Fairplay Community
by Virgil Mordie Holland, M.D., submitted by Marylee KnightI have typed off a little booklet that Dr. Holland wrote in 1970 in which he detailed his recollections of growing up in the Fairplay area. A copy of it was shared with me by Mrs. Casie Lee Hines. She was given the copy by Dr. Holland himself as she is mentioned by name, although her name is misspelled. On the front page Dr. Holland stated, "This tract maybe reproduced or duplicated in any manner if the author is given proper credit."
Virgil Mordie Holland, M.D.
Born 03-04-1918
Died 10-30-1990
Buried Bethlehem Cemetery, Snap Community, Panola County TX
The following information was composed by Virgil Mordie Holland in 1970. He was a prominent Panola County physician and a life long collector of local history. His particular talent was that he could examine an old photograph and, judging by the clothing and hair styles, give a close estimate of the year in which the picture was made.
He was a son of David Mordie Holland and Lois Elizabeth Allison who was the daughter of Gustavus Allison (a son of Elizabeth Shaw and Thomas G. Allison) and Minnie Sharp (a daughter of Richard Vastine Sharp and Eliza Hodge).
The first page of the booklet contains the statement: "This tract may be reproduced or duplicated in any manner if the author is given proper credit." We do, indeed, give Dr. Holland a tremendous amount of credit for recording the valuable information about earlier times in the Fairplay Community.
We also thank Mrs. Casie Lee Owens-Hines for generously sharing her personal copy of the booklet in order to preserve the information it contained.
Neighbors
Fairplay 1920-1930
Ebb was a son of Thomas Daniel and Alice Maines with siblings Barney, Sandy, Lofton, Sidney Arnold and Phillip. Odessa was a daughter of Daniel Barto Abernathy and Ephposey Garland with siblings Andrew, Tom, Mattie, Annie, Sam, Sidney, John and Forest. By his third wife, Lula Mae Garland Herrin, John David had Ray, Elbert, Boots and twins Shorty and Cotton. At one time Elbert and Boots were living with their half sister, Alma, and Andrew.The Garlands were the family for which the Garland Hill was named. This place had a large barn built by James T. Allison. It was built on huge sills of hewed pine logs that had originally been a part of a mule powered cotton gin operated by John Allison.
At one time the road across the loop ran through a gate at Jimmy's barn, across his pasture and came out on the road just north of the site of Thomas Allison's old house. When we moved on Mrs. M.C. Harris' place in 1928, a new road was cleared and fenced out that started at the Allison-Shaw line, followed it to the house in which we lived and here followed the line between Malcolm Shaw and Mrs. M.C. Harris' line. Initially this road was not graded and, one winter, a track of logs was constructed so the mail carrier could get over one of the worst places.
At the west end of this road was the home of Richmond Shaw and Elsie Dobbins. Richmond and his brother, Robert M. Shaw, were the sons of Matthew Shaw and his second wife, who was Lucye Williamson Buckner, who had previously been married to John Buckner, who had died and was the mother of Arie Buckner Browning. Elsie was the daughter of Kate and Lafayette Dobbins with siblings Will, Axie, Austin and Mrs. Will Sparks. They had children: Ariel, Edith, Durward, Richie, Helen Ruth and Richmond, Jr.
Behind Richmond's house was the house in which his father had lived and in which his mother Lucye Shaw still lived. In later years, she would walk a foot log across Shaw Branch to spend the night at Richmond's.
Richmond and Elsie lived in this house with Lucye until they built their house closes to the road. The house was also the home of the Daniel Shaw family. For years, Richmond ran a syrup mill in the fall.
I remember that when the price of cotton hit bottom about 1929, Richmond started holding his cotton. He had a good part of his barn and other buildings full when cotton finally got over 20 cents a pound in 1941. He could afford to do this. Most of Richmond's land was further down the road. He had only enough to pasture his milk cows and mule in a pasture by his house.
Further down the road to the south, Robert M. (always known as "Bus") and Ruby Nelson lived. Ruby was the daughter of J.H. Nelson and Amanda Sheppard, and a sister of Mrs. Malcolm Shaw and Mrs. Pink Ash. At a later date, he had a wind mill and the only running water in Fairplay until R.E.A. Dorothy had beautiful red hair and died of acute appendicitis in 1923 at the age of 12 years.
Going back on this same road past Richmond's on the left was a rent house of S.T. Allison's in which Texan Wallace, whose husband had been killed several years prior, lived with her family Clemet, Kid, Ivory, Beatrice, Lometa, Mattie Lou and Oreese.
About fifty yards up the road was another rent house in which Norman Fields lived. Norman was a half brother to Texan. About 1928, Norman moved to another farm across Irons Bayou and Diamond Wallace and Bennie Pope moved into this house and were to stay her longer than S.T. Allison, from whom they were renting, lived.
This land was owned by S.T. Allison, a son of Thomas G. Allison and wife Sarah Hoyle. Most of it was part of a tract bought in 1846 by Sam's grandfather, John Allison. The Allison home had once been at the site of the house lived in by Benne Pope. At this site one house had burned in 1874 and a replacement house was completely destroyed by a cyclone about 1900. After the cyclone, Sam rebuilt about 150 yards north on the same side of the road. Thomas G. Allison died in 1898. Sam lived here with his mother and Mamie. In 1911 Mamie married M.C. Harris. His mother died in 1922, after which Sam lived by himself until Mamie moved back about 1927. For at least one year, he had Weaver McElroy and wife Lila Mae Jones living with him, with Lila Mae doing the housekeeping and Weaver working by the day.
Continuing on this road for about 300 yards, you came to the home of Charlie Austin and wife, Zelma Browning. Charlie had bought this place from Lafayette Dobbins and part of it may have been land owned by Tom Buckner. The first house I can remember was a square frame house painted a shade of brown. He later remodeled this house and added about the first carport in the community. This was only a cover over a part of a driveway to protect the boarding passenger from rain with very little protection for the vehicle. At this time the place to store your automobile was thought to be in a garage or barn as the common style of car purchased was the touring car which had only a top and not protected from the elements except curtains with celluloid windows stored under the back seat. Charlie was a hard worker, a staunch Baptist and a skilled and frugal farmer. He prospered.
Continuing up this road, you came to the cotton gin owned by Ed Gentry when I first remember. The cotton gin was big business in any community. Everyone raised cotton. In season, there were lines of wagons each containing a bale of cotton awaiting ginning. During the height of the picking season, there sometimes were twenty and thirty waiting and the gin frequently ran to 9 or 10 p.m. to get it all baled.
At this time the gin was run by a steam engine fueled by huge stacks of cord wood. The cotton was removed from the wagon by a telescoping suction pipe that made quick work of unloading. The gin stands were up stairs and the space on the ground floor was taken over by drive shafts and belts to transmit the power where needed.
It was not long after the cotton was unloaded until it was ginned. The wagon was pulled up under a hopper that held the cotton seed and these were dumped into the wagon by pulling a lever. The wagon was moved up again to the platform on which the finished bale was dumped. There was a beam scale and a winch on a rotating stand. The bale was picked up, weighed, then lowered into the wagon.
On turning left at the gin, the first house was a small house on the edge of George Wyatt's land, adjoining the gin. Audie Wyatt and Vetra lived here. Audie fired the boiler at the gin in season and raised a crop between ginning seasons. At this time they had children, Drennon and George "Mutt" who were near my age.
Audie's parents, George Wyatt and Virginia Harris, lived a short distance further. George was the son of William W. Wyatt who was killed in the Civil War. Virginia was the daughter of Spencer Murphy Harris. At this time, the only children they had at home were Cecil and Veita. Later George bought a store at Fairplay that had been run by Frank, whose wife was a daughter of Tom Woods.
They had lived in a house near the store and had children, Ross and Juanita, who attended Fairplay School. When they bought the store, George and Virginia moved into this house and Audie and Vetra moved into theirs. When the highway to Henderson was surveyed, it went through the middle of George's place, cutting it in half. For about a year he kept replacing his fences across the road each time they tore them down. George was an easy going person well liked by all. Virginia had a temper which she gave sent to on occasion.
The next house on the right was where Will Scarborough and wife, Emma, lived. Will was the son of Milton Lee Scarborough and Eliza Williams. Milton Lee was born in Americus, Georgia. He moved to Hunt County, Texas. A son, S. Newt Scarborough moved to Rusk County in 1906. Among other things, he grew peanuts on his farm. He perfected a peanut sheller and started a small factory on his farm to produce and sell peanut butter under the name "Star Brand". Will probably moved to Panola County about the same time his brother moved to Rusk County. Two of his children are in a Fairplay school picture in 1917. When I first remember, all of his children were at home: Myrtle (married Virgil Emmons), Clara (married Barney Allred), Milford, Ethel (married John R. Permenter), Floyd and Weldon.
Just past the Scarborough house, a branch of this road angled off to the northwest and ran behind Andrew Abernathy's barn; then another branch turned due north. This led to my grandparents at the line to their place. About fifty yards from the gate was a dilapidated structure behind a huge oak tree. This house I can barely remember. It had previously been lived in by George Wyatt when it belonged to Jimmy Allison. The house was completely destroyed by a cyclone in 1923 and was replaced by another dog run type structure of box construction. The all, a side room off the living room and the kitchen dining room were never sealed. This was good for the long summers and they were as cool as outdoor shade. But in the winter, they were cold cold. The canned goods had to be wrapped with quilts to keep them from freezing and breaking the jars in real cold weather. Due to the lack of funds, a "mud cat" chimney was built. These were made with chimney clay mixed with straw and stacked on a lattice wood frame. No wood was left exposed and this chimney was still being used in 1940.
Down this road, about one hundred yards and across a small stream was another building that was a log building that had been sealed over with boards. This was once the home of John D. Shaw and Martha Sealey. They both died within a year of each other. James T. Allison and Louisa Shaw took Malcolm and Bonnie to raise and James T. bought the land in the settlement of the estate. He had sold about 200 acres of this to his brother Gus. Gustavus was a son of Elizabeth Shaw and Thomas G. Allison. His wife, Minnie, was a daughter of Richard Vastine Sharp and Eliza Hodge. Two of their four children, Bernice and Allen, were still at home. Gus was old enough that his working days were limited. Later, Jimmy sold the rest to Clarence and Byron Taylor. At this time the Tipton family were renting it from the Taylors. Later Charlie Osborne and Minnie Allred moved here.
Now, to go back to the Pinehill road where a branch was taken to go to the Allisons. The next house was owned by George Henigan. Andrew Abernathy was renting this. Andrew was an elder son of Daniel Barto Abernathy and Ephposey Eugenia Garland. Daniel and wife had moved to Panola County in 1895, settling in the Macedonia Community from Alabama. Later they moved to Fairplay where he ran a blacksmith shop and farmed. Tom and Andrew both learned the Blacksmith trade here. Andrew married Alma Herris and whose mother was a Garland that later married John Daniel Maines. Their children: Doyle, Lorene, Helen, Harold and Charles lived here as did Andrew's brothers: Sidney, John and Forrest, and sister Abbie, lived here also as did his father Daniel Barto. They all worked and this translated into quite a work force.
Clarence Taylor's children were Polly (married Sidney Abernathy), Jewel (married a Sepaugh) and J.M. Clarence and Byron Taylor kept their calves until they were 2-3 years old. Then, they drove them to stock pens in Carthage and shipped them to Fort Worth by train. They harvested no hay and the only feeding they did was some cotton-seed cake fed to the cows that seemed the weakest
Past Clarence Taylor's house was a box house with a hall down the middle. This was the home of George Taler Sealey and his wife Almeida Trulock Crawford. George was the son of Wesley Sealey and his wife Eliza Brown. Wesley was from South Carolina and one of the early settlers of Fairplay. George had married first Julia Ann Smith and had children: Mary, Elizabeth (married Carol Gentry), John William (married May Harris), Della (married Jim Allison), Minnie Bell (married Edward Belew), Jessie James (married Linnie Snelgrove), and Earl Brown (married Annie Abernathy), Linnie (married Jack Brady), Jim (married Sarah Bridges) and Annie Laura (married Phillip McElroy).
Several hundred yards past the George Sealey house was the home of Jim Sealey and Sarah Bridges. They had no children. A half brother of Jim's, Pitt Crawford's wife had died and Jim and Sarah kept Pitt's son, Baldridge Crawford. Baldridge was a natural athlete. He brought with him a style of chinning the bar, an event of the Interscholastic League meets of the day that, that revolutionized this event. His style consisted of a rhythmic swing of the body with a synchronized pulling the chin into the bar from a near horizontal position. With a little practice, almost anyone could easily chin a hundred; whereas the winning numbers previously had been on the order of 25 or less. Baldridge married, got a job with an oil company and moved to Midland TX where he died of a coronary before he was fifty years old.
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