall Cemetery in Hunt County, Texas

An interesting aside...

This marriage of John Sherwood McBride and Sarah Ann Kuykendall points to a connection between the families going back a long way.  The connection is evidenced through a third family, the Menasco's.  Two of John Sherwood McBride's paternal uncles married Menasco sisters in the 1830's in Shelby County, Tennessee.  That Menasco family was descended from John and Susanna Menasco of Virginia through their son Jeremiah.

Jeremiah had a brother named James who died in Spanish south Louisiana in 1803.  His will was in Spanish and he names his parents John and Susanna of Virginia.  There is little doubt James and Jeremiah were brothers.

Sarah Ann Kuykendall's mother was a Menasco who descended from this James.  So it's not hard to surmise the three families had a connection going back at least a couple generations from John and Sarah Ann in common locations including Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Virginia.  

Judge William Lindsay and the Choctaw Agency

William Lindsay is a fourth great grandfather.  His line reaches down to us by way of the Sherburne and Sentell families.  He lived in Mississippi in the territorial days passing away the month before his adopted home became a state.  He was Virginia born to Sarah and Jacob Lindsay in 1772.  William's father was a revolutionary patriot having served as an Ensign in the Frederick County Militia, though he didn't live to see the end of that war.

When William was born, the Lindsay family had been in the colony of Virginia for three generations.  William's great great grandfather, James, left from Scotland in the mid 1600's landing along the James River in the new world.  In 1674 he patented a 390 acre plat of farmland in Gloucester County, Virginia.

I haven't determined when William set out west but we know he had left Virginia by at least 1797.  William was 25.  That year he assigned power of attorney to a brother-in-law, Jacob Michaux, in order to secure interest in his Grandfather, Colonel James Lindsay’s estate settlement in Caroline County, Virginia.

William is next found in the Natchez area of the young Mississippi Territory.  1798 had seen the last of the Spanish withdrawal from the lands east of the Mississippi river and north of the 31st parallel.  The land had been transferred to American control as a result of the 1795 Pinckney Treaty.  It was there in the Natchez area in 1805 that William became betrothed to Miss Martha Brashear.

Martha's family had been living on her father’s Spanish Land Grant along the Big Black River since the 1780's.  This was a fairly remote location in the Natchez District-  about 10 miles north of the fledgling settlement of Port Gibson and 6 miles west of the Natchez Trace.  Her father, Tobias, a Maryland native had served with General George Rogers Clark in the Illinois campaign during the Revolutionary War.  Tobias became a standout in the Natchez District.  By the time of Martha's wedding, Tobias was Captain of Infantry in the county militia and Justice of the Common Pleas.  

Actually, the whole Brashear family including Martha’s grandfather, several aunts and uncles and numerous cousins had settled in the area.  The family had travelled with Clark’s troops during their excursion to the northwest.  Martha was born at Fort Cahokia in the Illinois Territory in 1788.  The family moved to the Natchez district and settled lands along Bayou Pierre, the Big Black and Second Creek.  They were well situated by the time of the Spanish withdrawal.

In 1811, the Governor of the Territory of Orleans, W.C.C. Claiborne, appointed William Lindsay Judge of the new parish of Warren.  This parish was located in the extreme northeast corner of the current State of Louisiana.  It was bordered on the east by the Mississippi River.  It covered all of current day East Carroll Parish and parts of current day Madison Parish.  Three years after its incorporation, the young State government dissolved Warren Parish and it was absorbed into neighboring parishes. William no longer had a jurisdiction.

There is a publication of that time that gave Mississippi river travelers a detailed description for navigating the Mississippi river- like a travel guide.  I suspect this excerpt might describe William and Martha's home during his stint as Judge in the Parish of Warren...

"Walnut Hills" is the original name for Vicksburg.  Warren Parish was right across the river.

Shortly after the 1814 dissolution of Warren Parish, I believe William and Martha moved to the Choctaw Agency near present day Ridgeland, MS.  They had family already there.  Martha's uncle, Turner Brashear, had operated a stand on the Natchez Trace, 4 miles east of the Choctaw Agency. He had been there for 10 years.

Turner Brashear was a significant and well known trader among the Indian nations.  From the 1790's he had been an agent of the Panton and Leslie Company and travelled extensively throughout the Mississippi Territory, and what is today Louisiana and Florida.  He married into the Choctaw Nation.  In that time he developed many important relationships with influential Indians and government officials alike.  As a result, the Spanish authorities contracted him act as interpreter on official matters between His Majesty's gov't and the Choctaw Indian Nation.  He did the same for the Americans when they took control of the territory.  

The youngest Brashear brother, Eden Brashear, is found to have also served the Agency in some official capacity.  Eden was a very successful planter who held impressive land holdings in the state by the time of his death.  His will is an interesting read.  Never married, he bequeathed large sums to philanthropic endeavors and also gave handsomely to his surviving nieces and nephews.

Indian Agent, John McKee, assigned part of the agency farm to William in January of 1816. The assignment of the farm does not preclude William from having already been in the area "near what is now Clinton" as Dr. John Sherburne Anderson suggests.  --Dr. Anderson was a 3rd great grandson of Martha Brashear Lindsay and an amateur yet thorough genealogist.  He and grandmama Lucy collaborated a bit during her DAR application process.  He passed away in 1998.

There are several reports written for the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Cobb Institute of Archeology at Mississippi State University regarding the Choctaw Agency.  The Agency served as the official United States government presence within the Indian Nation.  Between 1807 and 1823, it was located on the Natchez Trace at what is Ridgeland, Mississippi today.  The Agency provided a means of preventing and resolving conflicts between settlers and Indians and to see to the proper distribution of annuities granted the Indians.  Certain times of year it was the destination of tribal leaders who came to collect the annuities.

This is a view of the Choctaw Agency indicated on an 1820's plat map overlaid on Google Earth.  The red line is the path of the Old Trace.  As it passes the Agency, it is today's "Old Agency Road".  Interstate 55 can be seen just to the right of the shaded Agency Field and "downtown" Ridgeland is just to the right of that.  

An abstract of the Choctaw Agency Records from the Nat'l Archives compiled by James Atkinson mentions William Lindsay, Turner Brashear and Eden Brashear many times.  The abstract provides solid evidence for Lindsay’s primary residence on Agency land from January of 1816 to his death in November of 1817. 

I toured the Agency site in 2016 with the Natchez Trace Parkway Association.  An historian of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History lead the tour.  The site is an interpretive stop on the Parkway today although there is not much to see.  There is parking and signage that briefly describes its historical significance.  It's less than a mile from Beth's house.  (Hillview can be seen in the upper left corner of the map above).  We were told at the site there are some things that remain buried for safekeeping (says the Archives guy).  They showed us the top of a brick cistern that served the Agency house.  We saw pictures of a few items retrieved during an archeological dig in the 1990's.  There were pictures of a brick floor.  We stood over it on our visit though it lays buried under two or three feet of dirt.  

Since that day, I found a receipt our William Lindsay signed that authorized the agency to pay a mason for service of constructing a cistern at the Agency House in 1816.  202 years ago!  Good chance this was the cistern I saw.  The Archives guy says there are plans to excavate the cistern when funds allow.  It was filled in with debris over the years.  It was not dug during the previous excavation. 

We don't know exactly where the Lindsay's lived at the Agency.  Unfortunately, there were no land records created at that time.  The area still belonged to the Choctaw Nation.  Not even the most notable agent, Silas Dinsmoor's, farm can be located definitively.  There are no land records to verify when exactly the Lindsay's came to the area or where they lived during that time.  By the way, the records seem to indicate there was some tension or general dislike between our people (Lindsay and Brashears) and Silas Dinsmoor.

Martha and William Lindsay had three children by the time they moved to the Agency.  A fourth child was born at the Agency in 1816.  She was 3rd great grandmother, Margaret Newton Lindsay.  Margaret would later marry Eugene Amedee Sherburne and reside in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

Atkinson's report says William, like Eden and Turner, performed as an Assistant Agent.  William's signature is found on many receipts for purchases made by the Agency (like the cistern).  He was definitely involved in official activities.  His farm would have provided sustenance for travelers and their livestock making their way along the trace and likely served as an agricultural teaching aide for the Choctaws.  William assumed the duties of the Agent when the official Agent was away.  Eden and Turner Brashear were heavily involved in the everyday actions of the agency during this time as well.  Both were on the payroll as interpreters. Their names show up on pay receipts and other documents frequently.

Some of the Agency documents are a fun read.  Most interesting are the claims recorded.  Indians and Whites alike came to the agency for assistance when wronged by the other.  Sometimes it was a Choctaw who had been robbed or beaten and/or killed by a white man and sometimes it was the other way around.  White homes were sometimes destroyed by unruly Choctaw.  In one case, a white settler, John Montgomery, asked for recompense from the US govt. for the loss of his home and farming utensils at the hands of a number of Choctaw.  Among the items listed as destroyed was a pet bear.

William Lindsay and Eden Brashear were very close.  Their relationship went back several years at least.  In 1810 William Lindsay donated 24 acres for the first school in the area of Port Gibson.  The school was called Madison Academy and was incorporated by the Territorial Legislature by an 1809 Act.  The Act provided that students of all denominations should enter the institution on equality and be admitted to the same advantages. The same act appointed Eden as one of the trustees for the school. William's property gift included the buildings in which the school operated. Unfortunately, by 1814 the school was forced to remove to a new location as the site was found inaccessible during high water.

According to an affidavit found in William's probate records, William asked Eden to manage his affairs shortly before his death (which points to William having been sick and dying of illness in lieu of some kind of accident or worse.)  The affidavit says, "The undersigned (Eden) having long been friendly and intimate with the dec'd and a relative by marriage with his niece - undertook to transact and manage the affairs of the dec'd in the true spirit of his request." Eden also mentions that William had left "property to a considerable amount within the jurisdiction of the said Agency."  Again, there's no way to know where that property was exactly.

William had requested that Eden conduct the affairs of his estate "to the best advantage for the support and education of his children."  Margaret was only 1 year old at the time of her father's death.  Her mother, Martha Brashear Lindsay, was still alive.  Martha fell under her Uncle Eden's protective watch as well.  Uncle Eden took Martha and her children back to his home in Port Gibson right after William's death.

Three years after the death of William Lindsay, Martha married John Gibson, the 40-year-old son of the founder of Port Gibson.  Presumably, Margaret, still a toddler, joined them at the Gibson home in Port Gibson.  Martha passed away only a year later.  Five years after Martha's death, we find Eden still dutifully administering William's estate. He mentions in the affidavit, written in June of 1826, that Margaret (then 9yo) was living with him--

"There are four children: the Eldest is now in New York completing his Education for the Practice of Law [William Brashear Lindsay (1806-1866) became a prominent Physician in New Orleans after a brief law career in Claiborne County, MS], the three younger ones within this State- two of whom have been at School and the youngest one [Margaret] living with this undersigned and do and will go to school whenever their health and Opportunity will allow."

Dr. Sherburne Anderson's notes show Margaret attending school at "Mississippi Academy" (predecessor of Mississippi College) at Clinton, a couple years later.  She was there from 1828 to 1830 and studied "under the tutelage" of a man named Landon Lindsey.  He was an Educator, Planter and Builder.  Dr. Anderson’s notes claim Landon Lindsey built the Penitentiary and the Old Capitol building in Jackson.  There is no mention if Landon Lindsey was related to Margaret.  The surnames are spelled differently.

Judge William Lindsay is most likely buried somewhere around the Choctaw Agency.  Unfortunately, I have found no record or indication for his burial location.

Joseph Street (1775-1815)

In November of 1814 Joseph Street answered the call of the local Tennessee Militia led by Major General William Carroll. Joseph's young family had left Georgia for Lincoln County Tennessee only a couple years prior to his enlistment. They settled on Coldwater Creek along the Elk River just north of the Alabama border (though at the time Alabama was still the Mississippi Territory).  They settled not far from James McBride who was on the headwaters of Kelly's Creek.  Joseph's daughter, Louisa subsequently married into the McBride family bringing about the union of the two families that now exists in my tree.  Joseph is a fourth great-grandfather-- one of at least 11 to have served during the War of 1812.

Joseph and the rest of Carroll's men left their families and farms in Tennessee and traveled by flatboat down the Mississippi river to New Orleans where they answered Andrew Jackson's call to help defend against the considerable threat posed by a menacing British force then sailing about in the Gulf of Mexico. Joseph was present for the storied battle that ensued that cold January of 1815 but pension records show he was sick after the battle. Because there is no indication of when he fell ill, we can't be certain if he actually fought during the battle or if he missed the action entirely while in hospital at the New Orleans encampment.

After the battle, Joseph's ailing body was loaded with other sick and wounded on the steamboat "Vesuvius" bound for Natchez in the Territory of Mississippi. This would be the first leg of the return trip back to their homes in Tennessee and other points north. Pension records show Joseph Street died on board the Vesuvius en-route to Natchez on April 3, 1815. He was buried with other soldiers somewhere in the vicinity of Washington, three miles east of Natchez.

Pension records say Joseph was put on a steam boat. The only one in service in New Orleans at the time was the "Vesuvius" 

I've been interested in locating Joseph's grave. A couple historians I've bumped into in the last couple years tell me they theorize many War of 1812 soldiers were buried without markers in the Methodist Church graveyard there in Washington. Their specific location has been lost. 

Others suggest that Joseph is likely buried at Camp Dearborn or the Washington Cantonment as it was also called.  This camp was located near Washington, Mississippi.  Washington was the capital of the US Territory of Mississippi at that time. The territory was a couple years shy of statehood.

 The healthier members of Joseph's unit marched right through Washington on their way home up the Natchez Trace celebrating their great victory all along the way.

The old Methodist Church in Washington, Mississippi is still there. This structure was erected the year after Joseph's death and served as the first State House of Mississippi. Joseph could be buried behind or beside it. 

I tend to believe Joseph was likely buried at Fort Dearborn.  It makes sense that troops tasked with burying a fellow soldier would tend to bury him alongside other military burials.  There were at least 200 soldiers' graves already interred at Fort Dearborn before Jackson's troops passed through in 1814.  They were the unfortunate victims of General James Wilkinson's trek through the swamps of south Louisiana.  They died of dysentery and other horrible swamp diseases.  Unfortunately, Fort Dearborn's whereabouts has been lost to time. We know the general area was behind Jefferson College and across St. Catherine's Creek on private property that for many recent years has served as a dairy farm.  There is no evidence of the fort buildings or a cemetery in the area.

Joseph's wife, Lucinda, provided several witness testimonies to validate the service and death of her husband in her claim for pension...

NASHVILLE, May 18th 1816: I certify that Joseph Street, Private, in my division of Tennessee Militia and performed acts of duty of _____ months and nine days in the service of the United States – that his good conduct, _____ and valor under the most trying hardships entitle him to the gratitude of this country; and he is hereby Honorably discharged. (Signed: Wm. Carroll; Major-General, () Division; Tennessee Militia)

STATE OF TENNESSEE COUNTY OF LINCOLN: Personally came before me, William C. Abel, one of the justices of the Peace for said county, Timothy Stamps, and being duly sworn saith on oath that he was present and witnessed thereof when Lucinda Street, widow of Joseph Street, deceased, was lawfully married according to law. Sworn to and subscribed the 10th day of August 1818. (Test: Wm. C. Abel); (Signed: Timothy Stamps).

STATE OF TENNESSEE COUNTY OF LINCOLN: Michael Robison and personally appeared before me, Robert __________, an acting Justice of the Peace for said county and made oath that Joseph Street (as they believe) is dead, that no administration has been had on his estate, that he died without a will and that Lucinda Street is the lawful widow of the deceased. Sworn to before me this 10th day of June 1816. (Robert _______); (Michael Robinson / John Caruthers).

16 January 1819, Fayetteville, Tennessee: Dear Sir: Enclosed is the papers relative to the situation of Lucindy Street, the widow of Joseph Street who died while in the service of US in March 1815. Please to favor her with your interest in getting her name placed on the pension list, and advise me of your success as soon as possible. It is at her request that I trouble you with the business, but I feel much pleasure in doing any thing toward procuring her relief believing as I do that h—w------ requires, and that she merits the relief which government enterist ‘s to others in her situation. I am sincerely your friend, (Thomas Claiborne) (Signed: Francis Porterfield)

STATE OF TENNESSEE COUNTY OF LINCOLN: This day personally came before me William Obediah Waller, and made oath that Joseph Street late of said county was drafted as a Militia Man on the 10th day of November 1814 and was under the command of said Waller as Captain in the 1st regiment of Tennessee Militia in Maj. Genl. Carroll’s Division in the service of the United States – and on the 15th day of March 1815 the said Joseph Street was put on board of a steam boat at Camp Henderson near New Orleans (he being sick) in order to be brought up the river to Natchez, which is the last he know of said Street, but report says he died on his way to Natchez. Sworn to & subscribed the 9th Dec, 1818. (Wm Dickson, JP); (Signed: Obadiah Waller, Capt. 1st T. T. M.) Note: Died 3rd April 1815.1775-1815)

Novaline Sentell's Recollections of Collinsburg

The following is a transcription of a type-written copy of Novaline Sentell's recollections of Collinsburg.  I received a copy of this from Aunt Eugenia this past Thanksgiving.  Eugenia appears in a couple of the photos that I attached to this write-up.  You can find her directly under the windmill in the farm scene and nearly middle of front row on the Christmas porch photo.  Eugenia says Novaline is pronounced ('nah vuh leen).  Novaline was born in Caddo Parish in 1922 and died in Shreveport in 1993.

Novaline's mother was a Woodbridge.  The Woodbridge family represents an astoundingly long unbroken line of ministers dating back to one who studied under John Wycliffe.  Novaline's grandfather, George Woodbridge was the Presbyterian pastor at Minden, Louisiana for a number of years.  His father was Rev. Jahleel Woodbridge.  Jahleel's obituary included the following...  "He was born in Southampton, Mass., February 19, 1815, and died at Wesson, Miss., February 26th, 1886. He was the son of Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge, of New Orleans, who was the son of Rev. John Woodbridge, of Hadley, Mass., who was the son of Rev. John Woodbridge, of Springfield, Mass., who was the son of Rev. John Woodbridge, of Wethersfield, Conn., who was the son of Rev. John Woodbridge, of Newberry, Mass., who was the son of Rev. John Woodbridge, of Wiltshire, England".  That last John was born in 1582!  He was the sixth of a succession of Reverend John Woodbridge's, the first of which is the one said to have studied under Wycliffe.

As an interesting aside... The John Woodbridge of Newbury, Massachusetts, in that succession mentioned above, married Mercy Dudley.  They are Novaline's 7th great grandparents.  Both were born in England but were wed in Massachusetts in 1640.  The Dudley name sounded familiar when I added her to my tree.  Her father was Thomas Dudley a Puritan and austere colonial governor of Massachusetts and close associate of John Winthrop.  They were familiar because Gov. Thomas Dudley is a 10th great grandfather on the Keller side of the family through great grandmother, Sara Amanda Dickson Keller, Nancy Cleveland Dickson, Clara Isbell Cleveland, etc.  I love it when our tree starts linking up way out in the branches.  Small world.

The Woodbridge family was entrenched in the northeast for generations.  I'm sure there is some story regarding Novaline's 2nd great grandfather, Sylvester Woodbridge, bringing his family to Louisiana.  I wish I knew it.  Sylvester served as pastor of Second Presbyterian, New Orleans for 8 years until his death in 1863 during the Union occupation of the city.  Sylvester stayed in the city while many of his parishioners left to avoid the hardship of occupation.

It is interesting to me how Collinsburg made a big impression on everyone that visited.  When the Sentells wrote about family, they wrote about Collinsburg.  I know grandmother Lucy, who was born there, spoke of it often.  Novaline was similarly impressed...

Recollections of Collinsburgh

By Novaline Armena Sentell

Earliest known photo of Collinsburg

Collinsburg was a grand place, and we had many happy hours there.  We spoke of it as “Pa’s House.”  Without question, he was the central figure.  Even this minute I can see his silver white hair shining over his gentle face as he sat in his big arm chair in front of that big wood fireplace with the big tall clock over it.  (Everything was big!)  He was a gentle man.  I loved him dearly and with great respect and admiration.  This great respect and admiration was there for many reasons.  We knew he was a fine man;  that he was kind to those who worked on his place and to many others;  that he had done so much toward building the Cottage Grove Presbyterian Church after the old church building burned; and we knew he was very important to its continuing services.  We knew he was highly respected and loved.

Every night we gathered in his room for prayers.  We sat around that big fireplace, but mostly we sat around him and his big chair.  And Pa read from the Bible.  Then we all knelt while Pa prayed.  That is an important memory to me.  Sometimes the fire was hot and my knees sometimes ached, but I knew this was an important time.

I was at Pa’s house often because we lived just thirty miles away, and on Sunday afternoons we often drove up there.  Also if church services were at Cottage Grove we often went, and then went to Pa’s house for  dinner and the afternoon.  In the summer I was there two and three weeks.  The boys were there longer in the summer.  We were always there at Christmas and other holidays when many others of the family were there, too.  Many others!

Novaline standing at left holding Jack McBride.  McGinty is third from left carving on a stick.

It was unthinkable that anyone there on Sunday would not go to Sunday School and church.  Church services would be either in Plain Dealing or at Cottage Grove.  How well we remember the Sundays at Cottage Grove.  It is a beautiful little red brick church up on  a hill some hundred yards off the country road.  Over to one side of it is the cemetery, and we knew many Sentell's who had gone before us were buried there, and that others would be.  To the other side of the church and behind it is a lovely wooded area, and this is where the famous “dinner on the grounds” took place.  If we had been at Pa’s house the day before, we had smelled the pork and the mutton and the beef being barbecued all day long in preparation for this big day.  Others attending the services from up and down the country roads brought dishes of all sorts, and we gathered around those long tables for the great meal.

My greatest memories of Cottage Grove, though, are of the services themselves.  All five of us sitting in a pew, the smiles exchanged as Daddy gave each of us money for the offering plate; and Mama’s nice smile as she put her hand on my knee when I got restless, and she would whisper “It won’t be much longer.”  There was the choir of five or six people, Aunt Beth being one of them, and Pa with his hymn book held high in front of his eyes, but his eyes closed, singing “In the Sweet Bye and Bye,” and Beth lovingly mimicking him from the choir.  We also often sang “Shall we Gather at the River.”  I never knew what river or why we were gathering there but I knew we were going to.  It was a good congregation;  everybody knew everybody, and I always felt were all friends and cared about each other and helped each other.

The Sundays at Plain Dealing church included Sunday School and Sunday School included Auntie (Dena) leading the singing.  There we were-- a very large age span in this Sunday School, and Auntie very conscientiously patting her foot and leading us in singing “Bringing in the Sheaves.”  I had no notion of what a “Sheave” was, but I did know I was meant to bring them in and that I was to sing about it.  We loved to sing that one because Auntie always patted her foot so good while she led it.  Of course, we were also there for church, and we children groaned because we were always the last ones to leave.  Pa and Auntie were tending to the flock, visiting with everyone there and learning how sick or well or in need each one in the parish was.  We children were ready to go long before they had done all of that.

Sunday dinner was not until around 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon which meant everybody was eager for dinner by the time we got to the table.  This was a very long table in a very big dining room, and Pa gave a long blessing before we ate.  The room was so big it also had a big side table where the children (sometimes ten or more) sat when lots of the family was there.  There was also a very big sideboard with a big chrystal fruit bowl in the center.  Always there was the white dinner cloth and napkins, always several vegetables and salads and breads along with the fried chicken and cakes.  Most Sundays there was a minister there for dinner, and his family.

Pa had lost one hand in a sawmill accident, so he had an artificial hand and a very interesting fork with a knife on the opposite side of it to eat with.  This allowed him to enjoy his meals easily along with everybody else.

The pantry that adjoined the dining room interested me greatly.  It was big, too, and it had a marvelous smell from the wooden crate of apples, each apple wrapped in its own tissue.  The pantry was filled with all sorts of interesting preserves and pickles and things that had been “put up,”  big containers of flour and sugar and meal and many more things.

The kitchen was magic.  The old wood burning stove that took so long to get hot but when it did  it cooked such marvelous things.  Good Maggie, who always had her hair tied in a white cloth always with a white apron on, seemed always in there, next to the window that looked out over the yard and far beyond to the windmill and the commissary and to the lot where the horses and pigs were kept.  This was a big kitchen, cabinets, a big sink, a big work table to the side and another in the center of the room.  Outside was the back gallery and the side gallery with the dairy off from it.  Beyond the galleries were the backyard, the potato house, the garden behind it, the many chicken houses and the chickens.  Eggs were gathered regularly, milk was brought in daily from the cow pen down the road, and butter was churned there in the dairy.

There were many rooms in this house, all of them very big, with very high ceilings and with big fireplaces.  There was a big and pretty living room with a piano and other pretty furniture and, most of the time, drawn curtains.  We didn’t use this room often because we were always in Pa’s room.  His was a big room with high ceilings, a full teester bed and big armoire, dresser, marble top wash stand with wash basin and pitcher.  In front of the big fireplace, in addition to his big chair, were more rocking chairs and other chairs and stools, and a long table with a lap and books and magazines.

I spent most of my nights there in “The Nursery,” a room which adjoined Pa’s room, and it, too, had the teester bed and a big armoire and dresser, etc.  Across the long hall was Auntie’s room, which was another room I spent a lot of time in because the ladies often gathered in there.  It was much like the other rooms.  It was a familiar sight to see people standing in front of the fire places warming themselves.  Those high ceilings and wood fires made it difficult to keep the rooms warm all over.

The telephone was in the long wide hall.  Two longs and a short (or something similar) was the ring for this house.  (You were meant to ignore the other rings.)  To talk over the phone on the wall, you held the receiver in one hand and talked through the mouthpiece still on the wall, attached to a box.  Very big doors led from the hall to the porches.  I remember Auntie sweeping that long great hall one sunshiny morning and explaining to me that everybody has a purpose in life.  I was about ten years old, [1932] curled up in a chair in Pa’s room, asking her to tell me more of what that meant.  She was my friend, and I loved her.

There was lots of free and easy time there-- in the swing on the front gallery, walking in the front yard or along one of the many paths, playing in the orchard across the road, or moseying along on a horse.

We rode horses often.  Uncle Charlie, black with a white beard, hitched mine up for me each morning until I learned how, and the ride usually included a trip to the store to get a jawbreaker or Tootsie Roll, leaving the horse hitched at the water pump while we went into the store.  You went up the steps, across the porch, and then into the store  This was a general store, run by Mr. Hedge.  Mr. Hedge was usually listening in on the party line telephone when you went in (gathering the local news), and we would stand in front of the glass candy case deciding which piece.  In the back of the store was a big wheel of cheese that he would slice from when somebody wanted to buy cheese and crackers.  There was other food on the shelves and saddles and hoes and spades and whatever else someone might need.

There were not many people living in Collinsburg.  Three or four white families and many black families.  Plain Dealing was not many miles from Collinsburg.  Maggie and Joe lived right near the big house, just on the other side of the commissary.  J.D. lived out back and others lived near.  The garage behind the commissary was for cars and tractors and wagons and trucks, and there was another garage over by the saddle house, and it had more of these in it.  The windmill was in front, and the lot for the horses and pigs was beyond it.  It was fun to watch them being fed each day.  The old mill barn was next to it and a field was out behind.  Plum thickets were around these fields and walking to the store and back, as well as some other places, gave great chance for finding the ripe ones.

As we entered the outside yard to Pa’s house in a car, we came over a cattle gap.  Alongside of it was a gate so the cattle could get through.  Coming in we passed big walnut and hickory nut trees and other pretty trees and flowers and shrubs.  As we turned into the side yard, we came upon more trees and usually some cars.  This is where we parked, and we usually went in by the steps to the gallery just outside the Nursery or the big hall.  Sometimes we went in by the steps going from the porch into Pa’s room.  Wood for the fireplace was usually stacked on his porch just in front of that lovely magnolia tree we climbed so often.

If “company” had come, they were taken on down to the Company Rooms which were two big bedrooms on another wing of the house.  In the upstairs of the house were two more huge bedrooms and another great, long, wide hall between them.

We, of course, knew all the blacks well.  They were our friends.  I look back with guilt over the way we thought they were “different” and were meant to work in the hot fields and to live with so very little.  At least none were ever hungry or otherwise mistreated at Pa’s house.  (Many people were hungry in those days.)  Any on his place could get food at the commissary all year long and “settle up” at the end of the year.  If they still owed any then, it was scratched off and counted even.

Christmas 1938-- on the back gallery of the Collinsburg Sentell home.  Novaline is kneeling on the first row second from right.

Christmas was an especially happy time at Pa’s house.  Each family was expected and waited for unless something important prevented their coming.  And then the glad, happy greetings as each one arrived.  Christmas dinner was a grand feast.  Mama took oyster patties or stuffed bell peppers and others brought homemade candies and cakes and other goodies for these special meals.  In the wintertime, Joe came by each bedroom early in the morning and built the fire.  (I remember his knock and someone would say “come.”)  And then some thirty minutes later he would come back and bring a tray of coffee.  Never has coffee been so good as that!  (Children got hot milk with a spoon of coffee and sugar.)

Many children and adults filled that house sharing chatter and conversation and laughter and genuine happiness at being there.

There were many happy times at Pa’s house.  Much much more could be written but this is the way I remember it and I love the memory.

------------------------------------
[handwritten comments below...]

Novaline Sentell is the 65 year old daughter of my brother, Samuel Eugene Sentell.  She has never married.  She has spent her entire professional life as a Director of Christian Education in the Presbyterian Churches mostly at Lake Jackson Texas and Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

This write up is like she saw it and was much like it was.  The only error I saw was that Pa lost his hand in the gin which was next to and run by the same steam engine as the saw mill.

1/28/'88
NW Sentell (Uncle Wes)